Two signatures?
I’m not sure exactly when this started, but I’ve been seeing it with a lot more frequency these days. “It” is when you go to a nice restaurant (you know, the kind that has cloth napkins and different waiters for different things) and get your bill in one of those big leather wallet looking things, and when you put a credit card in it, the waiter/waitress takes the wallet and, get this…asks you to sign the bill at that point before processing your card! He/She then processes your credit card, and presents you with the receipt that you normally sign, the one that’s been processed by the credit card company and has a place for you to write in the tip.
When did this practice start, and more importantly, why do they ask you to sign the original check before they go and process your credit card, only to return and have you sign the processed one? I’ve never really worked in retail, so I can’t even make an educated guess. Anyone know why they do this and how come I’ve seen it more often in the last year?
Since we’re on the subject, maybe you guys could answer another question of mine in relation to credit cards and restaurants…when they process your credit card, I assume they get approval for the amount of the check. When they present the approved bill for you to sign, it is customary for the patron to write in a tip amount, total it up, and then sign for the new amount. How does that work in relation to the credit approval process? When they get the approval, do they just add 20% to make sure you can cover the tip? Does the credit card company allow that extra bit even if it might make you go over your limit?
Do you really want to know, Josh? :-)
Ok, here’s how the tipping thing works usually.
when you have your card swiped at a place which accepts tips via credit, the card is authorized for some percentage over the bill (it’s usually something like %10). If your bill is $20, they’ll authorize it for $22.
then you sign it and write a tip in for $5, which means your final total will be $25.
The waiter or waitress will close out the bill for $25 but you might find a fast-posting bank (like citibank) will already show a pre-charge of $22. that will change when the restaurant batches its credit card receipts and the real total, $25, gets sent to your cardholder. Then, when the final amount posts, it will have changed to $25.
When I was a waiter, I had an IRATE customer accuse me of overcharging her when she had paid me (generously, I might add) with a cash tip but had gone back to work and noticed her card was overcharged.
Regarding the double-signature, I suspect the reason for this is that once you sign a receipt, it is harder for you to dispute the amount after the fact. So, if people were just signing the credit card receipt, they could claim after the fact that they were overcharged and signed it without looking. If you signed the itemized receipt and the credit card receipt, it is pretty difficult to then go back and say you didn’t agree with a charge…
But that is total conjecture. Who knows?