Agree w/ what everyone else has written. Splitting a check for ≤ 3 people (esp if the bill is relatively large) does not seem to onerous a task to ask of the wait staff (IMHO). More than that, one or two people will split and then rest of us will just say, “I’ll get you the next time we go out.”
Har!
That’s why, whenever someone asks, “Oh, why don’t you serve on this board or this committee,” I always say, “Hell to the no!!!” if the committee is supposed to actually, you know, organize something.
It’s only ageism if you don’t like old people. Personally, I like them and am always patient and helpful and growl at people that are rude or impatient with our elders. So, kettle… black? Or is that racist?
When I was in Montreal a couple of years ago, all of the restaurant servers had a hand-held POS device that they punched the orders into and were able to divide up the billing any way the customer wanted to. I was traveling with two other friends and we split the bill with multiple cards on several occasions. It was a great system that was fast and easy. I wish this was available in LA,
Some places in LA have the waitstaff/POS systems as well. Unfortunately, I recall seeing them at chainy -type places for the most part. I’m assuming it’s not cost-effective to consider for now.
There every restaurant with table service that we went to had them, regardless of size. They were also able to use it to swipe our cards at the table and print out individual receipts for each person. It made the payment processing/check out effortless.
I think this is a common issue with our country. We tend to be very slow in accepting and applying new technology. Think about how long it’s taken for the US to start Incorporating EMV technology in credit cards. This has been in wide use throughout most of Europe and Japan.
One of the major roadblocks was for merchants to to change over to the new system. The cost to upgrade to the new systems were viewed by many as prohibitive.
Another issue might be cost of wireless service. Wireless/cell services here tend to be higher than most other developed countries as well.
The US is also huge, and the infrastructure issues (age, cost of upgrades, replacement) can seem insurmountable. Canada is huge as well, but their comparatively small population size imposes far less demands on their infrastructure.
I don’t know how much this type of technology changeover would cost in Canada, as well as what wireless service costs there, and who knows - this change may have been mandated or become standardized in Canada.
I haven’t done a lot of traveling abroad, but my BIL has done a lot of Asian business travel and says that we are light years behind with how technology is applied on a national scale. He says that many countries in Asia have regular, every day things that far exceed whatever we have here. Granted, as you mentioned, the US is huge—so implementing anything happens at a turtle pace.
Not necessarily. It’s also ageist to stereotype old people as holding up lines by counting out change when we all know it’s homeless teens and hipsters with their coin purses (“curses”) who are the real problem.
Ineptitude of cashiers also contributes to this. I mentioned an example of this on the Bludso’s thread. I just experienced problems again at Fresh Brothers in MdR (I know - but it was a fund raiser for my son’s school).
Cashier says, “$48.50.”
“Okay, here’s $60.”
“Oh, cash? Uh…”
Cashier slowly pokes at register keyboard, punching in some amount.
“I owe you $27.50, but I only have almost all singles.”
“Wait - I thought you said $48.50 - how much is it again?”
“It’s $32.50.”
“Are you sure? I don’t want to confuse things, but please double-check the amount I owe you and give me back my $60.”
“I already put your money in the register.”
“Okay, but you do recall that I gave you three 20s, right?”
“Yeah, and the correct amount is $32.50, so I owe you $27.50.”
Cashier starts counting out two fives, and the rest in singles - why he can’t just pull one of my 20s out of the register and give me a five and two singles plus change is beyond me. But I don’t want to further confuse the kid at this point, so I take the wad of paper, drop a few in the tip jar and leave with a big bump on my ass from my exploding wallet.
I have to assume that the vast majority of transactions are via plastic. Swipe, tear off receipt, have customer sign, put paper in register. For this kid not to be able to properly handle my transaction speaks volumes as to how challenged so many kids are nowadays because technology replaces the need for them to think on their feet.
no, it’s about disclosure. anytime you add a surcharge for non cash purchases, CA law requires that you disclose the practice to allow a customer to be able to use cash to avoid the surcharge.
the petroleum industry has done this for quite a while by offering a “cash discount” and the loophole works for them because they’re selling only one product - gasoline.
i know a bit about it because i (among other things) sell merchant services including electronic credit card/check processing, point of sale systems, etc. and one of the services i offer is how to pass on surcharges to customers in a lawful way - wouldn’t be good business to sell a product that leaves you liable to prosecution. as i mentioned before:
the customer needs to have full disclosure about the business practice. the process i advocate which i assume was vetted by our hot and juicy in house counsel includes:
posting a large sign visible to the customer informing them of the practice;
amount of the surcharge MUST be included in the subtotal as a separate and reviewable line item, the amount can NOT be greater than the actual surcharges (so as to make a profit), so a terminal with proprietary hardware and software is required from us to print the authorization form.
the customer must be able to choose whether or not to accept the surcharge, so this procedure is not permitted for pin-debit transactions, as well for for card not present transactions (phoned in, entered online, etc.). (these loopholes allow vendors to eat the surcharges for selected customers if it risks losing their business;
my understanding was that some of the high end dim sum places were considering it: they have a monopoly of sorts, a lot of the customers are used to paying cash anyway. and their customers really can’t go anywhere else if all of them do it.
yes, and when i see folks doing that i let them know that they could be prosecuted if anyone elected to report them. they’re usually small enough fry that no one really cares anyway. but they are open to prosecution.
- but it was a fund raiser for my son’s school).