friends happy to steal from a restaurant

[shanefolan29]

A couple of nights ago, myself and an old friend along with 2 of his friends were eating in a restaurant/bar in London. We had drinks too and when we asked for the bill the restaurant mistakenly only charged us for the drinks. The three I was with felt great about it and when I tried to point it out to my friend that we should say something he said no they'd screw us over if they had the chance [as if he personally knew the restaurant which he did not.]

I felt too pressurised to go against the crowd so went along with it and secretly returned later and paid for the food as my conscience would not rest. However it sort of upset me of their morals here, I am no saint but has anybody else ever experienced this sort of thing in a restaurant when out dining?

It baffles me too how we often cite such behaviour to criminals or poverty stricken people from council estates etc when infact all of my friends that night had good jobs and came from comfortable families. I have seen similar behaviour too when at uni when 2 people [both of whom attended private school and came from 'good' families] both fleeced our landlord and ran out on paying their bills.

I am always the one that points this out. If anyone I am with objects, it changes my opinion of them. Ditto if a shop doesn't ring up your purchases properly. Pay for what you're having; it's really not hard!

I once took a cheque made out to cash to the bank, and when I got back to the office, they had given me a grand instead of £500. The office manager told me to keep it!! It was about half my month's wages at the time too.

I took it back and the cashier burst into tears - she said they'd have deducted it from her wages.

Few years later, that office manager was caught stealing from the company. I was sad but not totally shocked.

I took it back and the cashier burst into tears - she said they'd have deducted it from her wages.

I've worked in a bank and that is utter bollocks. Any descrepancy is looked for until found and it would have come to light based on the days transactions where the money most likely went. It does not ever get deducted from an employees wages.

If an error isn't found it is logged with head office and everyone moves on. If lots of descrepancys occur over a period of time an investigation into the staff would then happen.

"I felt too pressurised to go against the crowd so went along with it and secretly returned later "

Oh purlease. So, you didn't have the bollocks to say at the time:
"I'm not comfortable with this. I'll pay the difference if you are not prepared to".

People are actually defending this??

x 10

I don't tip in the UK but I wouldn't steal!

I also don't understand how it's legal in this day and age to dock staff wages for errors.

I don't tip unless I know it goes to the waiter/waitress in question. I have been to a few places where the tips have to go in a central pot to be "divvied out" later, or the staff don't get the tips at all.

I don't agree with not tipping, but it's a separate issue from actually stealing food from restaurants by not pointing out that they haven't included things.

We've pointed out errors a few times where the restaurant hasn't included things. Once in Venice they were so grateful they gave us free drinks and offered to give us a free dessert - unfortunately we were in a hurry to get to an opera so we didn't have the chance to partake.

The only time we didn't point it out was at the woefully bad Yo Sushi at Paris airport. Service and food had been abysmal and I'd worked out roughly what we owed - had plenty of time as took about half an hour from asking for the bill to getting requested for money - the amount asked for was much less than expected, but as they didn't give me an itemised bill - apparently this was impossible - it would have taken another half an hour to try and work out what it should have been, so we paid up and left.

It's stealing. End of. Like taking cash that's someone has forgotten to take from the ATM.

Let's imagine your friends received the bill and by error, they had been overcharged by a large sum? I bet they'd have been up in arms....

I'm the type who told the lady in the shop as a kid she'd put 11 1p sweets in my 10p mixed bag by accident, and got given a 12th for honesty. There's no way i could have left the restaurant, nor let the others leave as i couldn't afford to pay for anyone else and it's going to come out of someones pocket, it should be the pocket of those who ate the food.

Unfortunately the law doesn't matter that much in hospitality.
God.
I've never had a job in hospitality that didn't entail most of my workers rights being flounced!
Finishing at 11pm and back in at 6:30 to open up for breakfast was common too, though illegal. My pay was docked twice due to thefts (deemed my fault) during one theft I was injured (man hit me and threatened me, got behind the bar and stole £650 of alcohol) but still my pay was docked, I was also unfit to work for about a week and lost those wages too (sick pay? What's that?). There was a rumour one of my female co workers was pregnant (she was not) but management believed it for a bit and cut her hours down to 0 or very close to (ie a 3hr breakfast shift if they were desperately understaffed) for 14 weeks. She had to sell her car and walk miles to work and back, just so she could keep up with her rent etc during.that time.
Only people who can get another job super quick or have lots of money can actually enforce their rights. I do not miss hospitality.
I'll stop detailing now.

@PeanutButterSquash and can you imagine having BREAKS? 😂😂😂

I worked hospitality from age 12 in various restaurants and hotels and I can honestly say, I don't recall ever going for my legally required 20 minutes or whatever it is. One place was jam packed and overbooked for New Year's Day and I was stuck there from 8am-11pm and only once managed to get away for a quick toilet break. Though as I had no time to eat or drink at all, not even a sip of water, any further toilet trip wasn't needed!

I was only supposed to be in 8am-12pm then back for evening service at 6pm. My parents had been calling all day long and my shit of a boss told them I had said I would call them back. They were furious with me especially when they had come to get me and boss told them I was sending them away and would make my own way home later.

That was the type of boss who 100% would charge staff for discrepancies!

He kept the tips too.
£3.00 an hour for that shite cos I was under 18.

There used to be a bar restaurant near me with lots of tables outside next to the car park. They got so sick of people leaving without paying that in the end they would ask for a credit card to put behind the bar if you wanted to sit outside.

I think you did the right thing. The waitress could have got the sack over that - and I would definitely ask your friends for their share, no way should you have to foot the bill!

Well, she was upset enough to cry about it and tell me that, SweetMoon.

So on balance - I think I'll continue believing something very convincing I was told at the time than a sneery prat on the internet who doesn't even know which bank or where or when it was, ta.

CannaeBeErsed Breaks? What are those??

I work from 4pm until 3am on Saturdays and the closest thing I get to a break is changing a barrel. Oh, and I'm back on Sunday at 8am to start opening up.

Hospitality is shite. No rights for anyone.

no i will not tell them i went back and paid as i feel it would annoy him but i will not let this taint our friendship, while i don't agree with what he and they did i still very much like them.

''I don't think not correcting a bill is theft though. It's more like finding money on the street and not going to the police - and I even think the police don't handle lost property any more anyway.''

of course it is theft and no it is in no way like finding money on the street as loose money is often untraceable however when you don't correct the bill you are willingly taking money from a person. The morals of people are very twisted.

I live on a council estate. I'm not "lower class". What a horrible statement. I don't appreciate being lumped into the same group as criminals, either.

Well said!!

''I live on a council estate. I'm not "lower class". What a horrible statement. I don't appreciate being lumped into the same group as criminals, either.''

sigh- you are taking my words out of context. I myself grew up on a council estate and am not equating council estate people with criminals.My point was that people are too often to quick to blame crime and society's problems such as petty theft and immoral behaviour that I talked about on criminals or the working class and people from council estates etc. when infact my post was saying that these were people that came from middle class backgrounds and earned enough yet willingly stole.

I probably would have tried to get away with it too

I run a business and have this sort of thing happen all the time. If you make a mistake and sell something damaged or overcharge or whatever, people naturally get angry and demand you sort it out.

If you send someone's order twice, undercharge or make any sort of mistake in their favour, there is a deafening silence.
I'm pretty cynical about the general public's morals.

When you think about it, every single problem humanity faces is simply down to human greed, so I suppose it should not come as a surprise that so many people are dishonest if they think they can get something for free.

When I worked for a particular clothing retailer I was amazed at how honest a lot of people were if the company made errors in their favour on online/mail orders and sent x2 of something (although only billed once) or included extra random undocumented items. They often were able to keep them but I was touched at how honest they were. Made up for the people trying to defraud us and the ones having tantrums because a shop dared to make a profit.

If the money wasn't an issue, I'd have paid infront of them to show them it's not right - are you going to tell them you went back and paid? If not, why not - just interested

My ex boss, our colleague and I went out for a lunch just before Xmas in 2016. When our bill came we'd only been charged for the six soft drinks we'd had. Our boss was mad keen for us to just quietly pay it and go, and was really cross (and surprised) when my colleague and I brought the mistake to the staff's attention and paid the full bill. It really showed us who she was.