Every day, arithmetic-challenged credit card using restaurant patrons are faced with the daunting task of accurately adding a three or more digit number with two decimal places to a two or more digit number with two decimal places without the benefit of a calculator. One might assume some of these transactions might contain errors and that some of these might not be caught prior to charging the erroneous total to the patron’s card and prior to the patron’s leaving the establishment.
So, what happens next?
Assuming the indicated total is less than the given subtotal plus the indicated tip:
Does the house honor the tip and absorb the loss?
Does the house subtract the given subtotal from the indicated total and reduce the tip?
Does the house correct the addition and charge the patron an amount greater than indicated on the receipt?
or what?
Assuming the indicated total is greater than the subtotal plus the indicated tip and the house is aware of the error, we might hope the house would credit the difference to the patron’s card, but other possibilities certainly exist.
In my experience, after you enter a total in to the cash register, it then asks you to enter in the tip which you get from the tip line. The total is for verification and to keep people from altering the tip and doesn’t usually come in to play.
That’s interesting, because I have always understood that the tip line is irrlelevant and the total line is all that matters and that is what you will be charged.
I once messed up the math on one of my charge receipts. I noticed it because I was then in the habit of always rounding out the TOTAL amount to an even dollar. Wehn I got the bill, I was charged something like 26.31 because I had messed up the math. I went back tot he restaurant, asked them what happened (they said the server loses the tip, because of the high likelihood that the bad math would result in a chargeback), and then produced my copy of the recipt with the server’s naem on it. I asked them to kindly give that server the tip in cash (which I provided) during the next shift.
Once, while going over my bank statement, I noticed something odd: I had been charged over $80 for a $40 evening my wife and I had enjoyed at a local restaurant. I went down to the restaurant, receipt and bank statement in hand, and spoke to the manager. He went over that night’s receipts and figured out what had happened: the waiter had entered the amount from the “total” line into the “tip” field in the register/computer/whatever, in effect giving himself a $40+ tip on the meal. Whoopsie. The manager offered to either charge it back to my card or just give me the cash (I took the cash).
So, those math-checking safeguards apparently don’t exist in every system.
as a server, I pretty much get to make the decision how it gets entered, so I always do it whichever way benefits me. if the written total makes the tip higher than the written tip, I enter it that way; if the written tip makes the total higher than the written total, I enter it that way. it probably wouldn’t change my practices either way, but I still wonder what you’re technically supposed to do.
Wow, I truly admire your conscientiousness in assuring the server got her proper tip. That’s in Abe Lincoln and the short-changed customer territory. Cudos.
BTW, I too am one of those who likes an even total on restaurant charges (wasn’t there a thread about that not too long ago?) and actually has to subtract (horrors) to arrive at the (odd) tip.
If the written total exceeds the given total plus written tip, I suppose the most ethical thing to do would be to ring the true, actual total of the given subtotal plus the indicated tip so that house gets its fair cut, the server gets the indicated tip and the customer isn’t overcharged for his mistake. You could probably make a case for either way, though.
In the case where the written tip makes the arithmetic total higher than the written total, well that seems more problematic. I do not know the law regarding such cases, but might imagine the establishment could possibly get in some trouble for charging a patron more than he indicated on his receipt.
Once I totaled the bottom line wrong and the charge that went through was the total with the correct addition. I keep meticulous records in Quicken and saw upon getting the statement that it didn’t match, and went back and pulled the receipt and saw my error. (The correct total was higher than mine.)