How honest you could possibly be?
By syoti20
@syoti20 (5293)
Philippines
February 19, 2011 5:56pm CST
My brother treat us together with our mom last night in a new restaurant near our place. We walked at least 10-12 minutes going to the place we ate our dinner.
As we get closer to the place. We were amazed the place is so cool and really inviting as well.
The waiter already gave us the menu, after 5-10 minutes. The waiter took already our order and all. As we ate and have a good chat.
My brother ask for the receipt. So he can pull out the money we owed. As he checked the bill. He noticed one item was missing. So we asked the waiter that we order and he apologize. He forgot to add that item on our receipt.
We got already the revised receipt. And guess what we saw another mistake on the receipt. So we asked again the waiter to revised the receipt again.
We finally got the correct receipt. And we pay what we really owed.
My question is would you took advantage of the mistake of the others and just pay what you saw on the receipt? And don't tell what you really owed? Or follow your conscience do what is rightfully true?
11 people like this
36 responses
@GardenGerty (157552)
• United States
20 Feb 11
We would be honest, because that is how we are. We would feel badly taking advantage of someone making a mistake. We also would not want the waiter to get in trouble if the mistake was discovered. It would be a shame if it had to be taken out of his wages.
@rameshchow (4426)
• India
20 Feb 11
Hi grany, ever you experienced like syoti....?
1 person likes this
@daeckardt (6237)
• United States
20 Feb 11
If there were that many mistakes, I think I would bring it to the attention of management, not so much to get the waiter in trouble, but to ensure he gets additional training so that maybe mistakes won't be made again.
2 people like this
@GardenGerty (157552)
• United States
20 Feb 11
@rameshchow, I have been in restaurants and stores where I have been undercharged, and over charged. When my son was very young I was at a dairy store and took him with me to purchase something. The change seemed wrong, and we sat in the car and re counted it. They had given me back 5 cents too much. I took my son back in to return it, because it was the right thing to do. I worked on his math skills by counting the change, and I helped his moral character by returning the small amount of change. @daeckardt, if it seemed unreasonable to have made mistakes I might talk to management, but if I did, I would worry about the waiter getting in trouble. If syoti and his party were very busy and kept changing their mind or talking with the waiter a lot it could be an unusual occurrance.
@RebeccaScarlett (2532)
• Canada
20 Feb 11
I feel bad pointing out people's mistakes, especially if I already pointed out one, and then they made another one!
I have been in this situatation both when the mistake is in my favour, and when it is not (they charge me for something I didn't have)
I point out the mistakes the first time, even if it means I will pay a few dollars more.
The second time, I usually don't because I don't want to embarass the waiter. It was a small amount of money they charged me extra for, and I didn't think it was worth pointing out the second mistake in a row.
1 person likes this
@moondancer (7433)
• United States
20 Feb 11
Like you, we always look at our bill.... making sure that it is all there and right. So I can honestly say we would have corrected the waiter and asked that he fix the bill to add what was missing to our bill. We have done this before, more than once in fact. It's not been a hassle and we got a giggle out of it.
But we did not want the waiter or waitress to have to pay for a mistake that is so easy to make. They may have to pay for these type of mistakes from their own pockets and that is just not right. We had the items and we should have to pay for them.
1 person likes this
@daeckardt (6237)
• United States
20 Feb 11
I think I would check the receipt and if I saw one mistake, I would talk to the waiter, but if I kept finding additional mistakes, I think I would talk to the manager. If the person who wrote the receipt was that inept, the problem needs to be addressed by the manager so that the person can be trained better on the procedure for writing receipts. I would probably pay the additional price, but I think if I talked to the manager, he might just say not to bother because of careless mistakes. I have had it both ways depending on who I had talked to about the problem.
1 person likes this
@melissawilkins (47)
• Australia
20 Feb 11
Hi syoti20
You need to do what is rightfully true, I have done the same thing (well Neil my partner has). We went into a shop and the sales assistant was adding up the cost of the items, Neil got the money out of his wallet and the sales assistant said it was $6 less than the correct price. Neil asked him to check it and the guy said you are right but he gave it for the price he first said in any case.
I think your brother has done the right thing, I hope you had a good time.
@goldeneagle (6745)
• United States
22 Feb 11
Actually, to be honest with you, I probably wouldn't even have noticed. Unless my bill is unusually high, I usually don't give it a second look.
@syoti20 (5293)
• Philippines
17 Jul 11
Its good to know that you will not take advantage of that scenario. Just like what I said to gaiza12 " All our honesty will be paid off in the near future it may not the the same person but in same incident or possible it will be related in testing honesty of one person".
@Porcospino (31366)
• Denmark
22 Feb 11
I have been in a similar situation a couple of times. One time a friend and I were having dinner at a restaurant and when we got the bill we noticed that the waitress had to forgotten to add the dessert. My friend and I disagreed, I said that we had to tell her about the mistake and my friend said: "No, don't say anything. We can save some money that way". I insisted that that we tell her, and my friend got angry, but I think that it was the right thing to do. I don't want to take advantage of the situation. Everyone makes mistakes sometimes and maybe the waitress was new or something like that.
@lovinangelsinstead21 (36850)
• Pamplona, Spain
14 Mar 11
Hiya syoti,
Nice to see that you all had such a great time then. I would tell the Waiter about the Bill either way if it was overcharged or undercharged so that he and only he notices and hope that he learns from the mistakes he made.
If he is a new Waiter that will probably be a frequent thing too but if someone gives him a gentle nudge here and there he will learn and no one else will know of his mistake except himself.
Saying I would tell the Waiter himself is because apart from the Job situation being so bad I would not want him to get fired and on the Street.
I would not feel good not telling him about it either way as that is the way to learn things even if we don´t want to point them out.
@gaiza12 (4884)
• Philippines
11 Mar 11
I rarely pay for the restaurant bills when we eat outside..so I really don't notice anything :D Anyway, if I were to pay the bills, i should really make sure that what is on the receipt is correct and it should have all the items we ordered on it. I will really be honest of course. The waiter could have paid for the item not on the receipt. We ate there so we should pay what we have eaten. It's normal to have errors for we are not perfect and the waiter might have a lot of other customers to attend to to forget one item.
@rameshchow (4426)
• India
20 Feb 11
Hi friend,
So you had a great unforgettable dinner with your brother.
That is a happy moment, we have to spend some time with our friends. I also have a brother, we have some great moment in our lives, but it had few years back only(before my brother marriage).
But now we are busy with our works.
So every moment in life is very precious. After we are getting old age, these are used as sweet memories.
And
LOl, for that waiter work, really he confused. We have to feel no shy to deal with like this cases, because we are spending our money, how can we give blindly?.
1 person likes this
@Zer0Stats (1147)
• India
21 Feb 11
Well I haven't ever been through this.But I think if I were your brother,I would have done the same what you brother did.Not saying I'm that liberal or honest but as you said it was a new restaurant so I would have done the same.But if a restaurant was old and wealthy,I would have paid what was on the receipt.
@jingbautista (2456)
• Philippines
21 Feb 11
honestly, i had been so dishonest lately. i have my reasons. but still it isn't right. how i wish to really be honest.
@dragon54u (31636)
• United States
20 Feb 11
Your mother did a good job raising you!
No, I could not take advantage of a mistake like that. It is a form of theft and I would think about it the rest of my life and be ashamed of myself. I would be forced eventually to go back to the restaurant and pay them what I owed them.
It's a blessing to have a conscience and parents that taught us to pay attention to it.
No, I could not take advantage of a mistake like that. It is a form of theft and I would think about it the rest of my life and be ashamed of myself. I would be forced eventually to go back to the restaurant and pay them what I owed them.
It's a blessing to have a conscience and parents that taught us to pay attention to it.
@starsailover (7829)
• Mexico
20 Feb 11
Hi syoti: First of all I have to congratulate you and your family for being so honest. I think that if I saw that there's a mistake on my receipt I'd doubt a little bit about what to do but finally I'd do the right things. Sometimes, even on these simple decitions you have the temptation to not being honest. And I'm glad that you prefer to be in total peace with your values.
ALVARO
@syoti20 (5293)
• Philippines
17 Jul 11
What if we we didn't read the receipt and just pay the amount what we saw. Will you still call that person dishonest? Customer isn't responsible in re-checking the items they have ordered. Because their only resposible is to pay what they owe in the receipt provided by the waiter/cashier, that's it. Its so happen that my brother is strict in terms of money so he re-check the amount and items accordingly.
@derfootmarcus (6)
• United States
20 Feb 11
I believe that it is always right to admit mistakes when eating at restarants. I do however believe that after 1 correction, you have the right to leave. A second correction is hardly necessary and is the fault of the wait staff.
