Help settle a restaurant debate.

[IcedTeaForMe]

I wasn't one of the people in this scenario but I was having this discussion with a friend who was.

There are five people out to dinner and they're splitting the billl. One person(my Friend) Karen has a gift card for the restaurant given to her by her employer. The gift card more than covers her share so she generously says that the rest of the gift card can be used to deduct from the bill for the other diners meaning that they'd pay around ten pounds less than they would have without Karen's gift card. One diner objects and says that the remaining bill should be split between all five(including Karen) and not the remaining four because she hasn't actually contributed any money to the bill, only a gift card that she didn't pay for.

It seems pretty clear cut to me who was in the wrong, but I'm curious to know what MN thinks?

I wouldn’t have used a gift card at a social gathering of acquaintances from work (or I would have suggested somewhere else where everyone more normally would split the bill - can’t remember if she suggested this restaurant).

if I did use the gift card, as she did, I’d use it to lessen everyone’s bill my own included and I would split the bill 5 ways.

I repeat I think Ian is an absolute tosser for saying anything at all or even thinking anything about it. I don’t think Karen did anything ‘wrong or inappropriate’ it’s just not what I would have done.

Karen's Gift Card to spend when and how she darn well pleases.

I can’t understand why some people wouldn’t use a gift card as part payment for a meal in a social group.
There’s nothing socially unacceptable about it at all!
She was being very generous and the colleague was being a plonker!

I have a tastecard (2-4-1 in loads of restaurants) and do a weekly lunch with a different friend each week. I use the tastecard to HALVE the bill and then split the rest between us! I would never say, well I “paid” for my half with my tastecard so you can’t benefit from it at all and still have to pay full price for what is left...
I also have had gift cards for places like Nando’s - I found a £20 nandos card my ex had left when he moved out so next time I was in there I used that to shave £20 off the bill and split the rest with my friends...
Sorry, but if Karen was in my group of friends I (and all my friends) would think Karen was the one in the wrong.
However I wouldn’t care enough to say anything, just wouldn’t see her as often as some of my more on-my-level type friends.
I just wouldn’t care enough for it to be an issue to bring up at the table and humiliate Karen.

Depends on the type of gift card - if it's a percentage off, then Karen should contribute. If it's a fixed amount of money, then the objector is being unreasonable.

I have a tastecard (2-4-1 in loads of restaurants) and do a weekly lunch with a different friend each week. I use the tastecard to HALVE the bill and then split the rest between us! I would never say, well I “paid” for my half with my tastecard so you can’t benefit from it at all and still have to pay full price for what is left...

A taste card is totally different to a gift card! It gives money off rather than having any value itself!

sahknowme that’s an interesting and potentially controversial distinction I think . . . Hmmm . . .

The objector is a total twat and Karen was very generpud.

*generous! Ffs why is autocorrect so crap?

Calm down Shirley - I do understand this. I also said I have had gift cards as well. I am entitled to my opinion and that is that my friends and I wouldn’t do it the way that Karen did. However we also wouldn’t make a big deal of it if we had a Karen in our group that did!

We just don’t have a Karen in our group so it is not an issue - not that she wouldn’t be welcomed with open arms!
Is it too early for a gin? Damn it... a few people on this thread could do with one (or 3) and stop taking such offence to other people’s AIBUs...
Not exactly the CF thread of the century so not something to get so worked up about.

I’m nice and calm thanks. Just making the point that a taste card is still entirely different to a gift card...

(Unfamiliar with taste card - slightly frightened to investigate)

But Ian back down when he realised he would lose £10 discount from the use of the voucher...
A gift card is as good as cash...
Ian is a crap friend, looking a gift horse in the mouth .

Karen’s gift card isn’t some kind of magic! It’s a means of payment in the same way that cash, card or cheque are means of payment.

I don’t understand why anyone would be unnerved by it or think that she should use it to pay twice.

A tastecard is totally different to a gift card

Nothing wrong with using a gift card! I wouldn't be bothered one jot if it were me in the group. There's too much overthinking on this thread.

Not sure anyone has been unnerved or overthinking anything. I for one just know instinctively what I would do as Karen and Ian (oh it should be ‘or’!) Only had to think it through and explain as was questioned by quite a few.

Just booking table for lunch tomorrow. We will all be pleased I think that there is no card/voucher/Karen or Ian involved !

What!!! Clearly Karen should have paid her share after the gift card?!! If she wasn’t willing to pay her share as well as the card, she should save the gift card for another occasion and use it to pay for her and one friend perhaps. She is very ungracious. Having said that, I wouldn’t have raised it with her - if have just been silently seething and not gone out with her again 😂

Why do people think Karen should pay twice??

Why?? I've not read a reasonable explanation as to why yet.

Clouddyy, you 're the latest. Why would you expect your friends to pay twice in this scenario?

She hasn’t paid twice! A gift card is NOT the same as paying with money. Her voucher can only be used on this restaurant. If she hadn’t gone for a meal here, she couldn’t use that to pay for something else. She presumably wouldn’t go out for a big meal here on her own to use it up? If she would do that, she should do in her own time and enjoy the voucher all to herself. As it stands, she wants to enjoy the benefit of goo out with friends but not share the vouchers value around equally. She is a cheeky git. In this scenario, she should offer the voucher off the total bill and pay her share of the rest.

The gift card can only be used at that restaurant, BUT it is not dependent on anyone else's payment e.g. a BOGOF of 25% off two mains etc. Karen didn't choose the restaurant. The gift card has an actual cash value unlike a voucher or discount code. The fact that the few people who agree with Ian also insist on calling the gift card a "voucher" speaks volumes, they're absolutely not the same thing.

A gift card is different to a Tastecard which is entirely dependent on someone else paying cash in order for the cardholder to receive the 2-4-1 element of the meal - I'd certainly expect to split the remainder in that case.

I did start by saying gift card, but to me it doesn’t matter what it is. It doesn’t even matter if everyone else pays more for their share - this isn’t really about the final bill (he other diners would surely have counted on paying their full share in any case). It comes down to the idea of not sharing with friends. A meal out with friends is a social gathering, it’s about the conviviality and comradery of sharing a meal - and splitting the bill is an important part of it. You are equally sharing the cost. If someone starts pulling it gift cards/ vouchers and benefitting from the situation then it can feel socially awkward for other people. I would prefer her to save the gift card for herself if she isn’t up for splitting its value equally. If I was offered a free bottle of champagne for example, I wouldn’t just drink it to myself. It’s embarra for everyone else by some people don’t have a lot of social etiquette.

I do not agree with Ian.
I do not agree with Karen.
(I am beginning to not agree with this whole thread !). Each approach has explained. It is ok to think differently. Surely.

Karen allowed everyone else to pay £10 less. She's generous. Objector wants Karen to pay an equal amount and everyone else to pay £10 more.

As you said, it's pretty clear who's in the wrong.