Is this allowed?

[Anonymous]

I had dinner with some friends on Saturday night at San Antonio Bar and Grill in Brookland. The food was really good but the service absolutely sucked. We asked the waitress for water at least 4 times. She never brought it. Finally we got a guy who was waiting on another table to bring us some. We ordered another round of margaritas which never came either. She took forever to bring the check (I'm talking at least 15 minutes), then I saw that she charged for the margaritas she never brought. I asked her to take it off politely and she questioned me about that. She went back and took another 15 minutes to bring the corrected check. Then I noticed that she automatically included an 18% gratuity!!!! What the hell for???? there were only 4 adults and 1 child there so I don't see how she could possibly give herself 18%. I scratched the amount and gave her $10 instead of $18. I thought that was pretty generous actually. I looked at my bank statement today and the original charge still went through. I mean $8 isn't going to kill me, but this just pisses me off. Are they allowed to charge the amount that was not authorized by the person?

[Anonymous]

Of course you can change a gratuity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Of course you can change a gratuity.

OK, so do I call the restaurant and complain or just handle it through my bank. Like I said, it's not about the $8 but the nerve to charge the original amount when I specifically left a different one.

[Anonymous]

I'd start by calling the restaurant and telling them you were overcharged.

[Anonymous]

Unless there is a policy to automatically charge gratuity according to party size, I would dispute the charge.

OK, well first I would contact the restaurant and see if they will refund the difference. It that didn't work, then I'd dispute. And, I too, would be pretty pissed.

[Anonymous]

Sorry but your mistake was not handling it when you were at the restaurant.

You can call and try to dispute it with the credit card company but just because you crossed it out and signed does not mean anything. It was already rung up.

Next time be more vocal when it happens.

[Anonymous]

OK I'll call them. Has anyone been there before? Is it posted anywhere that they automatically charge gratuity? I sure as hell didn't see it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sorry but your mistake was not handling it when you were at the restaurant.

You can call and try to dispute it with the credit card company but just because you crossed it out and signed does not mean anything. It was already rung up.

Next time be more vocal when it happens.

That is true. I agree I should have said something. Lesson learned. I think I'll still call and see what I can do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OK I'll call them. Has anyone been there before? Is it posted anywhere that they automatically charge gratuity? I sure as hell didn't see it.

It does not matter...you already had signed the credit card statement that was run through. You should have asked to speak with a manager bc just crossing it out does not gurantee you a refund and the credit card company might see it as your fault.

[Anonymous]

Call the restaurant and find out who the manager was that night anf call your bank and stop payment. You should have a copy of the receipt you signed and how mucb you left for tip. Waitress should be reprimanded or firef for.altering receipt.

[Anonymous]

Sucks, OP, but it's imperative to handle something like this while still at the restaurant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sucks, OP, but it's imperative to handle something like this while still at the restaurant.

True, but it's not too late to call the restaurant and see what can be done. At a minimum, the manager will know he/she may have lost a customer and is more likely deal with the server. But possibly the manager will refund the money or do something else nice.

[Anonymous]

OK, I'm confused. When I manually include the tip, the hold on my card is usually just for the meal portion of my tab. When it posts, the final charge reflects the meal + tip.

OP, are you saying that when you got your receipt to sign, the amount was included in your total and you signed off on it? If so, that makes it tougher, but if the restaurant has a copy of the receipt then they should be able to pull up what you'd intended to pay for the tip. I still say call.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OK, I'm confused. When I manually include the tip, the hold on my card is usually just for the meal portion of my tab. When it posts, the final charge reflects the meal + tip.

OP, are you saying that when you got your receipt to sign, the amount was included in your total and you signed off on it? If so, that makes it tougher, but if the restaurant has a copy of the receipt then they should be able to pull up what you'd intended to pay for the tip. I still say call.

+1
OP would have no way of knowing they didn't charge her the $10 she'd written in until it had gone through and shown up on her bank statement. As far as she was concerned, the tip was $10, as she wrote it. She could not have handled this at the restaurant because she couldn't have known the waitress would run through $18 til it showed up on her statement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OK, I'm confused. When I manually include the tip, the hold on my card is usually just for the meal portion of my tab. When it posts, the final charge reflects the meal + tip.

OP, are you saying that when you got your receipt to sign, the amount was included in your total and you signed off on it? If so, that makes it tougher, but if the restaurant has a copy of the receipt then they should be able to pull up what you'd intended to pay for the tip. I still say call.

When I got my receipt the tip was included in the total, but I scratched it and put a different total on there.