Every day, someone will send me a story or a photo of something that happened at their job as they were trying to serve food to their customers. Sometimes, it’s to tell me something good happened and other times it’s to tell me that some people in this world are miserable pieces of shit who don’t deserve an ounce of the hospitality that we are trying to give them. Case in point is this note that was left for a server explaining why they received no tip.
If you weren’t fat and unattractive you might make money. Tip: lose weight.
Since when did tipping become based on physical appearance? Are we now pole dancers who have to earn each and every dollar by shaking our nice toned asses at every table? Are we expected to have movie star teeth, a perfect complexion and abs of steel to get our 20% for bringing salmon that they wanted well done but not too well-done and with a side of spinach instead of the green beans? We all know that we live in a very commercial world, but when a customer decides to stiff their server because they aren’t hot enough, that’s my cue to get on the Internet and bitch about it.
We are servers. Our job is to make our customers’ dining experience as pleasant as possible and, by that, I mean by doing things like taking the food order properly and getting it to the table in a timely manner. I mean by administering freshly ground pepper and keeping water glasses full. I mean by clearing dirty dishes and serving hot coffee. Hiow about we get tipped based on our job performance?
These are a few reasons it may be alright to stiff a server:
- The server brings everything wrong and makes no attempt to correct the error.
- A customer repeatedly asks for a refill and the server blatantly disregards the request.
- The server disappears during the meal never to be seen again and the customer has to search for someone to give them the check.
- The server is completely rude as fuck.
These are a few reasons it is not okay to stiff a server:
- The server is overweight.
- The server has acne.
- The server has a bad haircut.
- ANYTHING THAT HAS TO DO WITH THEIR PHYSICAL APPEARANCE!!
Over all, we servers do not hate our customers. On the contrary, we find most of them to be perfectly fine people who are absolutely easy to take care of. However, on occasion we will come across one that will leave a note like this and these are the ones who can make so many of us in the food service industry say, “God, I fucking hate people.”
Mike
I always tip cash and try to address my waiter/waitress by name. To me addressing someone by name is a sign of respect and there are plenty of other assholes who are going to shit on their night at some point. I’ve only stiffed a server twice, once at an airport Chili’s because my food was delivered ice cold and I asked for a replacement and got an eye roll, then I was brought the wrong check and got another eye roll and annoyed sigh. Would have been understandable if they were slammed but I was the only patron at the time. The second time was on accident with my regular server at a BWW, it dawned on me when I got home that I had forgotten to leave cash, came in the next day and left $50 on a $15 check to cover both visits and I apologized for the previous time.
Ian
In some higher-end venues you’re hired on how hot you are,cause it serves the Astetic of a restaurant.sometimes it’s like being cast on a TV show,and there’s nothing like a hot server smiling at you, pretending that your banter is actually funny.yes we should get 20% based on just our work,but and I’m guilty of this too we seem to gravitate to more attractive people just as in life sometimes
LaFawne
I just typed out a nice comment and I suddenly realized that I had ASSUMED the wait person was female and the note leaver was male. I had to go back and reread the post to see if any indication of gender was mentioned. I dont think it was, I just apparently went there first all on my own…..sigh……
Regardless, the note leaver was a total (insert bad word of your choice) and I would like to give the server a cyber hug-
ECfromDC
Oh yeah there are some real low-key sadists out there.
ECfromDC
I really hope the person who that note was left for remembers who left it.
I would think servers remember the faces of their best patrons as well as the worst.
Only a true low-life would write something like that to someone they don’t know.
mensa58
I’m glad the only times I’ve been tempted to stiff a waiter are on the “ok to do it” list. One time the waiter brought my order wrong (it was a “choose two” thing and one item was wrong); he said “just start with this” and I refused because I didn’t like the selections he brought. He ended up getting a 15% tip because maybe it was the kitchen.
The other time was when a server had to leave early. She went to *every* table in her section, explaining what was going on, and assuring them that Miss X would be taking care of them. Well, Miss X didn’t even come by my table so she got stiffed but I made sure the manager knew what had happened and left my original server’s tip with him to make sure she got it.
Kaos
Whenever I’ve had a server tell me they are getting ready to leave I give them their (cash) tip right then and there. I don’t trust the manager or anyone else to make sure they get it. I always tip in cash. Screw the IRS.
Don Neil
Hey my story made it! Yes this lady was very polite the entire time I waited in her. Her guest that arrived later was even conversing and joking with me for the 2+hours they were there. I’d admit to being wrong but this was a pretty “normal” table. All smiles, smooth service and ended like this.
Anonymous
Wow, what a fucking bitch…. I’m sorry that happened to you.
Ashleigh
Yay don!!! You’re one of the best servers we had!! And always positive! You got your story out there! 🙂
Sarah
It just shows you that people are great at hiding the evil inside of them. I think a lot of people truly take pleasure in treating servers like shit. It’s easy for them. They’re in an environment where they “are always right”.
Michael
The raaaaaage. As the one male employee at a bar, bartender at that, I can’t even begin to count the number of times I’ve been stiffed, cussed at, argued with, or insulted, to my face I might add, because 1, I’m not a hot girl, and 2, some of my servers aren’t hot. If you want big breasts with little waists, go to friggin Hooters, or twin peaks, or a friggen strip club… I swear.. Some people..
Jaime
I draw the line at a visibly dirty uniform, or unkempt hair. If you look like you haven’t bathed in days I’m probably not even going to order, just leave.
Thailia
Unkempt hair? let me guess you probably have pretty straight blonde locks. As an Irish woman with frizzy, curly,, thin hair… I’m still doing my best to make a living and pay my bills.. I actually got I actually marked off once on an employee exam by a manager because my hair was “unkempt”. That was my only bad mark.. When I looked at him and said “oh well then you should just go ahead and Mark me off for my freckles too” he changed his mind and took that negative Mark away…
Jenn
I’m a blonde Irish, i know it’s weird, and let me tell you the pseudo curly, wavy, frizzy mess that is my hair gets me all kinds of comments. On the one day with no humidity every one says your hair looks great why don’t you do that more often? Because I can’t asshole.
Sabrina
People are pricks. Customers don’t realize that servers work with food. Food and drinks that they order. Oops! Sandwich dropped on the floor. Normally, I would dispose it, but become an asshole, and see what happens when you eat floor sandwich. After someone stepped on dog doo-doo stuck to the shoe, or hocked a loogie stepped in it, tracked it in the kitchen, and your food falls.. Watch what you say to a food industry work dealing and working your order.
John Pelmear
Been in the business 30 years NEVER have I seen this. Maybe immature servers who shouldn’t be one business.
Sandra
I work in a sports bar. During games people come and sit for 4 hours. So when a party of 10 takes up 3 tables in your section for 4 hours out of a 6 hour shift, it sucks when they come up with BS reasons not to tip. These people bring in rowdy children that us servers have to dodge as they run through the restaurant. I had to tell the kids and mother multiple times that it was dangerous for us to be knocked into by running children. So 4 hours of service 267 tab.. 0 tip.
The mother said I had no right and was barking up the wrong tree cause her children were perfect and could do as they wished.. people like this suck. I still had to tip out the bar and kitchen 13 bucks for this. Luckily the owner told her not to come back.
Nicole
I worked with a girl once in a diner that had a huge table of firemen. When they thought she was out of earshot they complained about not getting a hot waitress and joked about how ugly she was. She over heard them and ran off crying.
People are fucking terrible.
Chris Chandler
I worked at a hardware store one summer and the firemen would come in and chat up the staff to ask what they would need for various projects around the station where they hung out drinking beer and playing foosball. They would rarely buy anything, and hemmed and hawed almost hinting like the store should just give them hardware for their rec room since they were firemen. Most often you would find evidence that the items you discussed with them had been shoplifted. So yeah, firemen are pretty scummy and lazy, but I don’t think they’re quite the entitlement queens waiters are. 20%? Give me a break, you really deserve $50 an hour?
Amanda
I’m curious; how did you calculate that figure?
Anonymous
Where the fuck did you come up with that math, Fantasy Dream World? $50 a night is way closer to the truth.
Jill
Okay so let me break it down…
We only make $2.83 an hour. Our taxes from tips get taken out of there so we get no paycheck and if we do for working overtime or anything its never more than $10. Where I work, we tip the foodrunner/expo based on sales. Other places require that plus tip outs to bartenders and table bussers. 20% isn’t asking too much. That’s the average for good service. The price of your check determines how much service you’re getting when you look at it. I average at about 40-60% of my sales and still average $14-$20 an hour. Let me know restaurant you’re going to where they’re averaging $50 an hour because that’s where I need to be working!
BadGirl
Jill, they were talking about firemen making $50 an hour.
Jason
Entitlement queens? Excuse me? I think you meant entitled queens, first. But either way you’ve exposed yourself as phenomenally ignorant. Once in a while you might get lucky and average $50 per hour, but it definitely only serves to balance out those 2 days last week, and the 1 day the week before and the 1 day the week before when you left with $40 FOR THE ENTIRE SHIFT. Get real, get it together and get a hold of yourself. Working in the food service business is HARD WORK. It’s mentally, emotionally and physically taxing, every single day you tie on that apron and plaster on that smile. If you’re generating $35k to $40k per year you’re doing well. It’s hardly the income of the entitlement class. Sorry to burst your bitch-bubble.
Jason
Rather, it’s hardly the income of the entitled class and it BARELY keeps you out of the entitlement class.
D
Exactly! ???
D
50 dollars an hour??? Even when averaged out, it’s nowhere near that, lol.
Jessica
I am a restaurant manager and would have loved to kick them out. I’ve been doing this job for almost 20 years and the whole customer is always right thing has totally gone out the window. People have become more rude and ignorant as years go by. I don’t understand why people think they can treat people like that.