Check Your Bill ...

Articles from Boomer Magazine in Richmond, VA

Tuesday, 18 January 2011 09:23

BY RANDY FITZGERALD

Glen Allen residents Tom and Diana Suchla were more than happy to pay a reasonable amount for the dinner they had at a Short Pump steakhouse last week, but they decided that while their meal had been excellent, it probably was not worth the amount they were charged.

The bill was for $1,782.

“I had glanced over at Tom when the bill came and saw a weird look on his face,” says Diana, “and when I leaned in to take a look at it myself, I just about fell over.”

The Suchlas immediately told their dining companions what they were being charged for one order of chicken and steak, and one order of filet and shrimp, and everybody had a good laugh—and then another one when they heard the response of the waitress.

Tom beckoned her over to the table and told her the bill was wrong. “She looked at it,” says Diana, “then glared at him suspiciously.”

“What’s wrong with it?” she asked.

As the table broke up laughing, Tom said, “Uh … it’s for about $2,000.”

Oh.

You’d think that kind of thing would be very rare, but one of the other folks at the Suchlas table said she had once had a clerk at a home supply store ring up several thousand dollars for three small purchases. When she questioned the price, the checker looked at the receipt and said, “Well, you had so many items.” It turned out the clerk had hit a wrong key and charged for one item 99 times.

The Suchlas never really got an explanation for their excessive bill, but Diana did note later that if you multiplied the actual cost of their dinner by their table number (65), which appeared prominently on the check, you’d come out with $1,782.

The couple agree that the incident was pretty funny—and a good story. “We’d definitely eat there again,” says Diana. But she also says there’s a lesson here somewhere about not being casual when it comes to the bills with which we’re presented and charges we pay.

She points out that if her husband had just plunked down a credit card without looking at the bill, they’d have been in for an interesting surprise at the end of the month.

Randy Fitzgerald teaches modern American literature at Virginia Union University. He was a longtime public relations director at the University of Richmond and columnist for the Richmond Times-Dispatch.