There are a great many different scams in restaurants. Among them there are popular, less common and very exotic. The purpose of deception is simple - profit or disguise of shortages. Shenanigans in a restaurant rarely happen at the hands of a single person - the waiter or bartender. In the overwhelming majority of cases, this is a conspiracy, including with the restaurant manager. Of course, if the latter is not the owner of the restaurant, but a hired manager. When accepting an order, a waiter, especially an experienced one, is guided by several parameters - the size of the company, how much alcohol is ordered, how carefully the menu (price list) is studied. Recommendation: without leaving the cash register - carefully look at the menu, pronouncing each order item (dish, drink) and, of course, its price! As soon as you or your “companions” at the feast begin to name prices, discuss them, add them up (even jokingly), the waiter will not shortchange you. This has been verified.
How can we be deceived in a restaurant? There are many ways, we’ll tell you about the easiest and most common ones.
Not filling up your drink at the bar. Instead of the ordered 100 grams, the bartender pours 95 or 90. Only he can do this by eye; the difference is invisible to you. In total, from ten servings you get one more, unaccounted for. And if it’s vodka, then the brew is not impressive, but if it’s some kind of mojito or, better yet, something like a Truffle Martini for a hundred dollars? There, the amount of “left” income per shift can reach the monthly salary of the average Russian.
Cigar scams. You order an expensive cigar, the bartender serves a cheap one, with the “quality mark” taped over it. You can read how to recognize a fake cigar in this material. The plywood will bring a few more pennies into the bartender's pocket.
Underweight snacks. Ask the bartender for 200 grams of dried ram or octopus - they serve 180. It's invisible to the eye, but very much so in a swindler's pocket.
You order your lady a cocktail from expensive French wine, served from cheap Moldavian or Georgian. Believe me, an experienced bartender can most likely recognize in your companion a restaurant regular and a wine connoisseur. Or, on the contrary, a village simpleton who sat down at the bar for the first time.
There are even more opportunities for fraud in a restaurant dining room.
A large group orders a dish of six servings. Five portions are brought, but skillfully arranged on six plates. In general, we will not dwell on underweight separately, since this is well known and very common almost everywhere.
Unfinished dishes, after cosmetic manipulations, are again served to visitors. The profit is double - the first “tryer” paid for it, and the second one paid for it. It is impossible to distinguish “already eaten” from fresh. This is especially true for rare dishes; they are rarely completely eaten, as they are often ordered out of curiosity. Thus, do not be surprised - a “used” dish may end up on the tables of several visitors! The main signs of a “food dish” are loss of shape (but you need to be a gourmet to understand this) and instant serving (which means the dish was already waiting, and was not cooked).
The bill may contain dishes that you did not order at all and may not contain any food eaten. Restaurant staff especially love large, drinking and outspoken companies. Such people, at the end of the event, are royally drunk, and, as a rule, pay long bills without looking. And they don’t forget about tips.
Prices for dishes may differ significantly from those indicated on the menu, and the quantity and weight may also vary.
The bill may contain “trifles” that you did not order, such as ice, straws, berries, umbrellas and other accessories.
In the bar and dining room, you may be fed “fraudulent food” simply bought at the market, especially if the bills are written out manually, without a cash register. Few people, after the third liter mug, will be able to distinguish Zhigulevskoye from Baltic.
Morality: Be picky. Order all dishes at once, if possible completely eliminating “additional orders” - in the process of drinking, it is much easier to deceive you. Do not order complex or exotic dishes in unfamiliar restaurants. Don't order too much! Three or four dishes is enough, otherwise they will definitely try to confuse you. Some restaurants give visitors the opportunity to watch how the ordered dish is prepared - be sure to take advantage of this. Bon appetit!
Underweight from 1 to 10 grams is legal.
What can be considered underweight and what is the norm?
May 15, 2015
This summer, permissible error indicators for packaging goods will come into force in Russia. Depending on the weight, volume and length of the goods, permissible fluctuations are determined, which will not fall under the concept of measurement or body weight of buyers. If the error exceeds, citizens will have the right to demand “fairness”, and sellers may face a hefty fine. The Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation has developed a resolution with a list of errors, which will improve the legal regulation in the field of trade, in terms of ensuring uniformity of measurements to prevent measuring, weighing or shortchanging consumers. The project has already undergone public discussion. Its entry into force is scheduled for June 1, 2015.
To protect consumers from deception and trade enterprises from litigation, the Ministry of Industry and Trade proposed establishing a minimum error when weighing goods. Thus, according to the draft order, underweight in weighted goods can range from 1 to 10 grams, depending on the weight of the goods. Or from 0.3 to 3.3 ml when measuring the volume of goods in liters. And in the linear size of the product, 0.1 to 0.6 mm is allowed.
Permissible error when packaging goods:
with weight:
from 2 to 10 kg – 10 g
from 0.5 to 2 kg – 5 g
from 0.1 to 0.5 kg – 2 g
up to 0.1 kg – 1 g with volume:
from 2 to 10 l – 3.3 ml
from 0.5 to 2l – 1.6 ml
from 0.1 to 0.5 l – 0.6 ml
up to 0.1 l – 0.3 ml with length:
from 2 to 3 m – 0.6 mm
from 1.5 to 2 m – 0.3 mm
from 1 to 1.5m – 0.25mm
from 0.5 to 1m – 0.2mm
from 0.3 to 0.5 m – 0.15 mm
up to 0.3 m – 0.1 mm
It is not explained how exactly these error rates are justified. Most likely, the authorities considered its insignificant but at the same time allowing to avoid disputes for every gram, milliliter and centimeter of goods. However, as Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Viktor Evtukhov noted, even with modern electronic scales it is difficult to ensure ideal and constant compliance with the weight norm; an error is possible both downward and upward for each specific weighing unit. This error was previously regulated by GOST, which is currently invalid.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade also drew attention to the fact that the Russian media have already dubbed this order the “customer body kit norm.” This doesn't match reality, the ministry emphasizes. Many trading enterprises are conscientious and without limitation of errors. However, it is not uncommon for buyers to follow principles and sue for “pennies.” It is also not uncommon for law enforcement agencies to refuse to resolve a conflict between a buyer and an object of trade over “real” underweight, since our legislation does not yet have a starting point for what is considered weight gain and what is considered natural shrinkage of a product.
According to the Russian Consumer Union, every year, on average, about 15% of consumers, which is millions of citizens, complain about underweight of goods or fraud during weighing. At the same time, 80-90% of buyers’ claims, if they begin to defend their rights, are satisfied by sellers without going to court.
But our legislation has long established responsibility for body kit, measurement and calculation. According to Article 14.7 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation, administrative fines are established for this: for citizens - from 3,000 to 5,000 rubles, for officials - from 10,000 to 30,000 rubles and for legal entities - from 20,000 to 50,000 rubles.
According to a representative of the Russian Society for the Protection of Consumer Rights, introducing body kit standards is nonsense, which provokes the traders themselves to deceive customers. But the responsibility and fines of sellers for underweight or unclear operation of electronic scales must be increased many times over.
But, as the lawyers explained, Rospotrebnadzor and the Federal Agency for Technical Regulation and Metrology (Rosstandart), as well as legal entities accredited with it, are responsible for checking merchants’ scales and individual entrepreneurs. In case of unauthorized settings, for example, lack of integrity of the seal or tampering with the electronic modules of the scales to the unscrupulous sellers are subject to administrative and criminal penalties. In particular, the article “Fraud” of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. And this is a completely different story.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade has developed permissible errors in the weight and volume of goods sold.
Unscrupulous sellers and manufacturers will have to be wary of meticulous consumers in the future. If such a buyer notices that the weight of the goods he purchased differs from the declared one by more than 10 grams, he may demand that the entrepreneur be fined.Exactly what kind of error in the weight and volume of goods sold should be considered a consumer deception is stated in the order of the Ministry of Industry and Trade “On approval of the list of measurements related to the scope of state regulation of ensuring the uniformity of measurements and carried out during trade, performance of work on packaging goods and mandatory metrological requirements for them, including indicators of measurement accuracy.” The document is currently undergoing public discussion and is available on the Unified Information Posting Portal.
Officials propose to approve the following “standards” for weighing and measuring buyers:
- no more than 1 g (0.3 ml) – for goods weighing up to 100 g (ml);
- no more than 2 g (0.6 ml) – for goods weighing from 100 to 500 g (ml);
- no more than 5 g (1.6 ml) – for goods weighing from 0.5 to 2 kg (l);
- no more than 10 g (3.3 ml) – for goods weighing from 2 to 10 kg (l).
If the key characteristic of a product is linear size, then the permissible errors in its sale are as follows:
- up to 0.1 mm – for goods up to 0.3 m long;
- up to 0.15 mm – for goods with a length of 0.3-0.5 m;
- up to 0.2 mm – for goods 0.5-1 m long;
- up to 0.25 mm – for goods 1-1.5 m long;
- up to 0.3 mm – for goods 1.5-2 m long;
- up to 0.6 mm – for goods 2-3 m long.
Let us remind you that until now in the Russian Federation there have been no standards that would make it possible to distinguish between the buyer’s body kit and the error of the scales. At the same time, the current version of Article 14.7 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation provides for dishonest entrepreneurs to be punished in the form of a fine of 3 to 5 thousand for citizens and from 20 to 50 thousand rubles for legal entities.
However, experts doubt the effectiveness of the practical applicability of the Ministry of Industry and Trade document. Thus, the former deputy head of Rosstandart Vladimir Krutikov believes that the project needs to be finalized, since the error of different types of scales is not the same, and the government decided to unify them. At the same time, communist deputy, member of the State Duma Committee on Economic Policy, Innovative Development and Entrepreneurship, Alexander Potapov, is confident that the new norm is useless, since it is almost impossible to implement.
I wouldn't have thought of this on my own. But colleagues from KP-Nizhny Novgorod suggested. It turns out that manufacturers of packaged products cheat like cheap fraters by not adding buckwheat, sugar, rice, and so on to the packages. Let's say the package says 1 kilogram, but in reality it weighs 900 grams. It doesn’t seem to be critical, but, you see, it’s unpleasant. 10 deceived customers - and the store owner takes the cost of the whole pack. Can you imagine what kind of money this is? Considering the scale of our supermarkets. And we are talking not only about rice, buckwheat, flour, but also about packaged vegetables, fruits, pasta, and milk. In general, I could not stand it and, hiding the revolutionary banner in my backpack, I went on reconnaissance.
FORGOT ABOUT THE SCALES
The first store I went to was “My Auchan” on Tverskaya. It opened in August last year literally a stone's throw from the State Duma. The people are in darkness. Especially tourists. And everyone pushes each other, apologizes, because there is not enough space, despite two floors. To begin with, I took four packaged packages - buckwheat (kernels), wheat flour, a half-bubble cone (pasta, in our opinion) and rice (long grain). And he went with them to look for control scales. Not on the first floor, not on the second either. I approach the seller. He thought that I was a teapot and sent me to the checkout. Like, they will weigh your buckwheat there. But I know that check scales should be separate. The administrator was called. And she admitted that they simply forgot to put them on.
I paid and went to another store. Buy scales.
As it turned out, Auchan sellers have nothing to be ashamed of. The bags that I bought only had flour underweight. And that’s only 2 grams! But buckwheat, rice and pasta, on the contrary, have an excess - from 4 to 30 grams. Well, where, one might ask, is the deception?
LET'S GO LOOK FOR POTATOES
Attempt number two. Perekrestok store on Yasnogorskaya Street (southwest of Moscow). I put the scales in the storage box (as they say, without fawning) and proceeded to the display cases. I took vacuum-packed sausages (who knows if the weight indicated on the barcode corresponds to the real one?), another pack of flour, a net of potatoes and three lemons (firstly, because I had a sore throat, and secondly, I double-checked the store scales , those on which buyers weigh vegetables and fruits).
Check scales were available at Perekrestok. And they stand next to the last cash register. The sales assistant, seeing me weighing a pack of flour, looked at me like I was the last stingy one. But I steadfastly withstood her gaze and hastened to write down the results. Lemons - gram for gram, flour - too, sausage - underweight 4 grams. But the potatoes are underweight - 112 grams! This is too much. After all, this is a whole potato. And if you consider that I buy potatoes once a month, then in a year that’s 12 potatoes. A decent pot of borscht. My scales showed the same thing...
The salespeople told me that few people use checkweighers in their store. Mostly pensioners. And they only weigh fruits and vegetables, but not packaged products.
WHERE DO I GET SO MUCH PASTA?
On Novoyasenevsky Prospekt I choose another chain supermarket “Ya Beloved”. Perhaps the calmest store of the three. The area is large, there are not many people. I chose the products at random. Breadcrumbs, rice, sugar, buckwheat, pasta... The administrator was not at all surprised when he saw me dumping it all onto the control scales. You never know how many penny-pinchers are out there.
The results are not the most stunning. Rice underweight - 5 grams. Underweight of buckwheat - 10 grams. But with pasta the advantage is as much as 20 grams! So it turns out that I didn’t eat enough rice and buckwheat, but I got pasta for free. There are no problems with breadcrumbs and sugar - in both cases the excess is 2 grams.
SPECIFICALLY
How much is left in the packs (according to the results of the experiment)
Wheat flour - 2 grams
Shebekin pasta - 2 grams
Rice - 5 grams
Buckwheat - 10 grams
Potatoes for boiling - 112 grams
SCALE OF DISASTER
So, let's do a simple calculation. In an 800-gram pack of buckwheat, we found an underweight of 10 grams. The capacity of the truck is 20 thousand kg. This is 25 thousand packs. If you subtract 10 grams from each, you get 25 “left” kg. 1 kg of buckwheat costs 35 rubles; it turns out that on one truck, due to underweight, the producer earns 875 rubles.
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