Do you need to pay for bad service?
What’s the worst restaurant service you’ve ever received? Wrong entrée, fly in the soup, waitress flatus added to the ambience? And now they’re asking you to pay a 10 per cent “service charge”? Contrary to what most restaurant managers may say, you do have options.
“Whenever you place an order at a restaurant, you’re essentially entering into a verbal contract,” says Chris Dundon, an HKSAR-qualified solicitor of 20 years, best known for his work representing the food and beverage industry. “And the same goes for the service charge. Assuming it is printed on the menu or otherwise clearly posted somewhere in the restaurant, by ordering food you’ve agreed to pay it.” But if the service turns out to be truly atrocious, Dundon says you can make the case that the restaurant has violated its side of the agreement.
“You can say, look, I agreed to pay the service charge, but you didn’t deliver the standard of service that one would reasonably expect from a restaurant of your type and class. The service was so poor that it amounts to a breach of contract and I don’t have to pay for it.” If the situation gets threatening, hold your ground.
“If the police are called, just tell them, I’m sorry, this is a contractual matter; I ordered service and they breached the contact. If they want to sue me for that, he’s my name and address. And realistically, what are they going to do? In contract law, things like this happen all the time, it’s just usually on a much larger scale.”
Patrick Brzeski
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