How do you figure? If Jerry went to the restaurant alone, he wouldn’t have gotten a free lunch. Both the punch card and a sucker — I mean a mark – I mean Jerry were necessary conditions for his free lunch.
I think Jerry should have been up-front about the discount card. Since they seem to eat with each other with some frequency, they should have split it.
Otherwise, Jerry could have just gone to that restaurant with his wife and left her paying the bill.
Sorry, I guess I’m not the only one who keeps confusing Tom and Jerry. Hell, I can’t even remember which one is the cat and which one is the mouse! I stand corrected.
If I had a card like that, I’d use it to treat the OTHER person. Doesn’t cost me a dime, and it’s free karma.
This.
Tom didn’t get screwed out of anything. He picked a menu item, entirely un-coerced, and ate it. Then he paid for it. That’s all well and good, and expecting/demanding a share of Jerry’s freebie seems out of place.
That said, Jerry is really weird. So he’s got this free lunch, but he wants to keep it under wraps because he knows full well that if he brings it up before the meal Tom will say “Hey, we’ll get the same thing and then we can each pay half!” He knows this, and he should offer it up, but he’s a tightwad and wants to pay nothing, not half. So he coyly extends a lunch invention, coyly lets Tom order first (which is a risk, because Tom might have felt like soup or something), and then coyly slips the punchcard in with the check. It’s all very a very strange and anti-social way to save 5 bucks on a meal.
Ok, if the idea behind the story is that Jerry is not paying anything and tom is paying his the full price for his meal, I’d probably do the same as the others: pay, roll eyes and not go to lunch with him anymore (or insist on seperate checks:)).
But if the words are literally spoken like the OP suggests, I really would expect to be SPLITTING the check, whatever the amount on it may be.
If I were Tom, my response (in thought, at least) would be: I didn’t go to lunch by myself here. Tom isn’t “demanding a share”; Jerry is the one who asked Tom to share a meal–and then didn’t.
Cat
Tom
Mouse
Jerry
Same number of letters.
Also, “tom” = male cat. A female is a queen.
next month, I go, the waiter asks if it’s separate checks, and I say ‘Yes.’ If Jerry says one check, I’d say ‘Nope, separate checks.’
Fucking brilliant. I mean it, no sarcasm. That’s like…enlightening.
Or Jerry might have had a punchcard of his own, a coupon, or gift certificate that was “not valid with other offers”.
Jerry may not be out anything from this encounter that he wouldn’t have been anyway, but it is a total dick move on Tom’s part and I would avoid going out with him in the future. And if we want to get technical, the card gives the cardholder one free meal when he buys another. Since the cardholder did not pay for a meal, it would seem that in the spirit of the deal, he is not entitled to a free one.
Say and do absolutely nothing. Next month, go back to the restaurant. After Jerry orders, order an iced tea and then tell the waitress “I apologize, I am on a special diet and won’t be ordering any food today.” Pull out a PB&J sandwich, and eat said sandwich while Jerry enjoys his full-priced entree.
(P.S. For maximum good taste, leave the waitress a 100% tip on your drink.)
Depending on the office, I would likely have busted the guy’s stone mercilessly about being cheap all the way back to the office and in the office as well. My last job for instance, everyone would have made fun of the guy for days, that was the kind of office it was - and people would *still *be saying “remember when…” Every time we went to lunch people would ask if he had coupons to share. It would have been a running joke for a *long *time.
In fact, if I didn’t feel comfortable enough with him to bust his stones, I probably wouldn’t be at lunch with him.
Having said that, many years ago Pizza had a 5 minute guarantee on Personal Pan Pizzas. One of my co-workers suggested that we go to lunch and have that. He called ahead and ordered and by the time we were seated, it was already past five minutes. He asked for a free pizza. I was so embarrassed. The manager came out and told him it was 5 minutes from when the wait staff took the order, not 5 minutes from the phone call. I didn’t say anything, but I never ate lunch with him again.
Now that I’m older and a little more cranky, I probably wouldn’t have been at lunch with him in the first place.
Tom was a dick, and depending on my relationship I’d either call him out or learn to avoid him.
If are in a group situation and you have something of benefit (like a discount) it’s socially expected that you share that benefit.
Didn’t they agree to split the check? I’m having a hard time following who was the cheap douche with the punch card (Jerry?) but if I ever ate lunch with him again I would ask ahead of time if he had another such card. I would also like to invite him to go with me to to the grocery store with me next time I go. They have lots of "buy one, get one free’ deals we could “share” in a similar way.
My wife and I know a couple who always wants to split the check. They say they can’t believe how anal we are over the math, why not just split it down the middle? They also always manage to order more expensive food and drinks and more of them. What a coincidence! We no longer hang out with them. It’s not worth the trouble of dealing with the cheapness.
Sounds like Jerry’s playing the dictator game, while Tom’s wanting to play the ultimatum game.
I really wouldn’t care or give it a second thought. If we were going to pay for our own meals and he had a punch card presumably because he ate there enough times to have a punch card, then good for him. It’s not like super nice establishments hand out punch cards to their regular customers. Lunch probably cost $8 or $10 or something. And punch cards only work when they’re full, which means he either eats there a lot, or I’m the idiot for not having my own punch card to stamp when we go there.
I feel like I must be missing something here, because I don’t even see how this is an issue. Who cares if he uses a punch card, a debit card, pennies, or seashells to pay for his lunch if I was never going to pay for his, and it was understood that he wasn’t going to pay for mine? I mean, before I ever enter the restaurant, I know I’m going to be out, say, $10. Would it be nice if I only had to pay $5 for my meal because Jerry went in on half after his free lunch? Sure, that’d be lovely, but I sure as hell wouldn’t expect him to pay for half of my food simply because he had a promotional coupon.
I guess he should have said “Hey I want to go to restaurant A because I have a punch card for a free meal. Is that cool with you?” but I still don’t really see how the introduction of the punch card changes the expectations of the trip.
That’s funny because every now and then I’ll pull out a BOGO coupon and announce, “I’ve got a buy one, get one free coupon. Who wants to be the buy one?”
The difference is that I’m kidding.
Of course, the bill should be split into two. OR, at the very least, the coupon holder should say, “Hey, I have a BOGO, so since my lunch is free, let me pay the entire tip.”
People are so sad.
I have to disagree with the OP. The person with the card has just offered to pay for the whole meal. The best Tom could negotiate for is an even split. Jerry should tell the waiter that Tom can fuck off for any thing less.
The free meal was contingent upon the fact that one meal was purchased. Jerry used Tom as his vehicle to a free lunch. Jerry is a clueless twit with the social skills of a gnat.
Part of the problem beyond the societal expectation that a BOGO like that is split evenly between the two diners is that Jerry used Tom’s lunch to fill his punchcard and get his free lunch (if I’m understanding this correctly).
ETA: And also what Leaffan said. 