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ah college. This is why I don't eat with my college-aged friends.

Ns1

Ns1

No Lifer
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how much for one french fry?
Diners Ask Restaurant For 47 Separate Checks... And That's Before They Pulled Out Their Groupons
By Chris Morran on December 20, 2010 2:30 PM 0 views

(photographybynatalia)

If you've ever wondered why you hear stories of restaurant staff doing nasty things to your food before they serve it to you, this might be enlightening.

Over at Server Not Servant, they have the tale of a restaurant general manager whose staff bent over backward to accommodate a huge group of patrons who never alerted anyone that they would want separate checks or that they were each going to try to cash in a Groupon.

According to the post, some college students came into the restaurant and told the hostess that a large party of around 30 people would soon be arriving. The staff said okay and made it happen. Within 45 minutes, that number had swollen to 47 diners.

But when it came time to get the bill, that's when they dropped down the "can we have separate checks?" hammer on the restaurant, explaining that most of them had Groupons that entitled them to $35 in food and beverages for $15.

Only problem is, that offer is only good for one person per table per visit.

What ensued was a debate over what constitutes a "table." The large group had effectively been seated at and treated like one large table. The students argued that separate checks equals separate tables.

By way of compromise, since many of the students were going to remain at the restaurant's bar for post-food drinks, the GM offered to honor the Groupons on bar tabs and allowed two people per tab.

Now back to the matter of sorting out those 47 separate checks.

In the end, the diners agreed to go through the check and sort out who ordered what. The GM then processed each amount separately. But even after running 31 credit cards and collecting a pile of cash, the students were still $60 short. Luckily for everyone, one scholar was generous enough to step up and make up the difference.

FYI, to show his thanks, the GM picked up that guy's bar tab.

Should the students have just told the restaurant before they ordered that they were hoping to use Groupons and would also want separate checks?
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damn college kids! Last part happens everytime.
 
That's not even so much a college kid thing as it is a gathering of cheap asses. You'd get the same deal with 50 people from slickdeals trying to go out to dinner together.
 
vi edit said:
That's not even so much a college kid thing as it is a gathering of cheap asses. You'd get the same deal with 50 people from slickdeals trying to go out to dinner together.
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Yep. I think I've been relatively lucky in that most of the group dinners I've been to, we tip well and no one's afraid to step up if the total's a little short. When I've eaten with "new" friends and this happens, I'm usually the one paying extra just to avoid standing around twiddling thumbs.

47 people though...wow.
 
This is the same reason why I won't go out to eat with a group of people that I don't know. Because I'm the nice guy that will pick up the slack for everyone else's cheap ass that's trying to skimp out on the extra dollar or two.

The group of friends that I have usually ends up with an extra 10-15 bucks in the pot more than we want to leave (after including the tip). Then we have to figure out who should take money back. That's how it should be.

My list of tips for people eating in groups:
1. Bring cash
2. Figure out which items on the bill are yours and round each item UP to the next full dollar amount.
3. Leave $.50 to a dollar more than you normally would for a tip so that you can be sure the bill isn't short and to compensate the server for a large group that is a large pain in the arse even if the people are nice. (It's not easy to make sure that 9 dinners come out within 2-3 minutes of each other)
 
This sounds familiar enough. In college on year a group of like 10 of us were going out to a Hooters for one dude's birthday. In the end, several of the guys who went couldn't cover their own tab. The birthday boy actually ended up having to cover his own and most of someone else's. I ended up covering my own, part of another, and pretty much the table's entire tip. I will no longer go out with people that I don't KNOW can completely cover their own bill and tip.
 
thraashman said:
This sounds familiar enough. In college on year a group of like 10 of us were going out to a Hooters for one dude's birthday. In the end, several of the guys who went couldn't cover their own tab. The birthday boy actually ended up having to cover his own and most of someone else's. I ended up covering my own, part of another, and pretty much the table's entire tip. I will no longer go out with people that I don't KNOW can completely cover their own bill and tip.
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my friend took me to Lawry's with a group of guys for my birthday. Of course, when it comes time to pay up, his debit card bounced.

I pay for myself, my gf, AND said friend.
 
Ever go out with a big group, and everyone is ordering pretty much the same thing and agrees to pay equal amount when the check comes?

...and then there is that one person who refuses because he ordered 1 small dish and 1 drink. When its decided upon beforehand that we are all going to pay the same don't be an asshole because you didn't want to eat/drink. You should have never came in the first place.
 
I knew a ton of people like that in college... and their best friend, the "omg, this is my first credit card and isn't it awesome? let's just charge it. interest? what's that?" person.

I went to an all-boys high school, though, and when I go out to eat with my high school friends, everyone throws a couple twenties into the center of the table and leaves it at that... when we introduce girls into the mix, though, suddenly we're figuring out who owes out, what percentage of tip to leave, etc, etc.

imo, if you're going to request separate checks, it should be done before the server even writes down your drink orders or not at all.
 
Josh said:
Ever go out with a big group, and everyone is ordering pretty much the same thing and agrees to pay equal amount when the check comes?

...and then there is that one person who refuses because he ordered 1 small dish and 1 drink. When its decided upon beforehand that we are all going to pay the same don't be an asshole because you didn't want to eat/drink. You should have never came in the first place.
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But I didn't have a soda. I only had water. 🙄
 
thraashman said:
This sounds familiar enough. In college on year a group of like 10 of us were going out to a Hooters for one dude's birthday. In the end, several of the guys who went couldn't cover their own tab. The birthday boy actually ended up having to cover his own and most of someone else's. I ended up covering my own, part of another, and pretty much the table's entire tip. I will no longer go out with people that I don't KNOW can completely cover their own bill and tip.
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you mean all business majors? My gf keeps telling me stories about when she has work get parties out of office. They all go to a nice place and they all want to split the check equally.....so they just end up ordering the most expensive things and lots of alcohol. Your $20 meal is now a $35 meal because those asshats do not want to pick up all of their own tab. Meanwhile, when I go out to eat with co workers, we always pay separately or we just all pitch in what we ate and split the tip.

My gf smartened up and just brought $20 cash each time. If they need more, well, tough, she only brought $20 cash and she left her wallet at home. Oops.
 
loki8481 said:
imo, if you're going to request separate checks, it should be done before the server even writes down your drink orders or not at all.
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ALWAYS assume a table full of people want separate checks.

When they don't get separate checks, this same exact thing happens every single time. If the wait staff didn't know this by their second day on the job, then they are profoundly retarded.
 
Ns1 said:
then do what we do and come up with an excel spreadsheet that tracks down each person's expenditures down to the penny.


otherwise, pay up.
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I really need to make one of those.

I mean my friends and I are pretty good about money and everyone pays up their own share with no exceptions. I can't believe people actually expect to pay less than what they owe. It gets annoying with 10 people, but we always sit down and start counting out money and change.

Is it really that hard?

There are cases where I will pay for friends, but that's only really for asian friends where its simply polite.
 
vi edit said:
That's not even so much a college kid thing as it is a gathering of cheap asses. You'd get the same deal with 50 people from slickdeals trying to go out to dinner together.
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I was thinking the same thing ... except swap Fatwallet for SD. SD is a great, cool place to look for deals. The people at FW would sell their child (or soul) for a good deal. The place sucks ...
 
Josh said:
Ever go out with a big group, and everyone is ordering pretty much the same thing and agrees to pay equal amount when the check comes?

...and then there is that one person who refuses because he ordered 1 small dish and 1 drink. When its decided upon beforehand that we are all going to pay the same don't be an asshole because you didn't want to eat/drink. You should have never came in the first place.
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I'm that guy sometimes.

well, I won't refuse to pay, but I'll bitch about it behind their backs for a couple weeks afterward.

I just don't eat very much.

every Christmas, I go out with a group of friends to a nice restaurant. last year, we went to a portugese bbq place... they all got the huge rodizio thing and copious amounts of liquor. I ordered soup and a glass of sangria and it cost me like $100.

I didn't make a fuss about it, but I was a little annoyed that none of my friends spoke up and said like "hey, all Loki ordered was soup and a glass of wine, maybe we should slice like $30 off the bill and divide it 7 ways instead of 8"
 
Josh said:
Ever go out with a big group, and everyone is ordering pretty much the same thing and agrees to pay equal amount when the check comes?

...and then there is that one person who refuses because he ordered 1 small dish and 1 drink. When its decided upon beforehand that we are all going to pay the same don't be an asshole because you didn't want to eat/drink. You should have never came in the first place.
Click to expand...

People that decide to go and just split everything evenly are usually huge douchebags. I'm not paying for some fucking dumbass to stuff himself with food and alcohol. I am not going to be punished because I'm not a fucking fat slob that needs huge amounts of food. I would say fuck you if you wanted me to do some bullshit thing like this.

Thankfully I don't have any friends who would pull a fucking stunt like this.
 
There is no better way to buzzkill an enjoyable evening with friends than to count the pennies.

bill + tip / # of people = what you owe. I'm lucky that all my friends make enough money to careless about who got extra appetizers or drinks. My wife's group of friends on the other hand love to penny pinch and I hate going out to dinner with them because of it.
 
If we are doing separate checks I always ask the server ahead of time if it will be a problem.

For groups I don't mind splitting the bill equally or dividing it up, but I damn sure won't pay more than my share if the bill gets divided up. Every damn time it comes up short, and that's after I pitched in at least $5-10 more than I owe.

I think a lot of people are just math retarded and don't understand the concept of tax and tip.
 
I thought most restaurants have a policy of "automatically 20% tip add on for group of 4 or more"?

I think if you are in a big group, you need to ask the server if it is ok to have separate checks before you order, just a courtesy.
 
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