People are terrible.
Absolutely disgusting behavior.
âSome people may think they are able to justify their actions morally.â No, there is absolutely NO justification.
I do hope the McDonaghs enjoy their prison food as much as their dine-and-dash meals.
Oof. I could understand if a person is hungry and broke and lacking a way to get a meal, but the incidents in the story are not about that situation.
Many years ago, I (briefly) dated this woman that had done something similar.
She went to a small local bar (I wasnât with her that evening), opened up a tab with a dead credit card⌠ate a bunch a food, drank like a fish and left. At the end of the night, when the bartender couldnât find her, he attempted to run the card and got nothing.
When she laughed & told me the next day, what she had done. I went down to the bar and paid the tab. The owner was surprised that I had done this, but I didnât want him to be out the money. I didnât know if he was going to file charges against her or not, but that would have been the last thing she needed. I immediately broke up with her after that.
Oddly, she sought me out a few months later and reimbursed me (in cash). I never thought I would ever see that money again.
Kinda makes one see the sense of using a QR code ordering system as my sonâs work place does. They can run your card immediately and verify that it is good. Also, you can add a tip to your order but if you donât, the tab automatically closes out after a certain amount of time and adds 20%.
this happens more than people realize, at least in the U.S.
i feel worse for the servers, who are stiffed on the tips (no matter how little or not)
Sometimes I have felt weâve been given the twice look-over when weâve gone out to eat, especially when weâve been asked by the server BEFORE ORDERING, âand how will you be paying for your meal/experience tonight?â. Usually this happens when weâve been trying a new place or are dining out of our area. The first time we experienced this was at a resort in Fairmont, B.C. several years ago. Has dining out really become so complicated? Is it a result of the time of Covid?
Hopefully she realized what a jerk she was and amended her behavior. One can always hope.
Years ago I was at a bar\restaurant in AC. It was in a glassed-in pier with beautiful views of the ocean (so it was not an inexpensive place). There were two couples across from us at the barâeating, drinking, bantering with the bartender and other patrons. They left and the bartender looked around shockedâyep they had dashed. We all chipped in extra to try to soften the blow. Fortunately that was my first and last experience with this awful behavior (that I know of).
Not sure why this type of behavior is on the rise. There have certainly been eras of financial difficulty in the past that did not result in people trying to take advantage of local businesses.
I remember some acquaintances back in college (ca. early '80s) who did this for sport. I thought they were being assholes, and told them so, but they kept doing it.
The one time I did something like this I was in middle school. It was winter, dark & cold AF, and my GF and I were craving a hot chocolate. We went to a cafe in the center of town & each ordered one to warm up. When we counted our collective cash funds, we realized that we were a couple of DMs short. We were super-embarrassed, and I suggested that we put the money on the table, and slowly put on our coats and leave. My friend drops her coins on the table, grabs her coat & RUNS out of the cafe. Needless to say I had to do the same at this point 
I was so embarrassed and terrified of any consequences that I gave the cafe a wide berth for at least half a year.
For anyone wondering: no, Iâve never done anything like that again.
I went to a business recruitment dinner for a medical group recently (same one during which I ate lamb loin ribs with my hands 
) . The host did not attend, and we were assured it was taken care of. Even though I have only read about this ârunnerâ business, and never knowingly witnessed it, I was terrified that that might be happening!
There is an Oakland CA nail salon that has lost ~$1k due to people ordering the works and then running.
They may start charging in advance.
Iâve seen stories in the news of even groups of people doing dine & dash.
Wow.
it used to be a TikTok thing.
Sort of the opposite thing happened to my husband in Kolkata. He and our son adore a breakfast buffet, so they went to the Taj Bengal luxury hotel intending to have a blockbuster breakfast and pay per head. I didnât go as Iâm bad value at a buffet, more so at an expensive hotel one. So they walked in, made it clear to the front-of-house staff member that they werenât hotel guests and were told, thatâs not a problem. Then they spent a nice morning stuffing themselves silly. But when my husband tried to pay, any staff he flagged down just politely said, no sir, itâs included. Even though he kept saying he wasnât a guest. I donât know if the problem was his Australian accent or exceedingly trustful staff. Then he had to go to the front lobby waving a handful of cash saying, I want to pay for having the buffet. A nonplussed lady then escorted him back to the dining area and sorted things out. But he told me he could have easily walked out without paying and nobody would have noticed. Maybe itâs not a thing in India? But this was before the pandemic.
The QR method illustrates how dine and dash is a nefarious form of fraud â using false pretenses (weâre taking a seat and promising to pay) to cheat another of property. Itâs especially nefarious because so many small operator victims face a very fine edge between profit and loss, and arenât equipped to recover their loss and more from the bad actors â even if they could be identified and hauled into court.
Iâm sure itâs a problem, but Iâm having trouble swallowing that 1 of 20 number. Trying to track down the survey and get a peek at methods. Unfortunately, the âone in 20 peopleâ hyperlink in the Guardian just points to another article discussing the same thing, which also doesnât link the study.
Edit - canât find it. Apparently it was around February 2018, and commissioned by Barclaycard, who coincidentally were at the time trying to roll out an immediate payment system or app they were going to call âDine & Dashâ, which would permit diners to simply walk out without having to wait for the check.
Edit2 - this February 2018 article in The Independent is the only contemporaneous report I can find about this mysterious survey (and the independent doesnât link to anything about it, either).
Note the import here differs a bit from the Guardianâs more recent take on it (which is justified because their main point is about people doing it gleefully and maliciously):
- The research revealed fed-up restaurant goers have skipped the bill - because they were sick of waiting for the cheque.
So that 1-in-20 number may be more closely aligned with âhave you ever, in your life, skipped out on a check because it didnât come for a half hour?â
Versus the implication that âa 2018 study found that one in 20 have walked out without paying - and itâs becoming even more common nowâ.
