To think we shouldn’t have had to pay?

[MamToTeens]

Took DH, 2 DC and BIL out for lunch today. After ordering, it took 10 minutes for the drinks to come (not too long considering, but they were literally cans that we could see from the table). We then had to wait another hour and a half for food! There were 2 cooked meals and 3 sandwiches. The cooked meals were burned and the bread was stale, basically inedible. We are a bit but couldn’t manage much. We were then told that it was cash only, even though it hadn’t been clearly advertised (argument was that it was on the door, which was open so we couldn’t see the sign). It was around £60 for the 5 of us, so I couldn’t afford it with cash. We walked out without paying and they threatened to call the police. Haven’t heard anything yet. AIBU to have refused to pay? And will they be able to do anything when they don’t have names or anything?

I don't carry cash, DP and I went to a place last year in London that only accepted cash. I stayed and he went to find an ATM. Someone should have at least gone to find an ATM.

You can't just walk out like that without paying. You should have come to an agreement with management.

I waited 2 hours today in a soft play place for chicken nuggets adn chips for my granddaughter, and when they brought them they were cold.
I paid for them, but now reserve the right to tell everyone that Banana Ben's is a bit shit.
You can dispute the bill if you want, but you cannot walk out without paying. Why didn't you have a whip round between you and offer that in final settlement in view of the shoddy service?

Perhaps you should have walked out after an hour, before the food arrived, not waited for the ridiculous time of an hour and a half. You could have found somewhere else to eat. Then at least you wouldnt have eaten any of the food. I think you should have certainly complained and said you were only prepared to pay a reduced amount, but left your details and said you would call back in and pay, or send a cheque. Just walking out was not reasonable.

Personally, if the service was shit and the food inedible AND you complained, whereupon they still gave you a full bill, I’d have paid for my drinks and told them to jog on.

Quite within your rights to do what you did as long as what you state is the true facts of the situation.
www.inbrief.co.uk/consumer-law/refusal-to-pay-at-restaurant/

They can't call the police as they won't be interested. It's a civil matter between you and the restaurant.

You left £5 for the drinks which is reasonable and nothing for the food which was inedible. You should have sent it back but regardless you did not enjoy it and it would have been a wasted cost anyway.

I don't understand why everyone on here is getting so upset. It's not as though you ordered 5 steaks, enjoyed them and snuck out of the back door.

Yet again, lots of 'My mate down the pub says' legal knowledge expressed here 😆
'You have to pay for the ingredients' 😂
'I'm surprised they didn't call the police to prosecute you' 🤣
I believe that the OP has said that they did complain, and paid for the drinks.

I would have said the food was inedible and its not worth it for the price and asked to speak to the manager. I would never have walked out, you could maybe have just paid for the sandwiches and drinks and said the other food was inedible.

Sorry to burst your bubble, most places have CCTV now so finding out who you are wont be hard, if you left in a vehicle chances are the reg was taken. You haven't heard from the police yet for one reason and thats because its New Year, it takes the police days or weeks to follow up on such things, As you left with the intention of not paying they will prosecute. The police wont come round your house instantly with blues and twos because its not an emergency, it is however a crime and it will be pursued. Chances are whoever the vehicle is registered too will get a visit soon and charges will be brought, my neighbour did exactly the same, a member of staff took his registeration number and he was arrested in front of his kids 3 days later for it. Its not hard to find out who you are even if you didnt have a vehicle your local force will upload CCTV images to their facebook page and get people to identify you. Whether you had the cash or not you have a legal obligation to pay, the time to dispute the meal was when it was served, eating it and leaving is theft. It wouldnt have been too hard to send one person to get cash while the rest waited. Or make arrangement with the establishment. The police will not even consider the quality of the meal or the lack of cash because you left without paying.
My DS left a treasured toy at a restaurant that we use occassionaly, they tracked us down via CCTV, asking if anyone knew my husband (on CCTV) as his little boy (They knew his first name) had left something they wanted to return. A friend phoned us after days of hunting for it to tell us it was on FB. They had nothing to go on apart from CCTV and my sons first name that he had previously told a member of staff. So good luck with evading a buisness who has a legal right to be paid. Lets hope your emplyers are understanding when your image is all over facebook on CCTV and you get a record for theft.

Oh ffs is this still going on ?

I went for lunch with my DD om Christmas Eve,end of meal was told their credit card machines weren't working and they were only taking cash. Bill was £35. I told them I would come back in a couple of hours as had plans and I did just that. My parents and aunt and uncle had the same thing, power cut after meal so couldn't pay (it was £240). My aunt called them the next day and paid over the phone.

Oh ffs is this still going on ?

Yes, @MamToTeens won't reply back

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7832321/Restaurant-boss-shames-group-fled-without-paying-127-Boxing-Day-meal-posting-pictures.html

Werent related to these lot were you

I'd have left after an hour tbh

Reading the replies, I don’t think I was clear about what happened.

We were in a seaside village in the middle of nowhere, the cafe was the only place open as it was NYE. We went in because we were all hungry and it looked busy so we assumed it was good. Ordered everything then waited 10 minutes for cans of Pepsi (£1 each). We waited for around 40 minutes before going to ask where the food was and were told it was almost ready. Waited another 20 minutes and were told there had been a problem but it was going to be 10 minutes. We were considering leaving but decided not to as we didn’t know how long it would be until we found somewhere else (most places would’ve stopped serving lunch by then anyway). Food finally came an hour and a half after ordering and after we and another family had complained more than once. When we spoke to the manager she was also rude to us. The hot food and the bacon in one of the sandwiches was burnt and the bread was stale. When I say “ate a bit” I mean we bit into it once and realised it was inedible. We couldn’t see that it was burnt beforehand as they’d put so much sauce on the hot food to hide it. We spoke to the manager again and she basically said “that’s what we serve, if you don’t like it tough”. We asked if we could pay for the drinks and pay for a quarter of the price of the food, which she refused and said we had to pay £60. She then said “by the way, we’re cash only”. I was considering going to find an ATM, but DH pointed out that they needed to make it clear before you order and she started getting huffy about it. I decided to leave £5 to cover drinks but pay nothing else as we hadn’t received good service or edible food and the manager had been rude to us. We started heading for the door and she started screaming about calling the police. I don’t know if she actually did or not.

Also, for the people saying the locals will find us etc, we live across the country and went home the next day. No vehicle near enough for the cafe to see. I highly doubt they’ll find us.

Fair enough OP. If you're so convinced you're in the right, why bloody come on here?

And YABU, it's stealing. 'Dine and dash' is a criminal offence, even if you don't like the food or it takes a while to arrive. 'They'll find it hard to track us down' doesn't make it ok, funnily enough.

We own a restaurant. We had a customer the other day neck down her food. Drink 2 bottles of wine!! To herself! With her party. She then declared very loudly in front of everyone that she was not paying for her meal because it was horrible.... She cleared the plate! Never expressed dissatisfaction whilst eating so we could make something else. We are relatively new so couldn't argue too much as we can't risk the negativity. I really doubt this happened the way you said OP. The rest of her party looked too startled to say anything.

YABU. You knew exactly what you were doing. Vile behavior.

Restaurants can and do call the police. Making off without paying is a common occurrence and CCTV will be set up to identify people.

I highly doubt they’ll find us
Yeah, you're quite pleased with yourself.
Nice drip feed which has come too late.

The food took an hour and a half and was inedible? And you paid for drinks you had - sounds fair enough to me.

I can’t believe that people don’t carry cash and rely on cards for everything. You should not have walked out but you should have said the food was awful and you were not prepared to pay for it. The thing is you should have paid for the drinks. So really you stole from them.

I can't believe people think what you did is acceptable. If you had complained and asked for a discount they would have been unreasonable not to give you one, in fact you should have asked them to replace the food or refund you since you waited an unacceptable amount of time for poor food. But you didn't do that, you ate some of it and drank the drinks and then accepted the bill - so you are completely unreasonable and a thief. You should have gone to an ATM to get money or given your details and returned at another point - or if it was far away, get them to invoice you and you pay on the phone at a later date. What you did was wrong and I hope you didn't have kids with you that you taught to act that way.

if your latest update is what "really" happened why didnt you say all that in your OP? I tend to believe what people say first. Also in the OP you never mentioned leaving a fiver so I'm not even sure if I believe you did that.