Bill confusion.

fauxboss

Taking advantage of post lock down I went to a local pub to meet a group with whom I play cards with. I was first to arrive and I put my debit card on tab, telling the three staff that were there that it was a personal tab and not a tab for the table… you can see where this is going… however, that is not my main question… 
so, yes, at the end of the evening when I went to pay it was 7x what I expected and I immediately thought they’d added everyone’s drinks to it. The staff admitted that I had asked for my tab to be separate. On closer inspection I noted that 80% of the drinks were not drinks that my friends had ordered. The staff also accepted this. 

It then became predictably messy on trying to sort out who had had what dependent on how much individuals had had. There was a fair level of inebriation. 

My question is … the pub had no way of being clear what we had had given how badly the bill had been screwed up. They were entirely reliant on our (mis)remembering.  

I’m interested in the legal / rights position in such circumstances…. Mainly as I was quite peeved that no recompense was offered at all 🤣. 

To clarify- it was only amounts that could not be remembered.. the drinks that appeared were not drinks anyone would have had. 

Cheers. 

pinkshoes

Your legal right is to only have to pay for what you ordered.

If you specifically said the tab was for your own drinks and not the group, and they added other drinks on, then you need to make them deduct all other drinks that were not for yourself.

As for compensation, what is your financial loss? You can only legally claim for actual loses. What you mean is a good will gesture for their f*ck up!

Sandtree

How were your friends paying for their drinks? Was it still table service? None of your friends noticed they weren't being charged for their drinks?

Clearly the pub messed up however it sounds like there were multiple people around the table that all should have been aware there were issues before they got too drunk.

born_again

Best bet. Do not set up a tab. Pay for each drink at a time.

Pollycat

I'm not clear from the original post what the OP ended up paying for.

Just his drinks?

His drinks and the ones that his friends hadn't ordered?

Was it table service or did the OP and his friends go to the bar?

What explanation did the landlord/manager give for drinks not ordered specifically by the OP getting on to his bill?

MattMattMattUK

Pollycat said:

I'm not clear from the original post what the OP ended up paying for.

Just his drinks?

His drinks and the ones that his friends hadn't ordered?

Was it table service or did the OP and his friends go to the bar?

What explanation did the landlord/manager give for drinks not ordered specifically by the OP getting on to his bill?

The way I read it, it looked like it all got sorted in the end, with their main complaint being that they were not offered some form of compensation for, er...

fauxboss said:

Mainly as I was quite peeved that no recompense was offered at all 

Pollycat

MattMattMattUK said:

Pollycat said:

I'm not clear from the original post what the OP ended up paying for.

Just his drinks?

His drinks and the ones that his friends hadn't ordered?

Was it table service or did the OP and his friends go to the bar?

What explanation did the landlord/manager give for drinks not ordered specifically by the OP getting on to his bill?

The way I read it, it looked like it all got sorted in the end, with their main complaint being that they were not offered some form of compensation for, er...

fauxboss said:

Mainly as I was quite peeved that no recompense was offered at all 

Ah.

I see.

Compensation...

user1977

There isn't really a consumer rights or legal question here, just a factual one. You pay for the drinks you ordered. You don't pay for the drinks you didn't.