If a table dine and dashes or someone steals the money off the table, who is responsible to pay for the meal?

Question

Should the server be made to cover it, or is it the job of the restaurant? The servers all have their own sections with their own tables.

Answer 1

Stupidly it is up to the restaurant. I heard of some restaurants that make the severs pay for it. The one I worked at would write you up. Which is better then making you pay for it, BUT it still is stupid. It isn't the servers fault.

Answer 2

Depends on the restaurant.  I've been a server at several different places, and they all have a different policy.  Mainly though, it's the servers who get hit with the bill in some way.

Answer 3

If servers carry their own banks and act as cashier to their customers, the server is usually responsible.

It's more of a gray area if they don't.

At my restaurants, we don't make servers pay for dine and dashes if the customers obviously intended to commit a

crime and there wasn't anything the server could have done to prevent it. We call the police.

Money should never be left on tables. It's MONEY. Our servers carry their own banks and if money disappears from tables, they're responsible for paying it. Because they know this, it almost never happens.

EDIT: Yes, it's legal. That's the main benefit of server banking.

:-) Servers who think it's not fair seem usually to be the ones who can't manage to look after their tables but who are great at looking after their tips.

With the profit margin for restaurants being 10 - 15% on average, you can't afford to have money walk out the door.

Answer 4

The restaurant can write it off as a loss.

As a server, I would refuse to pay the bill...it's not my fault they ran off and I don't think your work can legally make you pay for it...maybe it depends on what state you live though

EDIT: It depends on where you live....you would have to read labor laws and/or call your state department of labor. They can tell you if it is or not.

Answer 5

I think it should be up to the restaurant. There is no way that a server can have their eyes on the table all the time. Just getting refills, getting the food, clearing the tables, doing sidework, refilling the ice bin, etc. You get the picture.

Even though it's the same price, the amount of the bill will be a bigger lost to the server that it would be to the restaurant. Think about how much money a restaurant throws out everyday by doing food over, how much is thrown away, if food goes bad, etc.

The server shouldn't be responsible.