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?

@Stealth we can’t split bills for individual people until the final bill is printed as the food orders go through per table to the kitchen. We couldn’t do it separately unless we set each person up with a table, which would mean that the food all comes out at different times. Drinks for us get written on a chit and put into the numbered box for that table on the wall. The drinks would be easier if they were all named, but it just doesn’t happen as people will order a round of drinks for the whole table. We wouldn’t have the time to name each one. (I don’t know if this is the same for OPs software!)

I feel you OP but splitting the bill isn't a new thing is it, restaurants have had quite some years to come up with methods or ordering or payment that make it easy to do this. They know people will want to in quite high volumes. Why don't you get on your managements case about how best to deal with the issue since its slowing down service and productivity and sounds a pain. I'm not sure the problem lies solely, if at all, in the customers desire to split the bill, which is very standard so surely just a part of the job, albeit a shit part. (We all have them)

To answer your Q; no I wouldn't find it rude if it were delivered politely with no attitude and so on. If I'm out and a bill is split we usually do it on our phone calculators anyway beforehand. It does ruin the night when the waiter or waitress makes you feel like a dick though. Not all of us can afford to pay for the lunch of 5 others and be "paid back later" ( then usually nobody bothers).

Our whole system is computerised Stealth and as we add items the order gets sent to the bar/kitchen. If I put each order on individually, they’d all go through to the kitchen separately. It would have meant 23 individual orders for one table and our computer system isn’t really geared up for that.

I suggest you work out a better process so you can carry on providing this service. E.g., you could have agreed seat numbers and waiter could note s6 next to every item ordered by the individual. You could, with big parties check if they are going to pay together and state that waiters will allocate orders to seat numbers to keep track of you are concerned about seat shuffling

OP - just ask at the outset whether the table will be having one bill or require individual bills. Then suck it up

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 is exactly what we’d like to suggest! Would save so much time for staff.

With such a large group they should of said at the start and I don’t think you’d be unreasonable to say what you did.

it’s it 4 people fine to say when it comes to paying but with 23 people really

I've never even thought of going up and individually asking for a bill for just what I had when I've been out with a group.

I'd expect that one bill would be put together and then multiple card payments/cash would be put against the 1 bill.

Whether people split the bill equally or pay for just what they had is another argument...

Every restaurant that I've been to for the last five years has said 'no split bills'. What a pain in the arse for restaurants to have to try and split bills for people. People should be able to manage it themselves to cover the bill.

I’m a bit at the people saying you can’t dictate how people pay.

As a customer I always get the full bill and work out between us what we owe, as a person involved with a restaurant, we have a policy of not splitting bills for anyone! (As we regularly have very large tables). People very rarely make a fuss.

Everybody has a calculator on their phone.
It isn't fair to ask the waitress to sort out separate bills at the end of the meal.

This reminds me of a meme which I've seen circulated (sorry, awful bit of gender stereotyping):
When a group of men eat out, they all just throw a £20 note in the middle, even if their own meal came to less than £20.
When a group of women eat out, out come the pocket calculators.

Yes. You can’t dictate how people pay.

Well, they wouldn't be. OP said everyone would still have the option of paying cash or card for their meals, just that they'd have to work out the total themselves.

YANBU OP

As476 it sounds like we have the same software! It’s a small, privately owned business. The restaurant can hold 60-70 at maximum capacity. The software was really expensive and I can’t see the owners forming out to replace it. It works perfectly in every other respect.

"Even if they’d said at the start of the night they wanted separate bills, it would be difficult to keep track of it."

That's not the customer's problem though is it?

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.
That's how I've always done it when out.

The bill comes to the table, everyone works out what they owe, cash in the middle and those who pay on card tell the waiting staff how much needs to go on card.

Going up for multiple separate bills sounds ridiculous.

I didn’t say anything Pink! I smiled politely, sucked it up and said ‘Ofcourse!’. But everyone in the restaurant would like to change how we do things, without seeming rude/unhelpful.

The last time I went out with a big group of women (about 30 of us) we were told that we had to team up with the person next to us and pay in pairs. Each pair could then fight between themselves if they wanted to, but it meant far less fuss than one huge bill.

We once ended up with everyone from large group claiming they paid after we split the bill, but there was 1 SuperCF hiding amongst them who didn't. There was a staryer, main and couple of drinks left. They got really rude.
So next time I had someone who wanted split bills, I gave each a paper with a number on it. When they ordered extras like drinks, they had to show their number. Everyone paid. No one wanted to risk that "Number 6 hasn't paid" moment.
But it should be said from the beginning whether it's split or not.

Your restaurant needs to have a better computer system to make this type of paying easier if it's something that happens regularly

I think it's poor for the customers too having to wait an hour til everyone has paid - personally, you should be grateful they chose your restaurant to come to these types of businesses close regularly as they don't get enough revenue

I can see how much of a ball ache that would be for you OP. but surely that's all part of the job. You want payment it's up to you to calculate and present the bill in any way the customer wants it.

MarieToulouseBerlioz you’d be surprised how often people do it! It’s always on our busiest nights when we are all rushed off our feet.

I used to be the maths one, get the bill, work it out and hand each person their individual cost. Person with the most money pains the lot on card and everyone else bank transferred or handed cash over then and there

I do split bill to pay my share when I am out but no I’d not request a separate bill
In fact what I do is take cash,pay that or card
I have been offered option of both in restaurants eg cash or card for my share

When I've eaten out with people, we've all agreed to pay cash. Either to one person who pays with their card, or to hand a large pile of cash and change to the staff.

I've always calculated what I've eaten and drunk by rounding up the menu prices.

£2.50 for sparkling mineral water? £3

£7.95 for a starter? £8.

And so on.

Infuriatingly, everyone else says they are doing the same thing, but when the money is totted up by the cashier, we're not only short of a decent tip, we're short of the total amount needed.

It takes almost as long to work out who's short as it does to eat the bloody meal.