My wife Emily and I went to an Italian restaurant. We ordered a set lunch, a pizza and a mug of caramel coffee. It was a good lunch.
When we’re enjoying the food, I joked about how nice it would be if the restaurant owner were to come over to tell us that our meal was prepared by some handicapped people in their charity-based establishment, and we’re already doing them an honor by eating the food and therefore everything will be free out of their sheer gratefulness…
Fast forward 30 minutes later, we decided to call for the bill. I didn’t look at the bill (my bad habit), and just gave the waiter my credit card. When the receipt came later (after I paid), Emily checked on the receipt… turned to look at me in a wide-eyed expression and said “I think there has been a mistake…”
Apparently, the cashier (or whoever the chick behind the counter was) had erratically punched the wrong amount for our set lunch. There was a missing digit on its unit price – instead of RM19.90, the cashier punched RM1.90. That was when the ‘charity’ joke started to eerily waft into my mind…
What would you do if you were to be in my shoes? And what do you reckon we did next?
If I’m on good terms with the owner/manager I’ll point it out; else I’ll forget it because if they can make a positive mistake (our POV), they can make a negative one as well.
For me, it’d depend on my experience at the said restaurant. If the service was good, food was good and there was nothing that the servers did to piss me off, I’d tell them of their error and gladly pay the actual amount. However, if I was pissed off by something that the place did, be it shitty food or shitty service, then I’d just walk off.
depends on your conscience, we all know any shortage at the register must be covered by the cashier’s own money.
i call this, the italian job. heheh yeah i know, very un-original.
Dun worry Michael, they will certainly call you back to inform abt the mistake. And charge you accordingly..that is, if you have let it pass on the spot..sometimes it’s too safe with credit cards, would you have rather paid in cash??
I would tell them they made a mistake and pay RM19.90 instead but knowing it’s Michael Ooi, I think you left and paid just RM1.90!!!!!
phwaaaaaa~ cheapest italian meal I eva had~ but, you said it was a good lunch, ok service (cus you didn’t complain about anything…) honestly if the service sucked, I would have walked out like any other normal person would, but not, I’d call out to them..
if u r having the lunch alone or w ur gang, i would say that you just left without turning back. Since Emily was there too…guess you did point it out to the casher?
It doesn’t matter if the food and service were great or sucks. You pay what you have eaten.
If you have eaten food sold at RM19.90 then it only makes sense to pay that amount.
Bayar la kawan.. Nanti sakit perut
I am somewhat astounded with the logic put forward by some of you here – that it is ok to just abscond if the restaurant owner is a perceived jackass, and not ok if the restaurant owner is nice.
Ryan – I think you made the most sensible comment. But then, the bill came in at RM1.90, doesn’t that mean the owner wanted me to pay RM1.90 for what I had? There could be a mistake there, but it is not my obligation to point out unless I disagree with the price (which I did not).
So what did I do? I did some charity there… I pointed out the mistake and paid the balance. I am such a nice guy weeee wooo weeeeee…
PS: I was just fucking with you guys, I left… of course.
Tiuu, it was their mistake. You didn’t do any charity at all if you pay the balance, you truly soh-hai if you did. They wont’ fucking learn from their mistake, they would learn only if the soh-hai boss balance his counter at the end of the day, Oh fuck!, where’s the RM18.00 gone? fuck the jackass cashier who did the “charity” by making the bill RM1.90. None on my menu is selling RM1.90….Mahaiii..yaa…
Major seafood dinner with beer for about 20 hungry adults. Bill came for a little less than RM300. We asked the dude to check and he said it was correct.
Sadly, he stopped us just as the last person was leaving the compound. The cashier left out a RM200+ bill -.-”. So close yet so far…
i went to nando’s once to have lunch with my gf that cost around rm60 since we ordered some side dishes to try. when we were almost done eating, a waiter came and said thank you, leaving rm 30 on the table with the receipt. i got paid for eating their food.
I rather pay with cash for sundry and food purchase. These are the necessities that need to be purchased by cash otherwise the credit card bill will be a shocker bt it’s own.
It’s your choice.
Everyone has a choice.
You made your choice.
Have a good day :)
while i agree to pay what you eat be it nice or not, but if the service was so bad, i wouldn’t have the mood to even notify them, being pissed off and all..
Personally having worked as a waiter before, I’d tell them about the mistake and pay the proper amount because it’s not the company that loses out, any mistakes in billing are taken out of the servers wages. Which are on the low side anyway.
I’d pay them. It’s karma.
speaking from a pov of someone who has been working at the register/waiter of a restaurant, i’d very much appreciate it when someone points out my mistake. sometimes things get so busy that making a mistake is hard to avoid. but missing out on a digit is a pretty crazy mistake. gota at least look at the bill before u give it to the customer
The waiter/cashier involved should be hung. Though my other half owned a restaurant previously, we would still flee whenever we are undercharged elsewhere. :P I just love going back to some Japanese restaurant which keep missing out 1 or 2 items that we ordered from the bill.
Today I went to a Bavarian pub. A friend and I drank like thirsty hobos and we even ordered pretzels and fries thanks to the influence of the busty blonde in milkmaid uniform.
Milkmaid put the bill on our table. Charging us only the fries. Obviously milkmaid either billed other suckers the rest of our stuff or my manly-ness wowed her so much that she decided to give me the charity.
Guessed what me and my friend did?
Shar – Drunks don’t do charity, busty milkmaid or not. I think you guys said your thanks and left.
Well, I wanted to do the right thing and explain. But then my friend reasoned that he will use the money to get me a ‘Bondi Bitch’ t-shirt. Shirt 1 Busty Milkmaid 0
:)