'AITA for accidentally letting a group of drunk girls run up a $1,200 bar tab on NYE?'
"AITA for accidentally letting a group of girls run up a HUGE bar tab on NYE?"
He writes:
Alright, so I was at a club/bar that my friend is hostess/bartender at. That night she was working behind the bar but she had texted me that they had a small booth still not reserved and I could get it for cheap with bottle service.
She's hooked me up like that before and I hopped on it. NYE, booth, bottle service. Surely a packed house, and I'll have a reserved seat. I was all over it. Not going to lie and as a single dude it's a nice little setup to talk to women that have mutual interest.
So, I'm mingling by the bar with this group of 3 girls who are all friends. We are having a decent enough conversation and they are talking about how they are all from out of town from California and one girl was from Willow Creek.
At this point we literally say, "the home of Bigfoot."(I'm a bit of a conspiracy theory nut) After this we all laugh, and such then I jokingly say, "that's it ALL drinks on me for Bigfoot's neighbors." We all laugh and then I motion for my friend to come over then I buy a round of drinks on my tab.
After the drinks I moved back to my booth and didn't talk to them anymore. I did see they had met a group of three guys and they looked like they had joined up. But, more drinks. More fun. Countdown. All that jazz. Later in the night I'm talking to another woman in the booth. And, I can see the three girls darting straight towards me.
Apparently, one of the girls had opened a tab and went to close out because they were leaving then got hit with something like a $1,200 bar tab. They were buying drinks all night thinking I was going to pay for it all and my friend was putting on their tab not mine.
They wanted me to go up to the bar and explain the situation. I told them I wouldn't because that was obviously a joke that I would pay for all their drinks and I hadn't seen them all night and barely knew them there's no way I'm paying that.
They called me an asshole and all kinds of names I could barely believe. My favorite was the insulting of my wiener size. The woman I was sitting with left to get away from the drama and at this point security steps in telling them to chill out or get kicked out. They leave me alone and I sneak out when I'm ready to leave to avoid anymore drama with them.
But, I'm conflicted I really don't think I owed them anything but I guess in an alternate universe I can understand thinking they had a blank check... maybe? I don't know. Even with a blank check I would have gotten a few drinks. Not the bottles and so on they got. So, AITA?
Edit: adding more detail from suggestions. They had bought a drink before I started talking to them from bartender friend. They must have came back to her for bottles after they left me. Then it got put on their card cause she obviously remembered them.
This place gives you a host with the corkage fee. So, once you get a bottle you just alert your host and they keep the party going (mixers/glasses/chilling) along with the tab tallied.
Also, I didn't see their itemized bill but Ace of Spades champagne is carried at the bar and that's about 850 dollars just for a bottle. So, it might not have been 60 Long Island Ice Tea they bought.
Do you think this was an a-hole move? This is what top commenters had to say:
zukka924 said:
ESH. You literally said "drinks on me!" how're they supposed to know you're joking? At the same time, HOLY SHIT $1,200 TAB??!?!!?!?!?! Fuuuuuuuck that and fuck them for taking advantage of your hospitality.
[deleted] said:
A light ESH on your part. They’re obviously idiots for running up a 1200 dollar tab but, even though you were joking, you probably should’ve explicitly offered them A ROUND of drinks instead of ALL the drinks. So then there would’ve been no confusion. Who knows, maybe they were already drunk and took what you said literally.
The-Bouse said:
NTA. Originally I was going to rule you as TA because the wording of your joke might have mislead them, but if you’re honest about their bar tab total then they are the AHs. Running up a $1,200 bar tab is absolutely taking advantage of someone else’s hospitality, especially if they weren’t even hanging out with you for the majority of the evening.
Had they run up a tab of only a few hundred dollars then tbh you probably should have paid it because your joke COULD have been misconstrued, but this is so over the top that you’re not the AH for refusing to pay.
[deleted] said:
Definitely NTA. Even if they did think that you were paying for drinks they would still be TA because who in their right mind orders 1,200 dollars worth of drinks. I mean, if they woulda come up to me and had like a 20-30 dollar tab it woulda just been easier to pay it but 1,200 is a big no no. So needless to say your definitely NTA.
International-Aside said:
NTA. though you said "all drinks on me...", its fairly obvious you didnt mean, hey drink however much you want of whatever you want, get the expensive bottle service that i didnt even know about and share it with whoever when i'm not even around. Its ridiculous of them to have expected that to go over well. These girls acted super trashy and this is a lesson in hospitality and decency.
Verdict: NTA or ESH. What do you think?