reminded of this...

[finlayfox]

From the thread with the friend and the crappy attitude at restaurants.
So a large group of us go to a new sushi place that had opened up. It was a bit pricey, but we knew that. There were 8 of us with the bill being split 6 ways... we forgot to tell the server this beforehand.
so the check comes and of course, it is all on one... here is where the suck comes in. One of the guys grabs the bill and won't let go of it. It being a social situation, we can't really call him on it, because the totals that he is telling us were close to correct, and then we just added our tip on top of it(we were using cash to try to make things simpler).
Well, he gives the server the money(the bill was approximately $200 altogether, can't remember precisely), and while we are all getting up and donning our coats(winter in CT) the server comes back with our change... all 3 dollars of it. Turns out mr douche and his gf didn't have the money to cover for it, so they tried to use our tip money(around 40) to cover their own bill.
this being a social situation again, no one called him on it... but man was i pissed, i was making passive-aggressive marks like that can contend with any EW we have come across... but aimed at this little prick instead of the help.
We ended up all pooling another 25 together to give to the server(college kids ain't rich ya know) so that she wasn't TOO shafted, but damn that pissed me off.

[Amina516]

Oooo..thats sucks, and would have majorly pissed me off. I mightve even told the waitress just so she knew what was going on.

A CW of mine did that one night where they ordred chinese ( I wasnt at work that night) but she figured that everyone elses tip would cover her food, so she offered to walk down with the money and pay.

She ended up having to call back and tell them she was $3 short or whatever and someone needed to run down money to her RIGHT AWAY!

I think after my dumbfounded coworkers figured out what happened. she was banned from ordering with the group. the fact that she never tried to fight with them about it, proved they were right.

[Geek King]

this being a social situation again, no one called him on it...

Um, why not? I don't care if he's the President himself, that was a prick move. If someone pulls that crap, you nail them down, period. I hope you at least drop that ass from your social gatherings. You just don't steal from people who are supposed to be your friends.

[PepperElf]

i was in a group that happened with too
we weren't happy cos the moochers had already left

[Red_Dazes]

Social situation or not. I would have called him on that. If he was eating with my group of friends he would have been expected to cough up the $40 that he owed US for covering his bill... which then would have been given to the server. What a douche.

[chocoBug]

totally unacceptable. It just meant you guys paid for their meal! If they had asked you at the start of the night if you would pay for them you wouldve said no. and it wasnt even a couple of bucks it was a good $35. . . . wot a hobo

[bainsidhe]

And did the comment, "OK fine, but you'll be paying us back later" ever come up in your response to him? Because I sure as hell would've said something. These jerks were abusing their friends and hurting the innocent help. Way to make a good impression for college students.

[Mottom24]

i always make sure i handle the bill because this has happened to us in a big group before. me and my housemates like to go out and eat together sometimes (6 guys counting me, and sometimes my girlfriend) we have fun, but we just passed the bill around and toss the money in the pile... which made it impossible to find out who was not tipping and who was coming short. so from then on I held the bill, told everyone their actual amount (so i knew how much they tipped if anything) and we never had that problem. whoever it was, was now cornered and couldn't get away with stiffing the waitress nor trying to give themselves a discount by using our tip money. I had an idea who it was, but without proof i wasn't about to call him on it.

[finlayfox]

well, they weren't my friends, and i loooked over ot my fiancee to see if i could go off, she gave me the "no-go" sign, so i didn't say anything, but by golly i adamantly refuse to go out to eat with them ever again... actually, i pretty much refuse to do anything with those two.

[El Pollo Guerrera]

Good on you for not wanting to deal with these two again. Definitely a douche move on their part.

When ever I eat at the restaurant, I leave the tip at the table (in cash) and pay at the till with my card. That would have avoided this situation... but I can also understand NOT leaving cash on the table if it was a party that size.

Have people had problems with leaving money on the table?

[Captain Trips]

In the opposite extreme, there's the group I used to go out to dinner with every Thursday. We would tell the waiter/waitress to take their time, we were in no hurry and serve their other customers first. We would get it all on one bill, because "separate checks" for 15-20 people was a pain for the server. And at the end of the night, we would all toss in whatever cash we thought we each owed, plus tip. After a few weeks of this, we ended up with two servers and a busboy (who later joined our group himself) and often even the manager serving us. Oh, I forgot to mention -- with the cash we tossed in (never once asking for change) the tip would often amount to 25-30% or more!

Yes, there were sucky customers, but we always made sure we weren't any of them! Unfortunately, there are those who counterbalanced us, but that is the definition of "average", no?

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Man, judging from this thread, that sounds like a common scam. How lovely.

First off, yeah, I can't imagine why this guy was not called out on this.

I am thinking if you ever get anyone pull that shit where they grab the bill and then don't let anyone see it, just thank him, put your wallet away, and get your coat. Say "wow, that really is very generous of you, thank you. Would you like us to cover the tip?" I mean, sheesh, someone grabs the bill and refuses to let me see, I got to figure he's covering the whole amount.

[Primer]

There used to be a woman in our group that would pitch in only the listed entree price--no beverage, no tax, no tip. After the second time I noticed her doing that (I was sure I was mistaken the first time), I always made sure I was the "bill handler." I kept track of what everybody ordered, and how much everybody owed, including tax and 15% tip, minimum. I made sure I collected from each and every person. If somebody wanted to tip more, great, the server got it, but nobody was allowed to tip less.

Short story-- somebody needs to be sure that everybody in the party pays their fair share.

[Ironclad Alibi]

After I noticed this type of behavior (underpaying their part of the bill) I have made it a habit to ask for separate checks. I really hate it when people are using my tip to be cheap.