Ok then why do waiters always make it SO FUCKING HARD TO LEAVE?! Most of the time, I wind up waiting for the check to show up, often I have to flag someone down to get it.
And then, the most ridiculous part of the whole ritual; they drop off the check and then leave! Imagine if that happened anywhere else. Go through the grocery aisle, get all your stuff scanned, and then the person working the checkout just walks away for 5+ minutes.
And then, when they finally show up and take the check with your card, they leave for another 5+ minutes. What is taking so long?! It is 2026, how do you not have a functional POS system??
Places that let you pay with your phone and leave when you’re ready are the best. Even ones that have the waiter come to the table with a pad you can pay on are good. I just hate the black booklets, such a horrible, inefficient way to pay.
To add to this, I gave my card in one of those black books and paid as normal. We don’t go out to eat much, or use this card much. But a couple days later someone had that credit card number and was making purchases. Of course it COULD have been some other usage weeks earlier, but the timing makes it suspicious. I believe there was either a skimmer placed on the restaurant’s machine, or someone in the back was just stealing credit card info.
It’s now much preferred by me if they either let me go pay at the front, or bring one of those scanners to the table like in Europe.
I’ve always found this very weird in the US. In Europe they come to the table, we tap the scanner and if it’s over a certain threshold, you need to enter your PIN. Most larger transactions require your PIN these days.
Ok then why do waiters always make it SO FUCKING HARD TO LEAVE?! Most of the time, I wind up waiting for the check to show up, often I have to flag someone down to get it.
And then, the most ridiculous part of the whole ritual; they drop off the check and then leave! Imagine if that happened anywhere else. Go through the grocery aisle, get all your stuff scanned, and then the person working the checkout just walks away for 5+ minutes.
And then, when they finally show up and take the check with your card, they leave for another 5+ minutes. What is taking so long?! It is 2026, how do you not have a functional POS system??
Places that let you pay with your phone and leave when you’re ready are the best. Even ones that have the waiter come to the table with a pad you can pay on are good. I just hate the black booklets, such a horrible, inefficient way to pay.
To add to this, I gave my card in one of those black books and paid as normal. We don’t go out to eat much, or use this card much. But a couple days later someone had that credit card number and was making purchases. Of course it COULD have been some other usage weeks earlier, but the timing makes it suspicious. I believe there was either a skimmer placed on the restaurant’s machine, or someone in the back was just stealing credit card info.
It’s now much preferred by me if they either let me go pay at the front, or bring one of those scanners to the table like in Europe.
I’ve always found this very weird in the US. In Europe they come to the table, we tap the scanner and if it’s over a certain threshold, you need to enter your PIN. Most larger transactions require your PIN these days.
I don’t understand people’s disdain for the pay through your phone model. It’s so nice
I just don’t like yet another closed-source proprietary app on my phone that I need to interact with society.
In my experience, this is all done through the browser