The problem is not different bills. Is asking for a split afterwards. If you are going to demand different bills per person, then say so before ordering. Because splitting afterwards makes it prone to errors. Service systems have been designed from the ground up, from the way waiters divide the floor down to the way the software at the cashier station works, to operate on a per table basis. Often times, this systems aren’t flexible at all, so the staff has to use workarounds to defeat the system in place. Newer systems and software are better on that regard but it is still a pain having to go item per item to assign them to new bills per person.
The other side is also service quality. If you are one party, and you are attended as one party, then the kitchen and waiters can coordinate to provide all the food and drinks, roughly at the same time and the same temperature. If you demand to be treated as individual customers, then don’t get mad when food arrives at different times for different people. There’s a logistic mini-nightmare involved in the service industry. Splitting bills at the end of a service is not the end of the world, but it is an annoyance that sort of insults staff by throwing extra unexpected work right when you thought the service was done. Because now the waiter has to sit with the cashier to argue whether the chicken wings were the blond girl or the bearded guy, or if the glasses dude is on the 5th or 7th beer. Because god knows if they go to the table to ask, people will act annoyed and entitled “how come they don’t remember!?”, we don’t remember because you are the 300th person I’ve served today Karen, that’s what the system is for and you just fucked with the system by not asking to split the bills from the beginning.
The problem is not different bills. Is asking for a split afterwards. If you are going to demand different bills per person, then say so before ordering. Because splitting afterwards makes it prone to errors. Service systems have been designed from the ground up, from the way waiters divide the floor down to the way the software at the cashier station works, to operate on a per table basis. Often times, this systems aren’t flexible at all, so the staff has to use workarounds to defeat the system in place. Newer systems and software are better on that regard but it is still a pain having to go item per item to assign them to new bills per person.
The other side is also service quality. If you are one party, and you are attended as one party, then the kitchen and waiters can coordinate to provide all the food and drinks, roughly at the same time and the same temperature. If you demand to be treated as individual customers, then don’t get mad when food arrives at different times for different people. There’s a logistic mini-nightmare involved in the service industry. Splitting bills at the end of a service is not the end of the world, but it is an annoyance that sort of insults staff by throwing extra unexpected work right when you thought the service was done. Because now the waiter has to sit with the cashier to argue whether the chicken wings were the blond girl or the bearded guy, or if the glasses dude is on the 5th or 7th beer. Because god knows if they go to the table to ask, people will act annoyed and entitled “how come they don’t remember!?”, we don’t remember because you are the 300th person I’ve served today Karen, that’s what the system is for and you just fucked with the system by not asking to split the bills from the beginning.