When it comes to this week’s rant I’m really pissed off. It seems that there is a rash of Charlotte nightclubs and bars padding people’s tabs. In fact, it’s gotten so bad that the missus and I don’t even start tabs and buy drinks “by the each” with cash if possible. Now, it might be one thing if Charlotte was a large as say, Atlanta or Chicago, but the simple fact is that there aren’t that many bars in this city. So “our people” are a sort of captive audience as it were, hustling back and forth between four or five places depending on how bad the padding is getting at one particular place. But it’s simply outrageous.
When I first moved to Charlotte, Lisa and I religiously visited a popular Charlotte club on Thursday nights… you probably know the one I’m talking about. Anyway, our tabs frequently hit the firm three digit mark, which is nigh impossible because we’d be either passed out or dead if we’d actually drank all that we were charged for. You might be thinking, “why not just talk to the management?” Well, I would agree in principle but two people I know quite well were thrown out of the bar for questioning their tabs. I was sitting next to one of them when it happened. Sure, the person in question was being argumentative, but he was also polite and was trying to be reasonable. He didn’t swear or call the bartender any names. But nevertheless, when he told the bartender that he’d paid another bartender in cash for his first beer and tabbed only two more (instead of the three he was being charged for), he was “not-so-politely” asked to leave. And people, this is three beers over a total of two or three hours. I could see where arguing over 50 shots could be problematic, but not three lousy beers! This can’t be good for business. Well, it can in the short-term, but hardly in the long term. I guess Charlotte bar owners want to get $50 from their patrons once, instead of $10 20 times. That’s OK if that’s how you wanna do things, but don’t come crying to me when you go out of business.
Have you had a bad experience with bad padding lately? If so, let me know!