Has this ever happened to you ..

[weecalf]

Lady I was speaking to said she had taken friends out to lunch .Ten of them .Bill came to 250 quid so she questioned it as you would .Turned out the previous card had not been acccepted so the both bills were taken from her card .Never heard of this before .The bill was adjusted but what if she.had no queried it.

[tinkerbell23]

Never heard of that in my life x

[Prudie]

That sounds fishy, the card only pays the amount the machine operator taps in doesn't it?

[dickythecook]

Methinks perhaps there was a little fiddle playing at the cash desk.

[boxtops]

Hmm, sounds like a dodgy cashier covering their back by a mischarge to cover an error on the previous transaction..........

[weecalf]

Agree thought it could not happen assured it did . May someone adjusted intentionally to cover up for non payment of previous bill.

[ummmm]

10 people ate and drank for £250? That's really cheap...

[mike11111]

Not just a little fiddle but the whole orchestral strings section!

[ummmm]

And it was actually cheaper than that...

[bednobs]

why would you question a bill of 250 for 10 people? sounds about right to me (unless they went to mac d's)
I have been out for a pub lunch today - starter £6, main course £10, 3x non alcoholic drinks (this is just me) - that would easily come to 25

[divegirl]

What if they had eaten at a Whetherspoons or something though? A burger type meal and a drink is only around £6.... Lots of pubs have offers that would bring the bill in at around a tenner a head :0/

Lisa x

[DTCwordfan]

I had this happen in the States.

My outlaws were staying in the same hotel for some of the time and they were on a package that included breakfast - they even had a confirming letter which I saw later. They left first.

I got my bill and saw the addition of their breakfast which I queried and the receptionist came out with utter crap. I asked for the manager - Oh he isn't here. Who is in charge then? (fairly big hotel). More crap and procrastination. If there was a fire or a major incident who would you call? Stonewalling.....

This was just as e-ticketing came in and I scrawled in the amoutn minus the breakfasts and, in front of the receptionist, I called AMEX and instructed them of the amount and NOT to accept any secondary charges from the hotel and the reason why. And this is what happened.

Therefore, I would suggest that she first phone her card company and put a block on the illicit transaction and then call the restaurant/hotel and ask for the most senior manager and explain that (i) this was not on and (ii) she has blocked the charge.

[tiggerblue10]

I don't understand what previous bill you are referring to. Do you mean the previous customers bill or a card that your friend tried to pay with first?

[DTCwordfan]

No further charges accrued but I must admit my blood was still seething over an hour later and I am not like that - never been back to stay with them either.

I'll even go as far as naming them, the Green Mountain Inn, Stowe. http://www.greenmountaininn.com/

[ummmm]

How much was the actual bill?

[DTCwordfan]

I read it as someone else's card out of the ten friends at a previous meal, tiggerblue

[cathfromsaron]

i was charged £29.00 instead of £2.90 for chips in a chinese once!

put them straight quick smart ...

[tiggerblue10]

Maybe its me just being dim DT (nothing unusual there, lol).

[cathfromsaron]

i took it to be the previous biller payer ...

[Eve]

One possibility I can think of it that bill are electronically tabbed to table numbers so that whatever is ordered for the table is added to that tab and then billed altogether at the end (regardless of different waiting staff or drinks got at the table or from the bar etc...).

Could be that the previous people's card was not accepted but not noticed so the amount stayed on the billing system and was then included with the extra amounts from your party and billed as a whole.

Remiss of the staff not to notice if this could be a reason though maybe they were scammed themselves. Depends on the system to what information is given or printouts obtained I guess - maybe a printout with the declined message was mistaken for a confirmation receipt in a busy restaurant? Might have made more sense if they just hadn't paid or it had been left on the system in error though.

Not saying this is what happened and they weren't trying it on but could account for a reason.

[weecalf]

The bill should have been 120 quid as it wa an offer but two of the 10 were kids so they were over charged there also.