Paying off Tabs in restaurants

hoyles10

Thinking about it what did the copy of the bill say that they gave you? If the bill said £13 even though it should have been £26 what's to say that whoever working there hasn't put another transaction through after you left and took £13 cashback for themselves.

If it were me I would go back to the place and ask them what had happened and is it standard practice. You might have to admit that you did one but you paid what was asked of you at the time.

isplumm

dandowftm wrote: »

Hi all,

Last week my partner and I went for tea at one of the two for one chains. When we can to pay off the tab the price they quoted was roughly £13, when it should have been double that. We happily paid and quickly lef the pub.

This morning I have checked my online banking to find that Spirit Pubs has charged my card the remaining £13.79. After a bit of digging around I found out that Spirit Pubs are in charge of the Two for One chain.

My question, Are they allowed to charge me for that. Surely the price they quoted me is the price I should pay and then cant then charge my card without my authorisation?

Thanks in advance

Dandowftm

No they can not do that .... report them to your bank .... whether morally you should pay is another thing entirely!

Mark

bumpoowee

So you signed a receipt or used your pin where the price given was £13? They deffo shouldn't have taken the remaining bill off without your permission. They could have taken you to court though.

Searcher

bumpoowee wrote: »

So you signed a receipt or used your pin where the price given was £13? They deffo shouldn't have taken the remaining bill off without your permission. They could have taken you to court though.

What for?

OP was given a bill which they paid in full!

montyrebel

is there not sort of law that says you only have to pay what you think a meal is worth in a restaurant? think i heard this on tv a while ago, as long as you pay something the restaurant cant do anything. does anyone know?

DrScotsman

Not really. If a meal is not "fit for purpose" (e.g. not as described, not cooked properly, etc.) then you could make a reasonable deduction as they have breached the contract between them and you. However if you buy a flawless burger for £99 you would have no right to make any deductions.

hoyles10

They wouldn't have taken him to court because the op could just turn round and say the meal was rubbish and they paid £13 for it which is what they thought it was worth.

I used to run a pub with a restaurant that had quite a good reputation and during the 3 years I was manager, we had 2 occasions where the customers ordered some of the food from the specials board which averaged about £16.95 for a main course. When they got the bills they went upto the counter where the till was and said that they were only paying £10. The staff member came to tell me so I discussed it with the customer but they were certain they were paying £5 and no more and went to leave the building.

One of the locals who was in the bar is a lawyer and heard the argument that had now started explained to me that in the eyes of the law they had made an offer of payment for what they thought the quality of food was worth and if it was taken to court or put in the hands of the police the customers would come off scott free. The only option we had was to bar them from the premises.

Speaking to people in the same industry at functions some of them had experienced the same and hadn't been able to pursue it.

tbw

I don't want to get into a discussion as to whether the OP acted imorally or wrongly in scarpering out after paying the incorrect bill - and, if we are REALLY telling the truth, how many of us can swear that we have never taken advantage of being undercharged for something even if its only an extra bar of chocolate ?

However, I think that the restuarant was totally out of order in taking the extra payment without informing the OP and requesting permission. She didn't authorise then to take an unspecified amount, she agreed ONLY to the original payment. Taking the extra is similar to the OP leaving her bag on the counter while she went to get her coat and the staff opening up her purse and taking out a £20 note!

A while back there was a guy on here who had bought a very expensive gold charm for his wife at around £600. The staff had apparently muddled up the charm with a very similar one which was £200 more and then asked him for the extra money some days later when they realised. Slightly different as he was unaware of the error but I'm sure there would have been hell up if the shop had just taken the £200 without his agreement. I'm not happy with companies feeling free to use my CC details and I had a row with B&Q a couple of years ago when they admitted that they kept card details and would use the details if necessary.

I reckon the OP should just grin and bear whats happened this time - but speak to the bank about it to clarify matters for the future.

LemonGrove

I mistakenly under-charged someone at the teaching restaurant at my college because of the new card machine. Sadly they left without telling me it was nowhere near right as well. We didn't later bill them for it but I would like to think that they wouldn't complain about it if we did. Maybe it's not totally water-tight that they later billed you but there's laws and there's morals.

kiddy_guy

It's pretty simple. Morally restaurant should charge the balance, but legally they are not allowed. That's the facts, and it's upto the OP to complain if they are not happy.