I used to meet a group of guys for lunch a couple of times a month. Instead of separate checks, we just rotated who picked up the tab. This was just before cellphones, but a few of us had pagers.
There was one guy who always “got paged” just before the check arrived when it was his turn to pay. We were a laid back group, so this went on for a long while before somebody pointed it out to the group after cheapskate walked off.
We fixed the situation by dissolving the group, then quietly reforming it without cheapskate.
That’s the only thing I don’t like about dining alone, especially at buffets where my beverage and utensils sometimes get removed while I am going for seconds, and also on the few occasions where I want to get something from my car in the middle of a meal (I go regardless however.)
But the worst was neither of those situations. I was in the middle of a sit-down meal, with half my burger and fries left and I went to use the restroom and came back and my stuff was gone! The waiter apologized and said he thought I dined and dashed and thankfully made me another whole burger and fries at no charge.
I’ve never got stiffed on a bill, thankfully. I thought I was in danger of it once when I was seated next to another party in an otherwise empty section of Denny’s and we started talking and they left. I didn’t see if they paid or not but I hadn’t gotten my water despite asking several times so I wondered if they thought I was with the group and had already been served. Thankfully no, they just had really bad service. While paying I demanded a glass of water right away, and upon getting this I still gave a %10 tip. I would have completely stiffed them otherwise.