He Really Upset His Server When He Didn’t Leave A Tip For The $100 Meal That He And His Girlfriend Had At A Restaurant
This man and his girlfriend recently went out to eat at a restaurant. To drink, he ordered a coffee, and his girlfriend just stuck with water.
They shared an appetizer, and then each ordered a main entree. During the meal, he felt like their server was kind enough and always made sure to give them more water when they needed it.
“I hadn’t paid much attention to how much we spent until the bill arrived and realized we had spent $108.77. I’ve been taught to always leave a minimum tip of 20% or more when you can afford to as a courtesy to the waiter/waitress. My comfort level is under $70, so I usually only get meals around $50, so I can leave a $10 tip,” he said.
Meanwhile, his girlfriend doesn’t have much money saved up. She has a lot going on in her life, and he has been trying to support her financially when he can, as well as plan fun dates to make her feel better and distract her from her current struggles.
Because of this, he didn’t want to have to ask his girlfriend to cover the tip. So, instead, he skipped on paying what should have been roughly a $21 tip and paid the bill. He did this only because of how high their bill was, and normally, he wouldn’t have stiffed the server on a tip.
“As we left, the waitress came outside the restaurant to chase us down. (We assumed we dropped or forgot something.) She asked if she did anything wrong. We were confused and said, ‘No, why?’ She told us that we didn’t leave a tip, that she ‘was a waitress who made money off tips,’ and that it was how she made a living,” he explained.
In response, he told the server he was sorry and that he hadn’t meant to upset her. He explained that she did a good job as their server, and the reason he didn’t leave a tip was that he wasn’t paying attention to how much money he and his girlfriend were spending on their meals, so their bill ended up being much higher than he’d anticipated it would be. He continued and said that this was the reason he didn’t leave her a tip.
During the interaction, the server was clearly trying to remain as kind as possible, but he could tell that she was angry.
As an American, he has always understood the concept of tipping and that servers rely on tips in order to make a livable wage. He is aware of the fact that not everyone is able to work other jobs where they make a more stable and reliable income.
Look! – stock.adobe.com- illustrative purposes only, not the actual person
Furthermore, he acknowledged that he didn’t know the server’s full story, so she may be struggling financially, so him stiffing her on a tip may have had a bigger impact on her day than he’d meant it to.
“I did feel offended/hurt that she came out to berate us for being cheap, but it was my mistake for not paying attention to how much I spent and my choice to not tip based on that mistake. I could’ve afforded the extra $21, but I was uncomfortable with spending over my normal limit,” he shared.
While his girlfriend has previously worked as a server and understands the server’s frustration, she thinks that it was inappropriate of the server to come outside the restaurant to confront them for not tipping. Now, he feels like a jerk for not leaving a tip since the server was so clearly upset about it.
Upon reflection, he realized that he was wrong and planned to return to the restaurant to say sorry to the server and give her an appropriate tip.
He feels bad because he knows that servers do need tips to get by, and he feels guilty for stiffing the server on a tip just because he wasn’t more careful with how much he and his girlfriend were spending on their meals.
However, he pointed out that he believes the American tipping system is toxic. He said that “people need to act their wage and quit working for pennies and vote when they can.” While he knows that customers should tip, he thinks that the entire culture surrounding tipping is negative because it allows businesses to take advantage of their employees.
Also, when he goes out to restaurants, he makes a point to tip in cash rather than on a card. He does this so that the servers are able to have that money immediately for themselves instead of running the risk of the business keeping the tips for themselves.
During the recent incident when he didn’t tip the server, he didn’t have any cash, so that was part of his reasoning for not tipping. But he knows that this doesn’t excuse his behavior, and it doesn’t make his decision any less wrong.
The night after the ordeal, he went back to the restaurant. The server he and his girlfriend had wasn’t currently working, but he sat down and had a coffee and appetizer. His server, this time, was a floor manager, and he decided to tell her the story of what happened during his previous visit. He wanted to correct his mistake and do the right thing.
He gave the floor manager a physical description of his server, the name of their table, the location of where he and his girlfriend were seated, and the exact time that he and his girlfriend had been in the restaurant.
While he was talking, some other servers were listening in, and they tried to help him narrow it down so that they could figure out which server it had been.
In the end, he left a $55 tip on his $11.66 bill, and the servers all assured him that they’d distribute it accordingly so that his server from the night before would get part of this tip as well. He made sure to say sorry to all of them for what he’d done.
Do you think he was wrong not to tip on his $100 bill in the first place? Did he make things right by returning the next day and leaving a tip to give the server that he didn’t tip?
You can read the original post on Reddit here.
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