Overcharged Again!
They overcharged me again! It happens more than I would like to mention, but I have to tell about this one. It is one of the most frustrating things to an ex-pat.Last night I was out with a friend having dinner at a very local Chinese restaurant, noted for dumplings. I enjoy dumplings, and having been to this location several times, it was one of my preferred local restaurants. And all was going pretty well, until the bill came!
Okay, there was one other thing. The waiter tried to spill a plate of chicken and ginger sauce in my lap. Luckily, he did not succeed, or I may have not been so tolerant. But the young man was trying hard, and the plate only slipped sideways and fortunately, all the sauce ran to the end of the table instead of in my lap.
He was apologetic and seemingly very embarrassed. At least, I thought so. And after surveying the situation, we decided to just forego the plate instead of waiting for another. And that was fine.
Only when I got the bill, the plate of chicken was still on the bill! And not only that, there was an added plate of green vegetable, that was never ordered, much less ever seen. The manager did finally take off the items and deduct to the proper amount. But believe it or not, that took two other waiters and a sub-manager and at least 15 minutes to get straight.
Now I thought the waiter had been very kind and apologetic. And the restaurant had seemingly been rather apologetic for the scene too. But that didn’t deter them from testing the financial waters. As an Westerner unable to read a bill, you have to be very careful here.
At first, I was always rather open and just let things go by too easily. I’ve adjusted and become a little less tolerant. And that’s because it happens far too frequently. I hate to say it, but I think they assume we Westerners will not care and have too much money. They love to give discount or VIP cards out to guests, particularly Westerners. And some hotels even sell special packages that include memberships that get discounts for meals. But don’t count on the bill to include the discount. It often takes several rounds of reminding and proving to get the discount – even for members that probably patronize a location every night!
The sad thing is the Chinese are really missing out on more income if they would do it differently. You see, tip of 10% is usually included in all bills, and I and most Westerners would probably leave change and extra tip if they would just treat us fairly. But no, instead most of us have realized that we have to carefully check each line item and total more diligently to assure no overcharging. If not, great I am happy to tip a little extra, but unfortunately, that is more rare than frequent.
BTW, that restaurant is no longer on my frequent dining list.
posted by A Bryson (formerly) in China @ 6:24 PM
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