Can I be liable for an unpaid bill by a customer?

Sorry to hear this happening to you OP. Hope you don't have to pay the bill.

Shelflife wrote: »

Did they get food and drink?

Did they get a bill for the food but not for the drink or vice versa?

It would seem that the group got food( served by a colleague) and drink( served by OP).

It is stated by OP that she forgot to provide the group with the bill which would have included both food and drink elements.

There are a number of factors to be considered before giving a definitive answer to the question posed by OP,

1.Regardless of whether there is a Contractural Clause that would allow for lawful deductions to be made, if there is a policy in the establishment that makes it easy for diners to leave without paying then the establishment is also at fault.

2.It would be unjust and unfair if the management allowed customers to abuse their hospitality by giving them the freedom to abscond whilst insisting that a staff member would always have to foot the bill.

3.There are varying degrees of trust granted by food establishments to their clientele; in some cases( fast food), payment is demanded prior to service, in other places( self service,canteens, etc) payment is made at a till point before the food is taken away or brought to a table.
Where the establishment elects to extend trust to include periods of time beyond service of food and drink, there needs to be a VERY clear procedure in place to prevent non payment of the bill.
Each person employed must be very clear of their duties and responsibilities to protect their employer whilst at the same time ensuring that the customer is treated with respect and courtesy.

4.A number of posters have resorted to abusing the manager; I am fairly certain that such an attitude will not result in a lasting solution and is unhelpful to erect barriers when seeking an approach that is fair and reasonable to ALL sides.

5. If the OP could forget about the Contract and whether or not she may or may not have an obligation to make good the loss incurred and seek from the Management a WRITTEN policy on Bill presentation and payment procedures to be provided to all employees.
This would be used as the framework through which any deductions may be contemplated, with clear lines of duties, responsibilities and obligations outlined.

seb65 wrote: »

You're right. It's the customers that stole the drinks. Not getting a timely bill in a restaurant does not entitle people to leave without paying.

Even if you did forget to pass them the bill, it is not your fault. They "dined and dashed" after you went home. Ultimately the fault lies with the thieves, but if the scabby manager is insistent on blaming someone, it should be whoever let them out the door without paying.

The customer is never entitled to leave without paying, and if they didn't get a bill, they should have called a member of staff and asked about payment before leaving the establishment. The customer is legally at fault. In practice, good luck tracking them down and recouping the money, it's not going to happen, so the business is now out of pocket!

That said, while it is human to make mistakes and everybody makes mistakes sometimes (and forgetting to do something that one has been expressly instructed to do - like handing over a bill that had already been prepared by a co-worker), the reality is that mistakes have consequences that have to be faced. The business is out of money as a result of a staff mistake, and no business will survive if staff mistakes aren't minimised (if not entirely eliminated). To me, it sounds like the manager might be using this incident 'for training purposes' in an attempt to minimise future mistakes: to highlight the importance of not forgetting to do something as significant as billing the customer: and that's a pretty important task in the running of an establishment. Nice? No. Fair? Debatable. Likely to bring home the point that a member of staff should NOT leave their post unless and until they have completed billing the customers that they have served? Highly likely.

At 100 euro, it's an expensive training exercise for the staffer. But this time around it might be worth 'taking the hit' and making every effort to show the boss that you've 'learned the lesson' (because they could also be testing the staffer to see whether they appreciate the seriousness of lost income due to staff error). The boss might even relent and not make the deduction. But even if they don't relent: expensive lesson learned, and mistake unlikely to be repeated!

The other colleagues who 'let the customer out the door' was under the impression that OP had taken responsibility for billing the customer, so they are definitely not liable for OP's mistake! (Think if OP's colleague came on here asking for legal advice about what to do if the manager tried to hold them accountable after it was OP's table and the staff knew OP had been given the bill to hand over, and assumed that OP had done that task as requested: would you counsel them that they are required to foot the bill in this case? I don't think so).

If it was me, I would admit the mistake, take the hit, and pay close attention to billing in future. If the boss tried to deduct wages again for another future mistake, then I'd want to sit down and have a conversation about the training methods being used in the establishment - but otherwise, if I wanted to keep working there, I would make nice just this once.

A customer leaving without paying a bill is not an error on the part of the employee, therefore is not deductible from wages, full stop.

If the customer was fed up waiting for their bill to be delivered, what they should do is put on their coat and walk up to the till, making sure to be as big a nuisance as possible.

"I asked for the bill and they didn't give it to me, therefore I assume they don't want me to pay for my meal" wouldn't stand up in court.

Santa Cruz wrote: »

You gave them the bill but due to your admitted inefficiency you neglected to give them the complete bill. You are at fault for this loss and I think it is correct that you make up the loss. Perhaps you could come to some arrangement where you pay it off in instalments. I don't see why an employer should have to carry the loss

Are you serious ?

Filibuster wrote: »

... how is it the fault of the staff membe, especially if their shift had ended and their at home.

Neglecting to give the customer the already-prepared bill is the staff member's fault. What happened to that piece of paper? Dropped on the floor? Found in a jacket pocket the next day? Where did the bill go?

Confessing to something and taking the hit just to please the boss is stupid. It makes you look guilty, incompetent and a complete walk over.

Admitting a mistake is a smart move: makes a worker look like they understand what they did wrong and are willing to learn from their mistakes, increasing the boss's esteem for their integrity and building trust in them as someone who appreciates the value of payment for products and services.

Refusing to admit the mistake makes the worker look like a hard-arsed 'I know my rights' type who is going to end up costing the business time, money and heartache over and again in the future.

If I was the boss... I'd know which type of worker I'd be more inclined to hire and keep in the long term.

seamus wrote: »

Yes it is. However the customer walking out without paying, is not the staff member's fault. The loss incurred is due to theft on the part of the customer, not error on the part of staff.

Not being presented with a bill, does not mean that the customer's meal is free. Not in any restaurant in this country and not in any country that I've ever been to. You get the bill or you go to the till.

If you read my previous post, you will see that I said exactly the same thing.

...the one who will pay your losses for you, I presume?

No, not at all. The one who understands that they need to not create losses for me by not taking their job seriously.

For the record: I'm not in favour of an employer deducting money from anyone's wages - but the point here is: does the worker understand that they made a mistake, and how likely are they to make the same mistake again in the future?

One mistake = no biggie. A series of mistakes repeated over time because the 'worker knows their rights' more than they're willing to learn from a mistake, is going to be a problem, and will cause the worker to lose that job.

As I understand it and I'm not looking at it from a legal standpoint, the customers were still eating and drinking after the OP finished work. Surely someone else then took over responsibility for that table then.

And when the customers had finished, surely they would have asked for a bill (assuming they had intended to pay at all).

And if it's the case that they paid part of the bill but not for the drinks, how big a round was it that it cost €100. That sounds like they had more drinks after the OP left.

It sounds to me like either someone else made a mistake after the OP left or the customers did a runner which they were possibly going to do regardless.

In a work environment like that (highlighted by another member of staff serving drinks to the OP's table) clearly everyone works as a team. So after the OP had left, why was no one else keeping an eye on that table and their bill and why is it solely the OP's responsibility now?

I think you're making a mountain out of a molehill, it'll blow over and you won't have to pay anything.
If the place was doing well a few drinks shouldn't matter,sure if the place was managed right this would never have happened.

It all depends on the mindset of management, if they're dicks they'll try and make you pay if they're sound they will just forget about it.

I worked in a few place's run by dicks and it's an awful place to be....