Woman Wonders If She's Wrong For Changing Her Server's Tip From $154 To $4 After Being Accused Of Not Paying Her Bill
She feels her tip adjustment was completely justified.
Jupiterimages / CanvaPro When one couple went out to dinner in their small Southern town, they were excited when their server really connected with them, giving them great service and conversation throughout the night. So when the bill came, they decided to leave a generous tip.
But what followed was far from expected — and ultimately made them change their mind.
The woman took back her $154 cash tip after their server followed her out of the restaurant to accuse her of not paying the bill.
While typical American tips range between 15 and 20 percent of the total bill, this couple decided they would do something a little bit more special. On their $46 bill, the couple left $200 in cash — almost three times the total amount for a tip.
The woman revealed in her Reddit post that she and her husband are financially stable enough that they "can enjoy nice things and like to help others when we can." One way they frequently do so is by "leaving a large cash tip when a server does particularly well or is someone we really connect with."
Based on their large tip, the couple clearly felt connected with this server; however, things quickly took a turn for the worse.
When they left the restaurant, the server came running after them, accusing them of ‘stealing’ and ‘not paying’ their bill.
"I left cash on the table after the check came and, not needing change, we got up and left," the woman wrote. "Our server ran us down at the door and somewhat angrily demanded we must pay and we couldn't just run out on the bill."
The woman shared in her post that she was completely shocked to see their once-friendly waitress looking incredibly frustrated and upset, accusing them of something they did not do.
Photo: BearFotos / Shutterstock
After asking her server if she’d looked at the table, to which she responded in the negative, the woman stormed back into the restaurant to make an adjustment to her tip.
"I walked back to our table with her, took the $200, and replaced it with $50," she wrote. "Enough to cover the bill and leave a small tip."
"I told her I would have appreciated it if she would have glanced at the table first or approached us with a question instead of assuming we were running out on the bill," the woman continued. "She seemed embarrassed and we parted ways"
Now, the woman is wondering if she is in the wrong for taking back her large tip.
"My husband says I'm TAH because I could (even should) have just left the $200," she wrote. "I don't think I'm TAH because I think she could have handled the whole situation better and I don't appreciate being called a thief."
This kind of generosity with tipping that the couple initially showed is often few and far between, with many service workers complaining that customers don’t tip at all. According to a Pew Research Center survey, more than half of Americans tip fifteen percent or less.
This couple left a whopping 335 percent tip, only to be rudely accused of stealing. Despite what many would argue, tips are not required, and the woman was entirely within her right to take back her large tip.
Surprisingly, many Reddit comments felt the same way.
“I agree with your take 100%. There were multiple ways the server could have approached the situation that didn’t start with step 1: Accuse the customer of thievery," one user commented. "Your server just received a $150 lesson in how not to deal with customers. Hopefully, it will serve her well in the future.”
"People pay with cash all the time. I don't know why on earth she thought chasing you down without checking the table was a good idea," another Redditor wrote.
Whether or not you believe this woman should have left her initial tip, her story serves as a testament to the “out of control” nature of tipping culture (and a reminder not to dine and dash on service workers).
Zayda Slabbekoorn is a news and entertainment writer at YourTango focusing on pop culture analysis and human interest stories.