Splitting the bill - from a waitress’s POV.

[MazDazzle]

If you’re out for a meal in a large group and you want to pay individually, how do you go about it?

I’m a waitress in a smallish bistro. It’s a nice place and we do our best to accommodate our customers. We had a table of 23 last night: starters, mains, pudding and some sides, plus cocktails and coffee. Instead of asking for the total bill, each person came up to the til one at a time and asked to pay for what they had.

I had to listen patiently while each person tried to remember what they had. It’s a long process; I had to log in/out multiple times for each customer, shut down screens, open new ones, trawl through the very long bill trying to find each item, create a new table for each customer, cut and paste it to a new bill... this is before we get to the cash/card payment. 23 times!

It took a good 3 mins per customer, so for over an hour the restaurant floor was one person short. It happens all the time and both the restaurant owners and staff are sick of it.

WIBU to say ‘Sorry, we’re unable to make up individual bills, but I’m happy to print out multiple copies of the total bill and provide a calculator. Each person can pay by cash/card, whichever is easiest.’

Would you think it was rude if a waitress said this to you?

Urgh, what a faff. That would fuck me right off. I think you should ask your boss how to deal with it so that they'll back you up if the customers aren't happy with it.

It would be easier if, before the meals are ordered, customers were asked whether it would be separate bills or one joint one. If it's one joint one, then the group should be asked who is taking responsibility for the bill.

Today reasonable. If they wanted separate bills, especially with such a large number of people, they should have specified it at the start.

I wouldn't find it rude if you said that to me. Then again I wouldn't be rude to do that to a waitress, talk about stressssss

If I had a restaurant, there’d be a sign somewhere (on menus, whatever) saying separate bills happily provided if requested at time of ordering. Otherwise, they sort it out themselves later.

Would you think it was rude if a waitress said this to you?

Yes. You can’t dictate how people pay.

The thing is Hollow, they’re not ordering all of their food and drinks in one go. After ordering their starters & mains, they’re later adding drinks and dessert. Even if they’d said at the start of the night they wanted separate bills, it would be difficult to keep track of it.

'Yes. You can’t dictate how people pay.'

Well the restaurant can if it's their policy.

Good lord, no it wouldn’t be unreasonable. Splitting a bill is one thing but 23 separate transactions is ridiculous.

If they want to be so pedantic about it they need to use the calculators on their phone and pay their bits separately by card if needed (and that would be bad enough) not make you ring up 23 separate transactions.

What a bunch of pains in the arses.

I feel your pain OP. If that is considered rude (I don’t think so) maybe the software needs changing, it sounds as though you use the same one as I do. It’s a huge inconvenience to everyone in the restaurant. I often think that they should take the time to do this themselves. If they would like to pay individually rather than splitting the bill, they should be doing it themselves and not expecting staff to spend up to half an hour, sometimes more, doing it for them! Sometimes when we are unexpectedly busy and only have skeleton staff on, it’s near on impossible.

Have been out in a large group, we worked it out at the table between ourselves, put the cash in, and the people paying by card (3 out of the group of about 18) just asked the server to charge the amount to their cards. This also covered a decent tip.
What you describe is absolute madness and the owner shouldn't allow it to happen

"Even if they’d said at the start of the night they wanted separate bills, it would be difficult to keep track of it."
How do you keep track of different bills for different tables? Do it in the same way!

Oyster my boss would definitely back me up, but the restaurant has a reputation for doing everything it can to please the customer. It’s against my bosses nature to say ‘No, you can’t do that.’ He is definitely a people pleaser! Everyone who works there is the same. It’s came back to bite us though.

I wouldn't think it rude. If I'm out in a group one or two people volunteer to sort out the bill dividing the bill up evenly (none of that tight wad "i didnt have a dessert!, "getting cash and cards from people and handing it to staff with minimum fuss. Poor waiting staff, most of us have been there at some stage so try not to make your jobs more diffixult than they need to be.

Our bill system is slightly easier than yours as we have a 'split' screen where we can move stuff across.

Best way is a named (pre)order so you ask each person's name as you take the food order. Keep the original pad slip, with the named order. When they come to the till you then ask names, enter it on the till and charge each customer, then void off till the big original order. Still a faff, but less of one.

Was it a work night or something? I can't imagine a situation where 23 people would all want to pay individually - surely there would usually be a fair amount of couples who shared, families etc?

We had a family dinner (similar number) where we'd agreed a set menu price with drinks on top. Potentially a nightmare and, as the organiser, I was a bit anxious as to how it would work (and whether I would end up footing a massive drinks bill!).

But the restaurant had some kind of ipad/tech thing so everyone had their own tabs.

But if you don't want to go down this route I think a simple note on your menu saying you don't do split bills would be fine. I've seen it before and it wouldn't (normally) worry me. Don't worry about suggesting calculators - they'll have one on their phones and they can keep their own tabs.

Are they trying to get round the service charge? Most places charge it to everyone but some places are only for X number of people upwards? Otherwise they are CFs

Idk I think MOST people try to quietly pay separately to avoid the awkwardness at the end.

In a world where entering your PIN number is too much hassle, expecting customers to sit with a calculator may lose the restaurant significant business. Restaurants are a luxury for people so if you don’t accommodate they won’t come.

To me it sounds like the software you’re using might be the problem. I worked in a fancy cafe once and it was A LOT easier than this to separate up the bill.

I'm sure I've been in places before where the menu has said something like "no split bills will be provided for tables over 8". You need signs like that ;-)

Can't imagine the last people to pay were particularly happy at having to wait an hour to pay either!

I can't imagine a situation where 23 people would all want to pay individually - surely there would usually be a fair amount of couples who shared, families etc?

Ha ha - have you not read the threads of the horror, the horror, the horror of sharing bills

I think it's fine if you want to say that about the bills and calculator.

but wouldn't it be easier to say to the table at the start "are you paying separately" and then do a bill for each customer? I've been to quite a few things in these kinds of numbers and people just say "we all need separate bills" at the start.

That's crazy. Whenever I've split the bill with each person paying for specific things we have worked it out ourselves! Outrageous to make the wait staff work it out for you.

He needs to improve the till system if its a common issue. You should be able to give each customer a bill number and ask them to give it when they order additional items.

Even if they’d said at the start of the night they wanted separate bills, it would be difficult to keep track of it.
There is software that can do this for you