Fued btwn restaurant owner & patron over $250

I will start by saying I understand why restaurants are charging non-refundable deposits. So many people were booking and not showing up that something had to be done. A podcast I was listening to last week said it was really common for a group to book 3 or 4 restaurants on Monday for Friday evening, then decide Friday where they wanted to go, and leave the others hanging!
That said - this was a legit reason to cancel. Not just 'a bit sick' but ill enough to be in hospital. But again - how does the restaurant know you're not just saying that to get out of the charge?

To me, the big problem the the behavior of the restaurant staff and owner. The 'butt-hurt' was bad enough, but sending the DMs to the patron afterwards is just beyond acceptable. She isn't getting the pushback and threats because she had a chargeback, it is because she chose to attack the customer. She must have known that what she wrote wouldn't stay private. In particular, her accusing him of 'screwing her over' and calling him pathetic went too far.

Right. The owner was the one who chose to escalate. The customer may be lying about the hospital, but If her restaurant is hot enough to charge a big no-show fee, $250 isn't worth going to war over. She's already spent $250 worth of her time on this and done incalculable damage to her restaurant's reputation.

That's just psycho to track him down and berate him publicly. What's next? She goes to the customers' house and beats the $#*t out of them. What a lunatic.

This is local to me and getting a lot of press. The restaurant owner was definitely in the wrong.

The restaurant  is in the wrong but, what I don't understand was why there was a charge back.  The patron said they had insurance through their credit card and going to the ER was definitely covered.  Why didn't the CC just credit the patron and leave the restaurant out of it?  

No show fees are ridiculous. If the restaurant is in that much demand, there will be people calling for reservations or walking in hoping for a cancellation.

I could MAYBE see it if the person doesnt call to cancel and just doesnt show up, but even that is a bit shitty.

I think this is an excessively high and rigid cancellation policy but the customer agreed to it when they made the reservation.  The article states the patrons were aware that they needed to cancel 48 hours in advance.  



ETA...I think the restaurant was wrong to go after the customer and they should have tried to fight the chargeback with the credit card company.  

I would have been a lot more sympathetic to the restaurant had the employee on the phone not used the term “butt hurt” and then the owner/chef not gone to the extent of hunting the customer down and further verbally assaulting them. I would think they would have been better off to have told the customer that they sympathize with their circumstances and are willing to hold onto the $250 to apply it toward a dinner in the future when the customer was able to come. There was no need to verbally abuse the customer. Surely some compromise could have been reached rather than to attack someone. I wouldn’t be upset if they requested applying the fee toward a future dinner conditional on providing proof of hospitalization. I think the death threats are psycho.

Sometimes, Travel Insurance requires you to attempt all other means of recovering your money/goods before they will pay out, so it may be they had to try a chargeback first. 

 One time when my luggage was misplaced for several days, my travel insurance told me I had to ask the airline for compensation first, and they would only pay out if that didn't cover it all, or didn't happen.

If that restaurant is in that much of a demand she could have filled those seats in a heartbeat.

She was unprofessional going after him like that and the butt hurt comment. In fact, it's a little stalkerish in my opinion. $250 is nothing now compared to the backlash.

I side with the customer.

According to Boston.Eater.com, both the would-be customer and the restaurant owner are receiving death threats.
I do not understand the mentality of someone who would post (or however they went about doing it) a death threat against people they assumably do not know that are involved in a dispute that has zero to do with them.  I am hoping they are empty threats, but even so, what in the world do they personally get out of doing that?  

I am saddened to be living in a world where people think that is an acceptable response.  If they don’t like the restaurant’s response, don’t eat there.  If they do not like what the gentleman that was hospitalize did, don’t become friends with him.  I would think that most of those threats are made by people dissatisfied with their own life and are looking to add some excitement.  That is just beyond sad.  Oh, and those writing to threaten the would-be dining couple because they are gay are beyond immature.  We all share this planet, people.  We all get to choose our own partner in life.  And they would be a much happier people if they lived that way instead of acting like they get a vote in someone else’s life choices. You don’t.

boston.eater.com/2024/2/26/24083939/table-north-end-restaurant-cancellation-fees-viral-customer-exchange

As I understand it, the customer did not dispute the charge or initiate a chargeback.

The customer filed a travel insurance claim under the insurance issued by the credit card company. That claim should have required some proof of hospitalization, but I didn’t see it mentioned in the thread.

According to the customer, once they initiated the insurance claim, their part in this transaction was finished. In a normal insurance claim, the customer would be reimbursed and that would be the end of the story. The insurance payout would have come from the insurance company, and not from the restaurant.

That doesn’t appear to be what happened though. It looks like once the customer filed the insurance claim, the credit card company processed it as a chargeback to the restaurant.

I don’t think the customer bears any blame for the chargeback if that is how it happened. The credit card company/insurance company (I think they may be the same?) should have paid the insurance claim if was approved and not charged the restaurant.

But as far as the drama goes, that is 100% on the restaurant owner.

Agree...and I would have done exactly as the customer has done, including shaming her after the fact for her rude, unprofessional messages.