Couple Arrested for No Tip
This falls in the category of WTF: A couple in Bethlehem, PA was charged with theft for refusing to tip a waitress for what they say the service sucked.
The two college students had dinner with a group of friends and said the service wasn’t worth the 18% mandatory gratuity.
For starters, they waited almost an hour for an order of chicken fingers and fries, had to find their silverware for the table, and had to get their own drinks.
So when the $73.00 bill arrived at their table, they paid for the food, drinks, and tax but stiffed the waiter the $16.00 tip.
When they explained their reasons to the bartender, he called police, (jerk-off) and they were arrested.
“Nobody wants to be forced to pay a tip or get arrested for terrible service,” explained Leslie Pope, who was arrested.
“I understand that we did not pay the gratuity,” said John Wagner, who was also arrested. “But it was a gratuity. It’s something that’s not required.”
The cops charged everyone in the group with theft because the gratuity was part of the actual bill, now they will ALL have an arrest record, no matter what happens in court.
Land of the free, and the home of the brave. We better wake people.
Tell me what you think.
Man, regardless of what happened in court, I would TRASH that place on every social media channel I could find. “All publicity is good publicity” doesn’t hold true for restaurants that screw people over!
I absolutely think it’s ridiculous to make tipping mandatory, it seems to go against the whole purpose of a tip, but if this restaurant had that policy then these people agree to it by walking in and choosing to eat there. No one made them eat at a place that adds a mandatory tip. If they were to eat there and hate the food and just walk out it would be stealing as well.
They could have blasted this restaurant and the server all they wanted socially and never gone there again, but walking out and not paying what you agreed to pay for isn’t being honest.
I had a similar situation.
We were eight or nine people, on Separate Checks, but they added a ‘mandatory 18%,’ anyway to each of us because we were all at the same group of tables pulled together. The service was tolerable but not 18%-worth.
On my check, I crossed off the amount of the tip that they automatically added and amended my total due. No one at the restaurant fought my action. I paid what I showed as the total and that’s what was charged to my card.
Maybe if these people had changed their total instead of just not paying the full amount of the bill, there wouldn’t have been a problem.
My daughter waitressed while she was in High School and I felt for her when she occassionaly didn’t do well in tips but it’s the Patrons’ choice, regardless of the quality of service, NOT the establishment’s. In the end, they have to serve food to twenty people; whether it’s one table of 20 or 20 tables of 1.
Okay no, they can write on the menu all they want but a tip is a tip. you give as much money as you feel they deserve. the fact that the menu calls it gratuity makes it optional. it’s an oxymoron to have “mandatory gratuity”
Hi Perry,
This is not the first time that I hear a similar story. Some years ago, a group of friends got in a similar problem in an bar in West Lafayette, IN. They were drinking on a small table, and a couple of classmates arrived and got served on the same table. Since they were six people now, they were charged the 18% mandatory tip. They contested the charge but the manager called the police, who when arrived offered “jail time” if my friends didn’t pay, so in the end they did (they were all foreigners, so the idea of going to jail for not giving a tip was a big no no).
My wife and I have also experience bad service in Chile, were we live now. Tip is a mandatory 10% but sometimes you wonder
if they owner is running a scam or think that getting customers if free.
The main problem, I think, is that brick and mortar businesses are not aware of the cost that this type of behavior can have. If, in your story, they had offered a discount for all the wait and put a “suggested” amount for the tip, I bet the couple would have paid gracefully and would have avoided all this negative publicity.
Sometimes I just believe that many people running businesses cannot see beyond the tip of their noses.
Greetings from Chile,
Pat
I thought tip was supposed to be given for good services. The restaurant should have included it in the service charge in their official receipt.
“… they waited almost an hour for an order of chicken fingers and fries, had to find their silverware for the table, and had to get their own drinks.”
Enough said. If the gratuity is mandatory then good service is mandatory.
The cops arrested the wrong people. They should have arrested the waitress – and her manager.
my thoughts exactly, Peter. Western society’s moral compass and integrity is going to hell in a handbag – fast.
Depending on the size of the party dinning most restaurants add the gratuity to the bill (unless you request separate bills for each party member). Unfortunately for the two arrested receiving bad service is not an option to refuse to pay for gratuity when a restaurant hands you the bill.
Good idea Jim Knippenberg “I would TRASH that place on every social media channel I could find.”
At the point Leslie Pope John Wagner and friends had to wait almost an hour for chicken fingers and make their own drinks… uh cancel your order and eat somewhere else.
Unfortunately, a better way to handle it would have been to have had a nice chat with the manager and asked to either have the gratuity removed, or that amount removed from their bill. They would have had much more success with that, if it were done graciously. Restaurant managers don’t like unhappy customers, and it sounds like that manager was never even given the chance to make the situation right for the diners. Just telling the bartender that you’re not going to pay it and why is not the same thing.
Gratuity definition: A small sum of money, usually, given as a reward for good service; a tip.
How is it an 18% service charge can be called a “gratuity”?
I hate that a nice (expensive) restaurant can add a 18% “gratuity,” then split the waiter’s portion with all the other persons, there by reducing the waiter to getting only a 10% portion when they have done the majority of work dealing with the guests. If the guest wants to acknowledge the superlative work of the waiter they end up paying near 30% of the meal in a tip. Far better the cost related to the running the restaurant is included in the price of the food; and the gratuity be for for the actual “service” of the wait person.
Otherwise it is like you are paying a mandatory gratuity for the cleanliness and decor of the facilities. These should be the purvue of the
T.I.P.S. To Insure Prompt Service. A tip is not something to be expected. It’s to be earned. At the same time, you dont have to pay it after the meal. It can be paid in advance.
Put a $20 or $100 bill down on the table ahead of ordering and see what kind of service you get then. It also usually works if you have the cash, to give a server a $100 bill in hand, and say “Please take good care of my friends.” and you’ll (usually) get great service. When people get paid in advance and in generous amounts, service usually improves. Once got the best service ever at a greasy steak house in Little Rock when our large group handed the server $200 upfront. The whole kitchen staff made sure we were happy with our meal and large portions.
But it should never be an entitlement. Hence the point of the blog post.
I think this is capitalism at its worst. I do not think the gratuity should be included as part of the bill for just this reason. They just took away the incentive for good service! Does this now mean that the restaurant owner includes the 18% gratuity as part of the servers salary? So he now enjoys not having to pay his employees that amount? This is taking on a whole new meaning for what gratuity means or for what it was intended. Why not just put up a sign telling customers that there is not gratuity required here. Rather, if you eat here you are responsible for the servers wages in the amount of 18% and if the service is bad, well too bad. What if the food is bad who do you get to pay for that? World gone crazy, where nothing means what is says anymore.
I never got the forced tipping aspect of going to a restaurant, especially with a big group. Maybe they should “suggest” an 18% tip, instead of making it mandatory. Or name it a service charge, although I agree Frank, why does it matter if they serve 20 people at one table or 1 person at twenty tables? A possible answer could be the thin margins Perry presented, but are forced gratuities a real answer to maintaining a profitable restaurant? I think with sites like Yelp, Google Reviews and Facebook, restaurants that consistently use these tactics will be outed and their business will decline.