At the Family Restaurant today

[Emmeileia]

This made my blood boil...
Today I went into town for a delicious greasy breakfast. I went to the place closest to our house, the Ourtown Family Restaurant. We live in a very small cottage country town, so there is not a lot of staff at this restaurant. Normally that is fine, but today they were slammed. There was only one waitress working for the whole restaurant! It is a small place, but still. So the waitress was really hustling to take orders, make sure every one got their food, etc.
I decided to make my order take out, and sat around for a bit at the bar while it was prepared. This is when I heard the waitress tell the cook that a big group had just left without paying, sticking her with the $50 bill for their food.
WTF people...okay maybe the service was slow, but not for lack of trying on the waitress's part! That is no excuse not to pay for your darn food.
Damn people.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Ummm....isn't it illegal to make waittresses pay for skipped checks out of their own pocket?

[TTAZ]

I hope so! That's terrible! What a bunch of thundering asshats!

[Kyree]

How does that place get away with that? Unless the waitress somehow owns the place?

[Eben56]

If the waitress actually got hit for a situation like that.... Let me know where to send the check. I'll take care of it. (AS long as they accept US checks) Just don't know where the Op IS FROM. QAWD, I hate assholes.

[Evil Queen]

If those people who didn't pay their bill comes in again, the waitress can have them arrested for not paying their bill. Tried and true method.

[smileyeagle1021]

yeah, I know at least in Nevada leaving without paying is considered "defrauding an inkeeper" and can be considered a felony... don't know about elsewhere (or even Utah for that matter... kinda sad).

[Fenrus]

In Utah, counts as Theft by Deception. ^_^

What pricks! I hope they get what's coming to them very.... very... soon.

[ditchdj]

As I recall some jerkoff awhile back was arrested for theft of service for refusing to pay the gratuity on a large bill because he claimed the service was "bad". Charges were later dropped though. I say tough shit. Next time cook at home and you won't have to worry about it.

[rerant]

I *think* here the staff is responsible for the bill if someone skips out, but I know the logic of it doesn't sound right and I could be totally misinformed.

A friend of mine worked as a waitress at a bar for a short period of time and one night she was stuck with a bill of something like $70+.

[Record Store Tough Guy]

One should never be required to pay a gratuity on a bill. Expected, yes, if the service was good, but not required. An ex-coworker of mine once had a bouncer try to make him leave a tip when the group he was with was saddled with a very bad and very shady waitress at a local pool hall. They were leaving at the time, and the bouncer actually threatened them with violence if they didn't come back in and leave one. They started to remove their cues from their cases, and at that point he realized he was pretty much outnumbered and wisely went back inside, but not before "banning" them from the establishment. Not that there was really any chance of them going back after that anyway.

[JustADude]

I *think* here the staff is responsible for the bill if someone skips out, but I know the logic of it doesn't sound right and I could be totally misinformed.

A friend of mine worked as a waitress at a bar for a short period of time and one night she was stuck with a bill of something like $70+.

Can it happen? yes. Is it legal? ...Not so much.