so I was at my local retail food consumption location, and attempted to pay for my overpriced meal with my credit card - for various reasons the card was rejected. No problem, I just pulled out some cash and I was on my merry way.
But I got to thinking - what if I didn’t have cash or another card handy?
I know the answer is different everywhere but what would happen if a party has a meal and has no way of paying for it due to an unplanned credit card rejection…do they work it off doing dishes for a few hours? are their arms broken? do the simply get a bill in the mail?
please enlighten me.
Phouchg
HOMER: I know something in the world which is still good and pure.
My dad owns a restaurant. Although I don’t know of any specific cases where someone wasn’t able to pay the check, I think that the restaurant takes your name, phone number, credit card number, and other information. Actually, I’m not even 100% sure about this. I know they don’t put you to work for $5 bucks an hour until the bill is payed off.
Can’t you, technically speaking, write a check on any piece of paper? I know most restuarants don’t like checks, but it’s better than getting nothing at all.
The bar I worked at took the persons info off a drivers license, along with the credit card number. Then the person was either called to set up a meeting where they can come in and pay the bill, or call and clear the credit card so we could charge it later.
Really, the more interesting way this can happen is when you are in a restaurant that doesn’t accept plastic or checks. I remember having this happen at a seafood place in the Avenues in San Francisco. Fortunately, I noticed the disclaimer in small type at the bottom of the menu, and was able during the meal to leave the restaurant and go a few blocks away to get some cash for my freinds, who were without any. ALWAYS check for those friendly stickers on the door or the sign at the register! <lol>
On a related note, how do restaurants prevent customers from intentionally not paying. Usually the check and payment thereof are given to the customer who then takes it up to the register to pay, but it’s all on the honor system. If it were very busy, a customer could easily just get up and leave without paying. What would a restaurant do then? Write it off?
-Dragwyr
“If God had meant for man to eat waffles,
he would have given him lips like snowshoes”
-Rev. Billy C. Wirtz
To answer the OP, the places I worked at would reluctantly accept a check from this person if that’s all they had. Frankly, I think it was a ploy to get us to take a check, but no mate since I can’t recall any of them bouncing on us.
One time, someone had a bum credit card and an ID that said he was someone else… We slyly called the police, who took over from there. Alas, I was not there that day, and the rumors as to what DID happen were too disparate to even consider what really happened to the guy.
As for what Dragwyr brought up, well, it’s the server’s responsibility to make sure that the customers are not dong this - assuming you’re in a restaurant where the server takes your money - that is everyone I worked in. Maybe in a place with a register, some responsibility shifts to the cashier, but I do not know this.
Now, when I say responsible, I am not saying the waiter of a “walk off” (or “walk out”) has to pay the tab. The restaurant kinda writes that off as part of doing business.
However, the one time it happened to me, it went into my disciplinary record, and could have, combined with any other warnings against me, whether for the same offense or different ones, led to disciplinary action being taken against me - up and to being terminated.
Scenarios I’ve been witness to where this has happened usually involve one of two solutions:
Leave something of value, like your empty wallet, and take your ATM card to the nearest bank and get the cash.
The restaurant lets you make a phone call to someone who will bring the money, pay for you, and you wait.
Or (if you’re a minority), they call the cops and they sort it out.
With regard to people just getting up and leaving without paying. I have heard of people doing this to protest the horrendous service they’ve received at a restaurant. I personally once went to a Denny’s that was so horrendously slow that we got up and left after we ordered but before we got our food because there was no other way to find a waitress to cancel our orders.
Yes, and if they catch you using a pay toilet without paying…
An infinite number of rednecks in an infinite number of pickup trucks shooting an infinite number of shotguns at an infinite number of road signs will eventually produce all the world’s great works of literature in Braille.
In that case, SWAT team snipers take out the robbers and everyone gets their wallets back.
Actually, once in my family’s restaurant, one guy walked up to the front desk (I happened to be there) and he told us how lousy the food was. It was cold and didn’t even taste that good. He said he would not pay for any of the food, only for drinks. And he’s saying all of this AFTER he had eaten every last piece of food. We tried to explain to him that he still ate it so he should still pay for it. After much arguing we offered to take 50% off of the bill and he said no. We couldn’t reach my dad (the owner) to ask him what we should do and it was the manager’s day off. The guy and his wife ended up leaving without paying squat. This was near the beginning of the restaurant when we didn’t have too much experience.
I guess we should have gotten his lisence plate and called the cops, but it was a busy day. Oh well.
Some people are just assholes.