Shabu shop hits back with defamation threat against complaining customer

[RafPinto]

I see already first actions in court against the Scheinese shrimps brigade.

[richard_smith237]

22 minutes ago, mania said:

The thing I do not understand is,  If they had eaten it all no fine?

So if that is the case who cares that they didn't eat if after piling it on it tasted bad?

 

Either way should end the same,

In the customers stomach or in the trash what is the difference if the price was set at all you can eat

Otherwise they need to weigh every uneaten portion & fine every customer that didn't eat all

Waste - that’s the issue. 

 

Greedy people will put restaurants out of business quickly, if at an ‘eat all you want buffet’ they order ridiculous amounts...    That is why restaurants are forced to put rules into place so that those who have an attitude or ‘who cares if I pile up my plate but don’t eat it’ are forced to care. 

 

In this case the restaurant has charged for 50 baht per 100 grams of wasted ‘meat’.

 

The charge was 1000 baht - thats equivalent to 2 kilograms of un-eaten / wasted meat. 

 

 

Restaurants operate with a ‘threshold’...  i.e. If one or two plates of uneaten food are left over they don’t bother, but the rule is clearly there to deal with extremely inconsiderate and wasteful customers - lets face it who wants these customers. 

 

I often dine out with a ‘gym guy’ who has a voracious appetite and eats loads (about 5x the amount I eat), he is polite, eats it all, the restaurants never seem to mind - thats their model to attract the customers. 

 

IF the meat was inedible, the diners would have noted well before they ordered 2 kgs of it. 

 

Either that, or the 1000 baht ‘waste surcharge’ has been padded. 

Edited March 29, 2022 by richard_smith237

[OneMoreFarang]

52 minutes ago, mtls2005 said:

Fully understand the policy, but a 1,000 baht surcharge indicates a 2 kg unconsumed amount. That seems like a lot.

Look at the picture above. That looks like about 20 little plates with beef.

[ThailandRyan]

9 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Look at the picture above. That looks like about 20 little plates with beef.

At 50 baht a plate that would be 1000 baht.....

[richard_smith237]

3 minutes ago, ThailandRyan said:

At 50 baht a plate that would be 1000 baht.....

Staff weighed the plates and not just the ‘waste’ ???? 

[soi3eddie]

1 hour ago, Denim said:

Having seen greedy people in these places , piling their plates with ridiculous amounts of food then walking away with a lot of it uneaten , I actually sympathize  with the restaurant. 

Agree totally with the principal. Unfortunately it looks like it is becoming a PR disaster for the restaurant. "Come to our restauarant and be fined for not eating everything" and then "if you complain or write a bad reveiew we'll sue you for defamation" is how many customers will interpret it from the headline without understanding exactly what the issue is or rules are. No winners.

 

[ThailandRyan]

6 minutes ago, richard_smith237 said:

Staff weighed the plates and not just the ‘waste’ ???? 

I have no idea, I just mentioned that if you bought it by the plate it is normally 50 baht from where would normally go, if not all you can eat, and we rarely eat more than 6 plates with a few plates of veggies to put inside the broth...

[robblok]

57 minutes ago, Will B Good said:

Last sentence .....agree...it publicizes the whole issue to the nation.....but defamation seems to be the 'go to' here.

I have no problem with defamation laws if it saves a shop that is being unfairly targetted. I have a problem if its a shop that does bad things and get away with it like this.

 

In this case I am with the shop. If you order 2kg of food and then not eat it because its bad. Then the diners did something wrong. I mean you don't order that much at once normally. You should just order a bit then if you dont like it don't order that again. I been in restaurants like this and one portion is not huge. To have 2 kg left over the diners are complete idiots.

 

To be honest I think they just made up some complaints because they want to get back at the shop for the fine. 

 

I could be wrong but would you not have noticed the meat being bad after one portion or 2 ... but 2kg ? It seems strange.

[robblok]

11 minutes ago, richard_smith237 said:

Staff weighed the plates and not just the ‘waste’ ???? 

Usually these dishes have a certain weight. So they give out say 100 gram per plate then they count the 100 gram of meat. Now they might have to weigh stuff if you eat part of a plate but i doubt it was the case here if you look at that stack.

[cocoonclub]

Im wondering if these contracts of charging a fine for not emptying your plate are actually enforceable and legal in front of a judge. When I buy something, ownership transfers to me, which means that I can do with it whatever I want to. I could take it home and eat it there; I could donate it to a beggar; and I could just throw it away. Maybe they can charge for creating/cleaning up waste but then I could just take it home. 
 

Practically the easiest way probably would be to tell the waitress that the food tasted bad and that you would like a refund. Up the stakes and they probably won’t ask to pay a fine. 
 

While I understand the reasoning behind these rules and personally don’t like people overordering and then throwing away food, I still think it’s a ridiculous and potentially not legal rule to tell someone what to do with what he bought. 

[ThailandRyan]

2 minutes ago, cocoonclub said:

Im wondering if these contracts of charging a fine for not emptying your plate are actually enforceable and legal in front of a judge. When I buy something, ownership transfers to me, which means that I can do with it whatever I want to. I could take it home and eat it there; I could donate it to a beggar; and I could just throw it away. Maybe they can charge for creating/cleaning up waste but then I could just take it home. 
 

Practically the easiest way probably would be to tell the waitress that the food tasted bad and that you would like a refund. Up the stakes and they probably won’t ask to pay a fine. 
 

While I understand the reasoning behind these rules and personally don’t like people overordering and then throwing away food, I still think it’s a ridiculous and potentially not legal rule to tell someone what to do with what he bought. 

However, you missed the fact that it was ordered and not paid for yet, and then left to waste, before a social media complaint was made defaming the company......You best read the small print at the bottom of the menus, many places do have them, just like for using a CC an extra charge is also added to the use.  

 

Refund after you have eaten over half of the food, ordered more and then decided it was not good enough.  Sounds like your the type that orders a Pizza eats it all and then storms back to the shop saying you want a refund because the pizza did not taste good.....

[robblok]

2 minutes ago, cocoonclub said:

Im wondering if these contracts of charging a fine for not emptying your plate are actually enforceable and legal in front of a judge. When I buy something, ownership transfers to me, which means that I can do with it whatever I want to. I could take it home and eat it there; I could donate it to a beggar; and I could just throw it away. Maybe they can charge for creating/cleaning up waste but then I could just take it home. 
 

Practically the easiest way probably would be to tell the waitress that the food tasted bad and that you would like a refund. Up the stakes and they probably won’t ask to pay a fine. 
 

While I understand the reasoning behind these rules and personally don’t like people overordering and then throwing away food, I still think it’s a ridiculous and potentially not legal rule to tell someone what to do with what he bought. 

Maybe you don't understand the concept. So you think you could go into an all you can eat shop and then stuff it in bags and take it home. Of course not there are rules like not taking food home. As long as rules are not crazy then they can be enforced in a court of law.

 

When you enter a shop you agree to their terms and only totally unfair terms can be fought in court.

 

Now if you went in a normal restaurant ordered a burger paid for it and trashed it or take it home no problem. However this is an all you can eat shop. They have to protect from wastage that is perfectly fair. Also at shops like that you can't take food home it clearly states it. 

 

[RafPinto]

24 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

I remember on one of my first Thailand trips a loooooooooooong time ago I counted 7 times in one night. Then it was time to sleep. As far as I remember she didn't complain.

Now it's probably more like: She: Hey, I want more, give it to me. Me: Let me sleep!

And you answer:

What it's again Christmas. I thought it was just yesterday.

[trainman34014]

1 hour ago, Denim said:

Having seen greedy people in these places , piling their plates with ridiculous amounts of food then walking away with a lot of it uneaten , I actually sympathize  with the restaurant. 

Surely if they pay the Bill they are entitled to leave ALL the food if they want to.  Might sound stupid but as long as the Bill is paid you should be able to do whatever you want with the food; eat or don't eat !

[richard_smith237]

Unfortunately, I have witnessed some atrocious behaviour at ‘eat all you want restaurants’....

 

From people scraping of the pizza topping and only eating that (at eat all you want pizza - a number of years back).... to ‘Aunties’ getting pushing and nearly getting into a fight over the tempura which had just left the kitchen (they were actually pushing each other before the tray was placed down). 

 

Sadly - the ‘eat all you want’ mentality seems to trigger some people in extremely bizarre ways, restaurants have no choice but to protect themselves. 

 

 

What I dislike about these restaurants is the blanket policies which impact honest customers like myself because ‘greedy and cheating customers’ have ruined it forcing the restaurants hand. 

Issues such as: 

- Wife doesn’t eat beef, but if I want beef, so we all have to pay the beef premium or I go without beef.

 

- Wife doesn’t drink at all, so if I want the accompanying ‘beer buffet’ we are told she has to have the buffet too !!  I usually get the manager involved with this.... I ask them why they are forcing my wife to drink !!!  I ask, if my wife was pregnant would they force her to pay for the beer buffet ?? - if they restaurant are not flexible, we walk (never had to walk, we are usually just told ’this time only’)

 

- Son is very tall for his age: at 6 years old he was taller than the majority of 10 year old Thai Kids. 

Many buffet restaurants charge by height - this is always a battle, he wouldn’t each much (the same as a 6 year old) but they restaurant would want to charge him as an adult - some restaurants were flexible, some were not and we walked out. 

 

 

Again - all of the issues such as this and the ‘over ordering’ resulting in a fine for wasted food come about because restaurants are forced to put inflexible policies in place to protect themselves from customers who’s first instinct is to game the system. 

 

I usually wouldn’t care and avoid such places - but the issue is friends want to eat there and some of them are good. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[RafPinto]

18 minutes ago, ThailandRyan said:

I have no idea, I just mentioned that if you bought it by the plate it is normally 50 baht from where would normally go, if not all you can eat, and we rarely eat more than 6 plates with a few plates of veggies to put inside the broth...

This one, they charged 650Baht extra

[mtls2005]

7 minutes ago, cocoonclub said:

When I buy something, ownership transfers to me, which means that I can do with it whatever I want to.

Usually with terms and conditions. And you "buy" it when you finish and pay up.

 

As long as these are clearly stated before, then you are free to eat elsewhere if you find them onerous.

 

 

[RafPinto]

Solly, I was just a littel bit hungly.

[ThailandRyan]

12 minutes ago, RafPinto said:

This one, they charged 650Baht extra

A cute bear in a blanket, and not pigs in a blanket

[BKKTRAVELER]

I personally hate wasting food. Every time I go to an all you can eat shabu or Japanese bbq, I order plate by plate, eat at my pace and order only what I know I can eat. 

 

I find it disrespectful when I see other customers ordering dozens of plates at a time and then try to hide the food they can't eat (trust me, they are creative at that...).

 

Same for hotel buffets, I often see empty trays on display and plenty of full plates on customers tables who are leaving. The staff never says anything but it doesn't sit well with me.

 

They had 2 kgs of food leftovers... That is just insane and serves them right to pay the fine.

[metisdead]

Some troll posts and the replies have been removed.

[BKKTRAVELER]

22 minutes ago, trainman34014 said:

Surely if they pay the Bill they are entitled to leave ALL the food if they want to.  Might sound stupid but as long as the Bill is paid you should be able to do whatever you want with the food; eat or don't eat !

No, because they might end up ordering 10 kgs of food each which is completely ridiculous and the restaurant will go bankrupt. Not sustainable and without common sense.

 

The concept is "all you can eat". Not all you can order...

[RafPinto]

[Excel]

2 hours ago, Denim said:

Having seen greedy people in these places , piling their plates with ridiculous amounts of food then walking away with a lot of it uneaten , I actually sympathize  with the restaurant. 

Agreed its as if many Thais have a competition to see who can get the most on their plate without it falling off.

[MyFriend You]

3 hours ago, keith101 said:

How the hell can a restaurant get away with fining customers for not eating food they did not like . They would be told where to go if anyone tried to fine me .

TIT

[Liverpool Lou]

3 hours ago, tingtong said:

But pointing out for the public that at the shop's  judgement alone you may be hit with a hefty fine?!

It's well known condition of this type of restaurant locally, even though some foreigners don't seem to be aware of it.

[cnx101]

4 hours ago, Denim said:

Having seen greedy people in these places , piling their plates with ridiculous amounts of food then walking away with a lot of it uneaten , I actually sympathize  with the restaurant. 

Chinese 

[Liverpool Lou]

3 hours ago, mania said:

The thing I do not understand is,  If they had eaten it all no fine?

So if that is the case who cares that they didn't eat if after piling it on it tasted bad?

 

Either way should end the same,

In the customers stomach or in the trash what is the difference if the price was set at all you can eat

Otherwise they need to weigh every uneaten portion & fine every customer that didn't eat all

"...the price was set at all you can eat"

That's the point, the price is for all you can eat.   Without the threat of the fine there are some people who would deliberately take masses of food with intention of simply taking a lot home after the had eaten their fill.  

 

"Otherwise they need to weigh every uneaten portion & fine every customer that didn't eat all".

That's the point also...they can do that!

[jacko45k]

4 hours ago, Dmaxdan said:

If this is one of those places where you help yourself to the raw ingredients and then you overload your plate and don't eat what you have taken, the restaurant has every right to fine you,

And those terms are probably in the small print,

So it is not really an all you can eat restaurant in the sense we likely know it... more an all you do not eat restaurant!

 

[new2here]

4 hours ago, Denim said:

Having seen greedy people in these places , piling their plates with ridiculous amounts of food then walking away with a lot of it uneaten , I actually sympathize  with the restaurant. 

I agree with the notion of a “fine” for leaving excessive uneaten food— that part i agree with .. SO LONG AS.. It’s clearly disclosed upfront, there is a fixed and objective definition of excessive and the mechanism to determine this is transparent (like a scale or other accepted device)

 

It *sounds* like this it what happened here… 

 

but…. WHAT i don’t agree with is the use again of the so-called defamation mechanism >at this point in time<    As a whole i think it does both “sides” - the business and the customer - a disservice to use these types of legal criminal mechanisms to otherwise address what really are routine commerce matters. 

 

now, I will say that IF it is proven that the customer KNEW the claim was false but proceeded anyway, THEN I can see a legit issue raised by the shop… but short of that- no.