Negative Tip?

 

Comments

[Ilia]

Oy.... As a manager, I would have printed up a new on and informed them "Folks, the gratuity is mandatory and the lowest tip you can give is $0. Like it or not, your total is $14.19 or higher."

[Sales Agent Guy]

If they were still there, I'd tell them they need to write it out properly. Otherwise, I'd ban them from my restaurant.

[The Last Archimedean]

If I owned the restaurant, this person is no longer welcome in it. Cheap bastard.

[Skittles]

Is that even legal? I mean you can't walk into a resaurant eat your meal then pay them less than the total bill in cash legally how is it legal to do it with a credit card? I thought if it was posted that gratuity was automatically included you couldn't dispute that, as you have the choice to go elsewhere.

[The Last Archimedean]

It's not legal, Skittles, and the charge will appear on the card for $14.19. You can't put a negative tip on a bill, the computers won't allow it.

[Kel]

What TLA said. They still getting charged for the gratuity.

[NC Tony]

Nice try asshole. You're still getting charged $14.19.

[Madrias]

I'd rather "misread" it as 12.20. After all, this falls under that lovely category of "Don't be a dick to the people who make your food."

[Duke of URL]

The meal was $11. Tax was 99¢. The automatic tip was based on the meal price of $11.

[The Last Archimedean]

Brainrocks, many restaurants are automatically adding a tip now because the IRS figures waitresses' salaries assuming at least a 15% tip and this way the owner/manager doesn't have to make it up out of their own pocket becuase the customer is a cheap scumbag. The law actually states that if the waitress doesn't get at least minimum wage when tips are factored in, the deficit has to be added to her paycheck. This way the restaurant doesn't have to rely on customers doing the right thing, it's taken care of already. And if the service was especially good, the customer can add some extra to the standard tip.

[Luci F]

Brainrocks, pull your brain out of your ass. People (I'm going to assume like yourself) who can't grasp the concept of tipping should not eat out.

[danny b]

brainrocks: I also have not seen tips automatically added for small parties, unless you count the episode of Malcolm in the Middle, but I'm sure it does happen. S/He could have been part of a large group that had individual checks. If I'm not mistaken that was the case in the infamous "I give God 10% so why should you get 18%" incident. I can see your point about wanting/needing to do a split payment.

[Josh]

I see BR's point. I personally always pay with a card and tip in cash.

[AmigaTech]

Must admit I'm still wondering why an $11 bill had an *automatic* 20% tip attached. That's not exactly a huge party of people.

That's an 'I would like to see the manager about this' dirty trick, and a darn good reason not to eat there ever again.

--AT

[Soft Ice Girl]

Urgh.. what an asshole.
If Gratuity is included, so be it. Since tipping seems to be mandatory in the US, this is a nice way to get out of the whole how-much-to-tip-discussion. It is quite greedy, however, to then provide the "TIP" part on the receipt- if you already deducted an automatic tip, you should not expect (and this tip line signals expectation).
@BR: I see your point, but I don´t think it´s valid, and here´s why: If someone wants to tip in cash, he or she can simply say so and either ask for a new receipt or do the correction stated above and tell the cashier in person. I doubt that the cashier would go on after this and post it on here.

[Kittypoops]

I have worked many years as a waitress and I believe this automatic tipping isn't right. I wouldn't expect my customers to tip me if I did a really bad job of serving them. I feel that I should be the one in control of the money I make. If someone gives me garbage service, they shouldn't have the right to my money. A tip is a gift for great service, it shouldn't be mandatory. I also see the other side of this. If you can't even leave an extra dollar for great service, don't eat out.

[Mollywobbles]

Watch this server get fired for posting the receipt, even though it doesn't show anything other than that the customer is a huge asshole.

[Kiwi]

I don't understand the American tipping thing. Minimum wage should be what someone can live on and it should be payed by the employer. Regardless of the quality of service, the server earns that, if it's bad service and there are complaints, they get fired, if its really good service you get a tip as a gift in addition to your salary.

In the same way, I don't understand tipping out - the employer pays people, not the waitstaff. It's as if waitstaff are self employed but just attach themselves to someone's cafe. If the employer wants to pay cooks etc a bit more because they don't get tips or give them a pay rise for good work, so be it.

Similarly, why does everybody kick up a fuss when owners say increased insurance costs will increase the cost of food? The cost of the food reflects the cost of running a shop to sell it. It reflects the cost of paying all workers a decent wage and having a profit (another reason I don't understand mandatory tipping - the cost of service is in the food). If costs go up, prices go up.

If you can't afford to pay the workers a decent wage, regardless of tips, plus their insurance plus rent etc. for the shop, you can't afford to have that many workers or have a shop, so you have to increase prices to stay in business.

Can someone please explain all this to the poor little Kiwi here?

Down here there are no tips unless service was really exceptional (like, made your year exceptional) and we don't use cash at all - only eftpos cards. If you do have cash change, it goes in the charity donation box on all service counters.

Sorry for length, I just don't understand and it bugs me.