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?

I hope they bloody tipped. When I waitressed, tight killjoys who paid like this also failed to tip.

bebebouef, the last chain restaurant I went to had these 'tablet' things with a printer for waiting staff so even in a largish group (9), we had individual bills put at the side of us so everybody knew what they had. Everybody individually paid cash/card, got their VAT invoice at the end.

That would have save the scenario you're talking about because I imagine any sharer dishes could have just been applied 50:50 onto the bills concerned.

I couldn’t imagine eating out with a group of people for whom splitting the bill without the assistance of the waitress presented a prohibitively complex task.

Well said. I appreciate my friends and colleagues even more having read this thread. It has never been a problem.

Yanbu. We always split at the table if paying individual.
Your idea of printing a multiple receipt is a good one.

I've been out on many group nights out, where the bill has been split according to what we've each had, and never once have we asked the waiting staff to work it out for us - what a bunch of lazyarse chancers they were!

We work it out ourselves and if we're short, we all put in an extra £1 (or $1 now I live elsewhere) to make it up.

Many smaller restaurants in Australia refuse to split bills, possibly because of this but more likely because of the card charges.

I agree with @Hollow. I also think if you are going to split the bill as it is quite a faff having the approximate amount of money.

Eg £30 for your mains, side, desert and drink.

I think it depends on amount of people. We have done it but it's usually just 2 or 3 way so it's not too bad.

My sympathies.

That's ridiculous. If they want to each pay their own which is fair enough they should be sorting out between themselves and handing over total bill amount. Can you not have a rule to say it cannot be done for parties over 10 or something. Think that was very cheeky of them.

It’s not prohibitively complex task.in RL this happens routinely,no drama no faff
Only on mn is it a thing that causes drama

In a large group I would expect to, and have done lots of time, get one bill for the group, we work out who's paying what and then just get that amount charged to the card. Definitely not lots of split transactions!

When I was waitressing in Germany (20 years ago) we always had to ask before taking orders if people were paying together or individually. It worked fine, but I must say I never had a table of 23 people!

Why should a small restaurant/cafe shell out for new software and possibly hardware for a problem that occurs once in a while? That stuffs not cheap and it could take them until the equipment is practically obsolete to recoup the investment.

Honestly some people live with their head in the clouds sometimes. It’s really not hard to just sort it out like adults without making a hash of it.

I think an earlier poster was on to something when they said they were trying to avoid a service charge.

YANBU AT ALL!!!

I bet the majority of times you do multiple split bills the restaurant/waiting staff gets shafted on service charge/tip and at least one person in the group ends up paying over the odds because people forget they had an extra glass of wine etc

Not really because a service charge would be applied to the group. It's still a group, just paying separately. Not difficult to understand really.

What is this thing about 'behaving like adults', it sounds ridiculous. Paying separately or combined, people are still adults.

Lipstick sorry I've lost who thinks what? What part of it isn't a prohibitively complex task? The waitress having to do 23 individual bills or the table working out their own bills?

That’s exactly it Unihorn!

Often people share starters, sides and desserts which further complicates things.

It's definitely rubbish at splitting bills (the subject of the thread).

Adults can split their bill themselves. The ARROGANCE of some people...thinking the restaurant should wait as some overworked waitress prints off a separate one!!! They should look at the bill and SORT IT OUT THEMSELVES.

Or maybe just don't go to the restaurants so that the poor, overworked waiting staff can just put their feet up and have a nap.

I refuse to eat out with twats who do this kind of thing..they are invariably people who suck the joy out of everything. And I say this as a teetotaller who therefore probs pays a bit too much each time...but at least my friends don't want to brain me

maz I've only once NOT split the bill, over 50 years ago at a student celebration after exams

Through all the tech levels in that half-century, from paper through to the latest iShiny, I've never witnessed a problem even in large groups
No more complicated than if the restaurant fills up with a lot of singles & couples

Maybe you have too few staff ?

I'm working in Germany now and have attended several divisional celebrations of 100+ pople where food and / or drinks are billed individually.

I refuse to believe that Germans are inherently more efficient than Brits
It's all about having the appropriate tools and training - and sufficient staff

Lyingwitch yes. You stay home luvvie. Waitresses are not your slaves

Thunder,Neither of the tasks are onerous or prohibitive

I'm surprised that more restaurants don't have software to maintain separate bills. It seems obvious to enable people to pay for what they ordered, and I'm sure would be perfectly doable with appropriate software. In restaurants where they input the order onto a device it could surely be automated by having names or seat numbers under each table.

For various reasons I prefer to pay separately - as a student when I'd purposefully pick cheap dishes, because I usually drink tap water as I prefer it to soft drinks and alcohol, when people are ordering different quantities of courses, when different income levels, when people leave early and you want to ensure they leave enough! I've also eaten in groups with a CF who orders bottles of wine for themselves when nobody else is drinking.

It's always a bit of a faff at the end if you do split unequally, making sure that everything is paid for and trying to be fair "I'll pay extra as I had wine" "oh but my main cost more".

It puts me off sit down restaurants tbh, along with the wait to order and need to keep getting the waiter's attention, it feels fussy. There are some great canteen-style restaurants now serving good food, which I prefer.

No, Fizzysours, I'll just carry on going to 'proper' places where the waiting staff are great, there are lots of them.

'luvvie'? Creepy.

Lol. There is nothing as unclassy as your entitled attitude so I wouldn't assume the waitresses in these better places don't loa