I’m a foreigner here, had dinner with 2 Singaporean friends in a somewhat high end restaurant. I ordered the most basic meal without drink, whereas my friend ordered a set with side and drink, another ordered an extra large portion.
When we were footing the bill, I paid first. And one of them asked how should we divide the cost, another suggested divided by 3, which I ended up paying an extra 25% of the food I ordered. I was a very soft-spoken person and did not know how to react.
After dividing by 3, the amount per person is not a whole number, but with a 80cent. So they rounded up, and one of them still made a joke that I had earned an extra 40 cents (20 cents from each of them).
I don’t think they did that purposely, maybe they just thought that it’s not a big deal. But that actually meant a lot to me, as a foreigner staying in Singapore, earning every dollar through doing part time.
Netizens’ comments
- Lesson learnt… Don’t go out eat tgt with friends unless you are ready to pay for all. that’s why we fight over the bills
- divide by 3, their math fail is it.
give me their contact, i jio yall out again. this time u order gao gao(ok la maybe just the 25%), then u say “pay for me first”. then ghost them. - In your case, With PayNow, there is no excuse for anyone not paying the exact amt for what he consumed. Guess if you didn’t object to the suggestion, you can only suck it up. At least now you know who’ll take advantage of you. Small price to pay for that information.
- Lol I eat like a bird so I “lost” a lot of money over the years. But those that I choose to dine with are people whom I’m willing to pay so I’m happy to splurge on good food and good company. If you’re not happy, you must find the courage and do something about it AT THAT MOMENT. Don’t leave a situation with regret and let it replay in your head over and over again about how you could have handled it a hundred ways better.
- my friend worst, he will pay for his share but he pretend to forget abt the service charge n tax…n before the food come he will pay his share minus e service n tax…I always tell him if u always do this thing u might s well go n eat urself but u always talk big u always come here n eat u dont know they got charge service charge n tax meh….
- This practice is not uncommon, my friends and I do that too. But for us, we lunch together often, so we are not so calculative, give and take.
But is not for everyone. Some of my friends will go by paying exact item and split the service charge and tax.
You just need to decide for yourself what works best for you and learn to speak up. All the best!