Be honest, who has ever done this?

[Moomin8]

I've seen this happen soooo many times. Just why do people think it's ok? To clarify, it does not happen with good friends usually. It's usually when there's a 'party' of some kind or meal made up of either work colleagues or mums from some kind of school or hobby group.

Everyone goes out, some people know each other better than others and earlier on in the evening a sizeable number of people slink off leaving others to foot the bill. Quite often it's those who can easily afford to pay!

Has this ever happened to you? Have you ever done it? Because it seems to happen quite a lot ime!

Not completely leave without paying, but throw someone £20 saying they've added up what they had and have to leave. They usually omit their sides, drinks, service. If a few do it it makes it more expensive for everyone. I prefer just splitting the bill, but I know some people get funny if so and so had a beer when they had tap water.

Happened to a friend of mine, her birthday dinner for about 20 people. Bill came and a number of items on the bill were not claimed so she had to fork out quite a bit to cover those items.

Nope, nor me - perhaps you just mix with the wrong kind of people OP

Hasn't happened to me but there was a Playgroup Christmas party organiser once who took our deposits and balance for set price dinners and did a cash collection of £200 for the bus driver's fee and despite us all paying our own, we found out she had paid for both the Christmas meals (20+ women at £40 each and bus hire on top) using the playgroup bank account and pocketed the cash. I bet she had a cracking Christmas that year. Bitch got away with it too because she left a short time later and no one could get access to the accounts and didn't realise until she was long gone.

Never happened to me.

Ime, when anyone leaves early, they usually leave too much money for the bill! I’ve done it myself, several times.

Never had that, but have definitely been at tables where people have paid their share plus tip by card (card machine passed around the table) and the last person has just paid the remainder (far, far less than their share as everyone had put in their tip). Meaning a) they underpaid and b) the staff get zero tip. Horrible

Nope. Never happened to me. Heard a few moans about, "But I only had ..." when splitting the bill is suggested.

Too right too. It sucks to be the one who doesn’t drink and has a small appetite when everyone else is ordering three courses and bottles of wine. It’s different when going out as a small group, but in a big group it’s not unusual to have a £15 spend yourself and be expected to put in more than couple that when it’s split equally.

Cheeky fuckers are those who order more than everyone else, drink more than everyone else and expect everyone else to subsidise them - I would never do that!!

I'll never understand why (some) people think that you're stingy if you don't want to pay for food and drinks you didn't order. Unless you've offered to take someone out, each person paying for what he/she has eaten is only fair. When people expect to split the bill after spending more than someone else at the table, I wouldn't assume they are innocently clueless; they know they'll be getting a good deal out of it when they dine with someone who eats or drinks less extravagantly than they do.

As for slipping out before the bill is presented and not settling up, that's just stealing. Obnoxious behaviour deserving of being publicly announced so everyone else knows not to invite them again.

I've not done this when eating out, but I have on occasion waited to buy a round until a few people had already left when I was hard up.

\i have never done this and I have never experienced it either.

It's never happened to me, but I would be contacting them to tell them how much they owed. Cheeky buggers.

I'm talking about those who pay nothing, BTW- if you add up what you've had and transfer it/pay cash before you leave but refuse to subsidise peoples alcohol/expensive food, you are Not A Cheeky Bugger.

I've seen this happen soooo many times

Another one who - in decades of dining/drinking out with various groups of people - has never encountered it once.

Very unlucky OP.

Never had someone leave without paying, but I did experience the 'let's just split the bill' group thingy once. I'd paid for my own drinks at the bar, and my meal came to less than a tenner, whereas the one who suggested splitting the bill had had a bottle of wine and three courses. Cost me over £30, on top of the drinks I'd already paid for.

The best bit? It was a local MN group meetup. And we never met up again

This has never happened to me. If that happened, it would be very revealing about their personality type. I'd be steering clear.

Never happened to me and I've never done it. I wouldn't pay their share though.

Once when out with a large group, one person left early leaving money in cash with one of the others to cover her share. The waitress was over at our table like a shot quizzing the rest of us about the fact one of our party had left "without paying". The one who had custody of the early leaver's money had to produce this cash and wave it at the waitress before she would go away!
It felt a bit odd and unpleasant but we concluded that people leaving without paying their share must be quite a thing in that restaurant for the waitress to be so quick to react.

As a vegetarian non-drinker I'm used to subsidising the rest, particularly at Christmas meals, but I've never had people scarper all together.

It sounds as if the ones who slinked off were wealthy people. Do you have wealthy friends? People with money think that paying for things is 'nothing' because it's nothing to them - just a bit of cash. So they don't think it's cheeky to get others to pay.

Of course it is very cheeky to the normal person with normal income.

Not experienced the meal thing, but I''ve experienced being around rich people who just overlooked things I've paid for, or volunteer me to pay for stuff, and look at me as if I'm mad if I mention the expense.

Never had this ever. The only thing I've had similar to this was DPs brother's birthday. A couple ate one meal between them and then paid before the bill was presented. Apparently it's normal habit for this couple as they 'are frugal'. Ok, but just say 'we're just paying for this meal' rather than sneakily run off to pay before the bill is brought. We didn't even end up splitting the bill on this occasion anyway, we all just paid individually.

I had this happen once, at a work night out. Me and another colleague were the mugs ones who ended up sorting out the bill and we were a significant amount short - the equivalent of about two full meals IIRC (it was a set price Christmas menu where we'd bought drinks separately so everyone owed the same amount for food). A few people had already left the table and everyone remaining swore they'd paid. We ended up having to beg ask everyone to put another pound or so in each, and one generous colleague who had definitely already paid for their meal insisted on putting in another £10 to cover a chunk of the shortfall. I still remember that awful sinking feeling as we counted and recounted the cash and came up short every time, and realised that either some of our colleagues had slunk off without paying or some were lying about having put in their money...either way it wasn't pleasant.

Never happened to me. Can't imagine anyone being that much of a cheeky fucker!!

I’ve never had anyone completely not pay.

I’ve had several instance of people paying the 8.95 for their pizza and forgetting they shared in the sides and wine.

I’ve also had this which is really sneaky
have definitely been at tables where people have paid their share plus tip by card (card machine passed around the table) and the last person has just paid the remainder (far, far less than their share as everyone had put in their tip). Meaning a) they underpaid and b) the staff get zero tip. Horrible

Never happened. Work meals for Christmas are always a deposit up front and remainder paid before desserts. Tips thrown in too. First drink and table wine was SMT and anything else you wanted was up to you although boss sometimes would insist on paying if you were at the bar usually because he appreciated his staff. Sadly he retired so don't know what this year will be like.