Explore, connect, thrive in
the expat community

Expat Life: Local Discoveries, Global Connections

This couple was scammed into paying nearly $30,000 for lunch in Buenos Aires

I wonder if it is in business. I asked a friend that lives in that area and she told me they shut down. You never can tell from company websites or Google as it is wrong half the time in Buenos Aires anyway. Anyone know if they went out of business? If so it sounds like one final exit scam. It looks like from their website they are a franchise.

Google reviews are pretty recent...

1760456880402.png
 
Google reviews are pretty recent...

View attachment 9957
It looks like they have several locations in BA. Maybe this is a different location my friend is talking about. A shame as the Google Reviews seem like it is a good place. I haven't heard of it before.

 
It looks like they have several locations in BA. Maybe this is a different location my friend is talking about. A shame as the Google Reviews seem like it is a good place. I haven't heard of it before.

Correct. I believe the one from the article is the one on Bolivar which does look like it went out of business. Their website is down on that Google location.

 
Correct. I believe the one from the article is the one on Bolivar which does look like it went out of business. Their website is down on that Google location.

Yikes. Terrible that this happened at a franchise if they aren't owned by the same person. After this gets out all the locations with the same name will get tainted. The reviews from the San Telmo location look like the last review was 2 months ago probably when this happened so it could have just been an exit scam since they were closing anyway.
 
What a nightmare! I can't believe something so crazy like this can happen and even crazier how the couple had to fight Chase. I guess this is a sign how bad the economy is in Argentina if restaurants are willing to do this.

What I don't understand is how does something like this even go through the fraud detection program? I can't imagine this couple spending much money like this. For a $30,000 dollar charge to go through in a foreign restaurant seems very off. To have to jump through all the hoops and have them deny the claim is even more off.

I wonder if the couple actually signed a receipt with the full price on it?
 
How how how is this possible? I had to read the article twice as I wasn't sure it was real. If it wasn't a mainstream credible source I would say this was totally made up. Shocking. I have to admit when I use my credit card I don't even check half the time but now I am going to make sure. I just downloaded an app and this article was an eye opener. I signed up to get email and text alerts for any transactions over $5 now.

Just wow!
 
This happened to me before where a restaurant overcharged me. I also had a Chase card. Not the Sapphire reserve but it was a Hyatt Chase card. I disputed it and the same thing. They temporarily credited me and then a few weeks later it went back on. I had to call back and talk to a manager and appeal it. They put another temporary credit and then same thing. They charged me again. They claim I signed for it.

I had to get the State Attorney general involved and I also filed a case with the Consumer financial protection board. After that they finally credited it. But it made me waste a lot of time. Mine was only less than $100 more. I can't imagine these poor people!

Chase is the worst. I told them the signature was not my signature but they made me jump through all of these hoops and I spent hours and hours on this. It was my fault that I did not notice what was charged to my card until 3 weeks after I got home. I did not notice. Now I get notified of each charge so I can resolve it then and there.

Worst was the rep with Chase told me, "you didn't save your receipts from the trip". I told her lady no one does that!
 
What a nightmare! I can't believe something so crazy like this can happen and even crazier how the couple had to fight Chase. I guess this is a sign how bad the economy is in Argentina if restaurants are willing to do this.

Reminder to myself! Check all charges as they are getting charged. I have this card and I am guilty of not checking charges in the moment they are being charged. I am going to be more careful from now on. I have had some crazy high restaurant bills in BA but unfortunately the places were just expensive.
 
Back
Top