Credit Card Double Billing
 

We got our credit card bill yesterday and found that a fairly new, neighborhood restaurant had double billed us for a recent dinner ($90 - not a trivial amount). My husband was furious and said that the only time he gets double billed is at small restaurants. This has happened before; the last time it happened, he called the restaurant, they said they would credit it and never did. He had to contest the charge. He thinks they do it intentionally figuring you will not check the bill that carefully, and in fact I had checked this bill and missed the second billing, so I would indeed have paid it.

I tended to think that new, small places may just be less good at things like this, but after this one I am beginning to wonder. Any other experiences with this?

I'm rather amazed that with all the various places I've used cards at restaurants, and the fact that they have to go back and put in the tip amount, etc., I've never been double billed. While I don't eat out every night or anything, I've used it enough at such places, even moreso over the last few years, that having never experienced a double billing leads me to believe it's pretty rare.

Now, I don't know if this automatically casts more suspicion on your neighborhood small operators. Maybe, maybe not. Maybe the reality is that they aren't training the people as well, and thus those people are screwing up more often. Or maybe they are deliberately pushing it. I don't think they could continue to get away with such deliberate practice, though. I think enough people would notice and complain, and if they had enough disputed charges someone would get suspicious. I always check my statements against receipts and would notice this right away.

One less malicious odd thing happened just a few weeks ago, with a really small place that actually says "Sorry, we can't put tips on your credit card": they didn't close their batch until 2-3 weeks later! So charge was like June 3 and posting date around June 19, something like that. No issue with the amount, though.

In all my years of using credit/debit cards, I've never once been double billed by a restaurant, small or large. I believe if a restaurant gets too many disputed charges, the CC companies will stop allowing them to process CC payments.

Never got a double billing...! However, some of our restaurant bills from Europe were never charged.
Like CrazyOne, I was asked in a restaurant at the Hamptons to tip in cash ....

I can recall one seasonal restaurant (Nantucket, MA) that "forgot" to bill until the following spring. I disputed the charge with the credit card company; they had put through the later date as "date of transaction", and, while I had consumed the meal, they screwed up, and commited fraud (IMHO) in an attempt to collect.
Another time I purchased a gift cert (loaded debit-card type), for which the restaurant never ever charged me. I got the iDine miles (bonus and all!) for it based upon the credit card slip I sent in, but the restaurant cancelled the balance on the card (I had used part of it) thereafter.
I had one restaurant double bill me about a year ago. The credit card company was very nice about it - rep told me that since it fit the profile of a duplicate billing, and was a small amount, she could credit me then and there without any followup at all. ^

When I lived in Queens there was an Irish pub which I used to frequent, mostly for Sunday brunch. Restaurant policy: tip line heavily X'd out and after tax amount written in by server before bringing tab to table.

In my experience, double billing is very rare. I manage credit card transactions for my boss and there has been only one double-charge in the last year, at a well-established restaurant in San Francisco. I have never been double-charged, either on my work CC or my personal ones. However, I was once not charged at all for a ~$20 dinner at a very new restaurant.

If I were ever double billed -- and I think it can happen by accident, especially at a new restaurant where they're still learning how to use the machine -- I wouldn't even bother calling the restaurant. I'd call my creditcard issuer, who would take care of it right away. It's just a whole lot easier dealing with the credit card companies than with the merchants.

BTW, I once was significantly overcharged by a NYC restaurant, although I'm pretty sure that it was accidental on their part (missing the decimal before the cents). I got a call from Citibank that very same day, before I had even discovered the error -- I guess they spotted the amount charged as being unusual for this particular restaurant -- and the problem was rectified in a 30-second phonecall.

Nice to know it is not that common and undoubtedly not intentional, although small restauants now represent 100% (with an admittedly small n) of our double billings.

Yes. It's happened to me a few times. I have found calling the restaurant to be a waste of time because you are dealing with crooks and/or morons. You used a credit card; let the credit card bank deal with it. Fill out a form to question the charge and let them do the rest. Remember, your signature is only on one of the bills. This is pretty easy to prove fraud

This is also one reason why I don't understand why anyone would use a debit card. Why fight to have your money put back in your account? Credit cards make the problem that of the credit card bank, not you.

I've never been double billed by a restaurant, although I've had experiences where mistakes were made and what was billed did NOT agree with what was on my signed receipt.

I suspect on the rare occasions where double billings take place, its usually an honest mistake. My wife oprates a small, business. She accepts credit cards and despite numerous safeguards, "accidental" double-billing isn't 100% preventable.

I can also assure you that credit card companies rightfully have no tolerance for repeat "double billing" merchants. That's why I don't think anyone who attempted the practice would get away with it for very long. More likely they'd be attempting to explain what went wrong to the police instead of the banks!

I've only been double billed once by the local watering hole. The bartender had a hard time running the CC through on that day and I suspect the charges went through but for some reason it wasn't printing a receipt. She ran the CC through again few minutes later and that time it worked as advertised.

Anyway, talked to the owner couple of weeks later and showed him a copy of my charges. He credited my account on the spot.

Honest mistake. The bartender is one of my best friends, and also watches my house when I'm gone, so I trust her completely, and she never let me down yet.


but I do have a question for.....

how do you see this as fraud on their part? You admit you consumed the meal and just because they used a different date, you decide not to pay and accuse them of fraud :confused:

Sure -- I find knowingly using a false date-of-transaction to be fraud. We're talking about almost a year later. Don't you think they have responsibility for putting through charges in a timely manner? Or is it really okay to screw up big time, and decide "Well, we'll just put these rock-hard-stale-charges through as today's date, and hope for the best"?

As for the other example of the restaurant where I bought the gift cert, I was quite willing to pay for it with a slightly later transaction date, rather than cancelling the balance-of-cert, as long as Rewards Network gave me credit for the date-of-visit. The $15 or so that this place ended up "eating" out of the gift cert in this case was due to the fact that they screwed up; I signed the credit card slip in good faith on the actual date-of-purchase.

Not really. At my last position, the operations manager got locked out of the credit card machine and couldn't settle out. After 30 days, the charges that were approved automatically got credited back. I had to contact every client (300+) to inform them that a new charge would be going back. The weird thing is she didn't realize it until 2-3 months later. Regardless, just say for example you submit a check and the payee doesn't cash it for 4 months or 1 year you still owe the amount payable. If anything, you got a free tax free loan for 1 year!

Annoying, yes. Illegal, no.

Don't checks go "stale" after six months? I was under the impression that there is a limit for date-of-transaction on charges similar to that? If a business can't catch the discrepancy by that time, I feel they've forfeited their claim on the charge.

Nope, they don't. My own bank put through a year-old check last year, during the one short period of a couple days where its amount could put my account negative. I successfully got the bank to waive the overdraft fee, but it was still a pain I feel. Yes, the check was legit, and it was to a small outfit in the UK that presumably had some trouble figuring out how to deal with their dollar-denominated checks. So I didn't contest more than that. But it's stupid that checks that old should go through. More than that, they might or might not go through, basically. Even a stop payment doesn't last that long as I recall. After 6 months, it's hit or miss. A different bank may have decided not to process it.

On our checks at work we have printed "Void After 120 Days", and many checks you receive may say that (or a shorter term of 90 or 60 or even 30 days). That said, while it may help, from what I recall it's still no guarantee that the bank won't put it through after that time.

Stale Dates?
 

There's really no such critter as a "stale date" although your bank might at some point turn down a check obviously old or damged. The check is a contract, your "promise to pay" and the bank's refusal to honor it is simply its attempt to avoid becoming a "holder in due course" and participant in the transaction.

"Post Dated" checks are another misunderstood issue. Merchants and service providers are under no obligation to accept them, banks will not (knowingly) honor them, and depending on what happens later, they can open the writer of the check to all sorts of potential pitfalls, civil and criminal.

An "old" credit card charge slip "held" or not run through in an ordinary time frame is treated just like an old check on quite simple grounds, that you, having received goods, service or benefit, contracted to pay and that the resturant/retailer/airline/whatever delivered those services, and a delay in presentation does not waive the obligation you created.

Transactions become complicated when one party claims that he/she did not receive or will not receive the goods/services/benefit as set forth in the contract, that your promise to pay became or will become invalid by the other party's inability or unwillingness to "perform". That's why airlines have such complicated contracts of carriage, to cover them from the inevitable flood of claims arising should the airlines fail to put folks on notice as to the description, nature and obligations of services not provided as anticipated.

CC processors may extend to "good" customers automatic adjustments (as AMEX seems to do with "temporarily" deleting a disputed transaction, but your failing to contact the other party to the transaction directly may actually end up releiving the CC company of liability and obligation.

Agree 100%. I'd also add....."Bad Business practice yes. Fraud, no." (and I'd still be mad!)

You make a great point. I can't believe that some people even use debit cards for items they order over the internet.

I've had a couple of billing problems with restaurants, but all were resolved fairly easily. The most recent experience: the restaurant ran through the credit card and then went back to add the tip later, but put in the entire charge for as the tip (for example $9 + $1 tip = $10 total but $19 ($9+$10) charged). When I spoke to the manager, he was very happy to resolve this without going my contacting the credit card company, and sent me a $20 gift card as a settlement. Since I planned to and did return to the restaurant, that worked out better than if I had done a charge back.

Has never happened to me but did to a friend at a local establishment he frequents regularly. They just gave him a credit in-house since he goes every weekend and he was fine with that.

HOWEVER- always check your statements! A girlfriend was going thorough a divorce recently and her husband owned a car repair shop (now oob). Upon inspecting the financial records, it was discovered he regularly double billed and only corrected when noticed and more than 90% went unnoticed!! He was caught for a long history of fraud and would have gotten away with it if not for a sharp eyed divorce attorney!!