Restaurant Adoption of pay-by-phone systems

[ClownLoach]

If I read the original post correctly, the restaurant still hands the customer a (printed) bill and the code is on that - thus no way to have any fake issues (since no one has access to put such a sticker on, plus even if they did it would be obvious on a piece of paper).

Massive fraud issue. The customer pretends to pay but doesn't. There were even people who were sharing screen shots on social media of the "completed transaction" pages for big brands to show to the staff. Then the customers leave quickly and the restaurant discovers the check isn't paid at all. Some of the big chain restaurants were losing thousands of dollars to these modern dine and dash frauds.

Then have someone at/near the door who REQUIRES you show proof of payment before you can leave (actual proof, like a message sent to their email or similar that would show the amount paid and time of payment, or have some way that it connects to their in-house system where they can scan the paper bill and it will come up showing paid, just as they scan them to bring up the order to let you pay with a card or cash).

But they are probably like all the retailers, they want to complain but not actually go after those who are causing the problems.

P.S. - When I said no fake issue, I meant that there wouldn't be a way to stick a fake code on a printed bill like was done with the on-table ones, not really referring to people just opting to fake payment.

I've never seen a restaurant where someone was by the door demanding to see proof of payment. Plus many restaurants have multiple means of exit. Go out through the patio or pickup door. It would require too many people to cover all the points of entry and exit. The pay on phone is going away almost everywhere in big chains because of all the dine and dash fraud. It's somewhat privileged so I can't share but I know one chain restaurant closure that occurred because of this fraud, it was on the bubble of profitability in an older location and the dine/dash losses were enough for corporate to decide not to renew their lease.

Restaurants have always been focused on hospitality. If they made customers feel like they were being seen as thieves then they would see their business crash. However I can think of many chains that do have Regional Loss Prevention managers that oversee several units. Obviously they would not need such costly positions if they didn't have preventable losses. I am sure these LP folks are more operational, auditing portioning, rotation, temperature etc. but the job descriptions are sometimes exceptionally blunt with lines like "people target our restaurants to steal."

It sounds like the topic came up because these big credit card processors like Heartland must be pushing it hard on smaller restaurant companies since it's going away at the big chains. They are probably offering incentives for now which might cause a unscrupulous operator to try to say "QR code payment required" because maybe they're getting a temporary discount but they cannot actually require that.

[BillyGr]

I've never seen a restaurant where someone was by the door demanding to see proof of payment. Plus many restaurants have multiple means of exit. Go out through the patio or pickup door. It would require too many people to cover all the points of entry and exit. The pay on phone is going away almost everywhere in big chains because of all the dine and dash fraud. It's somewhat privileged so I can't share but I know one chain restaurant closure that occurred because of this fraud, it was on the bubble of profitability in an older location and the dine/dash losses were enough for corporate to decide not to renew their lease.

I guess maybe that's a difference in areas - I think of the many diner-type local places we have around here, where everyone pays at the register which is generally located near the door. So, not demanding to see proof as such, but they are expecting people to pay on the way out, so if a group is not doing so, they would know something is up (or have seen someone up there paying previously, as may happen if they pay cash and need change to leave a tip).

Figuring that is done as it is easier for them to track vs. what so many places do and have the server take payment - while they certainly have other exits (for emergencies, most often), those would be harder to "sneak out of" (though I would think at any restaurant, if someone is exiting out some other way than the main entry, that should set off an alarm for the employees, maybe not if it goes to a patio since I guess someone sitting out there could come inside for a restroom).

Those local places have done that for years (even decades), so maybe it's something more brands should look at - not really an inconvenience for customers, and I'm sure someone can get by occasionally but certainly not as easy to do as it would be in the chains, where the staff by the door (usually to seat incoming guests) has no way to know that you paid the server or not.

[storewanderer]

I haven't been to see but I heard IHOP changed from pay cashier at exit to pay server at table.