Albear wrote:How often have you refused to pay mic?
I can think of... eight different occasions of dissatisfaction, all in London, but ranging from pub lunches to pizza hut, with a few posh restaurants in between. Oh, and one Thai restaurant, too.
On some occasions (such as one of the hair-in-food ones) the individual serving was quickly replaced and we were informed that we would not be billed for that serving. Fine... ish. On other occasions (staggered service), I've had to refuse to pay, leading to the manager being summoned, apologies offered and our group being assured that we (the entire group) would not be billed for the food but should finish our meals - perhaps we'd care for desert? Result. The tempo of our meal was disjointed, and much conversation was wasted on the service, but the food was good and the price of the evening was significantly discounted. Would come back.
As I say, I've never had the police involved... although on one occasion the staff were so rushed off their feet (the place was horribly over-booked) that one of them ended up spilling some hot, sizzling food into the lap of one of my party. They got upset and it was uncertain how the matter would be resolved (although they weren't injured). After the meal, the manager insisted that we didn't have to pay for anything at all, which went a long way towards assuaging any bad feelings. It is otherwise very unlikely that we would ever have returned.
What's worth more? The price of a meal, or repeat business? You should all stand up for yourselves more!