It’s one thing to demand tips, but being almost tricked into tipping a server completely disgusted a customer at a restaurant in Washington DC. The meal and drinks were reportedly amazing to the point the man was considering “an additional tip,” but when he saw what the employee tried to pull on him, it “turned him completely off.” The server had messed with the receipt’s tipping policy to manipulate how it actually read, leaving a sour taste in the customer’s mouth.
Going by Johnnypoopy on Reddit, the DC customer called the worker “scummy” and shared photos of the tampered receipt and the restaurant’s actual policy written on the menu on r/EndTipping. “Tips are not expected but always appreciated,” is what the menu read, whereas the receipt said, “Service fees are not tips…but always appreciated,” with the “tips are not expected” portion crossed out with a pen.
The Server’s Behavior Sparked Debate About Toxicity in Tipping Culture
Needless to say, thousands were appalled by the server’s behavior, and many expressed their contempt for such deceitful restaurant employees. “I hope you took this to the manager,” wrote a commenter. “Service fees should also be banned. Any %added fee (including taxes!) should be mandated to be included in the menu price up front,” demanded another.
“Zero tip and I’d never go back,” suggested a third. “That’s straight up scamming customers,” added a fourth, to which Johnnypoopy agreed. “They probably shouldn’t work somewhere that would then post publicly ‘tips are not expected’ then if they want tips instead of being intentionally deceiving,” he wrote, pointing out how such behavior is essentially fraudulent.
One person claimed that if the business chooses to add a service fee, that expense should be counted as servers’ tips. “If that’s a problem for the server, the server can take it up with the guy that should be paying them,” they wrote, hundreds upvoting in agreement.
Regardless of who gets paid what, many online users agree that these sorts of policies are needlessly confusing and are oftentimes what causes such toxicity in tipping culture. As one person aptly put it, “You just want to pay your bill and leave… not weigh policy and figure out what’s fair to a server based on some information you’re getting on the spot.”
