I was charged a cancellation fee at a restaurant in NYC – despite arriving on time

Despite arriving at his reservation on time, one punctual customer paid the price for rushing before dining.

Content creator Sean Lans has sparked a debate over restaurant cancellation fees after complaining that he and his friend were allegedly charged a $25 fee for not ordering any food at an unnamed restaurant in NYC despite were presented for their reservation.

The Post has reached out to Lance for comment.

“If you show up for your reservation at a restaurant but leave before you buy anything, do you think you should still be charged the cancellation fee?” said the creator in an already viral TikTok video, which has scored more than 225,000 views in a few days.

According to Lans, he and his friend had made a reservation at “one of those annoying restaurants where you have to put in your card” to secure a table.

While he did not name the restaurant, he claimed the restaurant had a 24-hour cancellation policy with a $25 fee.

“But everything had to be fine because we showed up to this booking on time – in fact, we were 10 minutes early,” he continued.

The pair were sitting at their desk when Lance’s friend started feeling sick, rushing to the bathroom and staying there for what Lance estimates was 15 minutes. Texting him from the toilet, the friend said she was afraid she would gag or worse and “didn’t feel like eating a full meal”.

So they informed their waiter that she was sick and left without ordering.

“Fast forward to today, she checks her credit card statement and sees she’s been charged a $25 cancellation fee,” he said.

After calling the restaurant to inquire about the fee, the establishment informed him that the fee was not for cancellation only. In fact, they claimed they had a “minimum spend” policy, and since the duo didn’t order anything, they were still required to pay the $25 fee.

According to Lans, the restaurant claimed the policy is in place to protect against the loss of “revenue” for the business if someone shows up and doesn’t spend money.

“But then I’m reading up on this policy, looking at the fine print, and there’s nothing about a ‘minimum spend,'” claimed Lance, who expressed his frustration with the policy’s inconsistency and doesn’t “see how it’s enforceable this.”

In the comments, viewers were divided on whether Lans’ party should pay the fee.

“It’s a cancellation fee, not a minimum spend fee,” quipped one viewer.

“If they didn’t have it in their policy, they can’t legally charge the fee,” claimed another. “I understand, but they have to have it in writing to make it stick.”

“If a restaurant can’t stay open on food profits alone, it shouldn’t be in business anyway,” said someone else.

“They should not have charged out of courtesy. Clearly there were extenuating circumstances here,” said one user.

Others, however, disagreed.

“Showing up and not spending money and then leaving is actually worse than canceling,” one person argued. “You are personally canceling as late as possible.”

“Yeah, leaving is no different than a cancellation,” commented another.

“You canceled it personally, bro,” someone else said.

“Actually on the restaurant side,” said one user. “These places have cancellation fees because they lose valuable business by holding the table for you just so you don’t spend money.”