Server Reveals She Was Fired After Receiving $100 Tip From Customer
What seemed to be a generous gesture actually cost the server her job.
@ughmar / TikTok A restaurant server revealed that she was let go from her job for a reason that she claims was completely out of her control.
In a TikTok video, the server, Mar, explained that she had recently lost her job because a customer had tipped her a large sum of money. However, when the customer called the establishment to dispute the tip amount, Mar's job was caught in the crossfire.
Mar revealed why she was fired after receiving a $100 tip.
"I got fired today, and I'm going to tell you why. I didn't do anything and that's the crazy part, had I done something [then] I deserve it, I literally did nothing wrong," Mar began in her video. Mar claimed that while working, she had been given a generous tip from a patron. At the restaurant she worked for, if a server was given a tip over 40% they would have to inform the manager who would put it into the system for them. After getting a $100 tip, Mar immediately took it to her manager so it could be inputted into their system.
"The tip plus the total check equaled the grand total at the bottom with the signature [of the customer]," Mar explained, adding that she was completely unaware that she shouldn't have accepted the tip amount. Shortly after that, Mar was called into an impromptu meeting with the restaurant's general manager and another higher-up that she's known for some time.
They both asked Mar questions about the $100 tip she received. She informed them that she had received the large amount and her manager had let her take it since he didn't see anything wrong with it. "Then I found out that the guy who paid call[ed]."
The customer had told the restaurant he never left a $100 tip and had only left $20.
Photo: TikTok
He claimed that his signature was clearly forged on the receipt, implying that it was Mar who had done the forging. When Mar's boss heard about the incident, he immediately sided with the customer and didn't give Mar any room to argue her side of the story.
"Even though I've never been written up, even though I'm a good employee, [and] they were literally about to make me a trainer. They sided with the guest and I'm terminated now because of it," Mar said, adding that on the receipt, there was nowhere that Mar could've crossed out the original tip amount and changed it to $100 when that was what the customer had originally written.
"Instead of sitting down and being like, 'Hmm, maybe the guest is the person who made the mistake,' they had to point the finger at me," she argued. "I offered many times to give the money back because they said that the company had to reimburse him $80 and that it was too much so they needed to terminate me because it was 'my mistake.'"
In the comments section, some viewers sympathized with Mar for being fired for something out of her control.
"Corporations walk around treating their employees like every single one is replaceable. It’s sad," one TikTok user pointed out.
Another user added, "They couldn’t afford to take an $80 loss? They shouldn’t be in business then. You have a right to look at the cameras."
"That person literally wrote the numbers weird so that it would be hard for you to decipher and easy for them to fight," a third user chimed in.
However, other people were convinced that the tip amount looked to be forged, either by Mar or someone else.
"The 1 in the $102.78 and the first 2 in $212.56 were written in with a different pen. The 1 was changed to a 2. They made the right call," a following commenter remarked.
Another person theorized that maybe someone at the table with the customer changed it as a prank. "Not saying you altered the numbers, but it looks like someone may have, maybe someone else at the table who saw it was only $2.78, or playing a prank."
While it's unclear what the truth is about the mix-up with the tip amount, it's clearly unfair that Mar's job was caught in the crossfire without her having an opportunity to defend herself.
Nia Tipton is a Brooklyn-based entertainment, news, and lifestyle writer whose work delves into modern-day issues and experiences.