My extended family and I went out to one of our favorite restaurants for dinner. There were 23 of us and the bill was about $320. The service was great, but unfortunately the bill was so high, I couldn’t leave a tip. It had taken up most of the money I had at the time. The server remained kind and pleasant even upon realizing there wouldn’t be a tip. The manager though, displayed much different behavior. As I was leaving the establishment, the bitch approaches me and tells me never to return. I asked her why, since I’ve ate there many times. She told me patrons who don’t tip on bills that large aren’t welcome there. Clearly, the server kept her cool in front of me, but informed the manager that I didn’t tip. Apparently, the server was in tears afterwards, so the manager says. Well, if she really was crying because I didn’t tip, I feel dreadful BUT you miss manager, are absolutely unprofessional and should not ban customers just for not tipping. Only customers who are rowdy and harass others should be banned. I’m reporting you to head office, you miserable little thing! —Floored Customer
This article appears in Mar 3-9, 2011.
I have mixed feelings on this one.
Not tipping for a bill that high isn’t really cool, but at the same time isn’t the law.
I’d be sorely tempted to return with a 15% tip on the %320; and shove it up that crunt’s ass a quarter at a time. But I do believe the server deserved something a bit better than you sincere regrets, especially if the meal and service were good. But that’s your call OP.
who the fuck tries to take 23 people out for dinner and doesn’t have atleast 500 + dollars to blow? I went out for dinner with 7 people at a mid range priced restaurant and the bill came to 470 or something. You’re a retard OP.
$320 for 23 people is FAR from expensive! That’s only $13 a person! What were you expecting to pay? Did you not allocate any of your budget for tipping? As much as I don’t think tipping should be mandatory, I also think it stinks that you could take 23 people for a cheap dinner and not tip the waiter.
ya… I was shaking my head at this pretty quickly as well.
I didn’t think they expected tips at macdonalds….
That’s fucking lame. Must be European….
I don’t know why they haven’t incorporated tips into the cost of the food/bill. That way people will eat out accordingly, and this sort of thing doesn’t happen.
the man. was TOTALLY out of line..but wtf are you doing going out in that large a group w/o at least like 500 to spend duuuh!
Holy douchebag. It’s one thing if you and a pal grab lunch somewhere and you don’t have enough left over for a decent tip. It’s an entirely different scenario when you drag 23 of your family members in to feed at the trough and neglect to bring enough funds to leave your server something. Serving 23 people at once is not an easy task, especially since large family groups are notoriously demanding. Add to that the fact that most servers tip out around 5% of their sales to the kitchen, meaning that the poor server just PAID $16 OUT OF HER OWN POCKET to serve your sorry asses. OP, you’re a lousy cheapskate who obviously has no appreciation for the service you received, so IMO, you deserve to be banned. Consider it a favour on the part of the manager, you’d probably be ingesting some server loogies during your next visit anyway.
Wow, if the 320 is after tax that amounts to about 12 bucks per person w/drink which means everyone had like an 8 or 9 dollar meal. Where is this amazing ‘restaurant’?
me0w – i totally forgot about the tipout situation.. they totally fucked that server.. jesus this is one of the most retarded bitches i’ve seen on here.
Canned, most restaurants do have an automatic gratuity added for large groups, but since this sounds like a cheapo joint, they must not have that policy in place.
The restaurant has every right to ban this person — i mean, I certainly wouldn’t want to have to have my staff wait on a party of 23 who wasn’t going to add a gratuity on to the bill…. You’re kind of a douche, OP.
Sorry, OP, there’s no fucking excuse for making a waitress work her arse off for 23 people and then not leaving dick. You could have borrowed a few bucks from one of your party, you cheap cocksucker.
A couple things come to mind for me; 23 people for $320 is a steal, serving a 23 person table is a PITA, not tipping on a bill that size is inappropriate, and if they have a liquor license they can eject and ban without cause. So you complain to head office, go get another meal there, rub those employees face in it, and wonder……why is this dish so salty?
Automatically incorporating tips into bills is rediculous. What if the service sucks? Then you are forced to tip anyway? I dont think so! I used to be a server and I still would never ever support that!
you should have waited a few minutes more, and laid it in your servers hand. saying here, you dropped this by my table. i actually did this in bangor maine in 1968.
sorry, 1988.
Agreed Frenchie. After manditory tipping, there will be a seating fee.
Example, a couple I talked with, told a story of when they went to an outdoor cafe. 2 cups of tea, and a shared snack of cracker and cheese. The tip & seating, cost considerably more than what they ordered.
Like TTFN said, you could hae borrowed $50.00, and I’m rather supprised that none of the rest of the party left any tips. If somebody buys me a meal, I at least offer to take care of the tip.
You’re a jerk OP. The manager is a jerk too but you were a jerk first.
yep… that’s some fromunda cheese on that garlic bread….
fresh from the taint.
And pay toilets in the bathroom, Hugo! Don’t forget about those! Puts a whole new meaning to the phrase “paying out the ass” heh.
Sitting fee; mandatory gratuity (oxymoron, much?); pay toilets.
The ultimate dining experience!
i agree with the rest of the group here….. op is a douchebag for not bringing enough $$. as soon as you said 23 people i was thinking $600 bill.
waiting on 23 people is a huge job and to stiff them on the bill is unreal. if you have any decency you will scrounge up 20% and a nice thank you card and go back there and make it right.
What a mean thing to do OP. The server deserved a tip. Jerk
Ivan – 192 quarters up the arse.. ouch. (hope i got my maths right).
Shit happens, but there is no reason you can’t go back and tip the waitress when you get more money–at least the 5% she had to cover. I don’t think I would ban an non-tipping customer, but I would be sure to inform them that the waiter had to pay out to serve them. As well, there should be a policy in place–if the waiter doesn’t get tipped, no one gets tipped (no pay out).
then they would feel twice as screwed from the people that leave 1 or 2 pennies for a tip as a conscious effort to show how little they appreciated the service.
This situation didn’t happen. Didn’t see it on the news or hear it on the radio this morning.
Food for 23 people came to $320?!? Where the fuck were you, McDonalds?
This is a phony bitch…23 people – $320? What was it? 18 donairs, 5 souvalkis, 11 pepsi and 12 7-Up?
I would have said Beep, but the fucking Nazi’s out there took it away…
Did all of the other 22 people in your group forget their wallets or something? Did you even ask your friends if they could each throw a few bucks on the table?
This reminds me of the opening scene from Resevoir Dogs.
Yes, the manager overreacted, and they never should have said anything to you, but consider this from the server’s perspective. Your group was probably her only table for her entire shift, and she gets no tip? Plus she probably still has to tip out to her support staff? All because you’re a cheap ass?
If you can act like a big shot paying the bill for 22 of your closest friends, you should be able to afford a measly 15% tip. Otherwise, don’t offer to pay the bill bitch.
me0w, yes I know most places have automatic tip options on debit terminals. But I think to save everyone the trouble, restaurants should include tips in the food prices. The only downside is that waiters wouldn’t have to work as hard for their tip but at least it would prevent cheap assholes from spending >=$300 and not tipping.
If you paid for a group of 23 people to eat, I’m sure they would have been more than happy to chip in a buck or two each to give the server something for all her hard work… I know I would have, especially if I realized that no tip was being left… In fact, I probably would have tipper her by myself if nobody else was up for it. This reminds me of the scene in “reservoir dogs” when Mr. Pink (I think) refuses to tip and there is a giant conversation over the merits of tipping… Which ends in the boss DIRECTING the guy to tip. I’m all for choice in tipping but on a bill that big its a hard pill to swallow. The other servers at other tables made far more money that night than she did, I know that I would probably feel like I did my job sub-standard even though clearly, she did it at least acceptably.
and, now I feel like a tool for mentioning reservoir dogs when nevermind just did… Herp Derp.
http://www.bordercity.com/menu/kfc_coupons…
You can never mention Resevoir Dogs too much longwalker 🙂
And yes, it was Mr Pink (Steve Buschemi).
The service was great! So you should have told the guests to all throw in for a tip. Or you should not have offered to pay for diner for 23 people if you don`t have enough money to cover the full amount including tip. OP – did your guests know that you didn`t tip – if so then they are all just as bad if not worse then you!
“pay toilets in the bathroom” ah yes PK, how did I forget those?
The more you’re willing to pay, the better the facilities.
$320.00 is a shitload of money to a lot of people.
$320 (with tax and tip, mind you) was about the same as what my dad paid for my mom, him and myself for their anniversary dinner last year…and that was for three…20 more? yeah, cheap dinner++.
OP needs to watch Resevoir Dogs
I leave a tip on a friggin $15 meal and OP can’t be arsed to leave a tip on a $300+ FEAST?!
So OP is going to report the manager for harassment…I think forcing a server to serve 23 people at the same time for no tip is bordering on abuse.
I sure hope that OP had at least made a reservation. If OP went in with 23 people without a reservation AND didn’t leave a tip…. Well, next time you go to any restaurant, check the menu price and decide before ordering if you can afford to eat there, I beg you.
c’man! it’s troll city!
If it did happen, I bet I know which restaurant it was…
I’m sorry but until there is a law stating that tipping is mandatory, then it is still a voluntary thing. I will not go to any restaurant that puts a tip on the bill. If the service is good, I will leave a tip, if not, too fucking bad. Normally I tip pretty good but if you hunt at it or try to make me feel bad or whatever, you’ve just lost it.
Now in the case of the OB, he or she intended to leave a tip. Your bad for not budgeting properly. You could have informed your intention to get some moremoney and return. That would have been classy. However, if the manager went ballistic then I’dhave been all over their ass. The restaurant made their money, the product was paid for. The manager should not have had any complaints unless the diners were utter pigs.
Why do we let urban baboons go out to eat in the first place?
Shouldn’t there be a law against it?
The worst part about having dinner surrounded by urban baboons is when they start flinging their feces at each other.
OP, next time you should take your monkey troop into the woods for some foraging and leave restaurant dining to us humans.
I don’t understand why people get so angry about tipping – its not developed as a way to rip you off – its a way for you to control how much you pay for service. If restaurants had to pay higher wages, you’d just have to pay more for your food, whether you had great service or not. I prefer to have a choice.
autograts, when they’re used, are added for large groups, you’ll generally be at notified either at the time of reservation or on the menu, and if you have an issue with it, you can always ask to speak to the manager. I personally almost never used autograts (even when they were restaurant policy), I found, when serving large groups, I usually made more than the 15% autograt would have been.
In this case, I wish I could say I didn’t believe it is real, but it honestly doesn’t surprise me that much. That being said, bad move by the manager. As shitty as it is, the way to handle it, particularly considering this person identifies themselves as a regular, would be to make sure that the next time they came in with a large group they knew about the “new” autograt policy. Give the poor waitress a break on her tip-out, and maybe a meal & a drink or two.
I appreciate the thought, speaking out against a complete moron, but that ain’t the point of the job. It’s one of the biggest challenges, in a way, keeping your mouth shut when people act like idiots.
OP. What did the little birdy say? Cheap Cheap!
100% true. The hardest part of the job is keeping your mouth shut when you know that the customer is being a douche.
if you don’t have the money to leave a tip on a bill of any size stay at home. Servers rely on tips as the most important part of their income just as any other relies on their paycheck. We are also required to ‘tip-out’ giving a portion of our tips to the other staff and cooks who are working based on the value of our sales, not the value of our tips. Not tipping a table (especially on a bill that large) would actually cost the server upwards of 25$ in tip out with nothing to show for themselves. Think about the people around you before you screw them economically
Coming from an employees view point, I actually like a manager who sticks up for his or her staff. It’s very rare in our work force. 23 people, $320.00 bill and no tip. Who needs your business anyways.
I wonder… everyone is on the bandwagon that the server got screwed and should have been tipped….
yet every other bitch about tipping is :
IT’S YOUR JOB. I shouldn’t have to tip!
you don’t like it, get a different one.
is it just because it’s a huge group?
What constitutes a huge group?
if 23 people should tip… should 22 have to?
if so, should 21 have to?….
….
if 10 people do, should 9 have to?
…
if 3 people do should 2 have to?
It’s like a heap of sand…. you can take a grain away without destroying the heap but there IS a point where you would not constitute it as a ‘heap’ by just looking at it … eventually.
We’ve just contradicted ourselves … and everyone is quick to decide but none of us can really know why.
Well, I generally don’t tip for bad service. But good service, it is expected, something, anything… I think the manager was in the wrong to ban this customer, as it was said, they paid for the product – just not the service. But OP was a douche to go out with a group like that and offer nothing. “Feeling dreadful” doesn’t exactly make up for the fact that the server worked hard with your party, and didn’t get any recognition. And probably missed out on simpler tables who tipped. I think both parties are at fault, really.
And, as an aside, I’m wondering if it’s not just a fake bitch to get our ire up.
Um Ralmn, the service is part of the product. So the server has a minimum wage job. So what. There are many out there with minimum wage jobs who have to provide excellent service without tip.
fuck that. if you’re going to pretend like you’re made of money and get the bill for dinner for 23 people you’d damn well better have enough money to pay for the bill and the tip, otherwise at least have the humility to ask if anyone minds throwing in for the tip. what the OP did was pretend that they had it covered so that their guests wouldn’t think less of them.
What some people don’t seem to understand is that servers have to tip out. Meaning they give away a percentage of their tips at the end of the night which is usually dispersed amongst those who don’t get direct tips (kitchen staff, bus boys, etc.).
Therefore, if a server waits on you for an hour, and receives no tip whatsoever, they actually lose money because they still have to tip out, regardless of whether they received a tip or not. And they always make min. wage, so factor in their wage and they make less than minimum wage if you don’t tip.
Now if the service is bad, that’s one thing. But to not tip when you had a table of 23, and a bill over $300, is just disrespectful. No wonder the server was in tears, she probably waited on you for 2 hours and got paid about 12 bucks after having to go into her purse just to be able to tip out at the end of the night. That’s bullshit and I wouldn’t want to see you in my restaurant ever again, either.
You are evil. Entitled. Hopefully Doomed.
Truelies, I highly doubt that she didn’t get any other tips at the end of the night. I agree that it was a rotten thing for the customer to do but I’m sick of hearing about this “tip out” thing. The way you said it, servers have to tip out a percentage of their TIPS, not what they ring in, so what is, let’s say, 10% of a $0 tip? Nussin. Future servers of the world: you’re going to have to share your tips with other people who you work with so I would recommend not taking the job if you’re some who feels entitled to more money for doing what your job description says. Why the is onus on the customer to pay the server for doing their job, the person who has the least amount of control over the who thing!? I’m so sick of this. Can we please start a “Fuck the Tip” Coalition or something please? Maybe then people will stop accepting jobs as servers and restaurant owners will be forced to pay their employees’ golden asses more and we won’t have to read another tip bitch! They will be bitches about how people’s bosses don’t pay them enough and we can all get on with our days without getting pissed off at tip bitches. Orrr they’ll just give server jobs to illegal immigrants :).
meletric: At every restaurant I ever worked at, servers had to tip out a percentage of their SALES, not what they made in tips. So if this girl got stiffed, she would have lost money. And having a table of 23 probably meant that she didn’t have any other tables that night.
And as far as your “Fuck the tip” coalition idea goes, in order to encourage employers to pay their servers more, all so that you don’t have to read LTWWB posts about tipping? I wonder what’s going to happen if restaurant owners are forced to pay their employees more… I don’t think that they’re just going to eat the increase in expenses. It’s going to be passed onto you, the customer.
No, what’s fucked up is tipping out on the sales, not the tips.
Sorry, the way someone else described, it was a percentage of their tips. Sorry I hit such a nerve with you Nevermind, but it’s not JUST because I don’t want to read tip bitches, it’s because the majority of servers feel entitled to tips when they shouldn’t get tipped extra to do what’s in their job description. I fail to see how restaurant owners screwing their employees over with a “tip out” thing is my problem. Restaurants are alive because people go there. If customers are being told we HAVE to tip someone for doing their job to make up for a policy the owner is implementing then I can guarantee you, people would stop going and servers would lose their jobs completely. Forgive me for thinking restaurants were there to make money for the owners, not the front line employees.
On vacation in Vermont we ate at a place with a 15% included on the bill for parties of 6 or more. It was odd but saved me the hassle of tipping 20% (: Anyway, you all may find this interesting:
http://www.vtlivablewage.org/legislation.h…
If you can’t afford to tip, then you can’t afford to take your whole fucking extended family out for dinner, for fuck’s sake.