AhoosierA bill dispute -- thoughts?

[AhoosierA]

Druff's story on radio made me think of a situation I found myself in several years ago I thought I would share.

I was a collections manager for Sallie Mae back in 2008. One of my employees played in a small band and invited me and others to go to a local bar to watch one of their shows the coming weekend.

I called the bar ahead of time and told them that there would be 14-20 of us, and if possible we'd all want to sit together. The obliged.

There ended up being 17 of us. Myself, 1 other manager, several employees of Sallie Mae and their significant others.

We got to the bar around 6pm about 1 hour before the band was scheduled to go on because the bar served food and we decided we were going to get dinner there. We are all sitting at the same string of tables they put together for us. As the waitress starts taking our orders, we explain that it will be several separate orders. She claimed to have understood.

We all order food and drinks. Most of us started a tab, but some of the group was just paying as they went. As the night went on, some of in the groups started buying shots for the entire group.

At some point in time, our original waitress was no longer taking care of us and a new waitress started handling our group. We didn't think anything of it.

Around 10pm we are ready to leave, the waitress comes out and puts 1 huge bill on the table. I can't remember the exact amount but the bill was around $1.3k - $1.5k --- This was 1 large bill for all 17 of us at the table. I told them that our orders were suppose to be separate and she responded with "Oh sorry, we forgot to do that" She also claimed there was no way for her to now separate the bill and that we'd have to figure it out.

So you have 17 buzzed/drunk people trying to remember what all we've drank/ate over the last 3-4 hours. Some are arguing that they did order shots but paid for them via cash at the time they ordered them and that they think they were still on this bill.

After about 20 minutes or so we got most of the bill sorted out but there was still around $100-$150 that was accounted for.

The waitress claims "Well, it has to be paid by somebody" I ask to speak with the manager.

The manager comes out and is immediately angry/defensive saying that it's not his fault that we cant figure it out. I chime back that it is their fault as we clearly said the bills would be separate from the first time we ordered. He threatened to call the police on us if the entire bill wasn't paid.

Eventually the other manager and myself agreed to split the remaining balance.

I was 22 y/o at the time. Looking back now, I wish I would have handled the situation differently and let the police come and sort it out.


****My #s of those attending and the amount of the bill may be slightly off do to just simply not remembering all the details....I possibly have told this story before on here so if I have, don't hold it against me if the #s are slightly different LOL*****

[limitles]

Druff's story on radio made me think of a situation I found myself in several years ago I thought I would share.

I was a collections manager for Sallie Mae back in 2008. One of my employees played in a small band and invited me and others to go to a local bar to watch one of their shows the coming weekend.

I called the bar ahead of time and told them that there would be 14-20 of us, and if possible we'd all want to sit together. The obliged.

There ended up being 17 of us. Myself, 1 other manager, several employees of Sallie Mae and their significant others.

We got to the bar around 6pm about 1 hour before the band was scheduled to go on because the bar served food and we decided we were going to get dinner there. We are all sitting at the same string of tables they put together for us. As the waitress starts taking our orders, we explain that it will be several separate orders. She claimed to have understood.

We all order food and drinks. Most of us started a tab, but some of the group was just paying as they went. As the night went on, some of in the groups started buying shots for the entire group.

At some point in time, our original waitress was no longer taking care of us and a new waitress started handling our group. We didn't think anything of it.

Around 10pm we are ready to leave, the waitress comes out and puts 1 huge bill on the table. I can't remember the exact amount but the bill was around $1.3k - $1.5k --- This was 1 large bill for all 17 of us at the table. I told them that our orders were suppose to be separate and she responded with "Oh sorry, we forgot to do that" She also claimed there was no way for her to now separate the bill and that we'd have to figure it out.

So you have 17 buzzed/drunk people trying to remember what all we've drank/ate over the last 3-4 hours. Some are arguing that they did order shots but paid for them via cash at the time they ordered them and that they think they were still on this bill.

After about 20 minutes or so we got most of the bill sorted out but there was still around $100-$150 that was accounted for.

The waitress claims "Well, it has to be paid by somebody" I ask to speak with the manager.

The manager comes out and is immediately angry/defensive saying that it's not his fault that we cant figure it out. I chime back that it is their fault as we clearly said the bills would be separate from the first time we ordered. He threatened to call the police on us if the entire bill wasn't paid.

Eventually the other manager and myself agreed to split the remaining balance.

I was 22 y/o at the time. Looking back now, I wish I would have handled the situation differently and let the police come and sort it out.


****My #s of those attending and the amount of the bill may be slightly off do to just simply not remembering all the details....I possibly have told this story before on here so if I have, don't hold it against me if the #s are slightly different LOL*****

I think cops everywhere are pretty much the same on these situations. Throw alcohol into the mix and they'll likely side with the business. A fifty-fifty split would seem fair.

[gut]

Lol, the police would not have sided with you in this scenario, I can tell you that.

That entire situation is a nightmare for a presumably busy bar. As the customers in that scenario, you should either agree to just have one tab, or have EVERYONE pay as they go. That "some are, some arent" shit is annoying as fuck for the workers, plus also can lead to your situation, where perhaps the staff (accidentally or not) wind up charging you more.

Nowadays its obviously not as much of an issue, as most people have venmo/paypal etc to easily sort out bills...but this story is exactly why most bars/restaurants that are properly managed have limits on the amount of separate checks that can be had with a group.

[JeffDime]

This is going to be a nightmare for a server. She would have to set up separate checks from the start. The kitchen/chefs are going to hate this as they have a system of making all the food on one ticket(table) so all the food comes out around the same time. Most chefs are dicks to the servers. They are always in a rush and don’t like to take time to talk about special requests and shit.

I had this happen a few times back in the day. I would ask the manger if I could put all the food on one ticket and then have him void it at the end. I would then input all the different checks at the end of the meal. This was tedious but the best way to deal with it imho.

I worked in restaurants so I didn’t have to worry about the tab/cash payments during the night. I’m not saying it’s rocket science, but it is going to take the server at least double the time to sort all this out.

My guess is between the tabs & cash payments this all got fucked to hell. The waitress was probably afraid to say anything and another server had to take over. They then transcribed everything on to one check. It doesn’t sound like it was deliberate. It sounds like she tried but it got fucked.

Of course the staff could of handled this better. They could of just been honest about the whole thing. But Hoosier calling the cops wouldn’t of mattered and if anything they would of sided with the business. It’s just one of those things man. Shit happens.

[JeffDime]

@Hoosier. Was gratuity added on to the big bill at the end? If not, do you remember what you left? Just curious and understand if you don’t want to tell.

BTW the manger’s awful posture right off the bat is inexcusable. But it was a large bill and that was his only concern. The bill was probably incorrect, as I don’t think the initial server kept a great accounting of cash payments and what not. But impossible to say if it was deliberate overcharging.

[GrenadaRoger]

well Hoosier, you worked it out as best you could...

you were young and learned a lesson about managing events

and so can anyone young here (highly unlikely) that read your post

[AhoosierA]

Now that I'm older I definitely see where mistakes were made on my part.

but I also believe that the waitress(es) were negligent to expect young drunk people to be able to sort out a bill.

My main argument with the manager was that we specifically made it clear we wanted several different checks (I now realize how big a pain in the ass that would have been). and that the part of the bill that was being unclaimed/disputed was from people claiming that they paid for their shots win they ordered them and they thought we were being double charged.

I figured the cops wouldn't have sided with us which is why I didn't want the cops involved mainly.

If I were the manager, I would have realized how fucked up the situation was and would have negotiated a piece of the bill off.

As for the tip, on the final bill the waitresses did get stiffed. We were all pretty furious at the time, and the manager just simply made it worse by having an attitude right out the gate. however the waitress didn't get totally stiffed throughout the night as the people ordering rounds of shots for the table was giving $100 every time and told to keep the change.

I to this day don't feel bad. If the waitress(es) would have said "Sorry it would be to hard to separate bills for this large group" we could have planned accordingly and kept better accounting of who ordered what and who had already paid for what, but nothing was ever said that they couldn't separate the checks at any point and we were blind sided by the large bill.

[Jayjami]

Anyone you were with that didn’t want to split the bill upfront is a cunt or faggot. Hopefully you learned your lesson, and hang with a better class of people these days.

[igotnotoe]

Druff's story on radio made me think of a situation I found myself in several years ago I thought I would share.

I was a collections manager for Sallie Mae back in 2008. One of my employees played in a small band and invited me and others to go to a local bar to watch one of their shows the coming weekend.

I called the bar ahead of time and told them that there would be 14-20 of us, and if possible we'd all want to sit together. The obliged.

There ended up being 17 of us. Myself, 1 other manager, several employees of Sallie Mae and their significant others.

We got to the bar around 6pm about 1 hour before the band was scheduled to go on because the bar served food and we decided we were going to get dinner there. We are all sitting at the same string of tables they put together for us. As the waitress starts taking our orders, we explain that it will be several separate orders. She claimed to have understood.

We all order food and drinks. Most of us started a tab, but some of the group was just paying as they went. As the night went on, some of in the groups started buying shots for the entire group.

At some point in time, our original waitress was no longer taking care of us and a new waitress started handling our group. We didn't think anything of it.

Around 10pm we are ready to leave, the waitress comes out and puts 1 huge bill on the table. I can't remember the exact amount but the bill was around $1.3k - $1.5k --- This was 1 large bill for all 17 of us at the table. I told them that our orders were suppose to be separate and she responded with "Oh sorry, we forgot to do that" She also claimed there was no way for her to now separate the bill and that we'd have to figure it out.

So you have 17 buzzed/drunk people trying to remember what all we've drank/ate over the last 3-4 hours. Some are arguing that they did order shots but paid for them via cash at the time they ordered them and that they think they were still on this bill.

After about 20 minutes or so we got most of the bill sorted out but there was still around $100-$150 that was accounted for.

The waitress claims "Well, it has to be paid by somebody" I ask to speak with the manager.

The manager comes out and is immediately angry/defensive saying that it's not his fault that we cant figure it out. I chime back that it is their fault as we clearly said the bills would be separate from the first time we ordered. He threatened to call the police on us if the entire bill wasn't paid.

Eventually the other manager and myself agreed to split the remaining balance.

I was 22 y/o at the time. Looking back now, I wish I would have handled the situation differently and let the police come and sort it out.


****My #s of those attending and the amount of the bill may be slightly off do to just simply not remembering all the details....I possibly have told this story before on here so if I have, don't hold it against me if the #s are slightly different LOL*****

YOU ARE LUCKY PUNK. IF YOU PULLED THIS CRAP IN NORTH KOREA, YOU AND YOUR FRIENDS WOULD HANG

[JACKDANIELS]

its less that $100 a head with food too so just everyone throw in a hundo leave a tip and away you go no big deal

[Dan Druff]

This is actually a tough one.

Your then-age of 22 (which was presumably the age of everyone else there) probably figured in to this. Young people get no respect in business disputes. No restaurant owner or manager wants to be told by some punk kid that they're wrong. The fact that you guys were drunk (or at least some of you were) probably also hurt your credibility.

I actually had this exact same thing happen about 7 years ago. Obviously our group was middle-aged, which made a big difference compared to your spot. However, like in your situation, we had some difficulty with management about it. This wasn't even "my group" -- I was a tag-along with one person I knew, and a group of about 14 people from their work. Therefore, I didn't get involved at first, and let others attempt to handle it. They all got shot down first by the servers, and then by the difficult owner of the place. A decision was about to be made to just pay the difference (about $75) and never come back. Everyone was 100% sure that they didn't order the extra items on the bill. Amazingly, the owner actually admitted they had agreed to separate checks and forgot to do it, but still told the initial people arguing that everything was correct, and that we'd have to pay.

I asked the people if they'd mind if I gave it a shot, and they said okay. I went to the owner and said, "Look, you admit your server messed up with the separate checks. As you can see, none of us are drunk, and everyone swears they didn't order these items. There has to be some mistake on your end. I promise, we're not looking to cheat you here, but we only want to pay what's fair."

The owner argued with me a bit, and finally relented. "Fine, I'll take it off," he grumbled. "I'm never doing separate checks again -- not for you or anyone!"

I came back to the group, and they were happy I got it fixed. They had resigned themeslves to having to pay for those phantom items. However, when everyone threw in their part, some people overestimated, and we ended up with too much. Someone said, "Just leave the extra as a tip", I was told. I answered that we were already auto-charged an 18% tip for the table, and these servers didn't deserve anything more, given all the hassle this caused, and their steadfast refusal to fix anything. The servers involved were very flippant about the entire matter and had basically told us to kick rocks at first. Everyone had already said they never wanted to come back, given the asshole owner, so it wasn't like they were trying to make nice for the future. I actually got change for one of the big bills so I could give everyone back their exact overpayment, because I didn't want the group paying even one more dollar than necessary.

At the end, I felt annoyed that I had to put so much work into this, given that it wasn't even "my" group, but it annoyed me to let this place rip us off like this. Then it further annoyed me to watch people overtip asshole servers out of laziness to get change.

In short, I absolutely despite large-group-pay scenarios at restaurants, because it's a tremendous hassle.

[Texter]

Thread bringing back some memories, this isn’t a bill dispute.

Me and a few friends went to a sports bar to watch a football game, one of those places where each table has its own small TV so you can whatever channel you want, or you can watch on the big screen if that is the feature game. Place was in a converted movie theater, always packed but I am sure the rent got too high so it shut down.

Anyhow, we’ve been drinking pitchers of beer, ordering food, having a great time, the game is close and going right down to the wire.

Then the waiter comes over and says we need to pay $15 each or leave since they are going to have a PPV boxing event. We’re like, “can we just watch the rest of this game? There are just a few minutes left”

Answer was No, we got kicked out. The main event wasn’t even for a couple hours at least. So, I never went back…all it takes is one BS experience to ruin a place.

[Sanlmar]

Student loan collections. Talk about making buggy whips.