Bartender/waitstaff question.

[Klorox]

If a customer walks out on the bill, who is responsible for paying it?

Please only answer if you actually know, not what you think should happen.

[Razade]

The restaurant/owner.

[Fri]

The restaurant. Same with any other business. If you work in a computer shop, and someone walk out with a laptop, that's the shop's burden. Hopefully it'll be covered in insurance. I don't know why you think restaurant would work differently? Or are you talking about something else?

[Starwulf]

The restaurant/owner.

This, though if the owner is a d-bag, he may try to bully the waiter who had the table into paying for it, but you are NOT responsible for that. My wife was a waitress from age 16 till 21-22, and she had several tables walk out on her during that time, and even better, during that time there was two separate owners, one the original owners that weren't a-holes, and the new one that was a complete d-bag.

The original owners just sucked up the loss, but the first time it happened with the new owner he tried to bully my wife(and anyone else it happened to as we found out later) into paying for their bill, saying that "They should have figured out they were going to duck their bill, it's your table so it's your responsibility". My wife shut that down real fast, and when he threatened to take her off morning shift(morning shift at her restaurant was the shift where you made the most money, with the exception of holidays, then evening was best). She told the other waitresses on the shift, and they all went up to him and said "You take her off morning, we're walking out". Small town, so doing that would have been disastrous, as the morning people were the "regulars" who ONLY wanted the waitress they were familiar with.

(The regulars thing is no joke btw, when my wife first started on morning shift, she was only making like $20 a day in tips, because the regulars didn't want anything to do with her at first, and the other morning waitresses(all older ladies) pretty much felt the same. It took like 2 months before things really started to improve and the "regulars" were okay with her taking their orders).

[tomandtish]

In the US there are federal laws (https://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs16.pdf) that prevent waitstaff from having their wages garnished for such things. it's actually one of the listed examples.

Having said that, always best to go elsewhere for actual legal advice if you're talking about a specific situation, as there can always be exceptions depending on the specifics.

[Razade]

The real question is why do you want to know OP? If it's for legal advice, we can't give you that. It's verboten here to do that. If it's so you know who you're screwing over when you do it...just stop doing it.

[Klorox]

The real question is why do you want to know OP? If it's for legal advice, we can't give you that. It's verboten here to do that. If it's so you know who you're screwing over when you do it...just stop doing it.

It was a debate between a friend and I, both of us were servers many years ago.

[Jay R]

Technically and legally, the customers are still responsible for it, but the restaurant may have difficulty finding them and collecting.

[WarKitty]

Technically and legally, the customers are still responsible for it, but the restaurant may have difficulty finding them and collecting.

Right. Legally it's still the responsibility of the customer. If the customer can't be found, the restaurant has to eat the cost. At no point is it legal to pass the cost onto the waitstaff.

[Razade]

Right. Legally it's still the responsibility of the customer. If the customer can't be found, the restaurant has to eat the cost. At no point is it legal to pass the cost onto the waitstaff.

Depends on where you are. Going further violates the forum rules however. The statement should be at no point should it be ethical to pass it on to waitstaff.

[Chen]

Depends on where you are. Going further violates the forum rules however. The statement should be at no point should it be ethical to pass it on to waitstaff.

Well, provided the waitstaff isn't in some sort of collusion with the people running out.