Diners Reveal Why A Perfectly Good Server Got Stiffed On The Tip

He Was In A Hurry But She Wasn’t Concerned

“When I was in Montreal on business, I was starving but really needed to be back to my hotel in about an hour, and it was about 10 minutes away. I realize I should’ve just gotten fast food to go, but I hadn’t eaten anything but fast food for almost a week before that due to the hours I was working, so I wanted something more substantial. Anyway, I walked into this Canadian sports bar, told the server that if she got me in and out in 45 minutes, I’d make it worth her while.

I ordered a drink and food at the same time; the drink came out after about 10 minutes, the food another 20 minutes behind it. Not a great check-time for a medium-rare steak, but whatever. I ate fast and asked for the bill while I was still eating, giving me plenty of time. She took my empty plate, still no check in sight; I asked for it again. 15 minutes later, she came back with it, and by this point, I should’ve already left. I immediately had my card ready and gave it to her when she finally came back with the check. 10 minutes later, she came back with my card, and at this point, I was actually late.

I didn’t say a word, I just left my ‘insult’ tip of 5%. If you have better things to do, fine, you’re not my servant, but don’t expect me to tip generously if you fail at a realistic request. Also, I should mention that I was one of about three people sitting at the bar, and there were two bartenders/servers working the bar.”

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The Waiter Cornered Him For A Better Tip But It Backfired

“There is this Japanese restaurant and sushi bar right across the street from my school’s campus. I had gone there for lunch because they had these spiffy meals, Columbia Lunch Boxes. I got my usual – Sesame Chicken, salad, California roll, and rice.

The sale was $8.25, $8.97 after sales tax. The waiter brought me the check, the first thing he’d brought me quickly the whole time. He dropped it on my table before going back to talking with the dudes at the sushi bar. I figured I’d leave $12, which was more than enough for the tip and started to get up.

He ran over and blocked my way as he picked up the check and counted the money. The table was in a corner against one of the walls and really has only one way out of it. Angrily, he told me that I hadn’t left the tip. I told him I’d left plenty and that I’d be grateful if he got out of the way. He wouldn’t budge and demanded that I pay the proper 15% tip or else he would call the police.

So I just smiled, took out my phone as I told him I’d gladly leave the 15% tip. After verifying with him that it was 15% of $8.97, I typed it out on my phone in plain view of him. (8.97 * .15) + 8.97 = 10.31. After which I apologized for my mistake of intending to leave more than 15% tip and that I’d patiently wait for him to bring back $1.69 in change.

Oh, the look of unbridled fury on his face. It was priceless!”

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A Bold Statement Lost Them Their Tip

“One evening, I took my wife, my mother, my brother and his girlfriend, and my mother in law to a local Japanese hibachi restaurant. It had recently opened and it was the first of its kind in town and wanted to share the experience of Japanese hibachi with them, complete with the good food and showmanship expected in such places. However, this place was no Benihana. The cook did a respectable job actually cooking the food, but was rather boring and made little effort to engage us or the other patrons. He just ran through a checklist of perfunctory tricks with no effort to entertain, as if it was just something he had to do to get through this moment. Still, I was prepared to tip the guy because the food was good and shucks the guy might have just been new or whatever.

We went to leave and the waitress ran up with our bills and told us that we ‘didn’t tip enough. We should tip more. A lot more.’

I took one look at her while my wife looked at me and she said ‘Did she just really say that?’ I said yeah and took the bill back. I scratched out the tip (I hadn’t tipped on the card, thankfully) while keeping eye contact with the waitress. I then instructed my brother, who witnessed this, to do the same. He reached over and removed his cash from his bill as well. We placed the no-tip-having bills back on the bar and left, never to return.”

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She Was The Perfect Waitress…Until…

“We went to a Mexican restaurant recently and had an overall good experience. Food was good, service was prompt, and the server was friendly. We normally are generous tippers as a former server myself, and we don’t go out often so it’s usually 20% or higher.

We were fixing to leave and our waitress said to another waitress in Spanish, ‘Glad these white people are leaving, it’s making our restaurant look bad.’ Too bad for her, Spanish was my husband’s first language.”

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She Offered Them Free Stuff…With One Major Stipulation

“The waitress convinced us to get Irish Car-Bombs because they were cheap – ‘Just four dollars!’ – and I said why not, and bought a round of car-bombs for me and my three friends. Otherwise, we didn’t drink much – I’m not really a drinker and I was kind of a poor college student.

I get the check, and it turns out on top of the ONE other drink I ordered for myself, the car-bombs were seven bucks apiece – which means I just spent twelve bucks more than I intended. I asked the waitress to take it off my check. She said she didn’t know how and was really sorry, but couldn’t. She suggested that she could bring us a couple more drinks to make up for that price difference.

No, I said, we’re done drinking. We’re heading home. I asked if I could send a couple drinks to random strangers at the bar. I pointed to a cute guy and said, tring him a drink and tell him it’s from me. She said, ‘Actually, I have a regular here who always tips me like 50%. He’s a good guy and a good customer. Do you mind if I just send the extra drinks to him?’ I was a little astonished at her gall but I said yeah, sure, whatever. And I walk out without leaving a tip because apparently her regular would do it for me.

To make it worse: I left, but my friends were still there, and she went and asked my friends whether I ‘forgot’ to tip her and whether they could text me and see.”

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A Not-So Friendly Suggestion

“Even though we weren’t well off, my family only went out when we could pay for the food and afford a 15% minimum tip (20% if it was a decent or better server.) We were in a Mexican restaurant and as we were eating chips and salsa had a personal discussion in which Taco Bell was brought up as an example of garbage Mexican food in comparison to this awesome restaurant.

The server was horrible all evening. It took 10 minutes to be greeted by the server, another 10 minutes to get our drinks and take our order. Food came out lukewarm, wrong sides for two out of three of us. Regardless, the bill came after a 20-minute wait for our waitress to show up (the restaurant had 5-6 tables filled) my parents tipped 15%. The thing is, they always put it UNDER the receipt bi-fold. Apparently, the waitress saw what she assumed to be a ‘stiff’ on the tip and came jogging up to my mother as we walked out and said, ‘Next time just go to Taco Bell.’ My mom instantly went back to the table, grabbed the $6 and left her some pennies. As she made it evident that the waitress messed up, she walked out and said, ‘It’s obvious you don’t want a tip. I think the best thing for you is change. Maybe talking to your manager will give you the change you need.’

She was fired on the spot. I kind of felt bad, but in hindsight, that was ultra unprofessional. Her co-worker, who saw it all, had our backs with the manager. It apparently wasn’t her first time being that rude to a customer.”

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He Took A Quick Call But That Was The End Of The Meal

“I was at a Red Lobster with my girlfriend once. This place closes at 11 during the week, but they (wisely) lock the door at 10. A cop chills by the door to make sure no one enters, but everyone can leave. I was unaware of the 10 lockup time.

So I got an important phone call at about 10:15 – JUST as our food came to the table. Without a coat in the cold NY winter, I got up from the table and took it outside. There were a lot of people leaving as I was doing this.

I was unable to see the sign that said ‘no re-entry past 10’ because people were talking to the cop, blocking the sign as I walked out, coatless, on my phone.

After I was done with the call, I went back in. Oh wait – no I didn’t. The door was locked and the cop explained to me that there was no re-entry. I told him that I had a full plate of food and that his friends were blocking the sign. He was a total jerk and I hope his fate is like that of the Cop in ‘Reservoir Dogs.’

So I called my girlfriend, slipped her my card through the crack in the door to pay for the food (I’m pretty sure that if I skipped out on the check the cop would have done something about it) and I told her I’d break up with her if she left any tip. The server was unwilling to try to get me back inside even though she knew what happened. She told my girlfriend that I shouldn’t have gone outside to take the call.

I called Red Lobster that night and demanded a refund, and of course, due to the service and the night being ruined, I demanded about $20 over my bill (they didn’t know that).

Three weeks later I got a bunch of gift certificates in the mail. I will never return to that Red Lobster. I spent them at a MUCH better Red Lobster, where our service was exquisite. I tipped 20%.”

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Mistaken For Another Couple

“I was in New York last month. I had been staying at a hotel that had a nice bar that overlooked Times Square so it was a good place to get a drink at the end of the night. We were drinking in there one night and talking to some other couples at the table, I ordered the bill.

When the guy brought it over, he said, ‘Just to remind you, service is NOT included as you left NOTHING last time.’ Then he spun on his heels and walked off. I called him back over and explained that I always tip 20%. He stood there and said loudly, ‘No, last time you left NOTHING.’ I told him to go fetch the bill (this was from our earlier drinks at about 7 pm, it was now about 10 pm). He was pretty angry at this point. I was pretty embarrassed as it was said loud enough that other tables heard.

He came back after five minutes and said sorry, it was another English couple. I told him he had ruined his tip for this time and I would expect better in a 5-star hotel.”

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She Asked For A Large Tip For Her Effort, She Got The Opposite

“I was out with some friends at Buffalo Wild Wings earlier this year and everything seemed pretty normal. The food was good as usual, we were enjoying our favorite Buzztime game, and all of our food/drinks came on time. Our service was great until my friend asked for a refill on his berry lemonade. When the waitress came back after what felt like half an hour, she explained to him that she had to go upstairs to the bar to get it and that he should tip her extra for getting it. We decided that we would barely tip her after that.

Later, when we went to pay for our meals and leave, the waitress took our money and didn’t return with change, assuming it was her tip. At this point, we were mad, especially my friend who paid for his $7 meal with a $20 bill. We found the manager and demanded our change back, but not before leaving one penny on the table as a tip.”

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After The Waitress Called Them Out, They Changed Their Minds About Tipping

“Reminds me of a story when I was in high school. We were a group of about eight teenage boys. We weren’t particularly obnoxious but I’m sure we were without realizing it and no waitress relishes the chore. Plus it was late (although not horribly crowded). But we weren’t jerks and the waitress was pretty good. We knew she had to get eight bills ready so we had already discussed leaving a decent tip.

So we were all counting out our money to pay (you had to go to the register to pay) and we realized that no one had any real change. So we planned on checking out, getting change, and going back and leaving a tip–in these days hardly an uncommon procedure.

Well, all eight of us were checking out, but apparently, someone had accidentally left some loose change on the table. The waitress, assuming this was her tip, came over to the register, pitched the change on the counter, and told the clerk, ‘Tell them they can keep the tip.’

At that moment, the six of us or so who had checked out already literally had a WAD of cash in our hand, probably a good 30% tip. We looked at each other and put the money back into our wallets. We made sure that the clerk knew that she lost out on a FANTASTIC tip by being rude and impatient.

I get it that waitressing is hard, but c’mon.”

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Two Encounters With This Waiter Was Too Much

“A group of friends and I went to Buffalo Wild Wings, and the waiter was great. This was until he sat down on the bench with us. He stared at us and just said, ‘Hey, not to be rude but you guys are kinda interrupting my night. See, I get off at 2 AM, and I’m trying to get out early to go have a drink with some chick. So can you hurry up?’ Naturally, we decided to be nice and ‘hurry up’ as he said because we’re all in college, and we understand having a social life is important. It was also about 1:15 am.

Fast forward two weeks and the same guy becomes my waiter again. This guy brought up to me the fact that I gave him no tip, and tried to justify himself, when in reality, we did leave a tip, it was just not very good.

The second trip to BWW was actually a more annoying experience. After being seated in possibly the WORST table, my friend and I saw the waiter approaching us. We immediately laughed, because well, it was funny. He then proceeded toward our table with a goofy grin, without forgetting to mention how he remembered us from the last visit. My friend and I immediately made that ‘oh no’ eye contact. As soon as he walked away, we asked the hostess to be moved to another table and out of the catacombs of BWW. He immediately appeared behind her, concerned about our decision to move tables (god forbid) without his knowledge. He said there were no empty tables throughout the almost entirely empty establishment, and when asked to speak to a manager, he magically saw one being cleaned. We had already ordered the classy bucket of drinks, so he told us we can move to the new still dirty table, and he would carry the bucket. What a gentleman. Anyway, we finally sat at the new table and heard that guy was STILL our waiter. I called over the kid who was actually assigned to the section and asked why he wasn’t our waiter. His response: The other waiter told him we requested him. After making sure every person knew we didn’t want his service we decided to let it be, and that’s when the horrible waiter sat down to school us on tipping etiquette.”

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When He Saw Extra Items On The Bill, He Was Livid

“I usually trust the waiters to have their stuff straight so I rarely look at the bill when I get it and am paying with my card. But last summer, I was out to lunch with my brothers and decided just to pay for the whole thing and square up with them later. Food and service wasn’t anything special, but what I expected at this particular restaurant. On a whim, I looked at the check and everything looked good so I give the teenaged waitress the bill back with my card.

She came back after she ran it and apparently in those five minutes, she decided she’d like to add two more drinks to our bill. Normally, I’m a pretty calm, level-headed guy, but I was furious about this. I didn’t sign the bill and we just waited for her to come back. When she did, I told her I wanted to see the manager. I wasn’t going to yell or anything, but I put on my best mad cop interrogation voice and told him exactly what happened, that I’d been loyal to this place for years and never felt so much like someone was trying to take advantage of me over a few bucks.

I got a gift card and a free round of drinks, the annoying teenage girl came back and apologized, looking like she was just crying. She only got $5 as opposed to the $15 I would have given her otherwise.”

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The Waitress Argued With The Customer And Lost Out On A Bigger Tip

“We went to a place called ‘The Onion’ in Killington, Vermont. The food was great. Service sufficed, but it wasn’t anything spectacular. They brought out the wrong meal for my dad’s girlfriend, who complained and asked for her actual meal like anyone else would do. The waitress argued and stated that we ordered that when no one did. She had a strong accent which made everything more difficult. After arguing, my dad, who is very stubborn, told the manager that the service wasn’t what he would’ve liked and explained the situation.

So finally, my dad’s girlfriend got her correct meal, my dad let it go and decided he’d still give a decent tip, for it was an expensive meal and we had at least six people at our table. The check came and the waitress had circled the gratuity on the receipt, obviously to be obnoxious. My dad lost it and gave a bad tip. They followed us out of the restaurant and asked my dad to give a proper tip, which began another argument. In conclusion, the tip remained bad and we left.”

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This Unbelievable Move Resulted In No Tip

“A friend and I went to a Denny’s to grab some breakfast after a late night at work. We just sat, talked, etc.

When the food came, it was just before 2 am. We knew the wasted people were going to be in soon, so we asked for refills and the check. We intended to stick around for a little bit, but we understood the waitress was about to get busy.

We ate while the late night crowd started filing in. We were just finishing up our meals. I had a small pile of hashbrowns, gooey with egg in the corner of my plate, maybe 2 forkfuls, plus the one in my hand. I had the fork up to my mouth, and the waitress swooped in, snatched my plate with, ‘OhAreYouDoneI’llGetThatOutOfYourWay,’ and was gone in less than two seconds. I still had the fork in my hand. It still had food on it.

I stared at it in disbelief. My friend was unable to speak, he was laughing too hard. I continued to stare at my fork. Now I couldn’t speak, nor wipe the stupid look of confusion off my face because either act would cause me to die laughing.

This went on for about three minutes before he finally choked out, ‘Were…were you through with that?’

‘No.’

The waitress got a $0.02 tip, and the manager was informed that she needed to actually wait for a response, rather than just snatching food from a customer. I sort of felt bad; I’m one of those weirdos who will tip ~20-30% most of the time. But if you steal my egg-covered hashbrowns, you may expect nothing.”