dine n dash

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or "pulling a runner" - have you done this awful thing? were you caught? and did you come up with a justification or was it something more perverse that spurred you?

― Tracer Hand, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Even worse. I once paid my bill and left. Then came back one day to the same restaurant and was given the dirtiest looks and told to "fuck off". Turns out that first time, someone swiped my money after I left the bill+tip on the table for the waiter, before he picked it up.

I never leave a restaurant, now, without seeing the waiter or waitress physically note the money on the table I leave.

― Brian MacDonald, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

no, but as an ex-cocktail-waiter, i have CAUGHT a few sons-of-bitches trying to run out on their tanqueray&tonics and chardonnays. literally had to chase some of them out onto the street. the worst is when they pretend like they simply "forgot" to pay. forgot to pay??? anyways, at some restaurants, the waiter has to cover the offender's tab out of their own pocket. so basically, dont do it.

― phil, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Yes I have done it, on a £230 drinks bill.

― Tom, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Never done that, guess I am not as hard arse as I would like to be. I know a lot of people who go and get coffee/drinks then conveniently "realise" that they dont have quite enough money so someone else (vaguely connected with them) is obligated to pay for them. They do this because they are cheap, but I will figure out how to make them pay, by hook or by crook...

― Menelaus Darcy, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I wouldn't! That's awful.

― Maria, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I should point out I suppose that the bill got paid the next day, so my highwayman antics aren't as dramatic as all that.

― Tom, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I did genuinely 'forget' to pay for a meal once, but then I was in Amsterdam. I was too embarrassed to go back and pay.

Apparently you are within your rights to say "that meal was awful and I refuse to pay for it" and there's not a lot the restaurant can do about it. Anyone ever try this?

― Simeon Bradshaw, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

surely this cannot be true in the uk: the restaurant industry wd collapse overnight!!

having said that i *have* been part of a group who made a forceful fuss abt rubbish service and lame food and got a (big) reduction (ands a couretous apology) without asking for it: but the place had only just opened and could not handle bad word of mouth, i suspect

― mark s, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

it is indeed possible, it's the same as taking a shoddy garment back to the shop you bought it from. I haven't done it myself much as I'd like to have on occasion, far too English I suppose.

― chris, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Apparently you are within your rights to say "that meal was awful and I refuse to pay for it" and there's not a lot the restaurant can do about it.

I too have heard this peace of legal folklore. I don't know if it's true but even if it is, the restaurant industry would not collapse overnight as mark s. suggests, on account of notorious British embarrassment at complaining and causing a scene. Also, you would probably get on some soup Nazi restaurant blacklist before too long.

― N., Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

There's a restaurant in London somewhere (Finchley maybe?) where you pay what you think the meal was worth, apparently the good patrons of said restaurant are very English & polite and they do a roaring trade. Presumably they don't get drunks in or they would leave 5p and run off chortling to themselves.

― Emma, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

'peace'? piece, man.

― N., Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Emma you have a low opinion of drunks now but just wait until tomorrow.

― Tom, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

That place was mentioned in Metro sometime this week Emma.

― chris, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I've never not paid for a meal, but I did leave once without leaving any kind of tip whatsoever because I had miscalculated when I ordered my lunch and did not have any money left for a tip. I still feel horrible about this.

― Nicole, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Obviously it was mentioned in Metro else I wouldn't know of its existence, is there a world beyond Metro? I just didn't want to mention it on this occasion to give the air of having a life beyond free newspapers.

― Emma, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Oh and Tom I will still have a low opinion of drunks tomorrow but then I will be one too therefore I will have a low opinion of myself after a month of smug self esteem.

― Emma, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Nicole, you are too good for this world.

― N., Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

surely this cannot be true in the uk: the restaurant industry wd collapse overnight!!

Perhaps I have low standards, but I don't think I've ever had a bad meal out in London. Lousy service, yes. Perhaps, they keep you waiting forever = you are so hungry you'll eat sandpaper. Which would explain the chafing.

I've never done a runner. I've even returned excessive amounts of change. I'm as honest as the day is long (which is why I move to Norway every winter - only way I can make a living).

― Michael Jones, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I too scrimped once or twice on tips and I still have guilty feelings. Hell, once was regarding a pizza delivery that's eight years old now!

Consciously not paid for something flat out -- hell no. That's rude.

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Mike, the point is surely that the meal wouldn't have to be bad. But nasty people could just say it was to avoid paying. That this hadn't occurred to you suggests that you also are too good for this world.

― N., Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

The actual running bit of doing a runner is really exciting too. I bet bag-snatching offers similar levels of excitement and I suspect this is a much-overlooked aspect of street crime.

― Tom, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Erm... Before Christmas me and three friends had a meal in an utterly undistinguished pub restaurant in Didsbury, Manchesterfordshire. The food was lousy, we ate half, we got a refund (pointing out the food's lousyness). Then we all got up, acted all casual and GAVE IT SOME LEGS! It was very naughty.

― misterjones, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I should point out that we hadn't paid for the food.

― misterjones, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Mike, the point is surely that the meal wouldn't have to be bad. But nasty people could just say it was to avoid paying. That this hadn't occurred to you suggests that you also are too good for this world.

Nope, I just don't get it. Nasty people? Who tell fibs? You're scaring me now.

― Michael Jones, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Gavin, you got a refund on food you hadn't even paid for? That's pretty hardcore.

― N., Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

yesh indeed, he says, preening himself. An amusing little notion. It must be said though, the food was utter cack and we deserved reimbursement for actually eating half of it.

Also, it was actually december '00, not thi Christmas. And it still gives me a warm and sexy glow.

― misterjones, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Oh right! I've never seen Ready-brek on the menu at pubs I go to. But then I've never been to a Harvester before.

― chris, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Whilst wandering up along Millbank earlier I noticed a 'bar' selling organic porridge.

― Sarah, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I am tempted to draw a connection between mrgavin's ice-breaking admission, the sudden turn in conversation to porridge, and the fact that most posters to this thread are British, but that would be presumptuous, so I won't, hur hur.

My own story on this is so awful and humiliating that I'm going to have to work up to it.

― Tracer Hand, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I went on a road trip when I was 17 and my friends and I pulled eat & runs at a Denny's, King's Table, some really swank italian joint, and we also did a gas & run at this station which we were confident was outdated and in-the-booneys enough to not have cameras. We had the cash, so why? The same reason I shoplifted 400 bucks worth of Eddie Bauer gear I didn't need over a 2 week period when I was 14, the same reason I shot some kid in the dick with my air pistol on Halloween '95 and stole his Mighty Mites, the same reason my friend Eric started keying up teachers' cars even though the teachers liked him, the same reason my upper-middle-class cracker friend Stefanie volunteered to get pimped for three crayzay months by this 30-yr old guy that looked like KRS-one, the same reason I used to take city buses instead of having my mom pick me up from school in her Lexus SC400: just trying to be hardcore. Shrug.

― Ramosi, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Yet, no one made a reference to Casper, the dine-and-dash cult hero of ROADSIDE PROPHETS....

― Gage-o, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

[...] the same reason I shot some kid in the dick with my air pistol on Halloween '95 and stole his Mighty Mites [...]

DAMN.

― Dan Perry, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Semi-related: I once went skiing with cousin, slimed my way into the 21+ lounge with my 'mature look' (fake earring, cigarettes, really dumb intense brooding look on my face), ate, paid the bill with generous tip, left, started clomping down the stairs back to gondola, then our waitress (who was giving us the evil eye all night) comes flying down, yelling, waving our bill in our face...."Your bill was FORTY TWO DOLLARS"....I'm like, "I know! I left you FORTY FIVE!".....She's like, "No you DID NOT".....I'm freaking out and I follow her back inside and immediately spot the 20 on the floor - she probably dropped it while picking up the shit.....she tries to play it off, doesn't even say sorry....all I do is say "PFFFFF" and walk away. This anecdote isn't funny until I get to the part where it's hours later, I'm at home, I've just showered, and I'm fuming, tearing myself up over how much crazier a scene I could have made, even playacting different approaches - shirtless in mirror, chest and face beet red, shout-whispering shit like, "Bitch give me your manager....Do you know who I am? ::Turn as if turning to other people in lounge:: Did you see this shit?"

― Ramosi, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Eeek. Yes Dan, that did come across a bit...heartless. I guess I should say the air pistol was a pretty weak Crossman and it didn't even pierce the kid's jeans - still, he went down pretty quick...and he probably thought the gun was real so for a minute life must have seemed pretty grim.... Ok, resolution: I stopped shoplifting when I got busted trying to walk out of The Bon with one of those leather- bound agendas, my mom had to pick me up and she actually starting hitting me in the security office and I started crying (why do rent-a- cops always bring you to the "leader" rent-a-cop who just wears street clothes?). Steffie's had to change schools after the hoe-ing thing because everyone was dissing her which was funny because she used to diss everyone else, she was pretty warped for about a year to tell you the truth and her parents put her on lockdown. Eric never got busted for keying up the cars but he is quite miserable and unfulfilled these days. See? Karma always comes around. I have a feeling I'll pay for those eat & runs very soon. Huh? What? OHHHHH NOOOOO THE NICKELBACK VIDEO IS ON!!!!!

― Ramosi, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Is ramosi real, or a character from Traffic?

― Sterling Clover, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

There's a big difference between complaining about poor food and expecting an appropriate bill adjustment and the dine and ditch thing. I once knew some very privileged girls from a private school who pulled the dine and ditch on a regular basis - bloody entitlement issues - and even though I explained that the waiter/ess would have to forfeit their tips to make up the deficit, they just laughed it off and said the worker deserved it for working in the shithole they'd chosen to fleece. One factor instrumental in my falling out with the 'friend' in question.

― suzy, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

we flirted with the idea in high school..but shouting started over someone to stay at the table as the others walked out calmly before he dashed..maybe if we all ran at the same time it would have worked.

― kevin enas, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Wasn't there an episode of Silver Spoons about this?

― Kris, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

YES! That was one of my favorite episodes of that show ever!

― Dan Perry, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I think I've dated Ramosi.

This question was only prompted by our Mexican fiesta, Tracer, admit it. The worst run out in history was with Otis Wheeler, we were all in this dumpy ass diner in, where, Northampton? Who the fuck knows, anyhow for no reason whatsoever - I mean we all had the cash - we decide to get up and go without leaving the money. The problem was that I somehow got stuck on the edge of the table (my trenchcoat, incidentally, actually ripped because of this, and like the puke on the collar I still haven't fixed it) and while everyone else walked outside, I was stuck with the waitress staring me down. But then everyone CAME BACK for me, and we STILL RAN OUT. So in retrospect I'm not sure if we completed the worst or the best run out in history.

― Ally, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

The correct way to do this is complain during the meal and then leave what you believe the meal was worth with your name and address in case they want to take you to a small claims court. The SCC deals with about five of these a year and the diner always wins.

Then the waiters and the restaurant owner come round your house and kick your head in.

Curry house in Camden there was a dispute over whether we had paid all the bill or not (we had) so we ran down the road flicking the V's and bad mouthing the joint. Ha ha.

― Pete, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Ally I've got to say that's really gross. Not even I would leave puke on a coat for that long!

― Sarah, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I'm hoping you mean Northampton in the Midlands. (Is Northampton in the midlands? It's one of those nebulous neither one thing nor the other places, like Stoke, Chepstow or Nottingham)

― N., Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Northampton in Massachusetts, I'm sure.

― Dan Perry, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Shame. I bet Northhampton, Northants. has some really dumpy diners.

― N., Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

eleven years pass...

So, dine and dash baptism tonight, involved lots of running but I'm fast and it was worth it: service was awful and we really had to go.

― Van Horn Street, Sunday, 1 September 2013 07:08 (ten years ago) link

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