AIBU to think using their voucher only on their share was rude?

[Dinnerdrama]

We were invited out to dinner with friends at the weekend.They planned to visit a particular restaurant and asked if we’d like to go along.
We had a nice enough meal, couple bottles of wine, liqueurs. All quite pleasant for a Friday night.
When the bill arrived one of our friends presented a voucher and asked for the bill to be halved and the voucher taken off theirs. The waiter seemed slightly bemused and repeated back the request. Our friend repeated and clarified they wanted the bill split and the voucher taken off their half.
I almost died of second hand mortification. Is this not CF of the highest order?! I wouldn’t dream of doing this when I invited people out. If I was that skint, I’d use the voucher as a couple and
not invite others along.
For the record, I have been out for a meal previously with them where I have had a voucher and I had the voucher taken off the whole bill and split the remainder.
Cannot believe the brass neck, it has put me off going out with them again. Massively embarrassed on their behalf, not sure why, they didn’t seem to be!!

On the face of it, a reasonable thing to do, except that you've shared a voucher with them in the past.

How is it any different to cash? I’d not have a problem with this.

Why did you want your friends to subsidise your meal using their voucher, that presumably someone has paid cash for at some point?

Depends was it a 20% off voucher then thats weird. If it was a £20 cash voucher then I can maybe understand. But if you've used a cash voucher before too then thats unfair.

I assume you mean like a gift card? Not a % off voucher. If it’s a gift card, that’s the same as paying part cash. If it was a % off, they were being weird.

As others have said you need to clarify.

Any kind of discount I had, whether that's a % off or a gift card I would use to reduce the total bill before splitting it and I wouldn't dream of not doing so.

But it's one of those things other people see differently so I wouldn't be offended if someone did otherwise to me. I'd think they were being a bit tight but up to them.

if it was a % off voucher then it would be odd not to take it from the whole bill.

You don’t say what the voucher is but I imagine it’s been paid for at some
point for example a £50 gift voucher one of them may have received for their birthday. In that case why would they share?

you went and ate and drank and had a good time. That’s all.

I couldn’t ever see myself thinking twice about someone doing this. They’ve got a gift voucher, why shouldn’t they use it to cover their meal.

It makes no sense for them to have a gift voucher that would cover their meal yet for them to choose to split it and cover yours too, leaving them with money to pay on their meal. It overrides the fact they’ve been gifted a “free” meal.

If you mean a gift voucher, I’ve had friends do this and I haven’t minded at all. They got the voucher for Christmas from their family, why should I get half their Christmas present?

As others have said depends if it was a gift card kind of thing or a % off - if it’s percentage off, yes that’s very tight

This.

Massively embarrassed on their behalf

No need to be OP, you are the CF in this case.

I agree with everyone above

gift card: theirs to use

% off, very bizarre not to apply to the whole meal

I don't think anyone's a CF in this scenario, just have different expectations. It's like petrol money. I have never accepted petrol money for somewhere I am already going and just giving a lift to. I would be embarrased ro and don't think it is owes to me. However I would always offer if I was the one getting the lift as I know others feel differently.

Same in this instance, I would totally add a voucher to the total before splitting it and think that is a totally reasonable thing to do. But I wouldn't assume others feel the same so I wouldn't expect it.

Wouldn't bother me at all but I can see where you'd probably have expected it to be reciprocated like how you did it with yours... But no, I couldn't care less. If I went out for a meal, I'd expect to pay for it. It'd be nice if they chose to take it off the whole bill but how they pay for their share is their business, imo.

Sounds like a normal thing to do really, I wouldn’t care or get upset about it. They had a discount voucher, you didn’t, they used it on their share of the bill rather than yours as well because it was their voucher, not yours.

I think that was appalling behaviour but I am a bill splitter and would never go for a meal with anyone who wanted to pay for what they ate or any of this type of nonsense.

Yeah, very tight. Seems we’re in the minority. Just thought I’d gauge a wider feeling. Literally everyone I’ve spoken to in real life is gobsmacked that folk would do this. It’s so tight.
If you don’t want to share the voucher, don’t invite people to join you 🤷🏻‍♀️

What does it matter? If you ordered £50 of food then surely you were happy to pay £50?

It's like saying you care thst they paid by cash instead of card.

Yep. I think it’s appalling. Especially since they were quite happy benefit from my voucher previously.
But then again, I’d rather eat someone’s toenails than behave like that with friends. It’s so tight.

I'm with you OP. I wouldn't have the brass neck to do this to friends. They presumably knew they were going to do this when they suggested the restaurant so they should as a bare minimum have had the courtesy to warn you. But no - I would have shared the discount or just gone as a couple.

You haven't answered the question, despite being asked multiple times.

The below are two very different scenarios.

1. A 20% voucher of the whole bill and not sharing it = very tight.

2. Using a gift card their parents got them for Christmas is essentially the same as using cash = not tight.

I thought it was obvious. Not that it really matters in my opinion.

This

Off topic for a moment, what is the relevance of the daft gif in the OP?

Not a particular difference to me. Both are ways of getting a reduced bill and if I invited people with me when I planned to use that reduced bill I wouldn't think of not sharing the benefit.