Skylark Diner
Added a TIP to my credit card without my permission

I went to the Skylark Diner with my fiance on July 4th. Being a holiday weekend and very early in the morning, the place wasnt very crowded, as most people were down the shore for the weekend.

We were waited on by a young waitress by the name of Jeanette M. She walked over to the table, and right off, had an attitude— sort of "Snooty" and she literally had her nose in the air, but ok, whatever...

When I go out to eat, I expect the server to approach the table in a friendly manner, smile, and say "Good Morning" or something, but she didnt; she just said "What can I start you with?"...

So we placed our order. She returned a short time later with our coffee, and again a short time later with our bread basket. We drank half of our coffee and continued to sit there. She never came by to refill our cups. Okay...

So she finally brings our breakfast, drops the plates off, and walks away...

Normally, a server should return within 5 minutes to see if everything is ok. You know, is the order correct, how does everything taste, do we need anything else, etc... But she didnt come back in 5 minutes or 10 minutes... If she had I would have informed her the home fries were ice cold and my fiance found a hair in his breakfast... But she never came back at all to check if we needed anything.

Now our coffee cups are empty... No waitress...

So I got up, took our empty cups over to the coffee urn and filled them myself.

Meanwhile, another gentleman sat down at a table across from ours, and she never went to wait on him at all; He sat there for about 15 minutes and was ignored, so he finally he flagged down another waitress, who said she had no idea where Jeanette was, so she decided to take his order.

There was also a couple sitting in the booth next to us that also needed refills on their coffee, but Jeanette was nowhere to be found. Again, keep in mind, its about 8:15 am and the place is practically empty, so its not like they were super busy, so there was no excuse for Jeanettes bad service.

As we were eating, I looked over toward the kitchen area and saw the hostess say something to Jeanette, (some sort of reprimand) and Jeanettes reply was irritated, and she said something like ".. I am doing the best I can..." and she just walked away, so apparantly the hostess was aware that Jeanette was sucking wind in general...

So we finish eating, and still nothing. She never came back to ask how our food was, did we need anything, how about more coffee, etc...

She came by to drop off the bill, and even then, didnt ask if we wanted anything, and didnt bother to take away any of the dirty dishes, either...

As we walked toward the front, there was an older lady there w / short dark hair (the same hostess who had yelled at Jeanette earlier) and she briefly glanced at us, but not a word. No "hello", no "Thanks for coming", no "Have a good day".. Nothing...

Like an idiot, I had left 3 bucks on the table before I walked toward the register to pay; all of the sudden Jeanette appears and says "You dont pay at the register anymore, you pay me.." so I gave her my Visa debit card. She walked away, and a minute later came back and handed me 2 receipts: 1 for me to sign and leave with the restaurant, and the other was my copy.

My bill came to exactly $19.86. The second line of the credit card slip had the space that said "TIP", so being that I left 3 bucks on the table, I wrote in the words "ON TABLE", and then underneath, there is a line that says "TOTAL" where you write in the final total, and I wrote in $19.86.

As we were ready to leave, my fiance said "Why did you even tip her? She did a crappy job" and I said "I know, you are right.." so he went back to the table and took the 3 dollars back, and we left.

Fast forward to Wednesday, July 9: I go on line to check my bank statement, and there is a charge on my account for the Skylark Diner, July 4, for $23.00!!

They helped themselves to an extra $3.14 of my money!

I immediately went into my purse and found the carbon of my receipt, and you could clearly see the imprint of where I wrote "On Table" in the Tip area, and also where I wrote "$19.86" in the total area...

So I called my bank and filed a fraud charge, and the bank credited me immediately over the phone. It took about 5 minutes and they had the $3.14 immediately back into my account.

I called the Skylark right away and asked to speak to the manager; the person on the phone said the manager was busy, could she take a message, so I told her what happened. I didnt get halfway thru the story when she said "Oh, I remember you..." Turns out I was speaking to the same hostess that was there that day, and I was suprised... I mean, WHY would she remember me? She never said hello to me. Never came to my table. Didnt ring up our bill... Although the restaurant wasnt very busy, I would say there were probably 10 other tables there, so its not like we were the ONLY people in the place...

So I said "How do you remember me?" and she didnt answer, all she said was "I am the hostess who was on that day.." so she was the lady with the dark hair who yelled at Jeanette... Anyway, she tells me "I know exactly what happened. Whenever you eat at a restaurant, VISA automatically charges your card with a tip— sort of like a "credit hold"— because VISA doesnt know how much tip you may or may not leave, so they just go ahead and take out a tip, and then a few days later, it gets reversed, and you only pay for the original amount. Sometimes it takes the servers a few hours to put the final, correct amount of the tip..." huh? A few hours? WHY wouldnt the person running the credit card complete the transaction ALL AT ONCE? Why would anyone wait a few hours before finishing ringing up a bill?

I proceded tp tell her that I eat out at restaurants ALL THE TIME, and this has NEVER HAPPENED TO ME BEFORE... I eat at Sherbans Ddiner, the Galaxy Ddiner, Menlo Diner, and there is never been 1 extra penny charged to my Visa Debit card ever. I am 40 years old, eat out a lot, and have lived in 5 different states and this has never once happened to me before, and I told her that...

Her response was "Wow, really? Because it happens to me all the time!"

She promised me the money would be back in my account "soon", which is a LIE... Its already been 2 1/2 business days since the 4th of July... There is no credit coming back to me from anywhere...

I am not worried about it now anyway, because my bank immediately credited the money back to my account and said they were going to reverse the charges back to the Skylark, and when I just checked my bank account, the money IS now back in my account.

Just out of curiosity, I went on line and checked up on VISAs policy on tips. They DO have a feature where a type of "credit hold" can be put on a persons credit card / debit card regarding tips, BUT— IT IS NOT A VISA MANDATED POLICY TO DO THIS— IT IS UP THE RESTAURANT WHETHER OR NOT THIS IS DONE— THE RESTAURANT CHOOSES TO SET THEIR CREDIT CARD TERMINAL TO DO THIS. They can set it up to charge you 10%, 15%, 20%, etc. ITS SOMETHING THE RESTAURANT HAS TO PHYSICALLY SET UP THEIR CREDIT CARD MACHINE TO DO, VISA DOESNT AUTOMATICALLY DO IT!

Not only that, but once the restaurant puts in the "final total" on whatever your bill should be, the "hold" gets released and the card ends up finally being charged with whatever amount the restaurant finally tells it to.

So here is the conclusion, and here is how I know what the hostess said to me is bullsh*t:

1) The simple fact that the hostess immediately REMEMBERED WHO I WAS / REMEMBERED MY GUEST CHECK was a BIG red flag: again, why would she remember us from that day? We didnt complain to anyone about anything. There was nothing unusual about what we ordered, or the way we were dressed, or anything else. As I said before, we werent the only people there at the time, & as we were leaving the place was starting to fill up and get busy, so WHY would she IMMEDIATELY REMEMBER ME and MY GUIEST CHECK? Answer: Because there is no doubt in my mind that stupid waitress JEANETTE complained to the hostess that we stiffed her on the tip; from there, either Jeanette took it upon herself to add a tip to my card, or the hostess did it for her. WHY ELSE WOULD SHE HAVE REMEMBERED US? Like I said before, she never said one word to us. Barely even glanced at us. No hello, goodbye or anything else, so she had NO REASON TO REMEMBER US EXCEPT THE FACT THAT EITHER SHE OR THE WAITRESS ADDED THAT TIP TO MY BILL.

2) Even if it was a situation where VISA took out a "credit hold" on my debit card for the exta $3.14, it would have CERTAINLY BEEN REMOVED BY NOW. Even by the hostesses own explanation, the "hold" gets reversed and the correct amount is charged to the card ".. As soon as the server completes the transaction.." so are they trying to tell me that I was there on July 4th and as of July 9th the server still hasnt "completed the transaction"?? I am not buying it!

3) BOTTOM LINE: even if what they say is true, the management of the Skylark Diner HAS PHYSICALLY SET UP THEIR CREDIT CARD TERMINAL to do this little "Credit Hold" thing with the tips. Its not something that "just happens" that they have no control over. They can literally walk over to their credit card terminal right now and set it up so it WONT charge customers for a tip, but they simply choose not to. (again, I regularly patronize many other diners in the area and NONE OF THEM DO THIS)

4) As a final note: search the internet a bit... There are restaurants that do this, and for many of them, they NEVER REVERSE THE "CREDIT HOLD" and just leave the extra charge on there and HOPE the customer wont notice... Check out this link: http://seattlepi. Nwsource.com/local/237788_overcharge24.html.

In any case, I DEFINITELY believe the Skylark added that tip to my bill on purpose, not even due to the "credit hold" thing, and the reason I think that is the DEAD GIVEAWAY of the hostess telling me "Oh, I remember you. I remember your bill"... If it was automatically done, why would she specifically remember MY bill? If it happens to EVERYONES BILL (as she implied) then why would MY BILL stick out in her mind? Simple: because either the hostess or the server JEANETTE added the $3.14 tip to my bill once they realized I stiffed Jeanette on the tip.

The Skylark is nice, the food is good (not the best I have ever had, but good) but after this experience, I wont be going back. Not only that, but you can bet I will never, ever pay a restaurant check with anything other than CASH ever again, and I will make sure to tell everyone I know about the "credit hold" thing, as well as specifically telling them about my little rip off experience with the Skylark.

Company: Skylark Diner
Country: USA
State: New Jersey
City: Edison
Address: Route 1 North
Phone: 7327777878

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