Didn't pay the bill

[ffsimstupid]

Stupidly went out with a bunch of 'friends' last night for drinks and food. They decided they weren't going to pay because they 'get away with it all the time' and essentially we're going to leave me with the bill because I was protesting. Long story short ended up follow them out ( I know so stupid). I'm the goody two shoes of the group because of my guilty conscience and as I suspect this morning I feel awful. I really want to ring the restaurant and let them know the situation and pay when they open but I'm scared this is the wrong thing to do and can land me in big trouble.

Please try not to flame me I know full well I was in the wrong and I want to fix this, please advise me what you would do.

If there is cctv you could appear on FB name and shame any day. Go and pay your share.

Peer pressure or not! These are not nice people. A lot of your friends must have bulked up the ringleader's confidence and you were one of them. Judy Judy said she once convicted a gang of girls who killed a girl for her earrings. She said had it not been for the support from the rest, the poor girl with earrings would still have been alive. Same for TV series Teens who kill in which a fairly decent boy of 14 was goaded by a career criminal 17 who taunted him that he had not got it in him to kill the drunk. After that, he played a major role and has been incarcerated. Stay away from these tainted FRIENDS!

All your mugshots could be on CCTV! Do the honourable thing!

Well done OP - good for you for being brave and acting in good conscience. Plenty of good karma for you!

They won't always get away with it. Everywhere has CCTV nowadays and our local newspaper has a 'show and shame' page about once a month for situations such as these.

Does seem odd that they’ve asked you to come in - why couldn’t they put your card through over the phone?

Not all card processors will handle Cardholder Not Present transactions, and there would be little need for a restaurant to pay extra for the option.

My friends teenage daughter worked for a National restaurant chain. She had a group walk out without paying and as it was ‘her’ table the bill was deducted from her wages. So your friends might not be stealing from some faceless organisation but from a minimum-wage waitress. They sound like terrible people & I hope you distance yourself from them sharpish.

@villamariavintrapp I think OP means she's accidentally walked out of a shop with something. It's happened to me in the supermarket once or twice when I've accidentally not put something on the conveyor and then found it in the trolley when I'm putting the bags in the car.

My dd works in a large restaurant chain. If people on one of her tables walk out without paying it is deducted from her pay

That's a disgusting practice.

Is it even legal? It's not the staff's fault if the customers are arseholes.

My dd works in a large restaurant chain. If people on one of her tables walk out without paying it is deducted from her pay

Imagine working a full shift, only to learn at the end that not only have you not earned the minimum wage for 8 hours you were expecting, but in reality you now owe your boss £100 because that table of 12 did a runner ?

Obviously some people don't need to imagine

Well done for calling them

How much is the bill ?

‘They get away with it all the time’

How do you know these friends and how long been friends

They are thieves !!!

And worse if a waitress has to make it up out of their money

Well done OP. I think you've shown real character. It takes guts to put things right rather than just feel secretly guilty and vow not to do it again.

You know that saying "no good deed goes unpunished ..." Hope OP is ok.

Perhaps they ought start taking a copy of your credit debit card first or keep it at the counter untill you've finished

TBH I'm surprised more restaurants don't do this - after all it's almost impossible to book into a hotel room without a card, so why are eateries different?

Granted they're not all high end places, but even in a modest one a meal and drinks for a group can easily equal the price of a room for the night

TBH I'm surprised more restaurants don't do this - after all it's almost impossible to book into a hotel room without a card, so why are eateries different?

At a guess it will be the costs to the establishment. The more protection you get (i.e. by taking a card swipe before charging with the option to call on that rather than a normal card swipe at the end) the more you pay for it. Same reason the restaurant was unable to take a phone payment.

Massive outfits, like supermarket petrol stations can negotiate a better deal.

There's no reason why an establishment might not require a driving license to be left as security instead of a card swipe. But then we are straying into the cultural and social norms of the UK. And I can guarantee that if a restaurant did this, before starters were ordered, there would be an AIBU about "Restaurant asked us to leave license before we could order ...." with suitable levels of frothing about how outrageous it is an how a succession of posters would never eat in such a place.

Who'd run a business ? My DF did, which is the reason I never would.

I’m glad your conscience got the better of you. Your ‘friends’ won’t get away with this for much longer, I’ve seen CCTV of people who’ve done this on FB, it was even featured in the local newspaper. Hopefully they’ll get caught out and a nice criminal record for theft that will follow them around.

@saraclara but OP 'hates being that kind of person' she would rather be the kind of person who is quite happy walking off.

Good for you being totally honest and going back.
Hope all goes well at the restaurant

@IceCreamAndCandyfloss that was my thought too - they could have informed the police, hence wanting op to go back to the restaurant.

You'd be amazed how difficult customers can be about giving a card over or pre-authing a card. Even in hotels people refuse or kick off all the time. Its like getting blood from a stone as to why. "I just don't want to", "yous are disgusting not trusting your customers" and on and on.
Instead of restaurants having to go above and beyond to get people to not steal, people should just not steal!

Hope it went ok. Your friends are not nice people.

You'd be amazed how difficult customers can be about giving a card over or pre-authing a card

I wouldn't. I really wouldn't. (Be amazed that is).

As you told them the truth, hopefully they will be circulating your "friends" pictures from cctv round their networks too, and they'll find it a lot harder to steal from businesses in the future.

Scumbags are scumbags. When someone treats a stranger badly/illegally, that's a good warning - they've already crossed that moral line in their heads, so don't be surprised if they treat you badly in the future too.

@rededucator would you care to reread my post please? 😂

Professor is hospo your background too? Sad isn't it when you're not surprised what arsehole customers can be...

Professor is hospo your background too? Sad isn't it when you're not surprised what arsehole customers can be...

Gracious me no, as I said, a DF in a customer focussed area was enough to put me off for life. I get my fair share of scumbags in other ways ...

And for balance, for every arsehole customer, there will be an equal and opposite arsehole manager or company. Sadly there's a basic law of nature that the two can never meet, otherwise the universe as we know it would cease to exist. Although I live in hope (I have a very sad life, clearly) that one day the two will collide on AIBU, and it will take a few moments for the penny to drop.