In almost all countries, tips at bars or restaurants are an implicit social norm. Although you leave or not extra money, you decide for yourself, but those who served us can be very offended without receiving their remuneration.
In many places, the tip we need to leave is about 10% of the total bill and goes up to 15 or 20% depending on the point in the world where we pay. Olesya paid almost 300 times more.
In some countries, such as the UK or Switzerland, you can indicate the amount of the bill and tip on the same page when paying with a card. This function did not help Olesya Shemyakova, but introduced her into unexpected and irreversible expenses.
I did not regret a tip
A 37-year-old woman went with her son to a New Point cafe in Dietikon, near Zurich, to have coffee and cakes. When she received an invoice for payment of 19.81 euros, she decided to pay with his card. Usually we enter a pin code to confirm the payment, so Olesya did too, laying the foundation for an unpleasant story for her and shameful for the owner of the cafe and even the area in which he is located, because everyone showed complete indifference to her problem.
So, having dialed her PIN code and pressing the confirmation button, she found out that she had just entered the tip amount, which she was willingly willing to pay to the waiter for the service. These were 6439 euros!
Bank account
When she opened her Internet banking, she saw a big debt on her credit card and became panicky. She immediately contacted the bank, where they explained to her that she had paid a tip in the amount of more than 6,000 euros. She asked to cancel the transfer, explaining that an absurd mistake had occurred, but the bank told her that this was impossible, since there was no fraud.
Then she hurried to the police, in which she was told that she acted voluntarily and without coercion, which means that there is nothing to write about her statement.
Cafe owner
Then Olesya decided to appeal to the conscience of the owner of the cafe, who expressed her deep sympathy and promised to immediately return the money, after which he closed the cafe and left, apparently, to rest on the money that suddenly fell on him. Was he really ready to close the business for this amount?
Nobody has returned the money to Olesya yet, but can such a mistake be avoided?
How to avoid erroneous payments
Such stories can happen anywhere and with anyone. How to avoid the erroneous spending of large amounts? I use a separate card to pay expenses in cafes and grocery stores.
Having received a Yandex card and opening several wallets, I transfer a small amount for daily expenses to a card that can be paid abroad, and go shopping with it.
This helps to avoid unplanned expenses and payment errors.