give me your editorial opinion on this…. i’m going to relate a hypothetical story here, all names have been changed [or left out], so if this sounds familiar, like someplace you may have been recently it’s not, it’s hypothetical, i made it up ~ yea that’s it, i made it up to find out your editorial opinion ~
a very nice person is having a birthday, a monumental birthday, um let’s say one of the even 10’s somewhere between 50 and 70…. [doesn't need to be a birthday, could be any special occasion where let's say 25 people are invited]. another very nice person plans a quite elegant surprise brunch at one of the fanciest restaurants in the whole kingdom.
| Dutch treat |
(n.) |
An outing, as for dinner or a movie, in which all persons pay their own expenses. |
the event was wonderful, good company, good food, good atmosphere, good bloody marys [whoops i digress] a very nice time.
ok, i have had bad experiences with this kind of thing before, i am not saying that this is the only time something like this has happened. usually it is when a gaggle of women go out and eat and drink and then quibble over the check for 45 minutes because, ‘i only had one drink’, ‘i didn’t have the squid’, ‘i only had three orders of fries’, ‘i only had the salad’, ‘i only had one drink’, ‘i’m a cheap stupid bitch and i’m going to get out of this for as little as possible’… oh, wait, i digress again. [i can bet if you are a female and have been out with more than 2 other females at once you have been there too]
anyway back to my hypothetical story… [the plan was, we were supposed to keep track of what we had and then give the nice person who planned this whole thing our portion of the check. now, portion of the check would include food, beverages, tax, and your own portion of the 15% gratuity....which in this case turned out to be $150] {not cocktails because the drink tabs were separate, did i mention the good bloody marys?}
do the math $150 = 15% of ? or $150 divided by .15 = $1000, so the total bill was $1000 or so.
after some folks put their meals on their own credit cards the check was revised about 4 or 5 times [which totally confused the whole concept in the process] the final bill turned out to be around $750…. amount of money given to nice planning person… $485… no matter how we counted it we could not squeeze more money out of the the wad of dead presidents. aside from the fact that standing there counting money over and over again is embarrassing the nice planning person got stiffed to the tune of a couple of hundred dollars…. he paid the bill put the balance on his credit card and we left. [everyone else was pretty much gone by then]
now there used to be a group of 10 of my friends who went to brunch every sunday for about a year. we would get the bill and divide it by 10 and each pay that amount. we figured that it didn’t really matter what we each had because it would all even out in the wash.
problem is, the 25 people that were at brunch yesterday will probably never all be in the same room at the same time again, and certainly not enough times to make everything even out in the wash. the nice person that planned this whole thing worked very hard to make this an enjoyable experience for the nice person with the birthday. i feel bad that after doing all that work he got stiffed…. just life i guess, but still makes me feel bad.
so, what is your editorial opinion on this hypothetical story? your comment can be anonymous if you wish, just say something on the subject.
next time i think we will say “separate checks please”…
Uh, that’s weird. Why would someone do that? I mean, an party is usually something that you’re doing as a gift to your friends. If they give you a gift then good, but if not fine too. You don’t request monies up front. I do sometimes specify on the kids’ bday invitations that I’m feeding the kids. And, I hope the adults understands that doesn’t mean them. But, sometimes I just have to pay for them too. It’s life as a hostess.
hypothetical, eh? hahahah…
this has never happened to me – we usually end up overpaying AND overtipping when we split the check. now, granted, it’s never a $1000 tab. but we have successfully split tabs close to $100 with a 25% tip, too… after drinking, even.
TACKY. This has happened to me too many times to count. I can give you a much smaller scale example:
Every month, I meet up with 6 other gals and we go to this place for cheeseburgers. Cheeseburgers. Nothing fancy, but we sit at the table for a while (longer than normal, I’d say) and we usually have one of three different waitresses. Thing is, we all get separate checks and then are all expected to contribute to the tip. THESE WOMEN ARE SO CHEAP. It drives me nuts (and embarrasses me to no end) when they leave some change (like a quarter a piece!). I always end up just leaving a fiver on the table because we’ve usually been copping-a-squat for at least an hour/hour and a half.
Over the last two years, I feel like I’ve spent a load of cash on the tips and been the only reason the waitresses don’t fight for who DOESN’T have to take our table.
Hmm, hypothetically……….
) I probably couldn’t have made said party so not sure what to say about this particular hypothetical event. With the drinks separate this should be a cut and dried deal for the type of event. That would suck if it hypothetically happened and I would be posting similarly on a blog.
I have been frustrated on more occasions that I care to count that we go out to lunch or dinner and end up having a split the check issue that is similar, 8 people have cash, 2 people don’t 4 people are “feeling a good buzz” and therefore calculations are not too good and some folks are feeling cheap. It always ends up me or another “nice guy” end up paying the gap that isn’t covered, always a pain.
I always get screwed on this deal with the drinks issue too, I don’t drink, everyone else has had 10-15 bucks worth of drinks (dinners are always within a buck or two) and they they decided to split the check evenly, meaning I get screwed. Most times I don’t even say anything. I did get an apology once but didn’t get any money.
OK, end on my rant,
What a bunch of jerks! Really? I am dumbfounded by this whole situation and can’t believe that some people would stiff a guy. You know who you are and your God will judge you poorly for it!