Went to restaurant 1 time, charged 2 separate times

Call the restaurant and ask to have the erroneous charge reversed. If that doesn't work, then dispute with credit card company.

I imagine either the server swiped once and thought it didn't go through or someone gave themselves a big tip. Only the establishment will know if this is a one-off or a trend, and they probably won't share that info with you anyhow.

An additional option is to yell and fuss and hope they give you free food to make you happy.

but seriously, the advice given by others is the correct advice.

Happened to me. I called Citibank and the rep said I need to go back to the restaurant and collect. I hung up on that rep. Called back and spoke to another who knew how to handle it. Got credit then.

Happened to me a month ago for a biz meeting with a 4 figure bill . Apparently their CC processor were the one that caused the issue and many patrons that week were impacted. Issue resolved in about 5 days.

This happened to me on New Years Eve a few years ago. I think they froze a chunk of money in advance, and then either forgot to unfreeze it or were slow to unfreeze it after our dinner. This resulted in 2 charges. I called the restaurant. A few days later, one of charges disappeared leaving only the correct amount.

The bank will catch it. They review there claims to be sure they are not out an money

I had this at a neighborhood coffee shop. The total was 8. I gave a dollar tip. Then I saw a $9 charge on the same day. CAlled AMEX and disputed. Was credited back. The rep asked if I spoke to the restaurant about it. I told her, it's an $8 charge from a month ago. I don't have the receipt.

cr3s said:   I had this at a neighborhood coffee shop. The total was 8. I gave a dollar tip. Then I saw a $9 charge on the same day. CAlled AMEX and disputed. Was credited back. The rep asked if I spoke to the restaurant about it. I told her, it's an $8 charge from a month ago. I don't have the receipt.

So essentially you stole $8 of food if I'm reading this correctly.

Not sure why so many here want to assume theft before mistake. Call or drop by restaurant and explain, allow them to correct mistake. I don't agree with others who say to dispute with credit card without first contacting the restaurant. Recently I was overcharged at a restaurant and when I went back a few days later to correct the mistake, the manager explained that the employee had already been fired for tip overcharging. The manager reached in his pocket and gave me back the overcharge amount in cash, seemed like I wasn't the only one.

Sad to see it has happened so many times. I contacted the restaurant via email who said they would look into it and get back to me. Last I saw charge was still in pending. So I am hopeful it will be removed and if not I will dispute the transaction with the CC issuer.

Unrelated note: I also attempted to pay my broadband connection with a different card on an unrelated note and the transaction gave conflicting messages and I didn't resubmit the card. But I paid it early so I'll wait a week to see if it went through or not.

2 errors, 2 different times.

No I was not drinking and it was not right in any way shape or form. The 1st amount was the pending charge without tip. Amount got charged the right amount. The other charge is still pending. Place said they would get back to me but they haven't so far but the charge has not been put into final state.

Both charges were placed the same day in the same evening. Will be disputing with the CC issuer IF the charge moves from pending to final. It has not so far. I was alerted to a charge I did not make. The 1st processed charge was correct.

Could be a simple mixup. I often see shared credit card machines. Server swipes your card, sets it down and walks away to do something else while it processes. Second server comes by and swipes someone else's card, or swiped yours again thinking it was in queue.

I did have a restaurant in the Memphis airport over charge me once. I usually just tip in even dollar amounts. Say my bill was $14.58. I would tip $3.00 for a total of $17.58. Since this was a business trip, when I reconciled my expense report I found they had charged me $18.00. Probably a great scam - hundreds of people a day, no regulars, business people that don't worry too much about 50 cents. I did report it and got a credit for the 42 cents. Not sure if AMEX went after them, but at least it might show a pattern.

bump for another useless thread. once the charges are finalized, call or visit restaurant if there is a problem. if not resolved, dispute with cc.

Great... all these for a pending charge?! You are wasting everyone's time.

I just forgot my wallet at home. I think I'll start a thread about that in finance forum.

grex23 said:   No I was not drinking and it was not right in any way shape or form. The 1st amount was the pending charge without tip. Amount got charged the right amount. The other charge is still pending. Place said they would get back to me but they haven't so far but the charge has not been put into final state.

Both charges were placed the same day in the same evening. Will be disputing with the CC issuer IF the charge moves from pending to final. It has not so far. I was alerted to a charge I did not make. The 1st processed charge was correct.

Did you not read the post above this? This is how many restaurants do things. They run a pending charge for the amount of your dinner and then at the end of the night when they close out they run the real amount all the way through. The pending charge will fall off. I still can't decide if you're a worthless troll or a notorious too-much-time-on-my-hands society clogger. Like if my grandma knew how to post to a forum, this is what it would be like.

Seriously, freaking out about a pending charge? Do you check the credit card website every 15 minutes?

Real time alerts?

You need to calm down a bit.

This is somewhat common. Server may have entered an incorrect amount and swiped the card before they noticed they made a mistake. Had manager void the charge, and then reran it with the correct amount.
Both charges will show as pending, but only one will go through. Will auto-correct on your statement after a few days.

The correct thing the server needs to do is drop off the check, inform the patron that an additional charge was made, will show up for a few days, but will not go through. Showing the mini-printed "Charge Voided" slip is always a plus.

OTOH, manager needs to make sure the server knows what going on and/or inform them.

Lesson learned...don't spaz over pending charges.

Screw this, I'm off to bed.

golfball7773 said:   I work for a bank on the teller line and it is people like you that make me want to drink after work everyday. No need to freak out like the senior citizens that call in every 10 minutes for a balance inquiry. Relax and it will be okay.....

What and no thank you!