tipping

[Parts]

College students arrested for not paying tip
Friday, 20 November 2009
It was a night out that college students Leslie Pope and John Wagner will long remember. Not only did they get awful service, they got handcuffed and arrested.

All over a $16.35 tip.

They were with a few friends at the Lehigh Pub in Bethlehem last month. The Pub required 18 percent tip onto the bill of about $73, according to reports.

Pope and Wagner refused to pay.

"You can't give us terrible, terrible service and expect a tip," said Pope, a 22-year-old Moravian College senior who's a Pottsville native, according to the Lehigh Valley Express-Times.

They had to find their own napkins and cutlery while their waitress caught a smoke, had to ask the bar for soda refills, and had to wait over an hour for salad and wings.

The pub, which was very busy that night, took the $73, but then called the cops, who treated the matter as a theft. The menu clearly states, "18 percent gratuity added to check of parties of 6 of more," and a similar message is printed on receipts, a pub employee said this morning.

A court date is scheduled for next month.

What would they do if it happened again? a reporter asked. "Honestly, probably gonna pay the tip anyway," said Pope, prompting Wagner, 24, a Lehigh University grad student, to laugh.

WTF tipping is a subjective thing if it was bad as they said I would not have tipped either if not walked out all together.  To be arrested that's nuts

[Callaway]

That's ridiculous!  A tip is a gratuity which is defined as a reward, service, or payment provided freely, without obligation.  If the service was so poor that they didn't want to pay a tip, then the manager was crazy to call the police over the issue, no matter what the menu said.  Now there will be negative publicity over the bad service and the restaurant suing its own customers which will hurt his business much more than $16.35.  Besides, they accepted the $73 as payment in full and then reneged on the deal and called the cops.  The two young men should never have been arrested.  I think it should have been strictly a civil matter, not a criminal one.

[Buzz Killington]

The policy was clearly stated, by ordering food they implicitly agreed to the terms and don't have a leg to stand on legally speaking when it comes to not paying the bill.  That being said, this is why I'm generally against automatic gratuity, the whole point of the tipping system is to incentivize good service and give the waiters a reason to go over and above when treating their customers, though I do understand why many places do an auto-grat on large parties, it sucks to work your ass off and get stiffed when you could have turned a bunch of smaller tables in the same amount of time.

[Parts]

The policy may have been instituted but that doesn't excuse the sevrice

[renaeden]

We don't tip in Australia. If I went to America I would probably forget to tip and get into trouble.

['andersom']

We don't tip in Australia. If I went to America I would probably forget to tip and get into trouble.

We don't automatically tip here either. But, if you are really pleased with the service or the food, tipping can be done. It is never expected though.


In the US, if you tip, and you want to bring up the costs for dining as business costs, can you bring up the costs for tipping too?

The whole obligatory tipping does not make real sense to me. Better have it included in the price.

[Alex179]

Serving (waiting tables) is such a shitty job.   I hated doing it haha.

[SleepyDragon]

While I sympathise with those who must deal with the unwashed public as part of their employment (could there be worse torture for an Aspie?), there are limits to what I'll put up with as a paying customer. Nothing takes away the urge to leave a generous tip quite as effectively as a snarly waitress who hands you the check, pointedly remarking, "Gratuité non compris." Too goddamn right it isn't compris, bitch, 'cause I ain't payin' it! :lol:

['andersom']

While I sympathise with those who must deal with the unwashed public as part of their employment (could there be worse torture for an Aspie?), there are limits to what I'll put up with as a paying customer. Nothing takes away the urge to leave a generous tip quite as effectively as a snarly waitress who hands you the check, pointedly remarking, "Gratuité non compris." Too goddamn right it isn't compris, bitch, 'cause I ain't payin' it! :lol:

LOL, that would make sure that I would not want to tip indeed.

It is silly for a restaurant to charge prices that don't cover it all, and hope that waiters get a decent income via tipping. That decent income should be within the price. And tipping a bonus you can add when really pleased.

[Callaway]

At least the theft charges were dropped against them:

http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local-beat/Theft-Charges-Dropped-Against-No-Tip-Couple--71865807.html

Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli said Pope and her friend were right and recommended to Bethlehem police that the charges against the couple be dropped, according to the Allentown Morning Call.

“It would not be the kind of case that should be processed criminally, Morganelli told the paper. “It was one of those matters that should be processed civilly.”

Pope, who has interviewed with media outlets across the country, told The Express Times, she is grateful she has be vindicated and looks forward to her day in court.