WWDD- Dave and Busters arcade edition with a side of tipping scandal

[simpdog]

It's too bad searles got covid from Dave & Busters and is likely in the ICU. We may never know what happened.

Thoughts & prayers.

[Sloppy Joe]

Also smh at kids needing $35 each to play the arcade.

I used to get $10 but could stretch $5 out until I was bored and pocket the other $5.

[jsearles22]

So here is what happened. The manager comes over eventually. I start explaining my issue and he politely interrupts me. He acknowledges he is aware of the issue. He states I can avoid the issue by just walking to the front desk and purchasing the cards separate. Clearly the kids/wife weren’t at the table and thus were already using the cards (which I had yet to pay for). The manager said to give him the cards back and he’d void them. I say “obviously they are already being used.” Then he gets pissy with me, saying I should have waited etc. It had been 15+ minutes and the kids were antsy. Clearly this was another ploy because they know this exact situation would happen.

Stalemate. I’m not paying the tip on the cards. He wants them back. I refuse to hand over my debit card without assurances I will only pay for food/drinks +18% and $38/card. He won’t promise me that. He even threatens to call the police if I refuse to pay my bill. The entire time he’s acknowledging the 18% tip on the game cards is absurd but keeps saying “there’s nothing I can do.”

I have my phone in my hand and I Google Dave and Busters. I find a number to corporate. I tell the manager to leave me alone, I will make a call and then decide what to do. He asks who im calling. I tell him. He finally relents. He initially offers a 10% off. I clarify that it’ll be about $40 off and this motherfucker says “no, it’s just 10% off the food items only”! What in the actual fuck! Is this guy high? At this point I’m not making a scene but it is loud in the middle of the dining area. As a last gasp I say listen bud, I have $300 cash in my pocket. Im leaving that in the sleeve with the bill. You can call the cops if you want. I set it on the table and walk to the arcade. The kids play, cash out their tickets for cheap ass prizes. And we leave. I saw the guy glaring at me a few times but he didn’t say shit. In retrospect kinda dumb on my part because if the cops show up it creates a massive scene I don’t want. But if that happened I’d have just paid the bill.

I’ll never go back there. So I think it turned out fairly well. I took 25% off the final bill myself and told them to suck it!

[Dan Druff]

You should call corporate and report the location. It's probably franchised and is engaging in this semi-scam to pad bills. The refusal of the manager to fix it was especially bad. They might force the location to stop pulling this trick.

I have a feeling this trick was mandated by ownership, hence why the manager was so powerless to fix it once the cards were on the bill and couldn't be reversed. He probably lacked the authority to waive this tip -- only to reverse the sale of unused cards, which would then kick back the tip by default.

That's probably why he got so pissy with jsearles, and why the whole standoff occurred.

The cops couldn't have forced you to pay the whole bill. This was a civil dispute. You weren't dine-and-dashing. If the cops came, you could have rationally explained to them why you aren't paying the full amount, and tell them that you're going to leave contact info in case the owner wishes to sue you for the rest. They would have left it alone at that point. They aren't there to adjudicate civil disputes. It would be different if you simpy said "Fuck you I'm not paying the bill" because you just didn't feel like it. In that case, the cops could get involved.