What if a restaurant suddenly cannot accept credit cards, and the customer has no cash?4 edi Prh2lnu.731tedo 2
If a restaurant normally accepts credit cards, and a customer eats a meal there, then tries to pay with his valid credit card, and the cashier says the credit card system is down and they can only accept cash today, and the customer has no cash, and no easy way to get cash, can the customer legally leave without ever paying? Does the restaurant have a simple and legal way to enforce the debt?
Assume the restaurant displays signs that they accept credit cards, and gives no prior notice to the contrary. Also assume the restaurant's bank has just severed its relationship with the restaurant, so credit card payments in any form are not viable.
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12Restaurants (and pretty much any service that depends on payment after services rendered) have paper credit card receipts that they can fill out and manually process later in the event their card systems go down. I've never encountered a restaurant that didn't have this procedure, and would be incredibly surprised to find one that legitimately said they could only accept cash right now. I just experienced this at Applebee's a couple weeks ago. – animuson♦ 19 hours ago
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1@markb But you pay for your food before the food is ever given at a place like that. There's no damage to the business if you just walk away, nor is there any debt. All that happens is they lose a customer that didn't have cash. – animuson♦ 18 hours ago
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3@markb Ive not seen this at any McDonalds ive been to. I semi regularly buy food there late at night while driving and have never once used (or even had on me for that matter) cash. Which country and area is this? – Vality 12 hours ago
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1I'd ask for their bank details, pull out my phone and transfer them the balance – Nick Edwards 10 hours ago
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2@Zach I haven't seen anyone use a device like that in ages. They just write down the numbers onto the paper in the appropriate spots. They don't need a card imprint to process a card later. In my experience only the managers/supervisors are trained with this form, but someone there should have knowledge of what to do. It's really not hard. – animuson♦ 6 hours ago
3 Answers
There is no intention to commit theft, so there is no criminal act on the part of the customer.
Even if there was a criminal act, the ability of the restaurant to detain the cusomer (citizen's arrest) is very limited in most jurisdictions.
The restaurant can ask the customer for his name and address, but there is no legal obligation on the customer to provide this. Refusal to do so, however, might be evidence of intention to avoid paying and at that point the restaurant might call the police.
The customer can leave, and the restaurant can pursue the debt through the civil courts if they have means to do so - they may have CCTV of the customer and his car registration which can be traced.
Petrol stations, where people often fill up and then realise they can't pay, usually have established "promise to pay" procedures where they take the customer's details and the customer has 48 hours to pay before police or civil enforcement action is taken.
Time to negotiate. I had this happen with a $46 tab. I told the manager that I had $21, and that the server should get a tip before the bill was paid. I also offered to take their address and send a check.
The manager accepted the $21 and agreed that the server would get $8 of it first. Possibly less risk for them than relying on me to send a check.
From a legal standpoint, they changed the payment terms mid-stream, after I sat down and ordered (contracted) and demanded payment in a specie which I did not expect. In retrospect, I thought that I should not have offered all the cash I had, and it left me in a different town, without an ATM card, and a full day ahead of me. I have not studied it recently, but signs like "no coins" and "no bills over $20" place limitations on how one can pay, and may not be legal. A place doing rather high volume of business should have change for bills over a $20 but they put the signs up after getting a large number of counterfeit bills at a festival.
However in the scenario presented, finding out that no credit cards are accepted after contracting for food seems like one which requires some flexibility.
One could walk away, but if the establishment wants to call the police, I would hang around to make your statement to the police, and explain to them that there is no intent to not pay (therefore not criminal, but rather civil). They will most likely make notes and not detain you further.
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10The musing about restrictions on payment methods being illegal is incorrect. Businesses are required to accept legal tender for settlement of existing debts. They are absolutely permitted to restrict methods of payment as part of the negotiation of the transaction - if you do not like the required payment method, you are free to not enter into the contract. Many businesses nowadays do not accept cash at all, and this is perfectly compliant with the law. – David 18 hours ago
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1@David, the problem comes in, as the OP stated, when one finds out about a change in terms after the contract (order and service). – mongo 17 hours ago
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1@David, your statement appears to be self contradictory in "required to accept legal tender" and "restrict methods of payment." Normally coins and banknotes are considered legal tender, and credit cards, debit cards and similar and electronic forms are not. Legal tender laws normally define what must be accepted to satisfy a debt. If cash must be accepted, and a business does not accept cash, AND informs you after a debt is established, that would be an interesting case. Do you have a case cite on that? – mongo 17 hours ago
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4Indeed, which is why I was explicit that I was addressing only your incorrect side musing, not the original situation. My statement only appears contradictory if you quote the first half of the sentence I wrote out of the important context provided by the latter half. You will find less apparent contradictions in life if you stop quoting people out of context. If nobody has ever explained the importance of context to you before, let this serve to do so. – David 16 hours ago
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@mongo the keyword is existing debts. Refusing to accept the correct change when a contract is entered is forbidden, but refusing to enter a contract in the first place is lawful. – HAEM 22 mins ago
Does anyone know what happens if there is an ATM nearby but the it has a fee of e.g. 4$? Do I have to pay the fee then?
