Customer ate 65$ worth of food, all his cards declined, didn’t bring any physical cards or ID, and said that he doesn’t get paid until later in the week.
Hi there. I work at a small cheap sushi restaurant. It’s a small place but we get pretty busy. About a week prior to the incident the same customer had come in. He drank like 3 beers and ordered a bunch of different food. He wanted me to “surprise him” and pick out food for him. He also asked if we served uni which we don’t because we are a cheaper restaurant.
I thought he was nice but he really did take up 5x the amount of my time than the average customer does by asking a lot of questions, having me pick foods for him, and just talking to me in general.
I was surprised because when he got his bill and paid he left me a 1$ tip on a 55$ order. He explained “sorry I can’t tip much, I don’t even know how low my bank account is right now.” So to that I said “no worries, I understand”. I was confused why this guy was drinking so much and asking for uni when he didn’t even know how much money he had but since his card went through I didn’t really care much about the tip.
Jump forward to the incident, I was working with my coworker (usually I work alone since it’s a 9 table restaurant) and it was super busy. We were slammed because it was Mother’s Day so we were both extremely stressed already. People were upset with the wait times, we had probably 25 big togo orders on the line, and in walks the same customer. I didn’t id him this time since I remembered him and knew he was of drinking age (I should’ve carded him).
Same thing, he orders 2 glasses of wine and a bunch of appetizers and rolls. His bill was 65$. He still was asking a bunch of questions and taking up a bunch of our time. He comes to pay using Apple Pay and all his cards declined. He starts saying that he doesn’t have the money to pay and he will get paid later in the week. When my coworker tried handling it nicely she said it’s fine for him to come back later but she needs his id or a card or literally anything to hold onto. He starts saying he doesn’t have his wallet or his cards on him and that’s why he used Apple Pay. She said that we can’t let him go without something and he said he literally has nothing. He had a shoulder bag and his phone and he argued with us and our manager wasn’t there.
My coworker got pretty upset and I was as well because there was a huge line and tons of people waiting to pay for their Togos and this guy was refusing to give us anything to hold onto. Eventually she says you have to leave your bag or something or we have to call the cops. So he leaves his shoulder bag (which ended up being completely empty).
He definitely seemed shameful and embarrassed when he left the restaurant and I couldn’t help but feel a little bad. We could’ve been nicer and there were a ton of people watching so I’m sure he felt bad. He did end up coming back for the bag and paid but my coworker said to not serve him again and tell him to leave if he comes back. She said she was harsh on him because he stated that he KNEW he wasn’t getting paid until later in the week and probably didn’t bring his cards or any id so we wouldn’t have anything to hold onto because he may have intended to dine and dash.
I’m not sure why he did that or why he’d get so much food knowing he didn’t have the money.
What do you guys think? How should we have handled it? Honestly that’s the first time this has happened. Usually when someone can’t pay they leave something and it’s no issues. Just wondering what your guys thoughts are so I know how to handle it in the future.