Dine and dash

[Isthisit2025]

Just reading about a popular tea room that had 3 groups of customers all leaving without paying their bill. This is becoming quite an occurrence.

I think establishments should take the money when they take your order. The only way to stop this disgraceful behaviour. I’d be more than happy to do this. The hospitality industry is suffering terribly especially small independent businesses.

What makes people think they can do this??

No, that's not what I mean 😐

Yeah, common to comp your drink for the inconvenience, not so common to just write off the entire bill.

I would say that most reasonable people would try to pay another way (bank transfer with phone, find a cash machine/shop with cashback, return the next day).

And this individualistic attitude is why hospitality businesses often struggle. Just because the problem is on their end doesn't mean it's moral/ethical behaviour to just shrug your shoulders and leave, especially if there is something pretty easy you could do to rectify (e.g. do a bank transfer on your phone).

It's often referred to as bilking, particularly in legal circles. I agree with the jokey connotations, a bit like 'joyriding' which is technically TWOC Taking Without Consent.

I think the thing that works best is to take a credit card swipe at the beginning like hotels do. Restaurants can still divide bills at the end when the full total is known.

I listened to a podcast recently about Welsh family that became infamous for doing this. Big family meals with expensive wine costing £100s. Most of the family would leave and there’d be one parent and child left when the bill was summoned. They would ‘panic’ and be really embarrassed that their card didn’t work, say they were popping to the cash point/car to get cash, and leave their kid aged 8/9 in the restaurant, then after ten min or so the kid would dash out and that would be that . They were named and shamed all over Facebook but the police didn’t do anything for ages.

About 20 years ago my friend and I asked for our bill at a bar. It was a bill for 4 (2 had left already) for about two hours drinking. An hour passed, and we'd asked three times. Drinks came out within minutes. Two other friends walked in and sat with us, so we asked for 4 more drinks and the bill.

Drinks came, no bill. We asked multiple people including the manager, tried to pay at the bar but were told to wait at the table. Unreal. Thankfully we had nowhere to be.

Two hours after first asking for the bill, I ordered two last drinks and told them if the bill wasn't there by the time we finished, we were leaving.

Drinks finished, no bill. Must have been about 400 Euro. Didn't feel at all bad about it, but was too scared to go back there for years!

Me too.

Evidently not.

I prefer to pay upfront anyway, so much easier.

I like the US style of opening a tab with your card when you sit down. Honest people pay at the end like normal, and anyone who leaves gets charged when they close all the tabs.

Did you also pocket the cash your friends had left to cover their share 🤣

I have done it accidently in a local coffee shop. The majority of times you pay as you order your food but sometimes if they are short staffed they say pay later. Went in one morning and had my breakfast. I was in a shop up the road and wondered why I had more cash in my wallet than I should. Went back to pay and always asked to pay when ordering from then on.

some people do this on an industrial scale.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c6ppx8q369zo

At least a couple of times a week I read that a restaurant has had people do an eat-and -run, bemoaning how much they lose on a regular basis. The solution is simple and right in front of them. Pay on order!!
Its not rocket science so I wonder why they dont do it!!

Yes, I agree too. Also 'shoplifting' sounds quite a frivolous activity, rather than being called theft, which of course it is.

It almost sounds on a par with 'scrumping', which whilst still wrong, usually meant helping yourself to a few naturally-appearing products which were truly abundant in supply and may well otherwise just go to waste.

We did it by mistake once in a pub. We were so used to paying when we order and being able to leave that we accidentally just walked out. DH phoned them when we got home to apologise and went in the next day to pay. I’ve been tempted to walk after poor service before but would never actually do it.

Absolutely 🤣

Did this once - it was a café where you normally order at the counter and pay then but this time they did table service. But we were so used to the other method we left a couple hours later without thinking. OF COURSE we went back the next day and paid!!

Ii always pay up front. I can easily wander off at the end of a meal without paying. More of a slow amble than a dash though.

Because they ate a meal and owed the business money

You could have telephoned

Me too. I’ve never heard it before, it’s horrible! For a moment it meant you’d made a meal for someone who had eaten and then left immediately 🤣
Used to be called doing a runner which I guess is just as bad..

I will own up to leaving a pub after having lunch. It was 35 years ago, my husband, myself and 2 children age 1 and 3 had lunch in the garden, when we finished we asked one of the waiting staff for the bill, 10 minutes later i went and asked to pay the bill and was told someone would bring me the bill soon, 10 minutes later i went back in and asked to pay the bill and again i was told someone would be with me soon, 10 mins later with a fractious 1 year old i gave up waiting. We got in the car and left. After more than 30 mins waiting i didn't feel in the slightest bit guilty in not paying the bill.
I certainly would never go out with the intention of not paying and really do think that a partial upfront payment should be taken.

their justification is that they are thief, and they don't care, what else? no difference with stealing from Tesco or Primark or anywhere else.

This kind of people do it because they think they can get away with it.

The BBC report gave a number of frankly ridiculous excuses, and they said they would like to apologise - once they'd been caught!

I was a little puzzled that they had two separate (understandably half-hearted) defence barristers - is that normal for a couple?

I’ve said there wasn’t a nearby cash machine within a reasonable distance. The place wasn’t exactly on my doorstep and I didn’t have a car at the time, so no I don’t think taking an hour and a half out of another of my days to pay this place was reasonable tbh.

With regards to bank transfer, i’ve already mentioned it was something like 15 years ago. This was a long time betore I had a banking app on my phone.

And tbh when card machines go down in places, the only notices i’ve seen have been ‘cash only’, no mention of bank transfer. I would think it’s unlikely they could monitor who has made what payment and whether it was the correct amount.

I also doubt for example, that if someone had to either pay bus fare or pay for parking to just return the next to pay, they wouldn’t, and nor should they.