thiefhunter

Exploring local cuisines is my favorite part of traveling, and I travel a LOT: more than 200 days a year (for 15 years and counting). I'm also a street-crime researcher. Quite a few scams and steals happen at restaurants. When you travel, it's harder to spot a bad guy than it is in your home town. Plus, we're often in a mood to love everything and everyone—a definite disadvantage. Have you heard about the bogus waiter? The swift swiper? Women with cardboard? They're all described at Thiefhunters in Paradise.

BamaVol

I didn't click on the link, but a local restaurant went out of business recently after a very short time. Several of my co-workers observed that they were cheated on the bill every time they went there; small things like an extra drink or wrong tax rate or figures that didn't add to the total (all bills handwritten by the owner). I don't know if that's why the folded so quickly; we're accountants and tend to see number errors quite readily. Too bad they didn't cut portions (huge) or raise the prices (cheap). Anyone else get cheated on the bill and think it was on purpose?

RadioGirl

12 or 15 of us, from all over the world, had dinner at a well-advertised beer-hall in downtown Munich. The handwritten bill was an enormous list of scribbled codes and numbers but came to much more than we were expecting. As we'd (mostly) spoken English over dinner, I don't think the management realized half the table spoke fluent German, and all of us were engineers/scientists. We asked for a detailed explanation of the items, at which point they took it away and came back with a more reasonable (~2/3 the original) bill.

I don't think this was typical of Germany or Munich; I think it was typical of "tourist-trap restaurants".

MisterNice

I dunno. Yesterday I had dinner at a medium-upper restaurant. One person seated us, another brought us the menus, another took the drink order and yet another served them. The menu man appeared to take the dinner order, the wine guy appeared and later served it, a brand new guy with mittens brought the plates...........................and finally the dessert girl appeared, the the brandy/coffee expert etc. Hell at the Romano Macaroni Grill at least 3-4 employees (?) seem to appear at each table. Oy!

MisterNice

BamaVol

Mrs BamaVol and I have dinner every Friday night at a local joint, Mi Mexico Lindo & Que Rico. One of 2 girls seats us and one of 2 other girls brings salsa and chips and asks if we'd like queso dip or guacamole. Ricardo is our usual waiter, but we're friendly with several others - when it gets busy, we'll take the first table no matter whose. Ricardo take the drink orders (a glass of burgundy and a Dos XX amber) and food orders after the drinks. The waitstaff is more of a team from that point on. You never know who'll bring out the food, encore the drinks, bring a box for leftovers or take the bill after I've placed a credit card on it.

Only once have I gotten concerned. One of the queso girls took the bill and I didn't see her for 15 minutes. She turned up eventually, but I never got an explanation. I've studied the credit card bills since, but I think maybe they were having trouble with the card machine. If it happened anywhere else, I'd have been very suspicious.

tonerman

When I am in town I usually take some coworkers out for beers on Friday nights, I began to notice that the tab kept getting bigger each week while the group size stayed the same or got smaller.
I confronted the bartender and he got all kinds of P.O.ed " you calling me a thief" so next time out We ordered pitchers, its alot easier to keep track of 10-12 pitchers of beer than 60-80 bottles. no more problem.

Later found out he was adding beers to the tabs of many people. But get this... it wasn't so he could pocket the money, he kept a cooler in the back and took the beers home!!

I kinda felt sorry for a guy that stupid!!

thiefhunter

Of course restaurants have a million ways to scam customers. The bottom line is were you happy with what you got for what you paid. We'll never know how the kitchen may have cheated with cheaper ingredients or fillers. My post was really about scams committed by others outside of restaurant staff and owners. Thefts, in particular. Thieves who find restaurants a good venue to ply their trade. Diners are in their own distracted worlds and may have valuables unguarded on the table or nearby. Our guards are down. For example, at an outdoor cafe surrounded by potted plants or potted trees. It feels safe, but bag snatchers reach right through those plants to grab bags left against the plant "wall." So many thefts occur in restaurants.

BamaVol

Yes, someone keeps stealing my umbrellas.

slawecki

a few years back we in a restaurant in Venice, our lunch bill for pizza and house wine came to lira 1000000. that converts to about $500-700US. i know food is expensive in venice, but..........

thiefhunter

Yeah, those low-value notes can blind us with zeros. An extra one might be an "accident" that profits the restaurant (or server) when the customer just pays. I call that "self-ripped," and wrote about it here: http://bobarno.com/thiefhunters/2009...r-credit-card/ along with tons of other scams.

mjcewl1284

One tip I can give you guys is AVOID opening a tab! Especially if you will be spending a while at the restaurant/bar.

When you hand over your credit card to the bartender/waiter/waitress, you are essentially (indirectly) entrusting an unlimited line of credit to him/her (ESPECIALLY if you are not sitting at the bar). What is to say that they are honest and upstanding? And that they won't be copying down info at all? Now obviously, you can complain and get them fired, but what's to say that they do not pass that information to a 3rd party?

So, pay for your drinks whenever you order them and avoid opening tabs.

BamaVol

We had a local bar (sinced closed down) where two of my childrens' friends had their DEBIT CARDS "misplaced" on separate occasions. Holy heck! Never give your debit card to the bartender unless it stays right in front of you. Even then, I'm very uncomfortable. In both cases, the cards did not turn up later and accounts were emptied before the bank could be contacted.

MisterNice

Not opening a tab is good advice. If I do I keep the stirrer (or cap) from each round of drinks and note if it matches the tab. About 1/4 of the time it does not. Alsa I hate the places where they run your cc when you are first seated.

MisterNice