waitress taking advantage of old peple (me :) (Page 2)

Very classy -- but I think Chez Panisse was just going above and beyond.  I don't think the OP's waitress was necessarily nefarious.

I agree.  My first guess would be that the waitress did not think about the tip from the customer's perspective at all--what he knew and what he didn't know.  I think she just thought "Wow.  Great tip."

My experience is that great restaurants have great food and give great service.

TW

Not sure about that.  We probably have more high end restaurants per capita than just about anywhere here in Vegas.  This whole town is about customer service and I always get treated exceptionally well when I go out.

More related to the OP...

I advise to pay in cash in Vegas Night Clubs (or night clubs in general).  NEVER leave a tab open - pay for each round.  If not, "mystery drinks" may show up on your bill - the more you drink, the drunker you are, and the easier to hide drinks.

One time I get pretty tipsy and was about to shell out for my $100 tab without thinking when my wife looked at it closely and found that 3-4 extra drinks were added.  When called out, the bartender said she asked if I wanted to put the drinks of a couple girls I was talking to on my tab and I had said yes...  Never happened - and the girls were the bartender's friends come to find out.  Oh, and she was fired not too long after due to many complaints of "fixing" the tabs of people.

Ha!  If he had, he might have gotten $500,000 donated to him for a nice vacation.  Did you see that?  Wow.  There are some nice people in the world.  A few bad apples, but a lot of good-hearted people help make up for that.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/22/us/new-york-bus-monitor/index.html?hpt=hp_bn1

One of my waitresses got a $100 tip on a ~$15 tab once.

Lady was by herself for a late lunch and margarita. I saw a few servers huddled around looking at a slip of paper and naturally asked them wth they were doing

She showed me the CC receipt and asked me if I thought it was correct. The lady had totaled it out correctly and everything. I took the slip to the guest and asked her if the amount was correct. She said it was, she wanted to reward the waitress for taking care of her, that she had a crappy day and this was one way of saying thanks for making it a little better.

When I waited tables, there were places that put an 15% gratuity on anything over 6 people (15% is low, but it was a few years ago).    As I normally averaged 18-20%, I often would "waive" it on the check, and be very clear when bringing it to the people.   Saying something like "You may have read on the menu that the restaurant puts the gratuity on for any parties over 6, but I do not feel comfortable doing so.   I hope you have enjoyed your evening here and I look forward to seeing you again".    Usually netted me  20-25%.   I was a good read on people back then.   Some groups I read differently, but I did point out upon placing the bill that a 15% gratuity is included but they need not feel limted and I hoped they enjoyed blablabla.   Usually netted some more cash tossed on top.   I used to be more charming back then too.  

I was recently at a baseball game in a "luxury box" - the company was sponsoring a client event.   The bill came to $1300, including a "20% service charge".   (20 people, some beer, softdrinks, wings, hotdogs, fruit platter, and BBQ pork sammies - I know!).   However, before we looked at the bill, my colleague asked the lady if the bill included gratuity.   The wait person said "thank you for asking, but no, it does not".   then we look at it.   scratch our heads, and I texted another colleague who more often frequented the place, and used to be HR at a local casino, so I figured knew tip ettequette better.   she said no - the 20% gets split between the team that waits on us.....     Wait staff lady was busted for trying to take advantage of the first time hosts.....    I let the others in the company  know as we have the box for every other game of the season.  

To the OP - my read on your write-up is probably that she did not do it intentionally.    Lots of multi=tasking goes on and sometimes the script gets disrupted like when a client asks just what the total was.      Get a little flash light.  

This. And yeah, this doesn't smell right.

Lessee: You were in bar with 4 clients / people you were entertaining, and each 'got a few drinks' and 'pub grub' in NYC.

1) Bill can't be anything but north of $100, Looks like bad planning here. 

2) Anyone who has entertaining as part of their job wouldn't blink an eye, as $100 in NYC is kinda the starting point,  

3) Finance department flagged an 'excessive tip', requiring a report? Never happens. I've never seen a finance department where you had to enter the bill amount, then the tip amount. Just enter the total, send the receipt later, audit would be the only ones to catch it later, and they wouldn't care about the tip, they'd care about the total amount. 

ETA: I spend my days in 'finance' payables and HR departments, I've seen hundreds of them. 

I will be honest. When I was a server there was a very fine line of doing this sneakily/on purpose, and getting so busy you "forgot" to tell the table of 12 people whose grandfather was treating everyone and shoved a credit card at you before looking at the bill.

I got away with getting "double tipped" many times and rarely felt guilty. It's not the server's fault if you don't look at the bill before paying.

As a much more mature adult I do agree with the restaurant's policy they later enacted that required us to tell the party about the auto-gratuity. 

True story.

Sucky situation, but in my honest opinion, I think you should write it off.

Life is full of minor (and major) glitches and scam. I was ripped off for $21 by a cabbie and I considered complaining and making a big deal out of it. But in the end i realized it wasn't worth the trouble. I've had issues with internet providers and various service people where I was slightly taken advantage of. And hairdressers. You can learn from your mistake. It's such a small battle. I don't think its worth fighting for.

, this doesn't smell right.   if you say so....  well, I say so

1) Bill can't be anything but north of $100, Looks like bad planning here. --

2) Anyone who has entertaining as part of their job wouldn't blink an eye, as $100 in NYC is kinda the starting point,  can't argue with this point .. but I don't understand it's relevance... I never even mentioned the amount of the bill, it's really just principal of the mattter. The dollar amount was quite irrelevant... 

3) Finance department flagged an 'excessive tip', requiring a report? Never happens. I've never seen a finance department where you had to enter the bill amount, then the tip amount. Well, you're wrong- 100% wrong.  I don't know where you work, and you obviously don't know where I work, but my a/p or finance dept sometime ask us to clarify certain line items. And, I don't enter anything- the receipt is electronically sent to my finance dept sometime overnight.  I happened to notice my physical receipt the next morning when I was shredding it.  I never stated finance 'flagged" anything- I mentioned it to my boss as a premptive matter and he told me to write it up 

ETA: I spend my days in 'finance' payables and HR departments, I've see it later, and they wouldn't care about the tip, they'd care about the total amount.  see above

jford2309 - 2012-06-22 1:57 PM

sounds to me like someone showing off the expense account to buddies and was not worried about the cost of the evening...

 really? I admit that all of this was my own fault, but I would not:

1. take my friends out

2. give an excessive tip on a bill where I was stealing from my company w/o even looking at the bill (I would just show off and ask my "buddies"  to look at the bill instead of asking the waitress what the amount was.)

3. and then come in next day and alert my boss and my finance group and bring attention to an espense that would get me fired...

Yep, I would do all of that, you busted me good.

You should have just gone in the bathroom and checked your bill. I cannot believe you would trust someone that is money hungry as a server. YOU ARE STUPID AND IRRESPONSIBLE!

I have before. You must not go out a lot, do you?

NO, that's *YOUR* responsibility. No one has to repeat the menu to you nor do they have to read your bill to you. GO IN THE BATHROOM if you can't see IRRESPONSIBLE IDIOT!!

No, if you can write this, that's BS what you are saying. You just want to make excuses for you being too lazy and not taking responsibility just so you "LOOK" good.

Yes it IS your fault 100% for being IRRESPONSIBLE and STUPID. If the prices of the drinks were on a menu, you should have compared those to your check. My husband and I have had LOTS of wrong prices over the years, for REAL.

I don't think you would have if she would have told you BEFORE you paid, HONESTLY, BE HONEST NOW? THAT'S BS, otherwise you wouldn't be so mad about it.

NO SERVERS ARE YOUR BABY-SITTERS!! You should be going down EVERY LINE of your bill with a FINE TOOTH COMB. We have had wrongly rung up items like a side salad without an entree price when I had ordered an entree and extra items on our bill as well MANY times before.  It's *YOUR* RESPONSIBILITY to know you are tipping correctly, NOBODY ELSE'S.

Tipping is on the 100% responsibility on the customer.  It's not dishonest. Read your bill *BEFORE* you CONSENT to pay for anything. That goes with ANYTHING you pay for.

I totally 100% AGREE with that!

As a much more mature adult I do agree with the restaurant's policy they later enacted that required us to tell the party about the auto-gratuity. 

I 100% TOTALLY DISAGREE! NO ONE IS RESPONSIBLE FOR YOU EXCEPT YOU!

Mann, AIN'T THAT THE TRUTH!! I guess the truth hurts, HUH?

The whole tipping system needs to go the way of the dodo.   One of the things I definitely do NOT miss about the USA.   Charge me enough for my food so that your staff can earn a reliable, consistent wage.   Put that price on the menu.    Done, and done.

Might want to read the rules of this forum before posting again.
Goodbye thread. 

I had the same thought. Especially from an apparent throwaway account, it is somewhat disheartening.