Marathon On the Square Restaurant — Restaurant in Philadelphia

THE SERVERS WILL STEAL YOUR MONEY BY ADDING THEIR OWN UNAUTHORIZED CREDIT CARD TIP AMOUNT!!!

I was a guest at your establishment on April 6, 2024 at the Spruce street location and had Laura as our server.

Overall Laura did a good job as our waitress. She answered our questions regarding the menu, took our orders and the food came out fast. The food was great and me and my guests thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. No problems there.

The issue that I have is that Laura added in her own tip amount!!! Let me explain. I paid my portion of the total bill by credit card which came to be $52.36. I signed the paper that was left for me to fill in the tip amount and I left her $12. I placed it on the table.

I had an elderly guest with me so I left to go get my car so I could come back to pick her up. When my guests came to my car they handed me my receipt thinking that I had left it behind. The receipt was folded so I never opened it to see which one it was, and then we left.

Two days later I went into my purse and saw the receipt and decided to open it and noticed that the my guests gave me the receipt that should’ve been left for Laura. I felt bad and I wanted to make sure she would still get her tip that I had every intention of given her. (I was once a server and I know what it feels like to receive tips and not to receive them) so I wanted to make it right. I was going to call the establishment to see how I could give her the tip.

Before I would call, I checked my credit card transactions to see if your establishment had already charged my card and I’d noticed, to my surprise, that I’ve been charged $62.36 which means she automatically added $10 for her tip!

I reach out to Marathon Grill and spoke to the manager on duty Dan at 11:00 am on 4/8/24 and he stated that this happens quite often. He also stated that if there was an imprint of what someone left on the other receipts then they will write in what they think they see. I counter that and said, no matter what you think a guest wrote, the guest never authorized it if it’s not written.

I take full responsibility for my guests taking the wrong receipt off from the table, but that doesn’t give Laura any rights to freely write in her own tip. I am pissed, I feel violated and taken...

My significant other and I had quite a poor experience here.

During our meal:

1. We were ignored by staff who delayed in taking our order then forgot to bring our drinks.
2. The food then came late. The table next to us was seated at least 10 minutes after us but got their food at least 10 minutes before us.
3. The food that came was then substandard, to put it mildly. My significant other couldn't take more than 3 bites of her meal because it was so bland (think of microwaved, scrambled eggs with no flavoring), and ended up sharing mine. We both left hungry.
4. Finally, the cleanliness of the restaurant left a lot to be desired. When the waitress finally brought out my (forgotten) drink, the glass had lipstick marks on it. When I told the waitress, I did feel bad because she was so embarrassed. She went and got me another glass.

What makes this matter worse is, later on, I wrote to the restaurant with feedback. I didn't want to make the wait staff or restaurant management feel bad on the spot, so I figured email communication would be better; however, I was mistaken. They ignored my complaints and correspondence. At the very least, from a customer service perspective, listening to and offering an apology for a frustrated customer would have gone a long way.

Overall, a poor dining experience that we aren't going to forget...

A series of unusual events. I walked in and, instead of being greeted and asked how many people were in my party (it was just me), I had to look around to figure out who was supposed to be helping me. Once I engaged with someone, I still wasn't asked anything - I had to ask to see a menu. I asked if they could swap out pancakes for French toast in one meal - I was flat out told no. I told the waitress what I wanted to order and she put it in the computer in front of me, assuming that I was ordering takeout without asking me. Then I asked if I could be seated and finally was. The food came out quickly, but my drink was missing, so I had to ask for that again. I ordered over easy eggs...let's just say they were very easy. Shortly thereafter, a waitress tried to deliver food to me that wasn't mine. And, to top it off, multiple fruit flies landed on my pancakes, getting stuck in the syrup. Yum.... And finally, upon getting up, I noticed a bumble bee along the window next to me. Inside. Hope no one's allergic to bee stings! Definitely one of the most unusual restaurant experiences I've had...