I’m going to posit a different set of circumstances, based on the fact that he was originally going to return the money.
he was already filing for bankruptcy
she screws up
the cafe is busy and nobody notices until closing time
she contacts them and it’s no problem
but the bankruptcy prevents the funds being returned and the owner gets tired of being hassled
So she could get the funds back eventually, if the bankruptcy court is feeling generous, or the court may view it as lawful proceeds of doing business and use the funds to service the owner’s debt willy nilly.
I skimmed the post too quickly; I missed the bit about bankruptcy.
I dunno; no matter what the circumstances are, if the owner initially told the customer she’d get her money back and then reneged on his word, that still makes him a douchebag.
As for the restaurant owner; he is a douche for taking advantage of what had to have been an obvious mistake on the part of one of his patrons, and anyone continuing to eat at his establishment should be wary of patronizing such a flagrantly unethical businessman.
I think if he agreed to return the money, that may be a contract, which she might be able to press in a civil suit. However, it’s out of small claims (!!) and he’s already in bankruptcy so…
This. Seven thousand times this. “Your Bank” in this scenario is comprised entirely of one underpaid phone jockey, working a user interface incapable of processing nuance or compassion.
“Ma’am, did you authorize the transaction?”
“Yes, but…” clicks the yes box. Script pops up
“Sorry ma’am, there’s nothing I can do.”
If it was a tip, I think EU law would require it to go to the server or servers, no? It shouldn’t go to the owner, regardless. He/she might not have any recourse themselves other than putting the server in contact with the patron.
I once wrote a total on the tip line - the bill was like $12, I wanted to add $4 so I wrote $16 on the line – the WRONG line. When I got home I noticed my card had been charged $28. I called the restaurant. The guy says he thought that seemed like a lot for a tip but since no one else at my table left one he thought I was getting it for everyone. (Most of them had left cash.) It was kind of my own fault so I let it go and never went back to that restaurant again. Now I always write something on the tip line, even if it is ‘cash on table.’ Clarity is good.
Pretty sure many banks in the U.K. would have flagged that as unusual activity on the account, based on normal usage, I’ve had a call from my bank about something they thought looked iffy, but turned out to be legit. In any case, I don’t have anywhere near enough in my account for that to clear anyway!
Hmn, obviously this wouldn’t have happened with cash.
Not saying that electronic payments are always bad, nor that we should go back to whatever we did back in the days. Yet, digital money is often fast and lose money.
In fact, banks and CC providers, and apple pay and such want it to be that way, no? Sure, wave your card round, pay it all, pay it quick, worry about it the other day.
why can nobody just admit they made a mistake. Sure, it’s a very expensive mistake and I don’t blame her for trying to get it back, but there’s no point in complaining like it is everybody else’s fault when told that nothing can be done
I’ve worked in places where this went wrong both ways, both times we caught it in time and managed to rectify it.
One time in a relatively posh restaurant someone charged a table of 12 or so people for a lavish meal and lots of drinks, the charge should have been somewhere around € 2000 but they put the decimal in the wrong place. We had to rush out to them to ask them to come back inside and pay the rest. They obliged.
The other time, a patron at a bar asked for cash back when he payed for his round of beers, he wanted to pay € 100, a butter finger made the charge € 1000 extra which he payed without noticing immediately. It took us quite a while to gather up enough bills to pay him that amount in cash since we were used to funneling off all large bills immediately.
Both times this was the cause of inattentiveness of the employees, of the payment receivers, not the paying party. Both times it was definitely made possible by the digital nature of the payments.
They were located in the city center of Zurich. The rent for the location alone should be in the ballpark of 5k per month. I’d be really surprised they would sacrifice the entire business to steal a comparatively small amount.
I’m actually a little surprised he isn’t legally obliged to return the money. (Or so people in this thread are saying, IDK if they’re right or not…)
I mean, if she’d accidentally left a briefcase with seven and a half thousand dollars on her table, I don’t think the restaurateur could say “Oh, I thought it was a tip!” and keep it…
