Comments on: Splitting the Bill

By: Mel H

Mel H — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 17:56:18 +0000

If you want separate checks, mention that at very first contact with server.

By: Mel H

Mel H — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 17:43:05 +0000

I have had several waitress jobs, and never would have hesitated to allow a table separate checks. I’m there to serve them, not the other way around.

It is way easier to deal with a table of 8, then 4 tables of 2. I ask from the get go – will these be separte checks or all together – and write them up accordingly.

It’s no big deal. Maybe some wait staff are terrible at math, I don’t know. I’m good at it, and it takes just a few moments with a calculator to tally a bill.

I want my guests happy. I don’t agree with restaurant policies that say ‘groups of ___ or more will be on one check, with a __% gratuity automatically added’

I think that’s really disrespectful of guests

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Tue, 30 Dec 2008 10:25:17 +0000

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By: Gort

Gort — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 13:42:49 +0000

takes one to know one

By: st

st — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 13:30:03 +0000

Nice scam, Dork! Sorry, Gork! I mean, Gort!

By: Gort

Gort — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 12:33:19 +0000

irt Ron

and the odd thing is people are always happy because they think I’m doing them a favor.

By: Richard E

Richard E — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 10:45:22 +0000

I used to work in Japan, and we had a lot of group dinners (often fairly liquid affairs) at places that charged a flat, per-head rate. The prof kicked in the first, and then one of the senior grad students would go round the table, applying an incredibly complicated algorithm based on seniority, and the known value of your stipend or fellowship — the result of which was that the youngest student usually paid an order of magnitude less for their meal than the prof.

By: Ron Hager

Ron Hager — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 01:46:38 +0000

Gort, I may be wrong, but you are the problem and NOT the solution. You never pay more than a dollar more but are very willing to skim the money of others. Tsk, tsk, tsk!

By: Ginger Yellow

Ginger Yellow — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 17:15:33 +0000

This situation is a lot easier to handle in the UK where tax is always included and service usually is.

By: Gort

Gort — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 17:15:24 +0000

I’ve always thought it best to keep track of what I’ve ordered, round up to whole dollars, factor in 25%, then never pay a dollar more. For some reason it always comes out to $25, which I don’t have on me at the time, and so I just end up taking everyone else’s cash and paying on a credit card. In which case I always come out ahead.

By: st

st — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 14:20:12 +0000

Y’all should grow some balls and try telling your fellow diners if you end up overpaying.

By: Pieter Kok

Pieter Kok — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 10:19:41 +0000

Another thing to remember about separate cheques: in large groups there are very often items that are not paid for because the customer “forgot” to mention it to the waiter. So when everybody has paid, the waiter then has to scramble the remainder from the people that have not yet left the restaurant. So I think restaurants are perfectly justified in refusing separate checks for large groups.

By: Eugene

Eugene — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 05:16:45 +0000

As somebody who don’t normally drink in joint dinners, I can sympathize with the poster.

Now, as a rich postdoc, I don’t have a problem with “subsidizing” (his words) my friends’ drinks. But the group of friends i hang out are those who are *conscientious* enough to pay for their own drinks, especially since they know I don’t drink. In fact “paying for what you ordered” is the usual way to go.

Personally, I don’t mind paying more if it is a big group dinner (say in speaker dinners where not all diners are regular buddies). But what I feel is not nice is when some faculty member suggest even split between every diner, even grad students. Everyone here was a former grad (or even current) student before, we know how poorly we were paid then. And I always notice that grad students generally go for the cheaper stuff (yes I pay attention to this stuff, since I am always curious about social issues like this). Not surprising of course….but an even split will mean that poor grad students subsidize rich faculty. Now don’t tell me there is nothing wrong with that.

By: gopher65

gopher65 — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 03:25:25 +0000

I’ve worked in a restaurant before, so while I like the idea of separate checks in principle, it usually isn’t a good idea in practise if you have an overly large table. It creates a large amount of extra work for the server, and I don’t like to do that to them. However, as Drnecropolis already mentioned, this problem is diminished somewhat if you inform the server of your payment plans prior to the order being taken. This problem has also been (somewhat) diminished with computerized ordering systems.

On a completely separate topic, I really dislike rereading my own comments on boards like this. Every time I look at a previous comment I find grammatical errors, misused words, and improper punctuation. I mean, I know this isn’t formal writing or anything, but eeesh, it still bugs me.

By: Low Math, Meekly Interacting

Low Math, Meekly Interacting — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 01:02:14 +0000

Eh. I’m all for a good company, but I’ve been burned by too many freeloading jerks too many times to put up with it anymore. Unless it’s business or family, I generally ask for my own check now. If a waitron protests, I insist. If they want to include the 18% gratuity due to party size, I never complain. But I’m not paying for somebody’s three coctails and top-tier entree when all I got was a Cobb salad and an iced tea again. In my experience, anyone stand-up enough to pay their fair share isn’t offended. If they do take offense? Guess who that guy probably would have been. Yeah. One of the jerks.

By: Lab Lemming

Lab Lemming — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 00:30:02 +0000

We trialled a colloquium student dinner program where the students were subsidized to $5 plus drinks. Dunno what ever happened to it, but it seemed to be a good idea at the time.

By: Drnecropolis

Drnecropolis — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 22:48:49 +0000

Unless it’s somebody’s going away party, I never pay for more than what i ordered plus tip. Tip is determined on what I ordered and does not factor in the total (groups) bill. THe problem with asking for separate checks is that it makes more work for the server, and 9 times out of 10, no body asks for separate checks until the foods already been received and eaten, so the server has to figure out what each person ordered and split it on their own. As somebody who dated a waitress for a long time, every minute spent fooling around splitting a check is taking away from service to other tables and thus losing the server money. Splitting the check is fine, just give the server heads up in advance

By: Egaeus

Egaeus — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 22:12:06 +0000

I’m curious as to how the anti-separate-check crowd proposes that each pay their fair share these days with so many people who don’t carry cash. Those people (myself included), either go to an ATM and have nothing but $20′s, or forget altogether and have nothing but plastic.

By: John R Ramsden

John R Ramsden — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 21:46:09 +0000

> Admittedly, this guy probably gets more enjoyment out of solving a game theory problem

A clue is if the guy orders a large cake for everyone’s dessert, and insists on each person’s slice being cut by someone else.

By: Jim

Jim — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 21:27:24 +0000

billmonk.com. Problem solved.