Random Servers And Customers Reveal Worst Tips Ever Given To Waitstaff (15 items)

• (#5) Take Your 12 Cents Elsewhere

  From Redditor/u/Speedy_Cheese:

  This was when I was 16 working my first gig. It was during one of the busiest days of the year when our town throws this huge concert festival and people come from all over the province. I showed up to discover I was the only one who came because the two other people who were supposed to be on shift with me bailed to go to the concert.

  In the middle of this busy supper hour, a table of 15 comes in. Throughout the whole ordeal I'm flying around the restaurant like a cat with its ass on fire and the whole while the guys at this table kept making snarky comments and laughing, saying things like 'Jeez, are you the only one here or somethin'? Service is some slow.' Do you see anybody else here? Seriously. So the meals miraculously get out on time, I am run ragged taking care of all the other tables while keeping their drinks flowing, and the whole time I am just getting this barrage of passive-aggressive insults.

  Finally, the place starts clearing out a little aside from them. Once they finish their meal I start gathering up their plates and empty glasses as the majority of them are putting on their coats. I'll never forget this one d**chebag with a salt-and-pepper mustache calling me over and grinning at me over his glasses as he pats his hand down on the table and says:

  'Here. This is for you.'

  It was twelve cents. Not one word of a lie. I saw red and tried not to cry. I mean, a volcano let loose inside me. My lips must have went as tight as an assh*le. I looked him dead in the eye, shook my cleaning rag out, and swept the dime and pennies so hard that they went flying across the restaurant. I spat: 'You can take that sh*t with you.'

  His face just crumpled, and a woman who had come back to the table for something said 'What did you do?' He laughingly explained to her as if what he had done was actually funny and she was extremely appalled. She went over to me, opened her purse, and pushed a twenty into my hand. She said, 'Take it. Oh my God, I'm so sorry.' I had to go out back to the dish pit to hide my tears of embarrassment, but apparently she spread the word on what he'd done, because there was a nice tip left at the table when I mustered the gumption to go back out when they'd all left.
• (#6) Pro-Tip: Don't Work At This Restaurant

  From Redditor/u/Who_Knows_:

  I worked for a company where you had to pay 3% of your takings back to the company for the privilege. I.E. if I took £2,000 on a Saturday, I had to give them £60 out of my tips. If I only made £50 in tips, the 10 would come out of my pocket. They justify it by saying that it goes towards training managers and bonuses that managers get. Because... you know... people on minimum wage should have to pay for that.

  This made me resent most people. If a table spent £100 and didn't tip, I'd be pissed off because I'd be paying for them to have a good time.

  Anyway, to the story. I had a table of eight-or-so people. No manners, nobody said 'please' or 'thank you.' I was there to be their servant, because that was my job, and that was how they acted. When they finally paid, they were short a significant amount. They had taken a prawn head from their plate, and wrapped it up in the cash. I had to find this treat, count the money, and go back and confront them so that I didn't have to pay any more for their delicious meal.

  Needless to say, I lost my sh*t, and that was my last shift at this wonderful company. Looking back on it, in the long run I feel like this party did me a big favour. Most nights my 3% would equate to more than my wage for the evening. F*ck paying to work.
• (#10) A Couple Of Jerks

  From Redditor/u/Captainnuzzles:

  I am not a waiter but I have the cringiest tipping story of all time.

  My girlfriend and I go to school in a small town in Oregon, and we have found it difficult to make 'couple friends' that we can do double-date-type things together. Consequently, we lowered our standards for who we would potentially spend time with. Not that we are snobby c*nts, we basically just lowered our friendship standards to nonexistent.

  Anyways, we hang out with this couple from school a few times and they are nice. Very weird, but nice. We notice quickly that the woman wears the pants in the relationship to the point where I actually feel bad for the man. She treats him kind of like a little b*tch. But he seems to like it so whatever. Different strokes.

  Here comes the cringe. We go out to dinner one at one of the nicest restaurants in town. The other couple asks for a specific bottle of wine. They're out of it. They ask for a different kind. Out of that too. They are really mean to the waiter. Whatever, let's just get through this. The service is excellent and the bill comes out to about $200. We are there for probably an-hour-and-a-half. This waiter has brought us probably 10 different plates, eight drinks, cleaned up throughout the dinner, checked on us a good amount, etc. I had just watched the episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm where Larry wants to tip the same as Michael J. Fox, but Fox won't tell him how much he tipped.

  Inspired by that episode, I half jokingly ask the other couple how much they were tipping so I can tip the same. The man looks at me and winces and makes a zero shape with his hand. The woman looks at him sternly. He continues to tip 0, seemingly at the will of his GF. I have a shocked expression on my face. I look to the side of the table. The waiter is standing there. He heard. He continued clearing our plates.

  I tipped 40 myself. We stopped hanging out with them.
• (#8) Party Monsters

  From a deleted user:

  My worst story comes from the Rotary club of my county. It was during our slowest time of the day, so I was the only waiter on duty. It was me, the bartender, and the head chef; that was it.

  So 26 people came in at one time and were upset that we didn't have a large table ready for them. They hadn't called and asked for a reservation, let us know that they'd need a large setting, nothing. They ordered a bunch of drinks and appetizers, and the treasurer told me to make sure I put everything on one ticket to make things easier.

  After the three of us struggled to get all the drinks and appetizers out in a timely fashion, it came time to collect the main course orders. Of course every damn one of those b*stards wanted things customized.

  Got it taken care of, got everyone their food. Got refills for drinks.

  Dessert comes around, and we get that out.

  By this point everyone is mingling around and talking. I bring the check to the treasurer, and he tells me that they decided everyone was paying for their own meal.

  I ended up having to split that ticket 26 different ways; even though ticket software makes things simple, that's still a pain in the ass to do. I start collecting money, running cards, etc. For the 26 people, it ended up being almost $500.

  As I'm cashing everything out I realize two of them (one of which was the treasurer) ditched on their bills. The total for my tips after they all left came out to about $10. The bartender didn't get a single tip.

  After that, we implemented a policy that a group larger than eight had to call ahead at least 30 minutes, implemented an automatic 18% gratuity for any party larger than eight, and implemented a policy where a single group couldn't split their ticket more than six ways.
• (#7) Mennonite Moments

  From Redditor/u/Dydarian:

  I work as a server at a somewhat higher-end restaurant and frequently there are EW horse shows down the street. During these shows, we will get many customers coming in smelling like horse poo and covered in mud. They're some of the nicest people we wait on and they always buy a lot and tip very well. Mennonites sometimes come in with them, and generally they don't tip. Not like 'Hey they only tipped 10%,' but literally zero.

  One time there was a party of 10 of the horse people that came in (our lovely name for people from horse shows) and I was the only closing server left. They came in 15 minutes to close and told our manager that a few more would be in very soon. 10 minutes after we closed eight more people for the party came in. Now there were some Mennonites with them, but since there were so many people, I figured a few bad tips wouldn't hurt anything. This party had everything they could get their hands on. Desserts, apps, expensive add-ons, so I thought it was going to be great.

  Here was the bad news. My restaurant had recently stopped doing gratuities on parties since the change in the tax code. I came out with a $634 tab after one of the guys whom I had been talking to all night said that just one person was picking up the tab... You can all see where this is going. One of the three Mennonites picked up the tab and literally left a zero with a line through it as their tip. My manager ended up buying me a meal and taking me out for several beers afterwards as some sort of recompense, but it was still awful.
• (#9) Start Throwing Bottles

  From Chihuahua_enthusiast:

  My sister works at an upscale small plate eatery and wine bar and someone put a $5 tip on a $300 bill that included bottle service.

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