if you owned a restaurant what would you do ....

[EezyOozy]

Went to gp today, they said I could attend at short notice .... Had to wait for ages with two young kids to actually be seen … got out at 1730 , it's quite a long drive home.... so I decided to take them to pizza place over road. Have been many times before and just pay using my phone. Didn’t have purse with me as was in other bag and left in a hurry.

Had our food , just as I was asking for the bill my phone died. Had a charger in car…which was over the road.

I apologised profusely as it was totally my fault. I alerted the waitress as soon as I realised. She went to get the manager.

Again I apologised profusely and admitted it was my fault. The manager was really really abrupt and a bit of a bully about it, and said I wasn't allowed to leave!

-she wouldn’t let me go and get my charger , saying that I couldn't leave without paying

-She wouldn’t let me use their business phone to call DH and have him pay over the phone (it's also a takeaway so they take payment over the phone)!

-She wouldn’t let me go home to get money…..

-I offered to leave my name and address and all contact details!

They just kept saying “you can’t leave until you’ve paid, you will have to contact someone to bring you some money"

Me: "But my phone has died and you won’t let me get my charger or use your phone”

“Well that’s your problem, but you can’t leave without paying or we will
CALL THE POLICE"

Went on for about 20 mins and my kids were both going mental by this point and I was struggling to contain them . Eventually I said “look I’m just going to have to leave, phone the police if you like. I’ll call up and pay when I get home”

An elderly couple who had overheard the whole thing came over and said they’d just pay our £20 bill as the was ridiculous…
So the couple paid, I said goodbye to them at my car and thanked them grovelingly. I insisted on taking their bank details and mobile number, and within 5 mins I had charged my phone and transferred them the money (and texted them to confirm).

Is it just me or were the restaurant really mean??!!! I would have expected them to let me get my phone charger or call my husband ?

yes it was totally my fault, i apologised profusely I will never rely on just my phone again

I like to think I would have just let the person get their charger?!!

Similar happened to me once.
I didn't have my purse and I didn't have Apple pay.
They asked me to leave my phone with them while I drove home to get my purse. My children were with me, but leaving them was apparently not guarantee enough that I would return!

@yupyupyup what would you do? How would you have stopped them leaving?

Bonkers I would of let you charge your phone if I had a charger or use my phone.

Dh a few times has forgotten his card or not taken the right one to get petrol. They either let him ring me to pay over the home or let him leave his car to walk to fetch the right card.

I would have accompanied you to get your charger or let you ring your DH.
How ridiculous.

They are absolutely unreasonable
Mistakes happen
It's not like you were trying to sneak off you were offering reasonable solutions
You were hardly going to get far trying to do a runner with 2 fractious young kids in tow.
It's especially insane that they wouldn't let you phone DH to pay over the phone. That would not entail you leaving the premises and they could have added on the cost of the bloody call if they wanted.
I realised I had not got my purse after filling up with petrol recently and the garage just let me call up DH who paid with his card over the phone. No dramas.
Thank goodness for the lovely couple who bailed you out.

Shocking behaviour, how could they be so awkward, especially when you had 2 small children with you. Yes it was your fault but they could have easily resolved the situation by letting you use their phone to contact dh. What were they expecting you to do, stay there all night until your phone magically charged by itself? Thank goodness there are still some people willing to be kind and help out. They should take payment on ordering if they are so worried about people doing a runner. I would be leaving them a review on trip advisor and never going back.

I’d have used their phone or someone else’s to dial 999 and say you were being held hostage! With witnesses!
F*cking stupid manager - total jobs worth (though not doing it very well!!) how on earth did they expect to get money from you.

Hope you make a detailed complaint to the owner AND don’t use that establishment again unless it’s for free !! And/or the manager is no longer employed there.

If the manager was following the owners instructions, leave a bad review & name & shame on your own social media too, to local friends.

The world is severely lacking in common sense and initiative at the moment. Let alone understanding and consideration. What happened to “be kind”.

Thank goodness for the kind couple.

….. or quite honestly I’d have walked out! Got the phone charger and paid. If they physically tried to stop me I’d have screamed blue murder!!

The restaurant had no legal authority to detain you so you should have walked out and gone to your car and paid later.

Name and shame them on social media.

This is disgusting. Please complain.

There is a very old fashioned cafe in a Town nearby .We had our meal and then realised they didnt take CC! Had to cross over for cash machine and they let us! TABVU!

But I also know my credit card details off by heart! … so they can do either a keyed cardholder not present transaction like over the phone, or ask me to verify that with my pin …… if they know how to use their card terminal!! 🙈

Been in this sort of situation myself. I was horrified, the manager told me to pop in with it later.

My husband went in about an hour later and paid. They said it happens a couple of times a week and to tell me not to be embarrassed!

Restaurant was definitely U

They’re mad. They can’t stop you leaving only the police have the power to do that. Completely mad.

Usual practice in this situation is to leave a credit card or driving licence or other ID while go elsewhere to get cash.

If it is a chain, put in a complaint to head office.
I hope you tell everyone you know how awful they are.

They sound like absolute grade A idiots.

Ps I had a situation at a local restaurant where I forgot my wallet and dinner realise til I’d eaten. The manager was so gracious and pleasant and said no problem pop back later. I am now a very loyal customer!!

@hassletassle

Thank you. I feel cross about it. The manager was so horrible about it and I was visibly struggling with two young kids. Every solution I offered she refused !! I feel I want to complain , but I don't have a leg to stand on really as it was my fault!

You made a mistake. The restaurant should have policies to deal with customers who make mistakes without holding them hostage, threatening the police or blackmail. (OK so I'm laying it on a bit thick, but they did treat you badly).

You should complain, name and shame them. As a local restaurant they should realise the reputational damage for this sort of behaviour

So you couldn't leave without paying, but you couldn't leave to get money or other means of paying and couldn't use their phone to contact someone to bring money....I don't understand what their solution would've been? There's literally nothing you could've done?

If it was me, I'd have told them to phone the police, then sat and waited for them, and explained very politely and calmly what was going on once they got there. The police would have told the restaurant in no uncertain terms that they were in the wrong, and that they were wasting police time.

They were ridiculous. Whether it’s happened before or not. I have a business and sometimes people forget their money or card. I just tell them not to worry, take their details and they either come back in and pay or call up later. And the fees are always above £20. So it’s not small amounts I potentially miss out on. I’d rather lose £20 than lose the goodwill of customers and be a horrible human in the process.

They were being stupid. You could have left your phone there while you got your charger as insurance you’d come back

I wouldn't just leave it there if it happened to me. I honestly would complain. People who do runner, well ... they run, don't they? You were trying to pay. That's the opposite of doing a runner. But it sounds as if the manager was on a power trip and, quite frankly, I'm fed up with people like that who think they can treat people like shit. She shouldn't be in a public facing role if she has no understanding or common sense, or indeed any intuition about what constitutes a genuine mistake.

If it had been my restaurant, I would have tried to accommodate you in a way that suited both of us, because I am a human being and not a bloody robot. What a lovely gesture by that couple though. It compensates for the crap behaviour of the restaurant manager and the world is back in balance!

The restaurant was completely out of order. Why on earth wouldn’t they let you phone your husband?

@Juliauns91

Wow - I never go anywhere without cash on me - never. I wouldn't rely on a phone.

I haven’t carried cash since before Covid. This has fortunately never happened to me but it easily could because people aren’t perfect. The restaurant were being absolutely ridiculous to not work with the many solutions that you offered.

I was once behind a pregnant lady in M&S. she got to the end of the checkout with a mountain of shopping and realised she had forgotten her purse. She looked absolutely mortified. I offered to pay but she refused and said she would just pop home to get it and the person on the checkout was lovely and said she could save the transaction and her shopping until she came back. Things happen, and how people react to it says a lot about them.

I wouldn’t visit that restaurant again and I doubt the lovely couple that helped you will be either. I would hate to be the owner of an establishment that was known around town for threatening a mother with small children with the police and then refusing to allow her to even use their phone to seek help. Awful behaviour.

I would 100% be making a complaint with either a superior or the restaurant owner. I’ve worked in bars/restaurant and this is honestly such a common occurrence (someone forgets cash, or a card, or whatever) that it’s totally out of order for a staff member to react like you are a hardened criminal.

Add to that the fact it was upsetting your young children, the embarrassment of it, etc. the whole situation could have been resolved very easily.

In my experience, people who want to do a runner without paying don’t typically make excuses or try to engage with the staff. They just slip out quietly and out of sight. Why she thought you were making some elaborate excuse about your phone when you could plainly demonstrate that it was dead is beyond me.