Yes, I Am Calling You Out On Your Bad Tip In Our Elevator.
The other night, for eight hours of work, I earned a total of $41. (It should have been $60, screw you, Mr. Han and your poker skills).
The reason, you ask? Because of a group of girls at a dining table that stiffed me. Flat out wrote “0.00″ on the line for the tip. It doesn’t get much douchier/bitchier than that, folks.
Ordinarily, I would have let it go by the time I got in my car to drive home. But these bitches had me running all over the restaurant for stupid shit like “waters with three lemons and plenty of Sweet and Low’s.” It’s a dollar and twenty-five cents, ladies. Pay the five quarters and have all the lemonade you want.
AND, if you’re going to run me ragged because you’re too cheap to buy lemonade, tip me. Anything! Hell, I would have been content with some change in the tip tray.
But not you ladies. Oh, no. It had to be a straight up “0.00″ on the line for my tip.
If you wanna play hardball, then we’ll play hardball.
Fast forward to this morning. I’m waiting for the elevator to come back down to the first floor in the main academic building of my college and guess who comes waltzing in: None other than one of the bitches that stiffed me. Our eyes lock and for a moment she’s confused as to why I, a seemingly total stranger, have a look on my face that says “Die, bitch”.
Then it all hits her like a ton of bricks and her look of confusion melts into complete and utter embarassment.
As we get on to the elevator, a couple of friends of hers get on with her. They weren’t at the restaurant last night so they totally unaware of what I’m about to say next:
Me: “Hey, you’re that girl I served last night at ******, right?”
Her: “I…uh…don’t…”
Me: “Yea, I remember you.”
Friend of hers: (To me) “You serve there? I love the sushi there!”
Me: “Yea, the sushi’s nice. Anyway, yea…so, how was everything?”
Her: “Uh…”
Me: “Was the service okay?”
Her: “…”
Me: “Since, you know, you stiffed me and all.”
Damn that felt good.
Friends of hers: “HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”
Her: “Um…well…”
Me: (Cold stare)
Her: “…”
Damn, that felt double good.
My question to everyone is this: Is what I did wrong? Did I violate some sort of server/servee hippocratic oath? Or was it karma that I should have taken and run with?
March 8th, 2007 at 10:12
I don’t think you were out of line - after all, you ended up on the same elevator and you both go to the same school. Chasing a stranger down in Publix to question them however, that’s where I’d draw the line…
Oh and on a side note: I think it’s really shitty when college age customers have a college age server and tip them shitty. They KNOW how hard it is to stay financially afloat when you’re in college.
Or maybe they’re one of those girls that whips out daddy’s credit card to pay for dinner.
In which case, track her down again and let her have it.
March 8th, 2007 at 10:29
You didn’t give her half of what she deserves, though I’m sure the feeling you got was good anyway. lol
March 8th, 2007 at 11:06
props. haha.. if you just happened to run into her, then by all means, embarrass the hell out of her. lmao.
karma. awesomeness.
March 9th, 2007 at 12:59
Eh…on the one hand I think it was kinda jerkish to do something like that. But on the other, having worked menial labor jobs all my life, including food service, I can understand exactly why you did what you did.
While I am not an extraordinary tipper, I try to leave at least what they deserve, more than that if they do a good job. It sounds like you did in this case–and you DEFINITELY deserved something greater than a cheapskate douchebag tip of “0.00″
Sorry to hear you got stiffed so brutally by a group of (in all probability) “sor-ostitutes” that probably wouldn’t know good service if it smacked them slap in the face. Keep your head up and your sarcasm brimming
It makes me laugh whenever I read your site, between boughts of disbelief at the sheer stupidity/idiocy/cheapness of the world.
March 9th, 2007 at 1:43
You tell that bitch! I think what you did was perfectly OK, and I’m really glad you did it in front of her friends. They’ll probably make fun of her for it, and then maybe she will stop writing “$0.00″ on the tip line from now on.
March 9th, 2007 at 2:55
These responses have too many words. It is an easy answer.
FUCK NO.
If you’d had slapped her, I might have had more to say, but since you didn’t…. FUCK NO.
You did nothing wrong.
March 9th, 2007 at 8:50
I think you were justified, especially since they wrote “0.00″ on the tip line, etc. I’m not sure about confronting people about tips that should have been a little bigger, but for this situation, I think you were more than justified. Way to have the balls to stand up for yourself and embarrass her. Hahaha.
March 9th, 2007 at 11:06
Ryan,
I’ve been working in restaurants since I was 13 (since my family owns one) and I have been around them all my life. To answer your question, everyone who works in the business dreams of seeing the people that fucked them over OUTSIDE of the restaurant (ex you running in to that bitch). I don’t care if some people think it was wrong I believe you were RIGHT standing up for yourself and the business. So don’t feel bad, feel proud that since you layed down the law to her she will probably think of that elevator ride every time she goes to write “0.00″ on the tip line again. What a classy broad she is huh?
March 9th, 2007 at 1:07
Sometimes you have to let things out.
You did the right thing.
March 9th, 2007 at 3:32
You know Ryan it’s not often I disagree with what you did but this is one of them.
You let her off TO lightly. Now I wouldn’t have called her names or anything but I definatly would have run down the litnany list of everything you did with a question of “Was that why you gave me a shitty tip?” and if possible find out her name and what she drives or lives and write in the dust $0.00 for the fun of it. How’s she going to prove it’s you unless she publically admits what a stingy bitch she was. It’s not to late you know…
March 9th, 2007 at 9:07
Hell man, you should have done it in the restaurant.
March 9th, 2007 at 10:43
I don’t think you were out of line. Half the time I wish I could say that to my customers. Good for you. I hope next time she comes in she gives you double the tip.
March 10th, 2007 at 12:58
I would’ve followed her around for the next 10 minutes asking for tip money in a ridiculously irritating fashion. Or punched her in the baby maker, definitely one of those two choices.
March 12th, 2007 at 3:16
Sounds a lot like Los Angeles.
March 13th, 2007 at 6:48
you should have hit that whore in the face. kudos on your victory, though.
March 14th, 2007 at 12:59
God, are you kidding? You’re the hero of every server out there.
March 14th, 2007 at 2:07
how perfect is that? This was the best post… EVER! I only wish I had opportunities like that when I was a server.
I bow down to you oh great one!
June 24th, 2007 at 11:20
Too bad you didn’t KNOW that the encounter would happen… Then you could of made a duplicate of the receipt and handed it to her, saying, “You apparently forgot a digit at the start of this line”…. >:)
August 30th, 2007 at 4:36
I don’t blame you one bit for this. You seem like you provide good service, and I would never dream of tipping poorly. I did once take my son out to eat and realized that I only had enough cash to pay for the meal. My credit card was at the house. I tipped triple when we went back the next week (yes, we had the same waiter.)
On the other hand: My husband is an extraordinary tipper. We went to a buffet once that offered sushi, crab legs, and oysters among other things. Sushi chef got ten bucks in his tip jar, and my husband left seven bucks on the table. He was going to leave more, but I stopped him. Our waitress had stopped refilling our drinks and actually took my plate away from me.
I’m not a big eater, and I hate to waste food at buffets. I get SEVERAL plates at a buffet, but I don’t leave a bit behind unless I wind up with something that I simply cannot force myself to eat. So I was highly upset that after being seated for about 20 minutes, the waitress had become so very rude. In fact, as badly as I want to go back, I’m afraid that I’ll get the same service. I think it was because I wasn’t dressed my best and my pants cuffs smelled of ocean. (It was a beach town.)
She still got 7 dollars on a 20 dollar tab, though.
August 30th, 2007 at 4:42
I take it back. When my husband and I were in college, we used to frequent a Waffle House on a regular basis. We were like family to the staff. We often tipped more than 100% there. We moved away, but returned to our WH a couple of months later. We ordered coffee to start, and 45 minutes later, not only had nobody come to refill our drinks, but they had even failed to ask us what we wanted to eat. They went to the other side of the empty store and talked among themselves.
That is the only day that I’ve seen my husband be a shitty tipper. He threw the change (a 50% tip) into the bottom of his water glass, and he called the manager the next day to complain.