Dinner checks

[Valuist]

How closely do you audit the dinner check? Or do you just take it and sign?

Being an accountant, and the son of an accountant, I always go thru them with a fine tooth comb. Was out to dinner with my wife last night, and when the check came, it was clearly higher than I anticipated. Sure enough, there was an entree on the check that was never ordered. There also was soup and salad charges which we were under the impression came with the entree. Those weren't overturned but, needless to say, they had to remove the entree charge and of course we heard the "we're so sorry, blah blah blah." I'm like, "yeah whatever." Interesting that they never make those mistakes in the customer's favor.

[Steve 'StatMan']

An elderly lady neighbor of mine took myself and her caregiver to lunch a few years ago. When she went to sign the credit card receipt, I noticed the fee was in the three-figure range, an obvious error, so I alerted her the bill might be wrong. Turns out the manager/owner made a 'mistake' in entering the bill, and the 50-ish dollar meal was being charged as a 550-ish meal. We got that corrected real fast.

[ManU918]

I love when you order something.... Like a side or an app and it never comes but by the time all the other food comes you decide you don't want it anyway so you don't say anything to the waiter/waitress, then when you get the bill it's listed.

[tucker6]

If the bill is what I expected, then I don't check the details. I too have ordered things and not gotten them, and politely remind the wait staff that they should remove from the bill.

The strangest thing that's ever happened to me was a time three couples went out to dinner and we each paid our own bills. It was a long, winding evening of drinking and food, so was one time I wasn't very observant of the details until I got home and saw that I paid for one of the dinners of one of the other couples. I knew who had that particular meal, so I text the guy and tell him the issue and that next time we get together, he can pay $30 of my bill for the mistake. He graciously acknowledged the error, and agreed to do so. A couple days later I receive a check in the mail for $30, and we never dined with them again! I don't think I used bad etiquette in asking him to pay me back. Maybe he thought he was getting away with cheating the restaurant, and was embarrassed that I found out. No big loss of a friend, and never cared enough to find out.

[BlueShoe]

First of all, never use a credit card, I always pay cash when dining out, so there is nothing to sign. Most surely do I scrutinize the check. Before it arrives generally make an estimate as to what it should be, and if there is more than a slight varience, it gets extra attention. As horse players, we are all very detail oriented, so this should be automatic for us. :)

[TJDave]

The strangest thing that's ever happened to me was a time three couples went out to dinner and we each paid our own bills. It was a long, winding evening of drinking and food, so was one time I wasn't very observant of the details until I got home and saw that I paid for one of the dinners of one of the other couples. I knew who had that particular meal, so I text the guy and tell him the issue and that next time we get together, he can pay $30 of my bill for the mistake. He graciously acknowledged the error, and agreed to do so. A couple days later I receive a check in the mail for $30, and we never dined with them again! I don't think I used bad etiquette in asking him to pay me back. Maybe he thought he was getting away with cheating the restaurant, and was embarrassed that I found out. No big loss of a friend, and never cared enough to find out.

Perhaps if you had said that you had been overcharged and for him to check his bill as well it might have gone down differently. ;)

[ldiatone]

my wife and i always check the check......but how about several years ago in las vegas we eat at a place in Caesars Place called "Guy Savoy" 5 star.
$53.00 for a glass of chapagne....i had 4. 160.00 for the wine...1. but the food was better then excelent(being a chef ya know). i was invited back to view the kitchen(be still my heart). bill arives....$750.00~. BUT i knew this. ok %20 tip...you do the math. next day..check our bank account on line :eek: the place charged us TWICE :eek: :eek: . we had to wait for the place to re-open at 2pm and the place did refund one of the charges...
OBTW this place sends me a Christmass card every year since....in french....bless there hearts :)

[BettinBilly]

I was at a restaurant in Buffalo, NY about 4 years ago and the bill came to around $40. This was a decent restaurant but you pay at the cashier.

I almost signed the credit card slip when I noticed that instead of $40 it was $400. The cashier added an extra zero. I luckily noticed because I left the tip in cash at the table and almost just signed it and left without looking at it much. When I brought it to the clerk's attention, he said that he'd try and give me a refund and then run a correct slip. He keyed in another $400 but didn't credit it, but instead put it through as yet ANOTHER $400 charge.

Needless to say, the Manager had to come out and try to correct the $760 overcharge. It took them a very long time to try and credit my card but I was not leaving with an $800 charge for a $40 dinner.

It was finally corrected, but if I had not noticed the first error, I probably would have left town and then had to try and remedy the situation over the phone, and that is not easy sometimes.

From then on, I look at all checks and register receipts a lot more carefully.

[tucker6]

Perhaps if you had said that you had been overcharged and for him to check his bill as well it might have gone down differently. ;)
I didn't provide great detail earlier, but that is essentially what I did. He realized he hadn't been charged for the second meal before I called, and thought he'd beaten the house. I guess I was an unkind dose of reality. He thinks of himself as an upstanding citizen, so I think walking away from the restaurant knowing he had cheated them (and now me knowing) was too great for his ego to handle. We were both gracious about it, so it must be something on his end. Like I said, no big loss in my life.

[ldiatone]

then again ..."place" credit card system was down. did i have cash..no did we get our meal free....YES :jump: