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??

Yeah sorry i’m not going to feel guilty for not paying for one thing 15 years ago when they couldn’t take my payment at the right time.

Also agree it’s nice to pay upfront. Always super quick in Nandos.

Pay up front is now very common. I went to a place that I hadn't been to for about 4 years. It used to be that you'd pay at the end. But the staff now ask for payment before you receive any food/drink. I'm happy to pay up front, makes leaving easier.

That's disgraceful. They'll need to start taking payment upfront now as well.

Me too. Pay up front. And it's fine to either add tips in advance or say 'this is a non-tipping establishment and just increase the cost of the tea and the staff's pay to reflect that.

Lots of London restaurants now take £25 to £35 per person for no-shows - More if it is a Michelin starred place. because twats were booking tables at several places then choosing on the night which they preferred, leaving restaurants with staffing and food bought for a number of covers than never appeared. I am always happy to agree to money for no-shows for that reason.

And I don’t think they are Mumsnetters who would reply to @Isthisit2025 as to why they do it. ☹️

I worked in TGIF’s as a student and they would make Irish travellers pay up front.

No idea how they got away with this as it is quite clearly discrimination. It was in a large city and we did have a problem with the dine and dash so I understand why they did it but … surely they should do it for everyone and not single out a group.

We did this 40 years ago. 2 entrances I went to the loo thinking DH was going to pay, he went out the other door thinking I paid.
It was only the next morning we realised that we had too much cash.
We returned that night with the cash and a big apology.

Yes that I can clearly tell about you

You can’t tell anything about me.

Then you could have paid the next time, couldn't you? Or sent them it afterwards.

I’m interested to know why people seem to be putting the onus on us and not the restaurant itself.

Did they give us a phone number to call, or bank details, or an order number or anything to give us another option to pay? No. They expected us to sit there an extra 20 mins while they tried to make the card machines work. I think we waited long enough.

I think there are genuine cases, not that I’m condoning it, but it happens and it’s probably a one off, and no bad intent. I’m talking about those who have every intention of walking out without paying.

I think at some point it will be the norm to pay at ordering. I have no issue with this wherever it may be. I will still tip the staff and order more food/drink as normal. I’m all for putting a stop to behaviour that is un aceptable.

Oh I can

I would have got a payment to them @Iocanepowder
I couldn’t just take a free meal because their cc system let them down. So many restaurants have very tight margins and it’s a tough business.

also did in error when dd took out my card and neither the waitress nor i noticed

i paid up front recently but did feel uncomfortable about it - we were sitting outside so you can't blame them

@Isthisit2025 do you have a link to the article please?

A friend of mine did this once, but there wasn’t actually any dashing. She and her partner asked for the bill three times and it wasn’t brought. They eventually got up slowly, waved goodbye to the staff who waved back, and left. I was quite shocked, tbh.

Honestly? I think that's fair enough. They didn't set out to be dishonest, they tried THREE TIMES to get the bill. As with the earlier example on this thread, that is an error on the part of the restaurant. I think your shock was misplaced.

I don't know why people are giving the pp a hard time, they didn't do anything wrong. People are always so sanctimonious on this site, I bet that if they were in that situation themselves, they wouldn't be falling over themselves to compensate for the restaurant's error.

I also agree with paying on arrival. Makes things much less stressful, no waiting around for the bill.

I am not sure I'd be that comfortable to just .. not pay after a meal? If I am waiting too long, I would probably go and complain, possibly telling them that I am leaving in the next 3 minutes, to make them hurry, but I don't believe most of us would just leave.

And brazenly turn up the following week?

Or would people only make sure they don't pay when they know they won't come back?

I much prefer to pay upfront, then you can just leave after you finish instead of waiting about. Also stops issues such as 'card machine is down' etc as if you can't pay, you go elsewhere without ordering anything. I also hate the feeling of 'how much is this going to come to?' hanging over my head whilst eating AND sorts out the split the bill issue as you just all pay for what you have. It is a MUCH better option op, YANBU.

Surely you just go up and pay rather than leave?!