Waitress Fired for Writing in Tip

Do I think that waitress should have gotten fired? Yep. I sure do. Here is the full story from Cafe Mom:

So we went out to a fancy restaurant to celebrate a big birthday with some friends. The waitress was really nice and a good waitress. It was one of those fancy restaurants that do not list the price of drinks and I was stupid and didn't ask. Didn't expect drinks would be $15 a piece. When we got the bill it was over $200. I barely had enough to cover the bill with my debit card and left a $20 bill on the table. It's all the cash I had. Like I said [the waitress] was awesome and I felt bad so I was planning on getting more cash to bring up to her the next day. We were leaving and she stopped us, saying, "Excuse me, you forget to bring down the total on your slip. So I wrote in 0 for a tip and brought the total down." When she saw that there was no additional tip she switched to total BLEEP mode and started yelling at us saying we should appreciate customer service more. I found out a couple days later my account went negative. Turns out she wrote in an additional $20 for herself on the slip. At this point I was livid. It cost me $30 in overdraft fees! I called the restaurant and immediately asked to talk to a manager. He apologized and reimbursed the money and thanked me saying he had been looking for a reason to get rid of her."

 

There is never an acceptable reason to "write in your own tip", so I definitely think she should have gotten fired. Do I believe for one second that the woman writing this was going to bring that waitress back more money the next day? No way. She wrote that to save face on just leaving a $20 tip on a $200 ticket. Regardless, a tip is just that...a TIP. I do not think it should be mandatory, a tip is a CHOICE. I have worked in food service many times in my life, including owning several restaurants and currently owning a restaurant. When I work the "front" and take care of customers I always give awesome service ;) but I don't always get tips. I don't take it personally. Who knows why they didn't leave a tip, maybe eating out was all they could afford. The thing is, it's their CHOICE.

Do you think tipping should be mandatory? Take my poll below!

Plus leave me a comment below if you have more to say on the matter.
Happy Wednesday!

Kendra

P.S. Make sure you pick up the March edition of ALT Magazine, pg. 42 is my first Dear Kendra column. Yay!