Tip the restaurant staff, or else

Dave W · November 20, 2009, 09:37:43 AM

Couple Busted for Refusing to Pay Tip

A mandatory gratuity? Someone needs a dictionary.

If it was clearly posted that the charge was mandatory, the pub may be technically correct, but still I hope the dirtbags get sued out of business.

jmcgliss · November 20, 2009, 10:41:06 AM

Sheesh. The list of things that dumb or mean people want to do before they die:

1. Make airline travel so painful that people would rather stay home than be butt-searched.
2. Make dining out so painful that people would rather stay home than end up in jail.
3. Make movie theatres expensive and annoying so people watch movies at home.
4. Dream up endless fees to charge bank, credit card, and telephone customers.
5. Keep raising homeowner property assessments even though home values have
dropped 20%-30% since 2006.
6. Buy up companies, sell the assets, and kill the brand while hoping customers won't notice.
7. Make clownish laminate guitars and garish pianos (oops...wrong thread).
8. Make desirable special edition guitars for right-hand players only.

Pilgrim · November 20, 2009, 02:39:02 PM

There's a long thread about this at TB, in case anyone cares.....
http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=600926

My comments:

We don't have the whole story, but it sounds like no tip was warranted. If the restaurant did offer to comp the food, I would have taken them up on it and possibly tipped the server IF he/she had visited the table often, kept the drinks refreshed and kept me informed as to what was going on. If I'd had to get my own utensils, I would NOT have tipped.

My daughter is a server and sometimes the kitchen screws things up - she's the one who gets stiffed, but she does her best to communicate with the guest and keep them informed. This server evidently let them down. My daughter has often been stiffed by tables of 10+ people after working her ass off to give them excellent service. I know how she treats customers, and it's not fair to the server to walk out and leave no tip when you have been given excellent service.

Her restaurant auto-grats ALL parties of a certain size to avoid this. I'm on their side. Some customers leave her an additional tip.

Highlander · November 20, 2009, 02:57:50 PM

The only "TIP" I would give anyone who eats out is never, EVER, complain before the end of an evening, and if you have any sense, never, EVER, return to the said venue, as they WILL remember you, and make sure your food is the "CHEF's SPECIAL", with "SPECIAL SAUCE"...

21 years of bar/hotel/hospital repair work - I PROMISE you... you DO NOT WANT TO KNOW...

I knew one person who p*ss*d off some staff, so they kept a bottle of urine in the fridge, and always topped off his pint of lager with it... witnessed first hand...

It only gets worse... imagine the worst you can think of, and it has ended up on a plate of someone who has upset catering staff...

godofthunder · November 20, 2009, 03:06:16 PM

With this kind of publicity I bet the pub is out of business in a month. As for tipping I tip on the high side, The waiter/waitress has so much out of their control, I always try to take that into account.

Dave W · November 20, 2009, 04:49:18 PM

The pub deserves the bad publicity. Not for the allegedly bad service, but because the bartender called the cops and had the customers arrested for theft. That's just outrageous.

If I were in that situation, and if it were as bad as the customers described, I would have paid the "mandatory gratuity" said something to the manager on duty and gotten the owner's phone number to call the next business day. And as Scott says, you try to take into account that sometimes things are beyond your server's control.

But it's inexcusable to call the cops and have customers arrested for failing to pay a gratuity. If they go out of business for that, they deserve it.

Aussie Mark · November 20, 2009, 10:48:02 PM

Quote from: Kenny Five-O on November 20, 2009, 02:57:50 PM
I knew one person who p*ss*d off some staff, so they kept a bottle of urine in the fridge, and always topped off his pint of lager with it... witnessed first hand...

Last year in Sydney there was a well publicised case of a restaurant employee who added "chocolate sauce" to an ice cream based dessert after the customers were jerks.

shadowcastaz · November 22, 2009, 09:00:21 AM

I have worked as a chef for 30 + years and can honestly say no food was ever tampered with on my watch. I saw a couple steaks dropped into a deep fryer when a customer sent it back to be cooked more.
There are some sick bastards in every profession. Id love to hear what the judge says. A gratuity is just that & you dont hear servers bitching if they are over tipped!!!.
I hope the place looses business & all the cheap bastards out there should think twice when they dont tip ,or tip well for good service. Especially the bar keep!