Servers elevating Tips at HQ Restaurants in the Valley - Be sure to check your Credit Card Statements! (hotel, felony)

[ElleTea]

Originally Posted by jaredC

While I'll agree with the fact that most servers make little money and therefore are reliant on tips, doesn't mean that every server, by default, gets a proper tip. Here's an example; a few years ago I took my wife out to Macayos near Desert Sky mall. It was Wednesday night and our anniversary. The place wasn't too busy. After we were seated, the waitress took our drink orders. She came back about 10/15 minutes later to take our food orders and forgot the drinks. No big deal. Another 20 minutes pass and several attempts to flag down our waitress failed. We eventually got the attention of another waiter that "found" our drinks and finally brought them to us. Shortly after, our waitress brought our food, never offered an explanation as to why she forgot our drinks, and thusly disappeared for the remainder of our dinner. We had to flag down the same waiter again for refills and our check. We ended up giving the waiter that waited on us despite us not being his table, a $10 tip for going out of his way. We then paid our bill and left without giving a cent to our waitress. As we were walking through the parking lot, our waitress comes running out at us saying we didn't tip her. I told her she provided terrible service and another waiter had to bring us our drinks, refills and the check, and meanwhile, she disappeared.

My mother was a waitress about 15 years ago and I remember her having to live off of tips. She treated all her customers well and got tipped well in return. I refuse to leave a tip for poor service. If the waiter/waitress is trying thier hardest to provide service, that's a different story. I'll tip for that. But I refuse to tip on bad bad service just because I'm supposed to. What happened at Macayos has never happened to me again after that.

The bolded part above is absolutely ridiculous. I hope you reported her to her manager. A tip is not mandatory and for a waitress to come chasing after because she didn't get one is not acceptable IMO. It shows that too many people tip because they feel obligated because the wait staff is being paid so poorly instead of an eared bonus as it should be. Hopefully she learned that she needed to actually WORK for the tip (not likely, I am sure).

[KurtAZ]

Originally Posted by jamiedan

The server has physically written in a 1 ahead of the 8.24 (making 18.24), not touching the 100.00 on the bottom line.

Looks like the Server was just helping you with your math.

[ElleTea]

Originally Posted by KurtAZ

Looks like the Server was just helping you with your math.

It doesn't matter. If they meant to leave .01 they meant to leave .01. No server has the right to change it to anything else to make it a more acceptable tip.

[Java Jolt]

Originally Posted by ElleTea

It doesn't matter. If they meant to leave .01 they meant to leave .01. No server has the right to change it to anything else to make it a more acceptable tip.

If it's the restaurant's policy to charge a minimum gratuity then the server or manager had every right to adjust it accordingly, especially if the gratuity wasn't included in the bill.

Anyone who tips a server less than ten percent for satisfactory or greater service is a lowly cheapskate and shouldn't even be dining at high quality restaurants.

[ElleTea]

Originally Posted by Java Jolt

If it's the restaurant's policy to charge a minimum gratuity then the server or manager had every right to adjust it accordingly, especially if the gratuity wasn't included in the bill.

Anyone who tips a server less than ten percent for satisfactory or greater service is a lowly cheapskate and shouldn't even be dining at high quality restaurants.

We don't know if that is the case.

Previous posts made it seem it was okay to adjust the tip just because the customer was cheap. Tipping is always optional (unless stated like above) and at the customer's discretion regardless of what SHOULD be done.

[westcoastforme]

Originally Posted by jamiedan

Update:
So the restaurant just sent me a copy of the receipt, and the deceit from the server was even worse than I imagined.
The server has physically written in a 1 ahead of the 8.24 (making 18.24), not touching the 100.00 on the bottom line. So when I spoke to the General manager on the phone, he said the server brought the receipt to him claiming the maths does not add up and that in those cases AMEX tell them to charge the gratuity line, hence why they charged $110. Totally unethical and fraudulent behavior by this server.

I will be contacting AMEX as well as the corporate leadership of the parent company of this restaurant. Is there anyone else I should be contacting?

She was just pissed you gave her about 8% tip. I never give 20%. Usually 15% if service is good. 18% if great. I've given 10% for bad service and once left nothing for terrible rude crap service.

This is clearly theft

[westcoastforme]

Originally Posted by Java Jolt

If it's the restaurant's policy to charge a minimum gratuity then the server or manager had every right to adjust it accordingly, especially if the gratuity wasn't included in the bill.

Anyone who tips a server less than ten percent for satisfactory or greater service is a lowly cheapskate and shouldn't even be dining at high quality restaurants.

Then servers at high quality restaraunts should be giving high quality service if they want a good tip

[DetroitN8V]

Originally Posted by westcoastforme

She was just pissed you gave her about 8% tip. I never give 20%. Usually 15% if service is good. 18% if great. I've given 10% for bad service and once left nothing for terrible rude crap service.

This is clearly theft

Are you bragging about being cheap?

[N804SY]

Didn't you put zero in the tip and total the bill?

[westcoastforme]

Originally Posted by DetroitN8V

Are you bragging about being cheap?

If you want to throw your money away on bad service be my guest.

My thought process is I'm usually in a restaurant for an hour. My waitress usually has 4 or 5 tables. Her wage plus 4 to 6 dollar tips per table per hour is 20 to 28 bucks an hour.

I don't feel bad.