Him: “Feel my hands, they’re freezing.”
Me: “Ah, no thanks, I’ll take your word for it.”
Him: “No, really, feel them, they are really cold.”
Me: “Sorry, sir, we’re not allowed to touch customers, but I assure you that I’ll have someone take care of it right away.”

As I reached for my pen on the counter, he grabs my hand, which naturally causes me to jerk my hand away. The next words out of his mouth were “you don’t have to be afraid to touch me becuase I’m black.”

Now, mind you, this was a 50-something black man who was definately in the “creepy” category. (I’m not entirely certain, but when he came in, I’m pretty sure he was doing his best to flirt with me.) Call me crazy, but I don’t like to touch creepy old men, regardless of skin color.

Again, REMEMBER before you go out in public EVER AGAIN.

Secondly, there’s no such thing as “reverse racism”. It’s all racism. No matter what.

I completely forgot it was Black History Month. No more articles focusing on black people. I’ll dig through my archives to only post about white people.

To the poster who claims im the kind of “piece of shit” who would leave a $4 tip. What leads you to believe that? My stance on social and racial issues? I say nothing about my tipping habits and because I think he handled the situation entirely incorrectly doesn’t mean I myself wouldn’t tip appropriately nor is their any way you could come to such conclusion using any type of logic. I love the fact that you want the 10 seconds it took you to read my post back…but you spent at least a few minutes afterward replying to it.

Id like to point out that they probably didn’t think they got very good service with the stink they put up about when they got their food served to them etc. Maybe they were trying to make a point based on their perspective.

I disagree about never being justified not leaving a tip. I can think of one time in my life where I didn’t leave a tip and I was ENTIRELY justified in doing it. (I can also think of several incidents where I was justified in not doing it but left one anyway) I was out eating at some dime-a-dozen restaurant and the waiter brought my party something none of us ordered. He told us to just keep it and he’d take it off the bill. I checked the bill at the end of the meal and lo and behold it was still on there. I said something, he went back to his manager and they refused to take it off. I was obviously VERY unhappy and as a result he didn’t receive a cent. I see no reason why I should tip him nor will you ever convince me otherwise.

Ive worked customer service every day of the (work) week since I was 14 and trust me, I deal with people FAR more ignorant than you’ve EVER come across (Currently A downtown office that serves employees of a certain major metro area and employees of that state) I get called racist quite often, more times then not when delivering information that cI don’t let it effect me because I know my stance and if they want to be ignorant, thats fine. I’m not going to sink to their level and perpetuate an already sad situation.

btw Ryan, mimicking speech while claiming you aren’t racist is one of the easiest ways to show you do in fact harbor tendencies toward racism. It NEVER looks good, you might as well be in black-face.

Also Ryan, I actually like your blog, I can certainly relate to many of your situations.

Also, other than raising my voice at the entrance/exit of the restaurant, I thought I did take the moral high road, Chris, what with 1) not refusing them service, 2) letting them sit wherever they wanted and 3) instructing them on how to use chopsticks.

If you walk into a restaurant and expected to be treated like a king, then turn around and walk back out. It isn’t worth your 5% tip to deal with you.

Rage!

I have waited tables for almost 10 years now. I would NEVER ask someone / yell at someone leaving that they forgot their 4 dollar tip, no matter what the bill is. Instant grounds for termination, no argument. Nearly all corporate type restaurants (chile’s, ruby tuesday, texas roadhouse) all would have fired you on the spot.

If you start thinking your lively-hood is based on what each table tips you, then you have already lost the game.

I think on a whole different level. How much did you make per hour in tips alone that night? Now add in that $3.90 or $3.09 you make per hour (my checks for roughly 70-80 hours every 2 weeks are 150-200 bucks). Yet I make on an average $15-$16 an hour, at least! Tonight I worked for 6 hours and came home with $194 in my pocket…yes a very good night. There are times when I would work for 12 hours and come home with less than minimum wage. It happens, deal with it.

Now to be racist. White trash do not tip, black trash do not tip. Deal with it. Dont be the super waiter, dont have fun with them, give them shit…act like you really dont give a shit. I get tips out of my black tables, because I am a smart ass…I dont let them give me shit because I dont care! And on an average they dont tip, really you all dont tip! But do I really care? Hell no. I will make up for that by waiting on other tables who do tip me.

I love, and i mean LOVE, when people say “that is going to effect your tip!” woopty-freakin-do…I am waiting on 20-30 more people tonight, do you really think that the 2-3 bucks you leave me is really going to hurt how I do over the course of a week? month? year? Nope, so go fuck your self-rightous ass. I DO NOT CARE.

Ok now to the part of my story where I do agree with you, yes black folks on the average do want to be treated better. They think us “white boys” owe them something. And no on the whole, they dont tip worth a shit.

Here is my bit of advise, just go along with what people want. Do what they say. Dont get an attitude, it really doesnt matter they will be gone in an hour. I dont let my job effect me, its EASY, EASY money…try working at a gas station like my roommate and feel jealous about the amount of money I make, yet still dealing with the same type of people.

Ahh fuckit, im trashed, good luck….hope their arent many spelling errors and such, peace…

My hourly wage is a little over 3 bucks, BUT you also have to consider that after taxes are taken out, it adds up to less than a dollar an hour.

Guys…this site isn’t about what’s right and wrong. It’s about what happens to me at work and the people I come across. Sometimes, I let my emotions get the better of me. Most of the time (as is evidenced by MOST of the posts) it’s just about idiots saying or doing things idiotic and me just going along for the ride.

So don’t think you’re so high and mighty to not get pissed every once in a while when you not only get stiffed, but treated like shit in the process.

And to comment on what you said about getting upset about a bad tip or just rude people…nope doesnt happen to me, I dont get mad. There is no reason to stress about it. You will get tipped on other tables, and other tables will put you in a good mood. Ive seen servers in tears over getting stiffed, just suck it up…

Keep it up, Ryan! Those of us that don’t have our heads up our own asses love the blog!

Then again, if I was as “self-righteous” as you, I’d also kill myself. People like you need to move to France where you belong.

of course you can keep your cool when you are called or thought of as a racist at your job. i swear you “customer service workers” are all alike, thinking of yourselves as more composed and calm than servers. your income is not going to go up or down based on peoples opinions! if you lost more than 20 dollars (20% of a $110 bill is $22, if you are tipping at the level you should for that kind of royal treatment) like ryan did, because one of your customers thought you were a racist you’d be fucking irrate, too! and especially after you repeatedly lose money this way you do tend to loosen your tongue a little and speak up every once in a while when it happens.

if i took the time out of my job to give them a personal chopsticks lesson, probably with smiles and laughs all the while, i would get just as mad. it becomes PERSONAL when they dont tip. and i feel the pain with all the to-go shit. do people not fucking realize your doing them huge favors?! and that favors like that are usually not done because servers are just nice people? higher tips are expected if you ask for shit like that. they really are oblivious. i may have done worse to them than you ryan. dont compromise your sanity for their shitty 5 percent.

im sorry for talking so much but one last thing. to people like matt- stop saying DEAL WITH IT for god’s sake. . . what do you think this fucking blog is for?!?!?

How do you get away with speaking to customers like that?

I know you’ve had comments like this so far, and I don’t even mean that in a negative way. On the contrary, I’m ENVIOUS. I wish I had the quick wit and the balls to talk back in a way that could make someone cower on the way out the door (not before pulling their wallet back out and handing me more money) as you do. I just don’t understand how your management allows you to get away with it. Is it that your managers adore you? Is it that the company doesn’t respond to complaints, or you terrify (the asshole) customers so much that they just don’t report it? I mean, believe me, I WISH I could say something like that to one of the DOZENS, no HUNDREDS of tables that have screwed me on tips, despite great service, but I would be fired immediately if I did so. I really am just curious. I want to know what kind of establishment I’d actually be allowed to voice my opinions in, because trust me, I’d have a site with nearly as many posts as yours if I could.

I have never in my life questioned humanity as much as I have simply through working in the food industry. There should be a law that EVERYONE on earth who has a job should at least work in a restaurant ONCE. That might enormously alleviate the idiocy that comes with the lack of knowledge on how to tip.

I’m sorry for rambling, too. It’s been a long day.

And I agree about the three digit paycheck thing. Where are YOU working? I make $2.13 an hour. Today I got a paycheck for $0.

Whites in Europe had STOPPED keeping slaves

Blacks in African routinely enslaved their fellow Blacks in their process of tribal warfare.

It was only after the New World and a lack of governmental control did Europeans begin trading in slaves again.

Currently in the world but mostly Africa according to the movie Blood Diamond I watched last night 200,00 kid soldiers are fighting guerilla fights. The major change is modern weapons the kids are taken from their families and trained to fight and given drugs. They also enslave adults to dig for the diamonds used to buy the weapons, ammo, and vehicles.

Jump to the current day. Did their ancestors have it bad -yes they did. But i am decented from Native American peoples tribe unknown. Unknown tribe you ask? Yeah the White Man did such an effective job killing off the Indians up to including germ warfare-yeah antiIndian forces were know to give out or trade blankets used by smallpox victims to Indians who had no immunity to the disease. SO between the die offs and the shame attached to being part Indian, I have no clue what tribal affliation my great great grandmother had. Its sad when you do not know whom you come from.

I always like to bring up my ancestors treatment when certain someones get too high and might up on their soapboxes. Its not like we got treated like German/Soviet/Japanese prisoner camp victims. thise poor bastards had it rough.

Something similar happened on my very first day serving. It was a brand new restaurant and the managers didn’t know how to work the new computer system, so when a black family gave me about four different coupons for their meal, the computer about short-circuited when it tried to take all the discounts and even the managers couldnt figure it out. What I’m trying to say is that I’m racist and wanted to delay this black family from getting their check for as long as possible purely because I enjoy hearing them yell at me for as long as possible, as well as trying to take home the smallest tip possible. They left me pennies.