Scammed by barkeeper @ Wet Republic

[rooney10]

Hey guys,

so short recap about the story: went to wet in june for EDC. Since I'm from Europe I always pay with credit card bc it is easier to keep track about the money after the holiday. So I ordered three big long island cocktails which should be around 140$. Back home on the credit card bill I saw that the bar tender put 285$ on my card. Same day a friend of mine ordered the same, paid 150$ including tip but just wrote the total without specifying the tip on the bill. The same bar tender changed the 150$ to 180$.

So I tried to contact wet republic 2 times via email, but they never responded. I demanded the bill from my payment, but no response at all. I think it is a shame for such a venue to not even write back to such customer requests. Credit card company says that I need the bill for this payment so that I can proof it. Well that's a hard thing to have after a pool party. So I'm pretty much fucked in that case.

Has anybody encountered something like that? I'm pretty pissed about this whole situation!

[empire55]

Hey guys,

so short recap about the story: went to wet in june for EDC. Since I'm from Europe I always pay with credit card bc it is easier to keep track about the money after the holiday. So I ordered three big long island cocktails which should be around 140$. Back home on the credit card bill I saw that the bar tender put 285$ on my card. Same day a friend of mine ordered the same, paid 150$ including tip but just wrote the total without specifying the tip on the bill. The same bar tender changed the 150$ to 180$.

So I tried to contact wet republic 2 times via email, but they never responded. I demanded the bill from my payment, but no response at all. I think it is a shame for such a venue to not even write back to such customer requests. Credit card company says that I need the bill for this payment so that I can proof it. Well that's a hard thing to have after a pool party. So I'm pretty much fucked in that case.

Has anybody encountered something like that? I'm pretty pissed about this whole situation!

Call your credit card company and dispute the charges. By law, they will have to investigate the charge. They'll ask for proof from the merchant (the bar), and NOT you. If they're asking you to prove the payment, then they don't know what they're talking about as it doesn't make sense. Ask to speak with a manger.

Once you dispute, they'll give the merchant x days to provide proof of sale. Then it gets investigated and if they have double charged you or have changed the total, they'll be caught.

Don't let them get away with it. Dispute it. You might think that a few hundred dollars is not worth the trouble, but it's not even about the $. These things happen quite often and some bartenders think they can get away with it and that they're pretty smart. Once disputed, the management will unleash hell on these tenders. And they'll get fired. That means less people will get ripped off later.

[OmarLittle]

Is that you Wayne??

[dnix]

Im pretty sure Venues get disputes all the time, which is probably why you wont get a response. The majority of the time, either the customer was drunk and now regrets (or truly doesnt remember) over spending, OR the wife/gf has just received the bill and so the customer is trying to blame the Venue to save his relationship.

Like the person above mentioned, contact your CC company and let them handle it. If you told your CC company the exact story you just posted, there probably not taking you serious either. Id stick with, I spent XXX and was charged XXX. I want to dispute the charge. Your story makes it sound like your not sure what your bill was, your just assuming based on your friends bill.

All that being said, if your friend tipped $10 on $140 tab, the bartender might have thrown his ticket away, and then claimed he walked the tab, so he would get 20%. Not saying its right, but that seems more likely then him changing the tab. 7% probably pissed him off.

[Brooklyn Marc]

Im pretty sure Venues get disputes all the time, which is probably why you wont get a response. The majority of the time, either the customer was drunk and now regrets (or truly doesnt remember) over spending, OR the wife/gf has just received the bill and so the customer is trying to blame the Venue to save his relationship.

Like the person above mentioned, contact your CC company and let them handle it. If you told your CC company the exact story you just posted, there probably not taking you serious either. Id stick with, I spent XXX and was charged XXX. I want to dispute the charge. Your story makes it sound like your not sure what your bill was, your just assuming based on your friends bill.

All that being said, if your friend tipped $10 on $140 tab, the bartender might have thrown his ticket away, and then claimed he walked the tab, so he would get 20%. Not saying its right, but that seems more likely then him changing the tab. 7% probably pissed him off.

Well i won't post as harshly as dnix (though honestly not disagreeing with anything he wrote) but yeah it does kinda seem like your giving way too much info. By law; you dispute it they investigate. As long as you haven't made a habit of disputing charges regularly your gonna get your cash back. I'm down here quite a bit now and only use cash on the rare occasion i want to tip in cash or grease a few palms directly for a specific reason, but i haven't had anything like that happen on bills either large or small (though of course it happens, it happens in EVERY city). As far as your friend not saying it's right but... yeah the bartender DEFINITELY just added what he thought was appropriate, which again not right but happens in a lot of places.

[tr305]

Why would anyone give more than $10 tip on a round of drinks, 5 second transaction ? I'm a very good tipper and i would not give much more than that....$50 drink doesn't mean you get $10 on each.

[rooney10]

Is that you Wayne??

Unfortunately not, otherwise I wouldn't have ordered at the bar

Call your credit card company and dispute the charges. By law, they will have to investigate the charge. They'll ask for proof from the merchant (the bar), and NOT you. If they're asking you to prove the payment, then they don't know what they're talking about as it doesn't make sense. Ask to speak with a manger.

Once you dispute, they'll give the merchant x days to provide proof of sale. Then it gets investigated and if they have double charged you or have changed the total, they'll be caught.

Don't let them get away with it. Dispute it. You might think that a few hundred dollars is not worth the trouble, but it's not even about the $. These things happen quite often and some bartenders think they can get away with it and that they're pretty smart. Once disputed, the management will unleash hell on these tenders. And they'll get fired. That means less people will get ripped off later.

I told my CC company and they contacted the other bank for showing proof. Unfortunately my CC company said that they don't have to answer to that and since I don't have the bill anymore, they say that they are not responsible for it. So let's see if I get an answer from my CC company. They said that the other bank has 30 days to answer.

Well i won't post as harshly as dnix (though honestly not disagreeing with anything he wrote) but yeah it does kinda seem like your giving way too much info. By law; you dispute it they investigate. As long as you haven't made a habit of disputing charges regularly your gonna get your cash back. I'm down here quite a bit now and only use cash on the rare occasion i want to tip in cash or grease a few palms directly for a specific reason, but i haven't had anything like that happen on bills either large or small (though of course it happens, it happens in EVERY city). As far as your friend not saying it's right but... yeah the bartender DEFINITELY just added what he thought was appropriate, which again not right but happens in a lot of places.

Actually I know that I ordered 3 big long islands á 45$. Makes in total 135$. When my brother went to the same bar an hour later the bar tender made the drink more expensive. He had to pay for one big long island 56$ without tip! (In my opinion even that is a shame to adjust prices and to demand 56$! for such a drink) Calculating what he put on my bill was 5 big long islands á 56$, makes in total 280$. It was the small bar on the right hand side of the bathrooms.

But yeah I probably just should have said, that I did pay 150$ and they charged me more. Nevertheless my CC company demands the bill from my side.

Why would anyone give more than $10 tip on a round of drinks, 5 second transaction ? I'm a very good tipper and i would not give much more than that....$50 drink doesn't mean you get $10 on each.

Yeah it was 135$ and he put 150$. I know that in the states tipping more than 10% is normal, but like you said that's a 5 second transaction at the bar, so the 15$ tip seemed fine. But then again in Europe tipping is different, so maybe I'm not used to it.

[dnix]

I really wasnt judging your tip. Its your money, and you should spend it however you want. I was just explaining what probably happened. And I dont agree with the bartender doing something like that, under any circumstances.

[dnix]

Why would anyone give more than $10 tip on a round of drinks, 5 second transaction ? I'm a very good tipper and i would not give much more than that....$50 drink doesn't mean you get $10 on each.

Ive never been in the service industry, so I dont pretend to know the value of a tip on that end. I only know what the value of MY tips get me, and thats good enough for me. It really doesnt matter to me what others tip. I guess if I was honest, I hope everyone tips less than me. lol

[rooney10]

I really wasnt judging your tip. Its your money, and you should spend it however you want. I was just explaining what probably happened. And I dont agree with the bartender doing something like that, under any circumstances.

Nono I didn't take it as an insult, no worries. I know that everybody should decide what to tip. Nevertheless, like you mentioned as well, it doesn't give the bartender the right to change prices of drinks, to adjust the tip after signing the check or even putting more drinks on the bill after the customer left.

[Sortie]

Why would anyone give more than $10 tip on a round of drinks, 5 second transaction ? I'm a very good tipper and i would not give much more than that....$50 drink doesn't mean you get $10 on each.

I'm an EXCELLENT tipper as well, and agree 100% with this post.

[Sortie]

Im pretty sure Venues get disputes all the time, which is probably why you wont get a response.

That's not so. I'm QUITE sure they have a department all set up to review ALL credit card complaints. Because they get numerous complaints does NOT mean they wont respond. It's a business, not a pizza shop. They're lack of response speaks volumes.

If you told your CC company the exact story you just posted, there probably not taking you serious either

What about his description of the event would make the cc company not take him seriously?

All that being said, if your friend tipped $10 on $140 tab, the bartender might have thrown his ticket away, and then claimed he walked the tab, so he would get 20%. Not saying its right, but that seems more likely then him changing the tab. 7% probably pissed him off.

What exactly does 'thrown his ticket away' and 'walked the tab' mean?
Somehow the bartender got pissed off because of an adequate tip....so he ADDED HIS OWN TIP TO THE TAB??? Tipping is not mandatory.

[empire55]

Is this really the first you guys are hearing about such bartender "scams"?

It's SUPER common, all over the world, since the concept of credit cards came around. Bartenders usually target drunk people and change their tip amounts. That added tip then goes to their pockets. Chances are, the drunk people will never question the bill later because they won't remember much.

I don't think it has to do with the tip amount. It's mostly idiot bartenders and drunk people. I say idiot bartenders because they'll get away with it for some time, and almost always get caught eventually.

I invest in nightclubs in NYC, CA, and Dubai. In all our locations, this is a very common issue we keep running into. And our guys investigate this very quickly and get to the bottom of it. A few reviews like this could hurt an establishment more than you'd think.

[ryan850]

Is this really the first you guys are hearing about such bartender "scams"?

It's SUPER common, all over the world, since the concept of credit cards came around. Bartenders usually target drunk people and change their tip amounts. That added tip then goes to their pockets. Chances are, the drunk people will never question the bill later because they won't remember much.

I don't think it has to do with the tip amount. It's mostly idiot bartenders and drunk people. I say idiot bartenders because they'll get away with it for some time, and almost always get caught eventually.

I invest in nightclubs in NYC, CA, and Dubai. In all our locations, this is a very common issue we keep running into. And our guys investigate this very quickly and get to the bottom of it. A few reviews like this could hurt an establishment more than you'd think.

I'd agree with this sentiment. These venues make money because people enjoy going and spending their money for alcohol. I'm not sure why the venue is being so resistant in helping to resolve this given the fact that their business is based on these types of transactions. The money spent dealing with this issue def could not outweigh the cost of losing future business.

[tomm0]

I bet this happens in a ton of transactions.

Its wrong, but what can you do? if you dont notice it at the time then youre fucked. And you know that you get crap service the next time you go to the bar if you do dare say something!