As management at Lotus Bar & Eatery, we would like an opportunity to respond to the comment from Merry Brooks. Mrs. Brooks is correct in stating that the server accidentally charged the wrong bill to her card. However, the charge was voided, by me, on the spot. (Any business owner will tell you that the ""money"" is not actually collected until the end of the night. The card swipe/approval process merely checks the balance so that it can ""approve"" the amount being charged.) In this instance, Mrs. Brooks' bank put a hold on the amount requested, but did not withdraw it from her account (this happens in about 1 in 10000 transactions). Mrs. Brooks called the following evening to claim she had been double-charged despite our records showing the contrary. We politely suggested that she wait 48hrs. for her bank to clear it, or call her bank for an explanation. It being after-hours, Mrs. Brooks was understandably upset about having to wait another day, so she requested a refund. Unfortunately, we were unable to give her one because 1) we never received the money, and 2) it was her banks' responsibility to release her funds, not ours to donate $120 into her account. She promptly called the banks' helpline, and called us back saying that her bank would release the funds if we faxed over an affidavit on company letterhead stating that the funds in question were not being requested by Lotus. We did so immediately, and to our knowledge the matter was resolved between her and her bank. We sympathize with Mrs. Brooks' ordeal, but again, would like to state for the record that we did not willingly nor falsely charge her account for more than what was due. We also handled her complaint the moment it was received, despite her call coming during our busiest dinner hour. We are disappointed that Mrs. Brooks feels that our customer service was lacking when we actively lobbied on her behalf, and went out of our way to resolve what was clearly just an issue between her and her bank.
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