Restaurant insiders - who did I cheat?
December 6, 2014 12:24 PM Subscribe
My credit card did not charge me for the tip that I added on to the bill. Who got screwed - the restaurant or the waitress?
I added a tip onto my credit card slip for my brunch as usual but when I checked my card I discovered that the tip did not get charged to me. When I went back today and saw her, I apologized profusely and she acted as if I was a resident of crazy town.
This thread about tipping with credit cards sounds like the waitress should have known that I left her nothing but she knows me and even knows what I order and has received generous tips from me in the past. Surely would have noticed?
So how do credit card tips work in a traditional U.S. restaurant? When/how does the wait staff get their money? Did I screw the restaurant or the waitress? I left her a 50% tip today and hope that fixes it however it happens but now I'm curious.
I added a tip onto my credit card slip for my brunch as usual but when I checked my card I discovered that the tip did not get charged to me. When I went back today and saw her, I apologized profusely and she acted as if I was a resident of crazy town.
This thread about tipping with credit cards sounds like the waitress should have known that I left her nothing but she knows me and even knows what I order and has received generous tips from me in the past. Surely would have noticed?
So how do credit card tips work in a traditional U.S. restaurant? When/how does the wait staff get their money? Did I screw the restaurant or the waitress? I left her a 50% tip today and hope that fixes it however it happens but now I'm curious.
Yeah, does your CC statement show the transaction as "pending"? The tip doesn't usually show up for a couple of days.
posted by chaiminda at 12:40 PM on December 6, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by chaiminda at 12:40 PM on December 6, 2014 [3 favorites]
Second this - it usually takes a few days for the full charge to go through to your card. I'd check online in a couple days; you'll probably see the full amount of the charge-plus-tip.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:42 PM on December 6, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:42 PM on December 6, 2014 [1 favorite]
Yeah, tips may take time to show up, or may have been a clerical error on her part--I've known a server who will occasionally 'forget' to enter the tip amount for certain regulars.
Also, restaurants often reconcile CC tips as a batch and pay them out with paycheques. Not always, but often, so she may not have even seen it yet.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 12:42 PM on December 6, 2014 [1 favorite]
Also, restaurants often reconcile CC tips as a batch and pay them out with paycheques. Not always, but often, so she may not have even seen it yet.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 12:42 PM on December 6, 2014 [1 favorite]
It could be pending, it could not have been entered by mistake, it could have been entered but deleted by a glitch in the POS system, the card transactions could have been batched before the server entered the tip, or something else. But, it's the server that gets screwed if it doesn't ever go through.
posted by quince at 12:58 PM on December 6, 2014
posted by quince at 12:58 PM on December 6, 2014
My answer would be the same as quince's - there may be any number of reasons why the tip was not charged. Important side-note though; you yourself did not cheat anybody. All of your actions were both correct and courteous.
posted by The Zeroth Law at 1:06 PM on December 6, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by The Zeroth Law at 1:06 PM on December 6, 2014 [3 favorites]
Response by poster: Ok crap oh darn. Every time I think I've made my question complete, I realize with the first answer that I did not.
1. The meal in question occurred 3 weeks ago (she was not there last Saturday).
2. I did wait until the charge was actually made because, yes, my Discover card carries the meal as pending until they add the tip and move it to the 'charges' group. So, the actual amount I was charged was simply the cost of the meal.
Sorry I didn't include this earlier. But, it sounds like somehow she did get shorted so I'm sure glad I gave her extra today.
posted by susandennis at 1:08 PM on December 6, 2014 [1 favorite]
1. The meal in question occurred 3 weeks ago (she was not there last Saturday).
2. I did wait until the charge was actually made because, yes, my Discover card carries the meal as pending until they add the tip and move it to the 'charges' group. So, the actual amount I was charged was simply the cost of the meal.
Sorry I didn't include this earlier. But, it sounds like somehow she did get shorted so I'm sure glad I gave her extra today.
posted by susandennis at 1:08 PM on December 6, 2014 [1 favorite]
Even if paying by credit or debit card, I try to leave my tips in cash so that I am fairly confident the server and the staff get it.
posted by 724A at 2:04 PM on December 6, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by 724A at 2:04 PM on December 6, 2014 [3 favorites]
I've only worked for one restaurant, so I'm not sure if this is standard or not, but where I worked servers always took home the night's tips in cash. You'd add up all the credit card tips at the end of the night and get paid that amount from the register. If that's how her restaurant does things, she got the full amount of the tip (provided you wrote it clearly on the receipt and it didn't get lost before the end of her shift.)
posted by Metroid Baby at 2:07 PM on December 6, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by Metroid Baby at 2:07 PM on December 6, 2014 [2 favorites]
I suspect that the tip never got entered into the POS after you signed the slip, meaning you screwed the waitress (and then you either double-screwed her, because she still had to tip out to runners, bartenders, based on her sales or you also screwed those people because she only had to tip out based on her actual tips).
And by 'you', I mean 'her' -- because entering that tip in after the fact is something she was supposed to do. If people got screwed here, it's almost certainly her fault.
posted by jacquilynne at 2:08 PM on December 6, 2014 [2 favorites]
And by 'you', I mean 'her' -- because entering that tip in after the fact is something she was supposed to do. If people got screwed here, it's almost certainly her fault.
posted by jacquilynne at 2:08 PM on December 6, 2014 [2 favorites]
Best answer: I have a lot of table-waiting experience, so here are my views based on that:
I try to leave my tips in cash so that I am fairly confident the server and the staff get it.
Cash is a lot easier to steal, and especially if it's multiple bills and the busboys and hosts can pick up, that's a risk. Odd though it may seem, running through the system is actually more secure (and that's one reason restaurants adopt those systems).
Even when you add up tips at the end of the night, you can only add tips (usually) recorded in the POS - they don't just take your word for what you saw written on the slips. It must be entered first.
If people got screwed here, it's almost certainly her fault.
It's a possibility, but there's almost no way to know that for sure. There are many possible error points between the signing of the receipt and the appearance of the charge on the card statement, and only one of them is "waitress did not enter tip." As for tipping out others, this is generally done on total sales, not total tips, so it's likely they got what they had coming to them regardless of whether she ended up short $10.
Either way I think you are a fabulous and considerate customer to notice this and make an effort to make it up. You can't really lose there - you showed your concern and good faith and at worst you're not out any money and the harm to all was minimized.
posted by Miko at 2:36 PM on December 6, 2014 [4 favorites]
I try to leave my tips in cash so that I am fairly confident the server and the staff get it.
Cash is a lot easier to steal, and especially if it's multiple bills and the busboys and hosts can pick up, that's a risk. Odd though it may seem, running through the system is actually more secure (and that's one reason restaurants adopt those systems).
Even when you add up tips at the end of the night, you can only add tips (usually) recorded in the POS - they don't just take your word for what you saw written on the slips. It must be entered first.
If people got screwed here, it's almost certainly her fault.
It's a possibility, but there's almost no way to know that for sure. There are many possible error points between the signing of the receipt and the appearance of the charge on the card statement, and only one of them is "waitress did not enter tip." As for tipping out others, this is generally done on total sales, not total tips, so it's likely they got what they had coming to them regardless of whether she ended up short $10.
Either way I think you are a fabulous and considerate customer to notice this and make an effort to make it up. You can't really lose there - you showed your concern and good faith and at worst you're not out any money and the harm to all was minimized.
posted by Miko at 2:36 PM on December 6, 2014 [4 favorites]
I have never seen a tip charged separately on a meal. It all just comes out as one charge for the total amount in my experience. The fact that this transaction was three weeks ago and the tip amount was never charged makes me think the tip never went through and the person screwed out of the money was the waitress. Assuming you filled in the tip amount and totaled it correctly under that on the receipt, then someone must've entered it incorrectly.
I do personally try to leave cash because I *think* on a card, 5% of that comes out in fees to banks. I'm still not sure how that differs with credit cards vs. debit cards, but I figure cash is better. I do worry sometimes about cash tips being stolen by someone else, but is that really common? What kind of an asshole does that?
posted by AppleTurnover at 2:51 PM on December 6, 2014
I do personally try to leave cash because I *think* on a card, 5% of that comes out in fees to banks. I'm still not sure how that differs with credit cards vs. debit cards, but I figure cash is better. I do worry sometimes about cash tips being stolen by someone else, but is that really common? What kind of an asshole does that?
posted by AppleTurnover at 2:51 PM on December 6, 2014
The tip looks like one charge on your bill, but, for instance, I know if it's been entered correctly when I compare my receipt with tip line to the charge, which I always do. Also, sometimes you just remember dinner was $45 and you're expecting the card total to be $55 when you eventually see it.
I *think* on a card, 5% of that comes out in fees to banks.
Not quite. Certain cards (this used to be mainly AmEx but I'm hearing it's spreading to most card issuers now) charge the business a per-transaction fee to accept their card, plus sometimes a percentage of total for larger transactions. Here's one discussion of that. Here's some more. But whatever the fees, they don't come from the waiter's tip which is always handled separately, usually immediately and before any restaurants bills are paid. You tip $10, the waiter receives $10, and then they disburse it to any staff who have assisted them.
is that really common? What kind of an asshole does that?
It's not unheard of. I worked in four restaurants over many years and during my tenure at each one there was some incident or other with theft. I mean, theft in general is not uncommon at any kind of business, and restaurants are a place where cash is floating around and it happens. Restaurants attract many and various kinds of people and everyone in the service side is there to maximize their take. Some people are in a tougher spot than others. There are a lot of low-income and underpaid workers in restaurants. There are a lot of people in some sort of life transition who have a bumpy cash flow. There are people who tend to be on the younger end of life which means occasional hazards of getting kicked out of a house, getting dumped and having to leave a cohabiting situation, losing a roommate, etc. There are people trying to meet child support while going to school, etc., and people trying to pay off debt. Any of those people, sufficently desperate, might have some incentive to grab a fiver that is in their reach before the waiter has seen the total tip. I don't think you have to be an asshole, just an opportunist whose ethics are fluid in that moment. And there are just some genuinely shifty assholes from time to time. So it's not like it's going to happen all the time, but it does happen from time to time.
posted by Miko at 5:51 PM on December 6, 2014 [4 favorites]
I *think* on a card, 5% of that comes out in fees to banks.
Not quite. Certain cards (this used to be mainly AmEx but I'm hearing it's spreading to most card issuers now) charge the business a per-transaction fee to accept their card, plus sometimes a percentage of total for larger transactions. Here's one discussion of that. Here's some more. But whatever the fees, they don't come from the waiter's tip which is always handled separately, usually immediately and before any restaurants bills are paid. You tip $10, the waiter receives $10, and then they disburse it to any staff who have assisted them.
is that really common? What kind of an asshole does that?
It's not unheard of. I worked in four restaurants over many years and during my tenure at each one there was some incident or other with theft. I mean, theft in general is not uncommon at any kind of business, and restaurants are a place where cash is floating around and it happens. Restaurants attract many and various kinds of people and everyone in the service side is there to maximize their take. Some people are in a tougher spot than others. There are a lot of low-income and underpaid workers in restaurants. There are a lot of people in some sort of life transition who have a bumpy cash flow. There are people who tend to be on the younger end of life which means occasional hazards of getting kicked out of a house, getting dumped and having to leave a cohabiting situation, losing a roommate, etc. There are people trying to meet child support while going to school, etc., and people trying to pay off debt. Any of those people, sufficently desperate, might have some incentive to grab a fiver that is in their reach before the waiter has seen the total tip. I don't think you have to be an asshole, just an opportunist whose ethics are fluid in that moment. And there are just some genuinely shifty assholes from time to time. So it's not like it's going to happen all the time, but it does happen from time to time.
posted by Miko at 5:51 PM on December 6, 2014 [4 favorites]
My boss gives me my credit card tips (based on what was written on the slips) in cash at the end of every night, but other restaurants may do it differently.
posted by Jacqueline at 10:57 PM on December 6, 2014
posted by Jacqueline at 10:57 PM on December 6, 2014
Yes, that is quite unusual. In the four places I worked, and the place my brother and SIL ran, the total credit card tips was already on the record in the system once the transaction was closed, so it would duplicate effort oddly to sit down and manually add them. The slips are usually just bundled and turned in, and the servers usually balance whatever cash they had with the house to cover the total of the credit card tips. It's unusual to depend only on the slips as evidence for what the house should pay the staff, because for the business owner that could result in a fishy-looking variance between what's in the system and what they paid out, but that's their problem if the IRS comes calling.
posted by Miko at 6:40 AM on December 7, 2014
posted by Miko at 6:40 AM on December 7, 2014
Certain cards (this used to be mainly AmEx but I'm hearing it's spreading to most card issuers now) charge the business a per-transaction fee to accept their card, plus sometimes a percentage of total for larger transactions.Every transaction is charged a percentage of the total by the credit card processing provider, generally between 2% and 3%. Most everyone also pays a per transaction fee of a few cents.
posted by Lame_username at 9:43 AM on December 7, 2014
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by third rail at 12:32 PM on December 6, 2014 [13 favorites]