N.C. restaurant refuses service to poor tipper

Source: WXII-TV

WINSTON-SALEM -- A woman who says Kampai Japanese Steak and Seafood House refused her service has started a petition to boycott the establishment. But restaurant owners say they refuse to serve her simply because she is such a poor tipper.

Monica Covington said her spat with the restaurant began in 2008.

"I noticed on our ticket that they added 18 percent gratuity and there was only two others with me at the time," Covington said.

... Kampai manager Michael Lam said Covington is a poor tipper, and after a number instances of her failing to tip accordingly, the restaurant ran into problems.

"Yes, because we can't keep continuing to serve her anymore because the servers and chefs are not willing to serve her," Lam said when asked if he refused Covington service.

... Winston-Salem attorney Carl Parrish said North Carolina law allows businesses to dictate payment terms upfront and to refuse to serve customers who don't agree to the terms, as long as civil liberties aren't in violation.

Read more: http://www.wxii12.com/news/22648863/detail.html

:argh:

And then goes on a punitive campaign against a business that is providing halfway decent jobs for people.

I tipped the bartender $5.

One dollar a drink and that should be it.

How dare someone tip more generously than you yourself would!

The nerve! It makes people like my self look bad :)

I blame the economy.

If you're going to be a pain-in-the-rear customer, at least tip well.

...almost two decades in the bar/restaurant business taught me that pain-in-the-ass customers are normally poor tippers and vice versa. Why? Because it all breaks down to a matter of conscientiousness.

Betcha a nickel she's a MAJOR "pain in the rear",
and not just as a customer.

who got shafted quite enough by the stinkin' tightwad.

Come and patronize my business and pay my employees!

WTH?

And yes I tip.

gratuity that they do not understand? :eyes: if she is a bad tipper, just give her the service for which she is paying.

ellen fl

Both are optional!

They EXIST on tips.

If one can't grasp this concept, then go to Piggly Wiggly and eat at home.

Times are tough enough without sheer 'assholism' making it even harder..............

If the patron doesn't tip, isn't wait staff still stuck with taxes on what tip would likely to have been?

I waited tables from 1969 until the early 90's and then again in 2003(during our strike). The law states you declare all tips, nothing more nothing less. You kept your own books and the only traceable tips were those that were left on a credit card. In Ca the guide line at that time was 8% (I'm sure it is higher than that now but lower than 20%) of your sales (sometime in late 70's to early 80's). In the 70's your employer was allowed to use your tips as part of your pay (some states are still allowed to do this, usually right to work states) to bring it up to min wage. California used this practice for a very short time. All servers in California are paid min wage. I had bad tippers and good tippers it averaged out so I never sweated it. Unless an establishment has a set rule that gratuity is added and it is posted on the menu they can't add it to the check.
Most restaurants have this on the menu when its a party of six or more. If they specified how many in the party on their menu and this woman's party was less than what was on the menu. I don't think they could legally add the gratuity to her check. Not sure of NC laws, my experience is with CA laws.

tips are extra and good service is rally rewarded
to say they deserve a good tip implies that they earned it

to the people who can afford it least. You're not hurting "the man" one little bit, only the vulnerable.

I agree with you about the way it "should be" - but it's not. As it is, if your waitstaff did their job as adequately as possible under the difficult circumstances most of them in, then yes, they earned a decent tip. If they did better than adequate, then they have earned a good tip, at the very least.

but when your triple combo rib-chicken-beef-heartattackonaplatter-with appetizer and chocoolate lava cake dessert for two runs forty five bucks instead of 35, you gonna leave a REALLY generous tip for that person?

do what is done in Europe and automatically add 15% gratuity on to the bill. If service was particularly exceptional customers can add more. No other sector has to depend on tips to make a living so wait staff shouldn't either.

She objected to that. People like to think they reward people for good service by tipping that person, and the reverse for lousy service. If it is a normal part of the bill then just say we charge more so we can pay our employees more and because they are paid more there is no need to tip. Or do you think the customer should do both? Pay an eighteen per cent gratuity and also tip for quality service?

that she was a poor tipper. I could be wrong, however.

then pay the wait staff the extra money
Uncle Sam will get the correct amount and the workers won't have an attitude about cheap people screwing them
then if someone is outstanding in service they can be tipped over and above the bill.

or else put "mandatory gratuity of 18%" IN HUGE LETTERS ON THE MENU.

Course that would cut down on customers.

...whether they were received, or not.

whether they get the tips on those sales or not.

People who don't want to tip as a general practice, should lobby Congress to change laws and force at least minimum wages for wait staff and abolish taxes on what may be imaginary income from tips.

Employers are required to withhold taxes on at least 8% of sales (they can have this lowered to 2% by waiver form) for tip. However if an employee did not get 8% in tips he would receive the money back when he filed his taxes --just like everyone else in the U.S. who has more withheld than he owes.

They don't contest it unless they have affirmative information you are lying. Try again.

I only waitressed for a couple of months in the 1990s. A disproportionate number of professional servers were working off IRS penalties after being audited. Perhaps at the time, the IRS was more vigilant.

They were evading taxes like most servers do then and now and got caught. Most don't get caught. But as they say if you do the crime then you have to face that you could get caught. But that doesn't mean you are over taxed. It simply means that you work in a industry where the employer doesn't give you every dollar of your income and thus can't withhold taxes from it like most employees have done. So if you under report which most servers do you could get caught.

do you not understand? :eyes:

I think the 18% is a bit much, since 15% is standard. 8% of the entire bill is considered "income" for IRS purposes, & the server is taxed whether a tip is left or not. This woman is essentially stealing from the servers.

I guess you're okay with servers having to pay tax on non-existent income.

dg

apparently not in effect when i waited tables. i DO know how tipping works. i still think giving her lousy service might get the point across. i am sure that most of the public is not aware that the wait staff is taxed on estimated tips.

perhaps the employer should be paying a living wage.

boy, that reagan was a real man of the people, wasn't he? he also instituted income taxes on unemployment compensation. nothing like kicking someone when s/he is down. :eyes:

ellen fl

"Yes, because we can't keep continuing to serve her anymore because the servers and chefs are not willing to serve her," Lam said when asked if he refused Covington service.

The OWNER decided to add on 18% to force her to pay enough in gratuities to get his employees to serve her. He was trying to keep her business and to get adequate compensation for his employees to put up with this cheapskate.

You get the money back at the end of the year just like 90% of people who have withholding. More misinformation.

and how much you get back depends on how high your income is. No tip = taxed on non-existent income.

dg

It might be taxed that day but you would get back at the end of the year.

the higher your income, the lower your refund.

dg

For example if you made $2000 in January and the employer made a mistake and taxed you like you made $4000 you would be overtaxed and could expect to get the difference back at the end of the year. But if you got a promotion and started getting paid $6000 a month and the employer kept the $4000 a month tax rate then of course you would not get the January error back. And you shouldn't.

And "you'll probably get it back at the end of the year" is one sorry-assed rationalization for shitty behavior to begin with.

Because you clearly don't understand how they work.

As it stands, I have my doubts, and that's the nicest thing I have to say right now.

we're talking about assholes who stiff servers when the IRS counts 8% of the tab EVEN IF THE ASSHOLE LEFT NOTHING. The tip does not exist, but is still counted as income.

dg

But apparently math is over your head. You don't pay taxes on imaginary income despite how much misinformation you want to spread.

No tip, no service.

Tips are a declared income. If you don't tip the server, the server has to take money out of their pocket to cover the taxes.

the difference between what the server actually made and minimum wage...but I wouldn't hold my breath on how often that happens.

to take her order. better than telling her up front that she would have an 18% gratuity, imo. she probably would not have a petition going around now if they had not directly challenged her.

ellen fl

They pay servers 2.13 an hour. Tips are expected unless the service is so horrendously bad that the customer makes an issue of it with the management.

Don't start siding with the denigration of working people.

The tip is a payment for a service rendered. And the minimum rate is set by the business establishment and by custom. If you refuse to pay for the service you expect, you shouldn't expect any service.

the ostensible reason for it, to get good service, really gives you obsequieous cowtowing. And likely grumbling in the back. The pressure to impress your date, or the friggin bartender is a joke. I dont get bribed to do a good job, why should they?

They made it mandatory for her. Just what you wanted. But you're still not happy? :eyes:

There's nothing wrong with "discriminating" against misers, at any rate.

If you are suggesting that this was unlawful discrimination based on a protected status, the argument is a non-starter. As in laughable.

So, what are you trying to say?

But to charge her, in a way no others are charged, is discrimination.

**

If she doesn't like the terms she can choose not to eat there.

everyone knows it up front. If you can afford to pay the 50 bucks for the lobsters, you can pay the waiter 8-10 for bringing them to you.

Don't like it? Don't eat out.

try and survive on what they pay the waitstaff and then get back.

Many bartenders make bank. For pouring a friggin drink. It's stupid.

especially at a bar that not only makes all the drinks for the bar, but for the whole restaurant too. It's not as easy as you seem to think it is.

And I barely clear that. Granted, mine took a lifetime to become proficient, but hey, they can get you drunk.

let me grovel at your feet because I am a lowly bartender....and your job/life is so much more important than mine....

asshat.

maybe you should try bar-tending!

You have to be a regular pain in the ass for the wait staff and cooks to
get to know you as somebody who is not wanted.

I consider this good publicity for the restaurant.

I don't believe it's something that can be demanded, it has to be earned. The whole point of it is to ensure good service, not ensure good pay for the server.

nt

tips but "gratuities" that are just part of the bill, then the customer either accepts those terms or walks out. But I encounter some really bad service occasionally. My husband and I always give 20%, unless the service is crappy, then it's 15%. And if it's REALLY crappy, it's 10%. We ate at a Ruby Tuesday's not long ago, and our waiter was a really charming, schmoozy guy (the sort that squats down next to the table to be at your eye level), but almost an hour passed between our ordering and actually receiving our meals. He blamed the kitchen for being slow and backed-up, but we could see people at other tables who were seated long after us who had received their appetizers, dinners, and were getting the check and LEAVING while we were still waiting for our entrees. He apologized and offered us free dessert (so we could sit there another two hours, I guess). I ordered cookies to go, and he charged us anyway for them, apparently forgetting they were supposed to be free. Did he get 20%? Fuck no.

sides with her

she kept coming back over and over and over again!

Sid

You're right, she sounds ridiculous, in the most literal sense of that word.

Nice to see some people are as smart adn witty as I am.

:7

who wants the world to stop and cater to her but I'll be damned if she's going to pay for it.

So to answer your question, I don't know.

Everyone except for the server who lives on tips generally.

The restaurant in the OP appears to be one of those places where the chef does a choppy-knife-show at the table for customers.

It's quite a bit more involved than a waiter simply brining food.

I don't blame the chef for not wanting to put on a show for the chiseler only to get stiffed.

...She established her track record and they adjusted based on that. Don't like it? Don't return.

Curiously, I get EXCELLENT service when I return. I've rarely had "crappy" service and even then I leave 15%. Crappy or not, that's what they live on and thanks to asshole Reagan, they get taxed at 15% whether patrons leave it or not.

It's been awhile since I slung pancakes to live, but that's the level I remember. :shrug:

on edit: I'm a 20%-25% tipper as well. Sometimes I even send a fin back to the cook and the bartender via the server. I have one restaurant I frequent weekly and the waitstaff practically plays human chinese checkers jumping over each other to get to my table. The portions are always huge and the drinks are always stiff as a board. Extra tipping can really come back to you in spades if you frequent a restaurant that doesn't turn over their staff too often.

They recognize you when you come in the door. It isn't that much when you think about it but I've had countless times when you can just tell "I made someone's day" just by adding a tiny bit more to the tip. Rounding up is all it takes. For example, I just had a $18.36 or so check. That's close to $20 so $4 for tip, round up to $19 first and add $4 - $23. She was clearly in a crappy mood from the start but that didn't hurt our service and after she got the payment I could tell she was in a better mood.

However they are supposed to be taxed on the full amount of tips they receive. Most people who work as servers in restaurants evade taxes and do not report the full amount.

It's not the server's fault if I order a cheap meal - I am still taking up a table and getting the same basic service. I've ordered a BLT and coffee for a $5 ticket and tipped $3 if the server is attentive. Too bad I don't eat out often or I would get the pay back, but I still tip what I think is fair and generous. AND I treat the servers with respect. They are doing a job that is a PITA and deserve respect for what they have to put up with.

On the other hand, it is embarrassing to go out with my parents when they are treating. They will have a ticket for $50 or more dollars and tip $2. It's gotten so one of us kids will sneak back ("I forget my glasses, etc") and put an appropriate amount on the table - sometimes more if Dad has been a PITA.

15% might be a guideline but most servers keep their own books and the only traceable tips are those left on a credit card. I waited tables for over 20 years and remember when they started cracking down on declaring tips. The law in California is you declare what you make no more and no less. That is why you keep a tip record journal.

that people seem to have the biggest problem with the tipper and not with an industry which pays sometime substandard wages to their employees? Huh?

and it's unlikely you are going to change society costumes. In very good places like Japanese steak houses the staff generally can make a lot of money from tips. It's the low end market where sub minimum wages and low tips are a problem. The industry has a very broad spectrum. At the high end, say bartender in a LA nightclub, there is no way you would get that person to give up their tips for a slight pay increase. In other places, say fast food joint that never receives any tips but get's paid often like they do, reform is needed. Can you reform one without the other? IDK.

I can tip and bitch and moan at those who don't.

The end result, either way, is that servers will get paid properly, and the patrons pick up the tab.

when food service workers were exempt from then-pending minimum wage legislation; Tricky got nearly a quarter mill. from the Golden Arches for that one. No one has challenged the system yet. BTW, most indy restaurants I know of could not survive if they paid even minimum wage for their employees, esp. those who try to maintain employee bennies like health care.

Which ones? I assumed none of them do.

Some of their employees have been with them for over 10 years, a long time for a city known for high-turnover in the restaurant trade, due to musicians, actors, artists trying to "make it big," but who in the meantime must bus....

that offers decent pay and benefits. Of course, they have amazing employee retention as a result. They made the news because of it! That's how unusual it is for restaurants to offer health insurance.

But screwing the waitstaff (even more than they're already getting screwed) doesn't seem the way to go.

The woman knows the game and she's cheap. She's screwing some people who are working for the very tips this woman is withholding.

If you don't like the system, change *that* .... but don't screw the people who depend on tips. They didn't create the system.

For starters, if your state doesn't require full minimum wage as the base pay for servers, it's time to fix that. The industry lobbies against that little fix, because it means their fixed costs go up.
Seven states (WA,OR,CA,MN,MT, NV and AK ) require full minimum wage for bartenders, wait staff, and other tipped employees.

The reasoning behind paying subminimum wages is that the servers will make up the difference in tips, but it's stupid to set up servers for making less than minimum wage just because business is slow that day. Yeah, employers are supposed to make up the difference but enforcement seems to be lacking there.

where servers get the full minimum wage plus their tips. Here in Oregon we voted to insure that servers got their full min. wage.

All the other states, well, do something about it.

If you don't support an industry, don't give them your money. But not tipping properly just compounds the exploitation of the employee. The restaurant still gets its money.

Restauratns forced to provide $15 per hour for waitstaff and no tipping. They would simply raise prices to compensate.

Now you don't have to tip... Guess what you are paying the same price as before+tip.

Waiters like tips it gives them some control over wages/performance.
Changing the system ultimately wouldn't change anything except make the labor cost internal.

Seems a lot of work just to get rid of tipping.

She's obviously a regular and now they have bad PR.

as a customer of theirs, if I lived in the area!

Good ethics should be rewarded.

It's nice to say you would. But would you really? I'm just saying from a public relations point of view, most people would read this and see "restaurant refuses service" Most people who would actually visit that restaurant and who do actually live in that area would simply see bad publicity associated with the restaurant. They may not even understand it, but the negative connotations would stop them from going there.

And I'd tip like a fricking king.

You tip or you are an asshole.

And I would wager that most people who do or have worked in the food and beverage service industry would go a little out of their way to go there too!

:shrug:

They have a right to make that call, for good or for ill. :hi:

There's a difference between the restaurants profits and tipping. Although I'm sure it's good to not have to "deal" with her anymore, it's not helpful to the bottom line.

QED

:hi:

But I have run successful non-japanese restaurants. :D

Because they tipped so bad? Would you fire the staff and keep the customer? That is the choice the owner of the restaurant in the article had. This woman was such a bad tipper that the staff was refusing to serve her. Check the article - that is what the owner said.

I sympathize with the workers. It's not a good idea to deny service in this sort of situation for a number of reasons. This is one of them. One option is to force the waiters to suck it up and serve her. That's probably the best option. Another is to have the restaurant cover the tip just for her, but this is problematic. A third option is to give her the service she pays for (very similar to the first option). A fourth is to not count the table against the waiter. They usually seat people in a sequential order. So whoever gets her still gets another table. Yes, they have to work a little harder, but it's fair and the person still makes money.

You have to remember that although we are all sympathetic to the workers, and it's not PC to say on this website, it's a business and the business is there to make money. If the employees don't like the job, they can leave.

Who were obnoxious and who treated me like crap. So I don't think the restaurant owner went far enough. I would have just told the woman she was not welcome in my establishment.

I would love to hear the story from the standpoint of the staff from the restaurant!

**

Waited tables for years. Back then we had to suck it up and provide the same level of service to patrons who were known non-tippers. Glad to see that some restaurants are watching out for their employees, especially in light of the fact that the government assumes you make X% of your volume in tips and you are taxed accordingly.

Detroit... I don't know if that's common there (to not tip at all or leave a very small tip) but I wasn't raised like that.

But no, it's not common to stiff servers here in metro-Detroit, either.

work hard for it, and deserve it. Tips are completely unnecessary and unwanted. They won't refuse a tip, of course, but think Americans are crazy or stupid because we don't seem to "get" the system.

People can still tip, but it's not expected.

It also causes people from overseas a bit of grief trying to figure out what's an appropriate amount when eating at American restaurants.

food. So hopefully she moves on quietly and finds somewhere else to eat.

employer to get away with paying as little as $2.14 AN HOUR (in some places) to the server, counting on the customers to make up the rest of their pay. The employer could stick up for their employees by not shafting them so badly in the first place. That being said, I know what I'm getting into when I choose to go out to eat, and as a former server, I can't help but give a minimum of 20%.

An I think there's merit to that. There's a diffence between her paying for her food and her being a non-tipper. She still helps the restaurant.

How did this scam ever come about where customers pay the employees?

She claims that she made one complaint about the mandatory gratuity policy but paid it anyway. One month later, she returned to the restaurant and they refused to serve her. There is NO WAY in the world that any business would refuse to serve a customer because of one previous mild complaint from that particular customer.

The restaurant's owner made reference to numerous previous occasions where she tipped poorly or refused to tip at all.

Yeah...I'm sure the entire staff refused to deal with her because she complained about the policy on only one occasion! :eyes:

There's more to this story. I would think she's an extra demanding customer that then doesn't tip appropriately.

If she's not willing to pay the 18%, she should go somewhere else...but with this news story she just told the entire restaurant industry she's a cheapskate. She says this is her favorite restaurant, yet she's not willing to tip appropriately. Obviously her standards for tipping at her favorite place are very different than mine.

Also, I wish we would over turn the minimum-wage exemption for servers and do like Europe does pay a living wage and no tipping necessary.

Which makes her chiseling even more egregious. If she is tying up a table AND a grill for a 3 dollar tip then they SHOULD ban her ass.

:rofl:

You are the first person who has ever commented on it. It's an old Stooges shtick.

...As I said up-thread, I've found that the more demanding a customer, the worse they tip. It's about conscientiousness, folks.

When I was out of town with my mom back in January, we stopped for lunch at Chili's. Now, we were in the middle of a 5.5 hr drive somewhere, and this was during the lunch rush so we thought we should be done within 45 min, max. We both ordered regular things, a turkey sandwich for me and a burger for her. We were there for an hour and a half. We had to wait for 20 min just to get our bill, along with an extra long wait to place an order and it took forever for the food to get to us. The server apologized saying she had a big to go order come in, but honestly that's not my problem. She should have made sure we were taken care of, we were sitting in front of her. We only tipped $3 on I guess a $20 meal. That's a crappy tip from me. I was going to put down $2, but I upped it after she half way apologized.

I wasn't going to give her nothing, since honestly this was a failure of her manager (who eventually brought over our check when she saw me looking pissed), but I usually would have tipped at minimum $5.

the only "chain" restaurant I've ever had decent service (wait time, not the service itself) was Red Lobster, and that was 20+ years ago.

Like Mickey D's, "chains", live Olive Garden, Chili's, Outback, etc. are based on the BOTTOM LINE - profits for shareholders. Period.

I can give her one, she needs to lighten up on the lip liner she looks like she burnt her lips on a crack pipe.

Ms. Covington is invited cordially to BITE ME.

If restaurants paid a living wage, the customers wouldn't have to pay the servers wages. Tips would truly BE tips and not extortion.

I don't eat out anymore anyway because I can't afford it. And if I do ever buy a meal out, it's always take out. I can't afford a sit down meal in a restaurant after taxes, drinks and tips.

I tip very well, when I can afford to eat out, but the tipping thing has just gone too far. It's not a tip, which is a gratuity, it's paying their wages, which in no way is a tip.

And if a server sucks, you're still expected to tip them.

I work my ass off delivering newspapers in the rain and snow and at 2:30 in the morning every fucking day. Most people don't tip. I bet most of you reading this who get the paper delivered don't tip. Yet you tip the fucking pizza boy who delivers pizza. I can't afford to eat out because paper carriers are paid jack-shit. I barely get by, and yet if I ever do have enough money, I'm expected to tip people even if they have an attitude or don't care about their job enough to be good at it.

I've gone to a restaurant and learned my server is a paper customer who doesn't tip, yet I left a tip for her. Never went back to the restaurant though.

Restaurants need to pay a living wage to their employees so the rest of us pay their wages through the food we buy and not through the extortion racket called tipping.

Tipping is just another way American restaurants (and other industries) screw employees. Now, having said that, I tip 20%-25%, because I eat out all the time, and I have worked in a restaurant when I was in high school. As a dishwasher and pizza maker. But, the waitresses never shared their tips with the kitchen staff.

I would much rather pay the cost upfront in my meal, rather than doing calculations to figure the tip.

The real cost of the meal in the tip and it's not right for either customer or server.

When I used to be able to afford to eat out, I tipped very well. My favorite person in the whole world, my grandmother I lost to colon cancer, was a waitress for 45 of her 60 years on this earth. She mostly waitressed in breakfast diners and worked her ass off in horrible conditions for almost no wage.

I'm empathetic towards servers, but I hate the system.

If you don't want to tip to be served, then cook your own damn food. WTF?

Maybe Political Heretic was right. :/

If a restaurant is going to automatically charge the tip to the server, this has to be posted on the menu.

If it is not posted, then tipping is whatever the customer feels is appropriate.

If it is posted, then the customer has the option to get up and go elsewhere.

Now, I typically avoid those places that automatically add the tip, as my experience has been that nine-times-out-of-ten the server I get ends up not earning their pre-guaranteed gratuity. When I have no choice (i.e. "outvoted"), if I feel the server has not deserved it, I notify the manager.

However, if I come back to the place, then I am tacitly accepting their policy.

She says it's her favorite restaurant, yet the servers and chefs are refusing to serve her.

Gratuity billnig policies should be posted at the register or on the menus and applied to all customers as indicated.
Good tipping is not a law. If the restaraunt wants it's waiters to have more money then it should pay the servers more.
The restaraunt is out-of-bounds to add gratuity in a non-policy fashion.

Likewise, if she's a cheapskate then the restaraunt has a right to refuse her service.
She has no grounds to bitch that they refuse her service.

at a lot of places they'd serve her but they'd add various "special ingredients" to the sauce.

one person is an asshole to you, so you get to be an asshole right back, is that how it works?

the business owner's labor.

I always tip 20-25% or more if the service is really excellent. However, tipping is just another form of corporate welfare where the consumer is covering the cost of the labor as you said. The businesses should have to pay a living wage.

I believe in over-tipping.

20-25% is my standard, and maybe 50% (or more) for exceptional service and delivery to my door. We have a tradition of ordering from our local Chinese restaurant on Christmas Eve, and we always tip 100% (yes, 100%) for that delivery.

mikey_the_rat

:applause:

:woohoo:

She can get her meals from the fast food drive in, if she doesn't believe in tipping. They have the right to refuse service.

Good for the restaurant.

Especially if they know they're getting a tip regardless of their service.

Bad servers get fired. Bad customers walk out with a smirk and the server's tip in their pocket, simply because they can.

paying his staff better.

I don't like people who are cheap tippers. But the idea that it's mandatory sort of goes against the whole idea of a tip, doesn't it?

Poor tippers are worthless. I don't hare anyone, but I really can't stand them.

I have no sympathy for jerks who don't tip, and I have no problem with a restaurant refusing service to a serial offender.

But she claims they added 18% to her bill, rather than the 15% that the menu says for groups, and that they were going to insist on charging her 18% to eat the next time. But we don't ever hear from the owner (a) if he agrees that happened or (b) why they were going to charge her 3% more than the rate on the menu.

Further, the restaurant owner claims she had a history of bad tipping and that the staff and chefs didn't want to serve her as a result. That's certainly a plausible explanation, and most folks here seem to have taken it at face value, but I wish the reporter had asked her about her tipping habits so we could hear her side of that accusation. We're not really hearing both sides of either story.

The whole concept of expecting diners to pay the wages of their servers and then the servers to share those wages with the non-wait staff is wrong too.

That practice is unfair also, to many of the witers/waitresses because the waitress who may be "difficult" will get the shifts that are not as busy, while a favored one will get the prime times when the place is busy..

There was a restaurant in my home town that had a sign that said "This is a NO-Tipping Zone"..Our employees are paid more than the minimum wage, and have excellent benefits..Don't believe it? Ask them".

The place was always busy, and everyone seemed quite happy.

Call it a "mandatory service charge" or just raise all the prices and do away with it.

I say this as a person who always tips, quite well most of the time, but I'm getting sick of these stories. Recently there was a story about a bar that called the police and had patrons ARRESTED for not leaving a tip.

Do you have a link to this? Sounds like a good story!

There's a reason one should tip at least 15%, preferably 20%, for good service.

If you are known as a lousy tipper, or a 'high-maintenance' customer, imagine all the things they can do to your food before it's brought to your table.

This movie shows it.

If you are a regular, it's even more imperative to be at least a decent tipper and not treat the workers like slaves meant to lick your shoes.

reporter is a member of the woman's church! Some of the comments implied that she might even be the minister at the church!

And the people who signed the petition:


http://www.piggynannan.com/2010/02/24/monica-covington-wxii-and-jermont-terry-biased-reporting/

http://www.wxii12.com/station/1610902/detail.html

They probably ought to hear about their reporter, Jermont Terry, and what motivates the kind of reporting he does. They might not like their newsroom being abused as Mr. Terry's church-vendetta machine.

Easily the worst tippers beyond all other demographics. EASILY.

The world would be a remarkably more pleasant and respectful place if that happened.

Good for Kanpai. :thumbsup:

...If their debts depended on it, it would make more of a difference.

:thumbsup:

should be a requirement for every American at some point in their lives, especially college kids. Busting your ass and enduring hard, sweaty labor is essential to good character, IMHO.

horrible wages to wait staff is wrong. I think most people would agree to that, BUT it is the system. It is what it is and when I'm in a restaurant, for the period of time the wait staff is waiting on me, they are MY employees. My dad made a point of teaching all of his 5 children how it is up to us to make sure WE take care of the people who take care of us. When he took all 5 of us out he made sure he left a good tip. We probably didn't go out as much because of it but he felt it was his responsibility to do so and I agree. I remember as a teenager leaving a $1.00 tip for a $2.50 hamburger, french fries and a coke. I never resented it, I never hesitated to do it, it was just what I had been taught to do and I'm glad I was taught that way. I almost always leave more than a 20% tip unless the service is atrocious and I don't remember the last time I left less than 20%.

unless it's a downscale place that is. Waiting tables at a nice restaurant is one of the most lucrative ways for an unskilled person to work part time. A Japanese Steak House should work out to least $20/hour for a decent night.

Or this thread would be twice as long...

IF they are going to add any mandatory tip at all for her specifically, it should be that 15%, not 18%. The Restaurant is in the wrong here.

who was bitching about a customer that regularly
came in with a group of diners...she always insisted
on a separate bill, so she would excuse herself
before the bill was delivered, pay the exact amt.
of the bill and then not chip in when the group
figured the tip.

She also demanded extras on everything and took
a doggiebag stuffed with rolls,etc.

The waitresses had refused to serve her the "free" extras and
"embarrassed her" to her group and she was
threatening to sue.

The group did not know that she had made a career
out of skipping out on tipping.

Make their dining experience so painful that they go somewhere else. If the wait staff know they will always get a shit tip no matter what the service, give her the worst service she's ever seen!

i hate it when they add the 'gratuity'

it's no longer a gratuity when it's mandatory