Rude customers

[epiphany]

We had to use our tips to pay for thier food bill becuase they were too drunk to pay. What do people think of this?

 

And you just stood for that?

 

Your employer is a ****.

[Darbees]

How come the customer has done you out of the money when it isn't your business? I bet if you took the money out of the till and told boss to get stuffed he'd have something to say about it. Which restaurant is it? I'd be inclined to get a friend to go there, not pay and explain that they are giving you the money instead.

 

As others have said, always refer this kind of thing to management.

[jongo]

He grabbed my collegues arm

 

I dont know the laws over here but in Ireland this is classed as ASSAULT !!!

[boyfriday]

The police were right, it is a civil matter. Essentially, a meal out is a contract between the customer and restaurant and and disagreements can only be settled in the civil courts. However, in your situation the customers refusal to pay amounts to fraud, which is criminal. The police should have actually acted. The Times reviewer, AA Gill, talked about it a while back:

 

"Why don’t more people do runners? Given the quality and service offered by so many restaurants, combined with their prices, I’m astonished more people don’t refuse to pay. Tip: walk outside to answer your mobile and never return. (A lawyer writes: only try this at home.)

 

Years ago, a defrocked lawyer taught me how to do a legal runner – a meal in a restaurant is a private contract.

 

But attempting to avoid payment is fraud, and that’s criminal. So what you have to do is leave your real name and a bona fide address (your mother-in-law’s is best), then offer what you consider to be the actual value of the raw ingredients. In an expensive restaurant, this is about one-third of the menu price. For spag napolitana, it’s 20p. Minus service, of course. You don’t want to pay that. You must, though, pay the full price for wine, unless you reckon there was something wrong with it. Having done all that, they have to let you go or call the police. Plod will tell the maître d’ what I’ve just told you: it’s a civil matter.

 

Three words of warning. One: on the scale of bourgeois embarrassment, having a row about the bill comes just under having your phone ring the theme from Bonanza in the last act of King Lear. Two: the restaurant can sue you for the difference, and courts take a dim view if they think you’re trying it on. Three: don’t try this in the same restaurant twice.

 

The point of all this is that you’re not revolting enough. The modern, sophisticated packaging of restaurants makes customers feel that it’s uncool to complain, as if it showed you, like – duh! – cared. But a restaurant isn’t a teenage boyfriend, it’s a service. Shrugging and saying “Whatever” isn’t putting it in its place. If you don’t like it and if it’s not what was promised, don’t pay. Don’t be cool, be magnificent. And if they go to the mat, offer to return the goods there and then."

 

:hihi:

 

...you're coming with me next time I dine at KFC (which wil be never, I hasten to add)!

[walkers]

why did you have to deal with this matter as you was a part timer? Surely the manager should have sorted it out

[taxman]

Please name this establishment because I for one don't want to go to a restaurant where the waiting staff have been basically robbed by their management.

 

Promise me you'll spit in his/her coffee rather than mine.

[babybel]

Yikes and I thought I'd had some dodgy student jobs, you should go somewhere where they respect you a little more, and it's their responsibility to fix problems like that, not leaving it to the student just supplementing uni living.

 

[Darbees]

Please name this establishment because I for one don't want to go to a restaurant where the waiting staff have been basically robbed by their management.

 

Promise me you'll spit in his/her coffee rather than mine.

Yes and in a round about way the management have robbed the customers of the money they paid in good faith as tips to waiters for their good service.

[simple24]

i would like to take the oppourtunity to defend the place i work, it is in manchester by the way, and (apart from this particular occasion) they have always been very good to me. It is an excellent restaurant and is normally great to its employees. I feel the girl who has 'supervising' on the night wasnt sure how to handle such abusive customers and we both did what we thought was best at the time. Also as for looking for another job/quiting, (as a student) i dont really have the time or money to do this!! im just about to do my finals and think adding more stress for looking for a new job would be unwise! thanks for all your good feedback though!!

P.s always ask your waitress/waiter to take service charge off your bill and leave cash, in nearly all restaurants this gratuity goes to managment aswell!!

[Alex C.]

When I worked in a restaurant, the staff had these things taken out of their tips as well, unless it was particularly busy and the manager was feeling overly generous... It's perfectly legal providing you still receive the minimum wage per hour