Help - Charged £57 for eating nothing!!

dangeroussports

I think voting with your feet look a bit silly.

I dont think the government would pay for such a service in the booths to be honest.

Could you not just use the tried and tested way?

ollywood68

skintscotsman wrote: »

not bothering to read entire thread, but why didn't you raise that at the time and/or refuse to pay the extra amount???

a number of people took a turn in raising it with the staff but the staff were not moving on it.

ollywood68

....

Vote with your feet, don't go back.

Damn jusr re-read it burger & chips. one course. Did they reckon the no-shows were going to have steak then???[/quote]

Re some of your questions as i never read through yor whole message - They weren't busy. We werent told in advance. They didnt charge for the cheapest price. We were the last sitting. We arrived at 9.30 and the first thing we were told was the kitchens closed at 10pm so we had to order immediately. and they didnt sell steak ....

Curious_Moose

1) Go there again, book 10 tables for 2 with your mates.
2) Everyone order the cheapest item on the menu.
3) Request tap water to drink.
4) Take 3 hours over the meal.
5) Don't leave any tip at all.
6) Block their toilet with loo roll.
7) If they have any free mints on reception, empty them into a bag and take them.

lindos90

Curious_Moose wrote: »

1) Go there again, book 10 tables for 2 with your mates.
2) Everyone order the cheapest item on the menu.
3) Request tap water to drink.
4) Take 3 hours over the meal.
5) Don't leave any tip at all.
6) Block their toilet with loo roll.
7) If they have any free mints on reception, empty them into a bag and take them.

he he he! like your style Moose!!:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

dangeroussports

Curious_Moose wrote: »

1) Go there again, book 10 tables for 2 with your mates.
2) Everyone order the cheapest item on the menu.
3) Request tap water to drink.
4) Take 3 hours over the meal.
5) Don't leave any tip at all.
6) Block their toilet with loo roll.
7) If they have any free mints on reception, empty them into a bag and take them.

Bicurious Moose,

That would be time consuming and silly.

Cerro

Gingernutmeg wrote: »

If the restaurant was expecting twenty extra covers on top of a 'normal' nights business, then yes, they would have ordered in extra food. From my own experience, if you've got twenty extra guests who aren't having a set meal then you're going to have to order extra of quite a few things, or risk getting disappointed and disgruntled customers who can't have the meal they want. As for being psychic, a good restaurant manager WILL know (roughly) what people are likely to order - when you're serving more or less the same meals for fifty odd weeks of the year you get to know what people will generally order, what's likely to be popular and what isn't.

Again, if a restaurant was expecting to do twenty extra covers then they WOULD have got extra staff in, regardless of the fact that four people didn't turn up. Yes, well trained staff can serve a lot of customers (I once did a whole day in a restaurant of about fifty covers with just one other person ...) but untrained staff (which I'd imagine these were) just could not cope with it. Therefore, the restaurant would have got at least one extra front of house staff member in, and possibly even someone extra in the kitchen.

But thats only if a handful of the guests turned up (or none at all) in this case 16 of them did, so we are only talking about 4 people - its not like those 4 people required extra staff or a truck load of extra food. That was my point, they would have to know exactly what those 4 were going to eat before they came in order to justify the charge (like in a set meal). You could argue that those 4 seats could have served others but as the OP stated, the place was half empty, so its not like they were turning customers away.


Dangeroussports - are you the restaurant owner or something? Seem to be taking this awfully personally.

Curious mouse - It would be a laugh but then again judging from how bad the service was, I doubt the food would be up to much anyway. Still, would be worth it just to see the look on the managers face...

ajaxgeezer

dangeroussports wrote: »

Bicurious Moose,

That would be time consuming and silly.

... OR it would be retaliatory and fun. The only bit of it I don't like is the not tipping the staff. You can't blame a waitress for the manager's pricing policy, and it would be fair to leave a tip for decent service, should you get it.

Gingernutmeg

Cerro wrote: »

But thats only if a handful of the guests turned up (or none at all) in this case 16 of them did, so we are only talking about 4 people - its not like those 4 people required extra staff or a truck load of extra food. That was my point, they would have to know exactly what those 4 were going to eat before they came in order to justify the charge (like in a set meal). You could argue that those 4 seats could have served others but as the OP stated, the place was half empty, so its not like they were turning customers away.

My point is that those four people represent 20% of the takings from that party, and very roughly mean that most of the profit made by the restaurant on that group was wiped out, as the restaurant WOULD have had to get in extra staff and food to cover the 20 expected people. As the OP has said the restaurant wasn't full, so I'd imagine that the restaurant owner would be banking on the profit from the party to cover any extra expenses. Four people not turning up potentially meant that this party could actually have been making a loss for the restaurant - I don't think that people really get how tight profit margins can be at your average 'high-street' independent restaurant. It is also MUCH less convenient for a restaurant to have a large group that doesn't want a set meal - remember we're taking a small place here, and not a huge chain, and that does make a difference.

However, to me there's something not quite right about this situation or this restaurant - personally, I would never take a booking for twenty people at 9.30 when the kitchen closes at ten, and I'd be very wary of any restaurant that did that. It reiterates the point that I made earlier, that this guy (the restaurant owner) clearly doesn't have much of an idea how to run a restaurant and his greed and stupidity have tripped him up.

dangeroussports

He's made his money from them.

They werent going to come back in any event. Take a look at the people! The table was booked for 30 minutes BEFORE the kitchen closes. Four people didnt turn up and the one of them is here moaning.

Sounds like a gang of 'what eva time' and 'mite b dere m8' type people.