Tipping culture has gotten so out of control that often, people are afraid to ask basic questions about their own receipts. She just asked why her sandwich cost more than usual, and now someone’s out of a job for secretly giving themself a tip behind her back.
This woman frequents a restaurant close to her house, and she pretty much always orders a pulled pork sandwich to go, which costs $17.55 including tax.
She knows the actual amount it costs to get the takeout, since she can see it on her banking statement after the fact. This week, she ordered her sandwich over the phone from the restaurant as usual, and she saw she was charged $29.20, not $17.55.
When she walked into the restaurant to get her food, she requested a receipt so she could check and see what else she had been charged for.
“I was told that there was something wrong with the machine, so I asked to speak to the manager about my sandwich pricing. The waitress who took my order told me to avoid any further confrontation, she would void it out of the system because the manager wasn’t there and wouldn’t be [until] 4,” she explained.
“I said okay and left, mind you, in my head I got a free sandwich and I’m coming to talk to the manager at 4 because that was kinda shady.”
When she did come back to talk to the manager, the manager informed her that the receipt machine was working without any issues.
The manager then found her order from earlier in the day and discovered that a tip had been written in, which accounted for the higher-than-usual amount.
She did not make a fuss out of what happened, since she got a full refund. The only reason she investigated this further is that she was wondering if the restaurant decided to increase its pricing overall.
Sign up for Chip Chick’s newsletter and get stories like this delivered to your inbox.
Anyway, she went back to the restaurant today to order another sandwich and learned the waitress got fired immediately for writing herself a tip on her check.
She’s not sure if she should have said nothing, since this girl did lose her job.
It’s easy to feel guilty when someone else faces consequences for their poor choices, but that doesn’t mean she’s to blame for pointing it out.
She didn’t embellish or set out to cause problems; she asked a question because something felt off, and her gut was right. I think that if someone gets fired for forging tips, that’s not on the customer who caught it; that’s on them for doing it in the first place.
She didn’t ruin this girl’s life; the waitress just gambled on her silence and lost.
What do you think?
You can read the original post below.
By Bre Avery Zacharski
Hi, I'm Bre, Chip Chick's CEO! I have a degree in Textile/Surface Design from The Fashion Institute of Technology, and... More about Bre Avery Zacharski
