Drove by here today and the place was completely boarded-up. Does anyone know if they have closed permanently?
they’re still taking orders on tock
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They’ve also posted their menu as an IG story an hour ago…
They boarded up during the protests and never took them off.
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Fraudulent claims sited as major reason. Infuriating and sad.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CLnweYmjIGY/?igshid=ggc3n8d04sr9
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Wow, I don’t want to admit I’m surprised and naive but I didn’t realize the scamming was that pervasive. That’s some real scum of the earth level stuff to want to take out a small business that’s already fighting uphill in the pandemic.
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This is really frustrating and sad to read. I imagine this scheme is a problem everywhere, but I wonder why it hit them particularly hard? Perhaps their high visibility for a restaurant of their size?
I assume they concluded a cash only model wouldn’t work, although given the level of hype and name recognition around their business, I wonder if it might not have let them survive.
I remain a little fuzzy about how exactly this scheme works, but I would hope there are things other small restaurants can do to protect themselves and prevent this outcome.
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I do think policies and procedures night have been able to be put in place to remedy this but She probably didn’t have the bandwidth to deal with that and deal with everything else in the restaurant from cooking to cleaning.
Hopefully this will not be her last restaurant
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what can a restaurant even do to protect against orders being placed with a stolen credit card?
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I suspect the rules vary by contract; my general recollection is that restaurants (and other businesses) are protected when they process payment via the chip in the card but not when they accept the number over the phone, online, etc. So they would need to match ID for non-chip transactions, which is a pain. And of course even that does not protect against a customer using their own card who just claims they never got their food.
Interestingly, on Jenn Harris’ IG page, Zack Pollack of Alimento commented that they switched to using Doordash for pick ups precisely because the app does cover chargebacks in these situations. And Domaine LA reports they are getting hit too and that they suspect the couriers are participating in the fraud. Interesting and sad times.
Finally — and I’m not saying this happened in the case of Spoon — I would say one out of three orders I place is somewhat or entirely incorrect upon delivery, including some or even most items missing. I could imagine a restaurant owner viewing my credit request as fraudulent when in fact their kitchen gets orders wrong more than they realize and/or there was “leakage” by the courier.
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Yeah its considered Card Not Present if there’s no physical swipe or chip involved. Even entering the card number by hand in person isn’t protected.
People put stolen numbers onto fake, non working credit cards and when it doesn’t swipe or recognize chip they go Oh that always happens, can you just enter the numbers?
Online there are certain safeguards you can implement depending on your payment backend. But they take work to verify something that doesnt match up 100% and then you’re exposed to liability no matter what evidence you collect.
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Cash may become king again. Or at least a rook.
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It’ll be interesting to see if some business try to move back to cash given the rise of contactless payment due to COVID. It also means that they’d have to turn off their delivery platforms, which is still probably an important source of potential business given the seating restrictions.
Maybe the way to go is how Bay Cities handles transactions -cash or debit card only
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bitcoin/zelle only.
Ethereum, cashier’s checks and IOUs only. #SometimeYouWannaGoWhereEverybodyIsOnTheFringe #UncleWimpy
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I’ve always assumed cash only was a ruse to avoid taxes. Maybe not…
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Immediate, uncontested and legal tender rendered in fulfillment of anonymous debt.
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Sometimes paying with a wad of cash and both parties walking away with no further contact or trace of the transaction is the best way.
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