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?

The bill was X amount

Split 5 ways

Karen paid her share (why is a gift card different to paying cash??)

I don’t see the problem with what Karen done. However personally I would of had the gift card taken off the total and split the remainder
Equally.

I'd love to have a friend as kind as Karen.

How the fuck is it socially unacceptable to pay your share with a gift card? A gift card is just money on a card the same as a visa debit card is just money on a card and the same as a credit card isn't even bloody money on a card. The whole idea of a gift card is that you use it to pay for your bloody meal what is the point of it otherwise. Karen is 100% in the right and she should have taken back her change in a voucher if that is the attitude of her friend. I hope all the others stood up for her and called the cf out?

The method in which Karen pays for her own share has absolutely no bearing on the cost to anyone else. The fact she's contributed to their costs is a bonus to them.

I can't actually believe anyone would be pissed off about this! Are they a bit thick?

The only way I'd be peeved with Karen was if she insisted that we eat there even though we didn't want to. This isn't the case so Karen is fine and objector is an idiot.

OP - how was it "resolved" in the end?

Karen's gift card might not have come from her own money but it is still an asset that she possesses that she is spending on the transaction that she will then no longer have. Using it to deduct money off others bills as well is very generous.

I think it's socially unacceptable to just cover your own bill with the gift card in this situation

I don't understand the point of this. Karen also covered a portion of everyone else's bill with her gift card, which was more than generous of her.

The objector is a pillock. If Karen were using birthday money that had been given to her rather than the gift card, would he seriously say she hadn't put her own money in so should pay again? Yet it's the same situation.

I think Karen needs to find new people to eat out with in future. Gift cards are like cash - which can only be used in a specified place. If Karen's boss had given her a wodge of tenners instead of a gift card and used them to pay her share would they CF have complained then? Probably not. The fact it's a gift card should not alter the situation.

Karen was nice and generous and friend was a twat

Objector is unreasonable! I wouldn't care if someone used a gift card to pay their share, as long as it didn't mean I was covering them (actually, even if it was a good friend I wouldn't mind covering them).

However personally I would have had the gift card taken off the total and split the remainder Equally.

Why? That way Karen would have been paying twice over - with a bill of, say, £100 and a card worth £50, Karen would end up paying £60 while everyone else paid £10. How would that be remotely fair?

I think youd just be a jealous twat if you got upset at someone paying for their fair share of a meal with a gift card. I wouldn’t have a tiniest bit of an issue if that were me. Karen did a lovely thing and I’d have appreciated and been very grateful for her gesture of using some of her gift card for part of my share of the bill... as any polite person should be!

The polite thing to do would be for Karen to ask for the gift card to be deducted from the total, and then all the diners (including Karen) pay an equal share of what remains.

I also think it rude that anyone would expect Karen to pay for more than her food and her share of the tip regardless of how she paid for it.
Horrendously rude!

However, the person who objected was also out of order, because ultimately it is Karen's right to do what she wants with the gift card.

I'm sorry your friends went out with my FIL, OP.

He's a miserable git at the best of times, and bill paying brings out the worst in him.

Karen seem very generous.

If it was me then I’d pay my share with card, let objector pay her share however they wanted and contribute what I didn’t spend on objector on the other 3. Even better for them.

Bollocks to objectors.

The objector is not just a cunt, but a profoundly stupid person. What Karen (and anyone else who finds themself in such a situation) should do is say to Stupid Cunt - would you feel better or worse if I was using cash that my employer had given me to pay my share of the bill? Can you explain the difference? If not, fuck off and pay for your own dinner.

Karen is correct - after all she could of quite happily saved her gift card for another occasion (just her & her partner for example) and they could have all paid more

She paid... with money from her employer... for her work. Is this not how everyone pays for dinner?

but let's face it, most people would find this socially unacceptable to say "I have a gift card, no bill for me, woo hoo".

Why?

It makes zero difference to the other 4 diners if Karen pays in cash, vouchers, or a basket of kittens. Her share is paid.
To then proceed to an ill-mannered sulk after Karen has ALSO offered to take a tenner off the other 4 bills is extraordinary.

I also don't see how it's socially unacceptable to pay by a gift card, it's irrelevant how you pay, as long as you pay. Demanding the gift card is shared out and Karen has to pay twice is really objectionable grabby behaviour.

It certainly wouldn't bother me how anyone paid. I find it bizzare it would bother anyone.

Karen was being extremely generous, and the objector is miserable and thick!

Karen is entirely in the right and generous for the contribution to everyone else's meal. Their 'friend' is entirely in the wrong and I think no reasonable person could have that perspective. To illustrate, I think it is similar to the following - Karen had been given cash for her birthday in an envelope, she opens the envelope at the table and used the birthday present to pay her share of the bill and extra. Would her friend be reasonable to say, 'Karen hasn't actually contributed any of her own money to the bill, only the cash she received as a present'?