Vitamin C. Having your credit and eating it too?

Recently, we ate out at two restaurants in close succession, and on both occasions, the credit card machine failed and we were forced to pay cash. One bill was for a smaller amount while the other ran into a few thousands. At both places, it was suggested to us that we could go and withdraw cash from an ATM around the corner to pay the bill. Luckily, we found we had enough on us and paid up and left.

Had the credit card facility failed earlier, the restaurant should have put up a notice it could only transact by cash, but this happened as we were having our meal. This experience left me wondering what my rights as a customer were. It seems a bit pointless to be carrying large amounts of cash along with a credit card – one of the biggest benefits of the latter, after all, is that you don’t need to have much money on you.

Could I have refused to settle the bill then and there as it was not my fault? Could I have paid later, or perhaps have someone from the restaurant come and collect the money the next day? Did the restaurants have the legal right to insist I pay up right then or proceed against me if I did not?

I’m not sure how many of us (restaurants or customers) would see this issue all the way through to court but out of curiosity, I checked. According to Abitha Deepak of bankbazaar.com, “this seems like a very subjective situation between the restaurant manager and customer. I guess in a typical scenario ATM visit is likely ... considering a charged ATM transaction is Rs 20 ... it may not be a big issue for someone who had a huge restaurant bill and which is likely to be lesser than the waiter's tip, in such situations.”

Chennai-based restaurateur Vipin Sachdev, who runs a clutch of Subway outlets and several fine-dining establishments, says it’s for the restaurant and the customer to sort out. In such situations, the name and phone number of customers are noted down and payments are followed up on later.

Sachdev says about 30-40 per cent of the customers will not have cash. “People are decent. Even if it’s not their fault, they themselves come back later to pay,” he says, adding that hardly anyone goes without paying sooner or later.

He relates how, in 2010, his restaurants used to have only one bank’s credit card machines. And about three times that year, the machines across his restaurants failed to work, curiously, all three times on Saturday nights. “A lot of the customers went away. But they all paid up. Some came back and paid. One of them was a top police official. When I apologised for the failure, he even joked that when he came back to settle the bill, he’d eat again at the restaurant and spend some more money there,” says Sachdev, adding that this person borrowed money from his wife, daughter and even his driver to settle the bill then and there.

Since then, Sachdev has added the credit card machines of other banks at his restaurant to prevent this kind of crisis.

A GPRS machine that is used to settle bills for home deliveries comes in handy when the restaurant’s landline fails and none of the credit card machines work, he says, adding that small restaurants usually cannot afford to maintain more than one bank’s credit card machine.

Vitamin C is a weekly dose of consumer empowerment

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