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?

Tough luck☺ the bill's never split equally when I'm in a group because I don't drink and I refuse to contribute towards other people's alcoholic drinks☺*
The non alcohol argument is becoming problematic these days with many trendy places offering mocktails at a fiver each. Which is more expensive than a pint of lager or fancy non alcohol drinks the same price as a pint if bitter.
I've already been on one group meal where it's caused an argument!!!
Staff moan that I dont join them on meals out but I cant be arsed with the who had what malarkey!

I would be grateful to Karen. How anyone pays their bill is entirely their own business as long as they pay. Her offering to pay for others is really generous. It's no different to going for a meal, her paying with her bonus from work and saying "her guys, I got a bonus last week, let me buy you desert". The objector is sooooooooo beyond out of line.

Gift cards are, in effect, money, just money you can only spend in a certain place.
Karen effectively paid for some of the others' meals with her own money so any fuss about it is ridiculous!

If I were Karen I'd have been sorely tempted to take back the gift card completely and pay for my share, thereby contributing nothing to anyone else's meal.

A gift card is equivalent to money. So technically Karen was offering to pay her share plus £40 more (£10 per remaining diner)

I would be grateful for the offer.

It's not like she said "I have a gift card, but it's more than my share so you all owe me £10 each and then split the remaining balance between yourselves!"

People are so weird!

I think I've got that wrong haven't I?
Karen has paid £110 and everyone else has paid £10 each. Oh God.. my head hurts.

Added to my post above, I was wrong, she did put it into the pot and then split between 4 because hers was covered by her gift

I had (had) a friend who would decide I could pay for things we shared because I'd been given some money for birthday etc. "You just got £50 from your aunt so you can pay for the taxi".

If the objector has a problem it should be with the use of the gift card at all. If Karen didn't "earn" it then neither did they so why should they benefit from it either.

Doesn't matter where Karen got the means to pay her share from (whether she personally earned it or it was given to her as a gift). Her only obligation was to pay her share, which she did.

" I would be unnerved if someone used a voucher to cover their share whilst everyone has paid"

You want to get those nerves of yours looked at!

Karen did pay. With her work "bonus". Money given to her for her good work, on a gift card!

I'm amazed at the amount of traffic for this post. Of course the gift card can be used - it matters not whether the friend used a gift card, a credit card or the equivalent in cash. What does matter is that the bill was reduced by the appropriate amount and the other four had the bill reduced by 1/5 approx. The other four would have had to pay the same regardless except in this case, they had to offer to reduce their personal shares by a bit due to being able to use the excess on the card.

I had (had) a friend who would decide I could pay for things we shared because I'd been given some money for birthday etc. "You just got £50 from your aunt so you can pay for the taxi".

Ha! I had (had) a friend who announced she wouldn't be paying any rent any more in our flat share as I'd just got a new job, on a salary of £14k, so should cover everyone's.

Wow some people are so greedy, that is what is unseemly. Who demands someone else pays for them. Rude!
Karen was absolutely in the right and very kind.

Ian’s a knob. Karen sounds lovely 😊

Karen's being very generous. if she has a gift card and wants to use it nothing wrong with that in my book - the gift card is equal to money in my opinion

A gift card is exactly the same as money! She was being massively generous and the objector was being incredibly, embarrassingly tight and very, very rude.

Karen sounds lovely, Ian is a twat!

The objector is a nasty ungrateful idiot. Karen was being very generous.

And what is the difference between using a gift card & a credit card? She's paying her share and generously offering more to her friends.

Karen was being very generous. I hope she withdrew the offer, paid cash they split the bill so CF paid more and she went back and had a lovely meal with the other 3 people another time.

If this was me I'd have used the gift card and split the rest equally. I think Karen is the cheeky one tbh. She should have just went for a meal alone or with her partner.

OMG Ian is a rude, tight git! I wouldn't want to socialise with him again.

Karen was very nice and generous to make the offer in the first place and not to rescind when Ian started kicking up his stupid stink. Given that he was so adamant that Karen wasn't contributing, it would have been tempting to work out what his share would be if she literally didn't put in a penny, and demand he pay that much. See if he could spot the flaw in his argument then, the twat.

Ian is a knob. Karen was kind.

I think the other 6 members should club together and get Ian a restaurant voucher for his birthday and then.........[evil laugh]

I think Karen is the cheeky one tbh. She should have just went for a meal alone or with her partner.

Er, why?

Morgan12 Yep, cheeky because she covered her share of the bill and extra on top

It is really none of anyone else's business how she paid for her share.

@Fromage