A Restaurant Charge Dissapeared

[Anonymous]

I put a charge on my card last Saturday at a restaurant I frequent. The total with tip was $50 and it went pending. It remained in pending status all week until this morning when I checked it see if it had posted as it was the only charge on that card. To my surprise the charge has disappeared and it shows my full available credit limit again. I'm curious will this charge show up again unexpectedly or should I call the restaurant and ask what's going on?

[SouthJamaica]

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@Anonymous wrote:
I put a charge on my card last Saturday at a restaurant I frequent. The total with tip was $50 and it went pending. It remained in pending status all week until this morning when I checked it see if it had posted as it was the only charge on that card. To my surprise the charge has disappeared and it shows my full available credit limit again. I'm curious will this charge show up again unexpectedly or should I call the restaurant and ask what's going on?

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Sometimes the authorization expires, but the charge comes in anyhow.

But yes you should let the restaurant know.

[Anonymous]

Ok I'll give them a call at lunch thanks for the advise SouthJamaica.

[Anonymous]

I agree that you should call. But I would wait a day or two to see whether the charge reappears. I had  a similar thing happen, called right away and end up with two charges on my credit card.

[Anonymous]

One of our local restaurants acts this way every time we go there - it sits in Pending for a couple days, drops off for a couple days and then shows up as a Transaction on the 5th or 6th day.  It's annoying but we've come to expect it from them.

[HeavenOhio]

I believe that charges will drop from pending after five days on MasterCards and Visas. With AMEX, it's eight days. As others have said, the transaction can go through after that.

[Appleman]

I would give is a few weeks to post. As you saw the authorization dropped but the merchant still has time to place the final charge.

It is good to be honest but I would wait a bit longer as you call may only confuse things.

[rbentley]

I don't know if any restaurant that isn"'t rigerous about account for all transactions at end of shift. Their margins are so narrow that they can't afford to wait a week to get paid. The fact thatthe authorization has expired with a charge posting likely means something has been lost. I would call them. They won't get confused. They will be be appreciative.

[Anonymous]

There's a practical should and an ethical should.  The word is used both ways much of the time.

To summarize the advice thus far regarding the practical decision, I'd mark it down as a To Do for Wed of next week.  That gives it plenty of time to appear.  Posts # 4 and 5 support the idea of not waiting and not calling.

If by next Wed it has not appeared, it moves into an ethical question.  Some people feel strongly about the customer doing the extra legwork to make sure the restaurant gets paid.  Other folks might feel that this involves labor on their part for which the resturant won't compensate them -- given that it is a small amount (compared to the restaurant's monthly revenue) they'd feel the ethical burden is on the restaurant's part to do their billing right.  I don't have a strong opinion either way.  I'd lean toward letting them know for ease of sleep and being perceived by them as a good customer. 

[Anonymous]

I agree I am waiting it out simply because I dont want the headache of calling in to report the issue and ending up having to dispute a double charge if by Wednesday the charge has not posted I will contact the restaurant and explain the situation as I used a service and feel obligated to pay for that service. It has become a thorn in my side as my statement cut is approaching and having a charge suddenly post and report before a payment can process will aggravate my OCD lol. This hiccup has made me leery to pay for their services with credit next time. I may from this point forward pay via debit transactions.