Red Lobster in hot water after ‘inadvertently’ charging Sask. customers PST a week early

Red Lobster is in hot water after customer Glenn Beatty noticed something fishy about his bill on Thursday.

“I looked at the taxes and saw both GST and PST was added to our meals,” Beatty explained from outside of Red Lobster on 8th Street East in Saskatoon.

READ MORE: How PST and income tax changes will affect Saskatchewan

He was told to follow up his concern with the general manager, who wasn’t at the restaurant at the time so he paid and left.

“I guess I’m curious because has Red Lobster added the PST to the meal since the budget changed a week ago? If that’s true then that’s five per cent of their sales for a week in Regina and Saskatoon. That’s probably into the thousands of dollars that they shouldn’t have collected in the first place.”

In the 2017-18 budget, the Saskatchewan government announced a one percentage point increase to the provincial sales tax. Additionally, PST will be charged to restaurant meals and snack foods, among other things like children’s clothes and construction services starting April 1.

Red Lobster declined an interview with Global News, but issued a statement.

“Thank you for bringing this issue to our attention … It appears that we inadvertently began charging the PST on food and beverage on March 23rd when the rate change went into effect instead of on April 1st when PST becomes applicable to food and beverage,” communications and external relations director Nicole Bott wrote.

“As soon as we identified the issue, we discontinued charging the tax. Any Saskatchewan PST collected in error will be refunded. Guests can contact guest relations at 1-800-562-7837 for assistance.”

FULL COVERAGE: Saskatchewan Budget 2017: sales tax increasing to deal with $685M deficit

The restaurant was made aware of the issue on March 31 and began charging PST on March 23. If you ate at a Red Lobster location in Saskatchewan during that time, check your bills, you may have some cash to collect.

Bott encourages any customers that were charged to call guest relations.

“Well that’s a lot of money that didn’t belong to them, they didn’t have a right to collect, it wasn’t legal to collect,” Beatty said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "Well that's a lot of money that didn't belong to them, they didn't have a right to collect, it wasn't legal to collect," Beatty said.

Beatty plans on following up and getting his PST back out of principle and is happy he went fishing for answers.