'We won't serve you until you pay the bill': Dine and dash family returns to restaurant in attempt to do it again, manager makes sure they pay what they owe

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    "How can you show your faces here again?"
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    Dine and dasher tried it again
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    Long number of years ago I ran a small rural hotel that had a very busy bar that did food, it was badly layed out and if someone wanted to dine and dash they could sit near the door and be long gone before
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    anyone noticed, but surprisingly we didn't have many, however one very busy Sunday we had a family leave without paying, 2 adults and 3 teen kids, well dressed and very middle class family, big bill too with lots of drinks, deserts etc, annoying
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    but what can you do, they weren't local and were probably passing on the way to their holiday home by the beach, a safe bet. Then around 6 months later my oldest and most experienced waitress Jane came running
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    over to me, "there was a family who left without paying, they are at table 20 now", couldn't believe it, questioned her up and down if she was sure but Jane didn't make mistakes, I always kept the receipts of any
  • 07
    unpaid bills in the office and Jane knew exactly which it was, they were even sitting at the same table again, table 20 right at the door.
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    I told Jane to take their food order and I'd come over as she was finished ordering, "hello folks, you were here on the 15th of August, at this very table, you had 1 sirloin, 1 Peper chicken, etc etc, do you remember?" I
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    could see the look on their faces, they knew instantly, they started to mumble something but before they had a chance to answer I said "anyway, you must have forgot to pay that day, don't worry mistakes
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    happens, we had your license plate (we didn't) but as we knew it was just an honest mistake and Jane your waitress knew who you where, we didn't want to make a big deal"
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    I then turned to Jane but saying everything so they would hear "Ok Jane I'm going to transfer that old balance now to 20, you put the food order on 20 now too and... " as I turned to the family, "I'll obviously need you
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    to settle the full bill now straight away, I'm sure you dont mind" turning back to Jane and not allowing them any time to disagree. Jane then went down with the bill to them, it was over €400.
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    100% they were going to leave without paying again, they seen how easy it was last time, the place was very busy and they are thinking there is no way anyone would remember them after 6 month, we even guessed
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    that this might have been the 3 or 4 time they had done this, it wasn't long since we moved to an electronic POS ordering system and before that they could have skipped on the bill and it might not have been realised, but they didn't bargain on Jane this time, loved Jane!!!
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    thurmin · 12 hr. ago Ooooh, this feels so good to read! Well done on keeping the receipt and on Jane for recognizing them.
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    captainp42 · 12 hr. ago Twenty + Years Did they actually pay and get a new order of food? I see that you presented them, but did you collect?
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    WhatSaidSheThatIs OP · 12 hr. ago • Oh yeah they paid, their new food order didn't go to the kitchen till they paid, plus surprise surprise they didn't have as many drinks and deserts this time.
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    MemnochTheRed · 12 hr. ago Get em, Jane!
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    Tall_Mickey 12 hr. ago Good for the teenagers to see that, too.
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    Arokthis 10 hr. ago Former kitchen JOAT The cherry on the sundae would have been actually getting their plate number and passing it on to restaurants in the area. I'll bet you my last dollar they've done this elsewhere more than once.
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    Willing_Violinist745 · 10 hr. ago I'll bet they have a journal of places where they can get away with this. It's obvious that they chose the same table and everything, so they have this down to a science. Way to go Jane!
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    WhatSaidSheThatIs OP · 9 hr. ago 100% but this family were likely from around 2 hours away, but they had a holiday home around one hour away from us, we were on their way home, we got a lot of traffic from those types at certain times of year.
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    We did talk about it alot, we had a terrible bill system up to the late 90s, the waitress would take the order on a docket book, one copy goes to the kitchen and one copy stays on the table, if they order anything else it's just gets wrote on the docket
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    that sits on the table, then when the people were finished they would bring the docket up and the bar person would ring up the items on the till. When the waitress cleared the table if the docket was gone they would assume the bill
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    was paid, but there was very little reconciliation done, I cant even remember if we checked them against the kitchen dockets, pretty sure we didn't. When this family skipped out the first time it wasn't long after the new computerised till system
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    was introduced, so that was probably why they were caught then and why they came back, they had done it multiple times before and never got caught.
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    FingerprintFile513 · 1 hr. ago I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall in their car when they left!

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