Just for the record, I did not remove my own question. Evidently somebody did, the moderator perhaps, but not me.

I wasn't implying anything. OP asked a legit question. A bunch of us responded. Then OP says, in effect, never mind, I'm not gonna do anything about it. I replied, then why ask us our opinion. What's wrong with that?

You, SFO777, on the other hand, resorted to name-calling and making assumptions. Declasse.

It depends on how convenient it is. If I live in OZ and the problem occurred in BOS and I found out about it after I got home, I'd deal with the CC company, especially since I can do it quickly and easily from my online CC account. It is certainly possible that your handwritten tip was misinterpreted as a different number, and thus an honest mistake. But I have personally had this happen to me several times before, and it was NEVER an honest mistake. If you call the restaurant, they will no doubt "take care of it for you," but if they routinely up-charge their customers, they'll continue to do so unless the customers complain to someone outside of the business. I say complain to the credit card issuer.


It started out as a legitimate tipping question and moved on to involve credit card charges. But it is still related to tipping.

Members, please, the topic is what steps to take when a higher amount is charged on a card for a tip by a restaurant or travel provider than the cardholder authorized. Personalized comments or by-play arguing with each other have been/will be deleted. Please help keep the thread open by staying on topic and within our FlyerTalk Rules. Thanks! Ocn Vw 1K, Moderator, TravelBuzz.

Last year I visited a well-known restuarant very near the pond in Breckenridge, CO. The meal was nice (but not fantastic, considering the price), the service was good. We tipped 15%, I wrote $103.00 on the receipt and duplicated the figures exactly onto my copy.

Later I checked my credit card statement and found it was $108.00 but didn't have time to return since we had to leave. I called the restaurant when I got home (in the UK) and the manager said their copy had the grand total at $108.00, but agreed that the total and tip came to $103.00, but would refund the $5 "if that's what you intended to tip".

I didn't accuse their staff outright, but I said I was very sure it was written as correct 103 and could explain why his read 108. I didn't ask to see a copy, but my 3's have a flat top and cannot be turned into an 8 easily, so it should be obvious to him just looking at it.

I did read a method for easily detecting this sort of thing, I think it was where you just repeat the last two digits reversed as the decimals, eg. in my case I would have writen 103.30, then it appearing as 108.30 would be easy to spot without having to remember or find the receipts. (This assumes the staff don't bother to alter the cents)

There are usually a couple steps in restaurant approving credit card charges.

First they get an authorization for the amount of the bill and sometimes a 20 or 25% tip rounded up to the next dollar. A hold is placed on that amount.

They then put through the charge based exactly on the amount you write on the receipt. They could be batching that, where they process them and they don't get uploaded and settled for a day or two.

Are you sure it was the actual debit and not just the charge to hold it that went through? If it was from when they swipe the card, it will probably correct itself when the actual charge goes through.

If however it's the charge, you should bring it to either their attention or the credit card companies. If you are still in the area I would start with them, they probably just keyed it in wrong or read the receipt wrong.

It is however totally possible they are getting a couple bucks from everybody who hands them a credit card, hoping that most people won't notice or not want to be bothered with it, and could be making a ton of money.

well 1. some restaurants take the bill and auto debt 20% to see if the $ is available on the card and then Reverese it out later.. usually this will take 2-3 days..

if it is anything after that.. hmm yea they did stiff you. Do what I do when I tip

write $5.00 then under it put Five dollars in writiing and sign it..

this way your yellow copy will have both the 5.00 and it written out so it is very hard to dispute

Happened to me a couple of times ... most recently at a "famous" Vietnamese restaurant in the SF ferry building. Spoke to them politely, indicated that this was unacceptable (faxed copy of the the credit card charge slip clearly showing the amount I intended to tip) ... received apologies, a refund check in the mail alongwith a note offering me a free lunch the next time ^

It's what steps the restaurant took against staff perpetrating fraud that has me curious. Unless they condone it? It's one way of passing on their wages bill.

That would be a pre-authorization. It never shows up as a charge.

I've been to some US restaurants whose menus state that a certain minimum gratuity applies.
However, it's usually noted that this applies to larger groups.

One note: the CC company will correct your (my) math, adjusting the total as necessary. Example: a base bill of $98 and a tip of $15 will be charged $113 even if the diner writes in $110 as the total.

IMHO its best to take this directly to the CC company. They are in the best position to see a pattern of fraud by the restaurant. A perfunctory apology and a correction really doesn't do it for me. - and no, I'm not angling for a free meal 'next time'.

Also consider calling the BBB. That really makes some restaurants jump. I personally would not call the restaurant itself because the manager is already supposed to know what's going on there.

I've had this happen once in the last 5 years in the US. A server changed the tip/total for $5 more. It was on my list of things to complain about, but I never did. The restaurant is out of business, so I guess they got what they deserved.

Generally, I'd call the restaurant, and ask to speak to the manager. If you don't get satisfaction, then issue a chargeback. Many credit card companies charge $10-$30 for any chargeback, so it will hurt the company, for sure.

Which restaurant (so we can avoid it)?

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8703e/4.1.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/104)

One of the things this thread brings to light is the unfortunate recent trend of many restaurants to print two white (duplicate) credit card slips, instead of the two-part, no-carbon-required white and yellow slip. When completing the two-part slip, the customer leaves with an exact copy of the original charge slip, making fraudulent alterations to the original easy to detect. With duplicate original slips, the restaurant (or server) is free to claim that the diner mistakenly wrote a different amount on his copy of the slip. If alteration of the original were skillfully done (say by converting 1's to 4's or 7's, or by converting 3's to 8's), I'm not sure how the credit card company would resolve such a dispute.