SEA Bistro
New York, NY 10003-8640
Phone: (212) 228-5505
06/04/2008 Posted by Angela321
RECURRENT TIP FRAUD. BEWARE! We went to dinner at Sea last night and, for the THIRD time, we were tricked and almost paid 40% tip. This happened three times, twice when my boyfriend and I went and last night (we were five guests). Last night the waiter added 20% tip on the bill (ILLEGAL for parties of 6 or less!), when the bill came my boyfriend gave them his credit card without looking at the bill. The waiter came back with ONLY the credit card receipt (NO ORIGINAL BILL CAME BACK - which already included 20% tip), and, in the credit card receipt, they had the TIP line once again. My boyfriend asked to see the original bill (they HAVE TO return it with the credit card receipt as you check it to see how much tip to leave etc.) and they reluctantly gave it back to us. We clearly saw that the they had already added the 20% tip. We asked for an explanation (Illegal + tentative fraud) and the waiter - who spoke perfect English- started to pretend he didn't understand what we were saying. This happened twice in the past and it also happened to other friends of ours. A couple of years ago there was also an article on Time Out about restaurants that try this scam, SEA was one of them. The food is unexpensive and good but they really upset us last night, it was NOT a mistake, it's a recurrent behavior and we were tempted to call 311. If you choose to eat there beware of it, it will certainly happen to you too.
Pros: Unexpensive, okay food
Cons: They ALWAYS try to add the tip and make you pay it twice
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