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AIBU?

Would you leave a bar without paying for food?

69 replies

carlywurly · 26/01/2013 17:37

If a bill hasn't been given to you?

A couple of friends did last night in a small, local tapas type of place, and seemed to think this was fine. It's been bothering me all day, to the extent that I might go back and settle it myself. (It was probably under £10)

Dp and i had a separate tab which I made sure was cleared before we left, but they were of the opinion that if the bar weren't going to ask them for money for the food they'd had, they weren't going to offer it.

What would you do?.. They are generally lovely people but this just smacks of wrong to me.

OP posts:

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thisisyesterday · 26/01/2013 21:43

re: having to wait ages after you've been given the bill. We tend to just take bill and payment up to the till and ask whoever is there to take the payment. It's annoying, but at least you don't have to sit around waiting for ages

Iaintdunnuffink · 26/01/2013 21:45

Whats this about an app for Pizza Express?? You can pay in the restaurant by Pay Pal?

Iaintdunnuffink · 26/01/2013 21:50

Omg I've googled, what a great idea. I'm going to campaign for an EU law to make apps like this compulsory in all restaurants. I've spend longer in France waiting to pay than eating the bloody meal.

ilovesooty · 26/01/2013 22:02

They are generally lovely people

Really?

carlywurly · 26/01/2013 22:14

Ilovesooty, yes - they are. I work with one of them and they're really sweet and well regarded. This was totally unexpected. I'm not normally a bad judge of character but I've obviously missed something here.

OP posts:

Naoko · 26/01/2013 22:26

Absolutely not. But I did once walk out between ordering food and it arriving (so although they were presumably cooking our food, I hadn't eaten any of it). I'd never normally but first they took 20 minutes to acknowledge we were there and bring us a menu, then the waiter was rude, then the food took forever to arrive despite me asking politely what was going on. An hour after ordering, with no food in sight and no waiter willing to speak to me, I walked.

pigletmania · 26/01/2013 23:54

Noway that is awful. I wuld not go out with them again

hrrumph · 26/01/2013 23:56

No. I'd think of those people working there.

Bit like not paying your trainfare. It affects all the workers in one way or another.

Simple theft.

plantsitter · 27/01/2013 00:03

I remember a friend and I eating in a little chef once where the service was so bad that a group of about 12 including a man with a cast on his leg and crutches escaped without paying! The staff had all pretty much disappeared. However, having scruples and nowhere in particular to be me & friend waited around until someone to pay turned up.

Alisvolatpropiis · 27/01/2013 00:06

No. When a place is busy/when staff don't want to perceived as "rushing" customers they won't just chuck the bill at you. They wait for you to indicate you want to pay and leave.

Your friends quite blatantly stole from the restaurant.

ripsishere · 27/01/2013 00:16

We did it once in Devon. We had gone to a pub in a group (around 12), had a drink and starter in one part of the bar, were moved to a separate restaurant and ate and drank some more. We all put money in the middle for what we imagined the total would be but no body came. person who was nominated driver took the money with the intention of going to the front of the pub. In a genuinel mix up we left without paying. Couldn't find the pub the next day so all the money went into the RNLI collection box. It was a diving weekend.
I did actually try to leave yesterday without paying for something. Another genuine mistake. Me and DD met DH at a cafe place over the road to his school. She and I had a kebab from the man who has a stand just outside the door to this particular place. DH had a different type from inside. I paid the bill, and we started to leave. Outside kebab man came over, very apologetically and asked for his money. I was mortified.

Startail · 27/01/2013 00:19

Had I not had my totally law abiding DH with me.

I would have walked out of the restaurant in Portugal that took an hour to give us the bill. They knew we were waiting.

It was one of the pay for your fish by weight places so I didn't know how much to leave DD1 was bored out of her wits and DD2was asleep. I couldn't believe anyone would leave DCs of about 5 and 7 hanging about that long.

Been on holiday to Majorca lots of times and yes they are very laid back, but they understand that asking for the bill means you'd like to move on,

FreePeaceSweet · 27/01/2013 00:27

You are going to pull them up on this aren't you? I'm not saying that doing it to a chain restaurant lessens the theft but they can absorb these losses better. I've seen this done at a restaurant no bigger than a terraced house that had only 4 dining tables. I'd be tempted to lie and say you went back and paid as your conscience was eating you up. Can you have the money back please? If they pay you call the restaurant and pay. If they don't then fuck them off. Its not as if they can call the restaurant up for proof is it?

joanofarchitrave · 27/01/2013 00:48

No, because I try not to be a thief.

In periods of my life when I have eaten out, I have regularly ended up standing up and putting my coat on to make the wait staff bring the bill, but that's one of the reasons I found I didn't really miss eating out that much when I got less rich and I've no doubt they didn't miss me much either.

DeepRedBetty · 27/01/2013 01:07

Ex BF and I forgot to pay once at Rick Stein's restaurant in Padstow, we were most of the way back to our b&b when we remembered. Went back to pay.

The downer was that I spent rest of night vomming. Thought it was their food, took three more seafood meals to discover I'd developed an intolerance to crab .

BlueSuedeStiletto · 27/01/2013 08:03

Thing is, I can't believe anyone would do that, but some people just have a totally different set of morals when it comes to this stuff.

I bought a few bits from a high street chain shop before meeting XP from work. It wasn't till after we'd met up that I realised they hadn't charged me for a £35 handbag! I went back to pay and XP got really huffy. He just couldn't understand why I was bothered, since it was from a chain store. I tried to explain that stock in these places is all checked and accounted for, so it;ll go down as a loss and staff may be blamed and besides it is STEALING and I am not a thief, but he wasn't having any of it.

He works for the police

ZillionChocolate · 27/01/2013 09:11

Even restaurants branded as a chain might be run as franchises.

I don't really agree that chains can tolerate it better so it's not so bad. Yes, 100 restaurants collectively can cope with one walk out better but if it's one walk out per restaurant per week or whatever, then it's the same problem. Given that there seems to be an attitude of "oh well, it's tesco/pizza express/other big company, they can afford it", I wonder whether they fare worse.

carlywurly · 27/01/2013 11:43

The whole thing is making my blood boil now. I was stunned into silence at the time, but will think about how I can broach it without creating a bad atmosphere at work.

It makes me really sad at the state of people's morals too, we also recently had to ditch another work "friend" who cheerily told us how she'd gone through a senior colleagues personal stuff and payslips while babysitting at her house. Wtf is wrong with these people?

OP posts:

freddiefrog · 27/01/2013 11:58

We managed to leave a cafe without paying once - general confusion with kids needing wees, carpark ticket running out, DH thinking I'd paid and vice versa. We realised when we got home and DH drove back down to pay.

The cafe owner gave us a £10 voucher he was so surprised we'd bothered to come back

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