Was I the victim of an attemted con or an honest mistake?

I'm not going to mention the restaurant involved because I don't have any proof and I don't want to get sued. Plus it could have been an honest mistake--although that seems incredibly unlikely.

Last night my wife and I went for dinner at this unnamed restaurant. We had 2 entrees and 3 drinks. The bill our server brought us was computer generated and was about $10 more than I was expecting, so I re-did the math in my head. The prices for the entrees and drinks were correct and the subtotal for the items was correct, and the tax amount looked about right. But the total for the subtotal and the tax was $11 more than it should have been. My first thought was that they had added the tip but a) there was no mention of a tip on the bill, and b) the $11 "tip" was more than 18%, in fact it was more than 20%. (And there were only 2 of us anyway.) When I brought the matter to my server's attention, she laughed it off and said that they had been having "computer problems" and that the computer had once undercharged some other customers by $10. She brought me a corrected bill (and she kept the original), we paid and that was that.

I first chalked it up to "mistakes will happen," however, the more I the more I think about it, the less I like it. I can see a math mistake being made by a person, but how can a computer do that? Plus, if they were aware of the problem, why would they keep using the computer, especially if it once had almost cost them money?

So, I'm posting this message. My reasons are threefold:
1) I know there are a lot of industry people here. Have any of you ever heard of anything like this happening? Does cash register software ever become glitchy enough to make math mistakes? Or are there some restaurant owners who are unscrupulous enough to add a "recession tax" to bills?
2) Is there anyplace like the BBB that I can report this incident to? And if so, should I?
3) Also, I wanted to send out a cautionary note to the consumers here. Don't think that just because the receipt is computer generated, that it is automatically correct. Do the math yourselves. You could be saving yourself money.

I think it's more common than people think.
Computers are not infallible. Whenever we grocery shop at Meijer, there is almost always a mistake on some item. Sometimes it adds up to quite a bit of money. However I've never had a problem getting a refund. But if I hadn't checked the receipt then I would have never known. Better to be safe than sorry.

Scott-
This does sound rather odd, although I'm in no position to judge whether intentional or a POS error as claimed.
I do however find fault with restaurant management as well as the server. Since they were apparently aware of "issues" with the bills, then my reasonable expectation would be that someone should have manually checked each and every tab for accuracy.
BP

I think it's more common than people think.
Computers are not infallible. Whenever we grocery shop at Meijer, there is almost always a mistake on some item. Sometimes it adds up to quite a bit of money. However I've never had a problem getting a refund. But if I hadn't checked the receipt then I would have never known. Better to be safe than sorry.

Dan-
This sounds like something different from the scams (whoops, scans) at the grocery store. Scott mentions that the prices of each item on the bill were correct, but the systems screwed up the math/arithmetic.

I do however find fault with restaurant management as well as the server. Since they were apparently aware of "issues" with the bills, then my reasonable expectation would be that someone should have manually checked each and every tab for accuracy.

Perhaps they fixed the issue in the past and for some reason it is still occurring; I would not put it past fixing one thing and another thing breaking until they find the cause. But, I can't say for certain. However, if they continued using the software/etc with no attempts to repair it; then I would place blame on them for not having tried to correct the problem.

I find it very hard to believe that the system would cause an error like this by mistake. Especially since all of the individual items were correct. When system errors occur it's because of mistakes with information provided, something that obviously was not a problem here. If the number had been 18% or 20% I might have blamed the system thinking it was a large party and adding a tip but it wasn't. Maybe I'm wrong but it sounds like something fishy is going on here.

Like others mentioned if they know they have a problem they should be manually checking each bill. I'm betting the errors are always in their favor (despite what the waitress told you), so if it is truly in error they are in no hurry to fix it.

I wish he would share with us the name of the restaurant so we can be sure to check our bills when dining there.

computers don't make mistakes.

Computers do malfunction without human interaction. Even when they've done their best to ensure it's in operating order. They are not infallible.

Most POS systems have you manually set the sales tax, as it is different from state to state, and in some places different from city to city. Someone could have simply set the tax incorrectly. Whether this was to make extra money in hopes that someone would not detect it or not is a different question.

On some POS systems, you also have to program what information prints on the customer's receipt.

For instance, a substitution or addition to any order may print in the kitchen, but not on the receipt (and a substitution/addition may be assigned an additional up charge that is not printing on the receipt).

The important thing in this interaction is that the bill was corrected immediately and one would hope that the restaurant in question tracked down the source of said error and corrected the problem.

shawn

I've seen a lot of POS systems in my days and I've never heard of one making customer totals wrong. Maybe an inventory problem every once in awhile, but not a customer ticket.

Maybe you've been Krag'd

It's an unexplained phenomenon going around town that started about three years ago with the football team and is know spreading like wildfire.

Why don't you talk to the manager / owner about the incident. Maybe they have an employee trying to cheat the customers or maybe it is a faulty POS; either way the management needs to know so they can be given a chance to address the problem. If they don't give you a satisfactory answer then I would make it public. Times are tough enough for restaurants as it is now.

Hmm.. I am not sure how the server could get the bill to print a total different than the total of the itemization.

If it were possible and the server was indeed trying to scam you, my next question would be in regard to how you paid. Tickets paid by cash would obviously be the easiest to scam. If you paid by credit card, the only way the server could collect the difference is if the credit card system is operated separately from the POS system. It seems like the server would have to know before hand how you intended to pay before attempting to scam you. If not, it is awfully brave as well as stupid.

Sounds like computer error.