The story about that Tinder date at the Shard ending in £15k debt isn’t true

A story of everyone's worst Tinder date nightmare has gone viral recently. Nearly everyone has heard the voice note doing the rounds online and gasped at the pure horror of it. The story is all about a Tinder date at the Shard.

It involves a first date, some expensive wine, an unpayable bill and then a huge direct debit. The story has now been debunked and as much as you'd like to believe it, it didn't happen.

What is the Tinder date at the Shard story?

A summary of the Tinder date at the Shard is:

Two people go on a Tinder date at the Shard. They decide to get some wine, and enjoy it so much they order a couple more bottles. They end up drinking three.

When the bill comes, the pair realise they've made a huge mistake. The wine they have been drinking actually costs £5,000 a bottle not the £50 they thought they had read on the menu. They literally cannot afford to pay for it. The waiter offers to allow them to pay retail price for the wine, but it still comes to £9,000 all together, which they also can't afford. They're stuck.

The only option is to set up a direct debit with the restaurant which means the girl is now paying off her £15,000 wine debt for 10 years.

Here's the full story that has gone viral on Twitter:

But did the Shard wine story even happen?

There are a few different versions floating around. All are the same urban myth style stories, coming from "a friend of a friend" or "my mum's work colleague's daughter told me". So did it even happen?

The Shard has 95 storeys in total, and six restaurants. The company that runs businesses there, Real Estate Management UK (REM), say none of the bars or restaurants in the sky scraper building are aware of the Tinder date incident ever happening.

In a statement, the company said: "Real Estate Management UK Ltd has spoken to the restaurant and bar operators within The Shard all of whom have confirmed this alleged incident did not happen on their premises."

However, it is technically possible to spend £15,000 on three bottles of wine at the Shard. The restaurant Ting sells a bottle of Petrus 1998 for £5,200. So the story isn't actually that far fetched.

Some Twitter users had doubts about the story from the beginning. They argued if you ordered wine that cost that much, the restaurant would check you knew what you were doing and specifically present the wine to you.

However, the voice note about the story that is going viral explains this didn't happen because the restaurants in the Shard have billionaire clientele, and to check they wanted to spend that much would be an insult.

Another thing that seems shady about this story is the direct debit. Can a restaurant really make you sign a direct debit like that? The answer is no, they can't make you, but there's nothing stopping them suggesting it.

According to the law, once you order and consume food or wine you have entered into a contract with the restaurant and are obliged to pay. If the price is clearly marked on a menu and you order the item, that is you agreeing to pay for it.

As wild as the story is, it's all a lie. The date didn't happen.

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