The 1 Thing You Should Always Do After Signing A Restaurant Receipt

If you have ever dined out, you know the drill. After your delicious drink or meal, you’re likely going to get two receipts of your bill from your server: a merchant and a customer copy.

Sometimes, a merchant copy will be the only receipt with a line for a signature, but often there is no distinct difference in the agreements between the two versions.

So what happens if you accidentally sign the customer copy instead of the restaurant copy? Restaurant workers and fraud experts weighed in.

Signing the customer copy over the merchant copy likely is not going to matter.

Alicia Perry, a San Diego-based beverage director, said it can depend on the exact policies of the restaurant or establishment, from what she’s experienced in the industry.

“It’s not something that we traditionally worry about or are concerned about, just as long as there’s a signed copy,” she said. “So that way, we can ensure that whoever chooses or hopes to dispute it, that they’ve essentially signed whatever they have marked on that side of the receipt.”

Gabriella Zottola, a Waltham, Massachusetts-based restaurant manager, agreed and said that leaving behind a signed customer copy is not a big deal. “As long as the tip is clearly written on it, we’re good!” she said. Zottola noted that if a customer copy is left behind, her practice is to “toss them.”

Perry echoed this sentiment, saying, “If the guest isn’t there, then we just throw [the customer copy] away to make sure that it’s not tampered with.”

As technology makes paper receipts increasingly obsolete, consider that this is less of an issue nowadays.

Perry said that whether or not you sign the merchant copy is “largely a moot point because of digital payments like Toast; however, it’s totally