I had an experience with a R.O.B. She was talking to me at my table and offered to do 3 dances for the price of 1. I was not too interested until she offered the 3 for 1 special. I have done 2 for 1 specials before, but never 3 for 1s. Anyways, I did not question it and thought it was a great deal so I went for it. We headed back to the dance area and I got the three dances. But when it was all over she said she wanted $75, instead of $25. I reminded her of her offer but she just played dumb and told the bouncer I was trying to cheat her. It seemed like a set up the whole time as the bouncer was even in on this. Saying "sorry sir, we don't do 3 for 1 specials, and the 2 for 1 specials are only once per hour". This was the first time I ever felt scammed by a dancer and bouncer. I know plenty of dancers who lie to me romantically telling me they love me, but this was the first one that lied to me about the cost. Anyways, after arguing with the bouncer and the dancer, I finally agreed to just pay the $75 and get out of there. I did not want any trouble and the fact that this club has a cop working outside does not make things any better. I was coerced/bullied into this charge. They made me sign the sales receipt, and unfortunately I signed it with my normal signature out of habit. They also took my ID to copy to make this look like a legit charge.
I was wondering if you guys have any advice on how to do a chargeback and try to get my money back? I have read up a little bit and see that the credit card/bank will contact the merchant and ask for documentation. I figure if I wait a month, the club might have lost the documentation/signature by now so I should have a better chance at getting a chargeback. Just wondering if any one has been in a similar situation and how it worked out. I have read about Score's and people running up 10k plus tabs and Score's gets away with it because the credit card companies side with the club if they have signature/"proof" but this also included bottles of champagne, which have a real cost to them. Should I call the club and try to talk to the owner about it first? Also is it better to wait a few weeks so they will likely no longer have video footage or documentation around. I used to work somewhere that erased the video footage each week, so I am guessing this place may also delete their footage after a week or so.
You're really going to go through this much effort, waiting, plotting, scheming, phone calls - for $50? I'd chalk it up to a lesson learned. Good luck.
We had a thread here a while back about rules for strip clubs, amongst them, never use a credit card, always use cash, budget, and never use their ATM.
I'd just call her a ROB with the bouncer possibility in on it. Get her name, post it on the website or here or wherever you can get attention. Maybe even email the club owner with the information of how you were deceived if you have her name. The club owner is losing customers possibly long time customers worth a lot more than some temporary worker is getting him. That is if he realizes this. That's about as far as I would go if I was really ticked off. I figure a small percentage of dancers are working as con artists and thieves but it's the price I pay to continue visiting strip clubs and trying out new dancers. Kind of like the price you pay for driving down the road if you sometimes accidently exceed the speed limit and get pulled over. Mistake made, pay the price, try to avoid it as much as possible next time, move on.
In my case I encountered two ROB's two weekends, one per weekend. I'm not visiting that club again for some time. It's possible I may not go back again since I once got upset at PP in Greenville one time and didn't go back for two years. The club and dancers lost out and are losing out again due to ROB's. I do have one favorite I may go back to visit in another month or two when she is likely to return. However, sometimes you get in new habits and don't go back.
In addition to the right-on advice in the first two replies, I'd say the main lessons to learn from this experience are:
1. Don't buy dances because the stripper offers a deal. Do it ONLY because you're turned on by her and you like her attitude. If you aren't interested in getting a single dance from her, what are two more dances going to add?
2. Stay out of clubs that don't stand by their good customers. You can usually tell these clubs from their meddling staff and policies like counting dances (whether or not that was what happened here). At a good club, the staff is inconspicuous as possible, and the strippers are turned loose to deal with customers on their own. ROBs and bouncers don't stand much chance of pulling that kind of bullshit scam without quickly earning a reputation that gets them shitcanned.
I know how you feel - I hate getting ripped-off on principle, but it is proably a futile effort to recoupe the money. Once in my favorite club I watched a guy go from table to table warning everyone about a particular dancer (he came to my table and told me). He wasn't obnoxious about it, and it worked because that dancer came by later and asked if I was interested in a dance and I passed. I'm sure she had a bad night.
this is just another example of why SC's are some of the worst businesses around. Most of the time in my life that I have been ROB'd it has of course, been at a strip club. Hopefully, karmas a bitch.
I did have one stripper pick my pocket and got even a bit. I informed someone at the club before I left and then emailed the manager of the chain of the crime. I returned to the club and told someone I sent the email. At that point I didn't know if they were going to be pissed off and throw me out or what. Instead the manager invited me to his office. He had done an investigation. A few strippers and even one bouncer were on a two week suspension. The manger found out a number of red flags and found out the dancer who picked my pocket had been stealing from other customers and that was why his business and customers were leaving in droves (he was hinting at this at least). He just didn't know why. I didn't have much stolen, a wad of about 30 to 40 ones but I didn't like to have anything stolen and that amount didn't seem that small to me. He gave me $40 back and thanked me. He showed me a drivers license of the suspected dancer and I said that was her. I should know because she used to be one of my favorites. Yes she was stupid for doing that to me. I knew she did it because I knew I had the money before getting a lap dance from her and before we left the room, I felt her hands in my pocket but forgot I had my tip money in there. As the manager said, she didn't know if I had ones or twenties in my pocket. She wasn't working there anymore. I even informed another club I spotted her at that she was fired due to stealing from customers. Other things that were red flags, customers losing their wallets and only the one dancer still in the lap dance room but the lucky customer in that case still got his wallet and money back. Apparently she knew how to work a customer over to make the money or wallet slip out. Another week or night, the manager told me she had over $800 but hadn't done that many dances. The thing that really caught the manager's attention, his club used to be crowded but at that time it wasn't anymore and the economy was still good. It's nice to have some justice.
I guess you should have paid in advance for your 3-for-1 "special" LDs samsung1. Paying for LDs with your credit card?? Insanity! Give it up...it's only 75 bucks man...
Agree with cash only in the clubs. I'm sure everyone here knows that the ATMs in clubs are rip-offs as well. Once I accidentally left my cash in my hotel room and had to use the ATM in the club. Not only did I have to pay some ridiculously high fee, weeks later I got charged again for some other ATM service fee I had apparently agree to. Luckily my bank gives me a rebate for ATM charges, so in the end I wasn't out any money, but it was annoying.
12 comments
Latest
In my case I encountered two ROB's two weekends, one per weekend. I'm not visiting that club again for some time. It's possible I may not go back again since I once got upset at PP in Greenville one time and didn't go back for two years. The club and dancers lost out and are losing out again due to ROB's. I do have one favorite I may go back to visit in another month or two when she is likely to return. However, sometimes you get in new habits and don't go back.
1. Don't buy dances because the stripper offers a deal. Do it ONLY because you're turned on by her and you like her attitude. If you aren't interested in getting a single dance from her, what are two more dances going to add?
2. Stay out of clubs that don't stand by their good customers. You can usually tell these clubs from their meddling staff and policies like counting dances (whether or not that was what happened here). At a good club, the staff is inconspicuous as possible, and the strippers are turned loose to deal with customers on their own. ROBs and bouncers don't stand much chance of pulling that kind of bullshit scam without quickly earning a reputation that gets them shitcanned.
These rip off clubs need to be shared just as much as the high mileage clubs.
Scores knows they can get away with that shit on big cards because the credit companies want that merchant fee.
The credit company knows the customer wants to keep the credit available so they will pay that shit off grudgingly.
Take a look around - when it comes to banks, everyone is on the wrong side of the transactions.
Keep it to cash. As I hear it these days, most of the time you will walk out the door with cash in your pocket strippers are so lazy.