Tipping culture is a hot-button issue her in the states, among foreigners and Americans alike.
Many people feel that tipping is getting out of control when even people who are making regular hourly wages are asking for customers to tip.
Many people feel that restaurants in particular should just pay their servers enough hourly so customers aren’t forced to tip, like the system they have in Europe.
But TikTok user @poorandhungry’s video shows that if you’re vehemently and openly against tipping someone for table service, then you shouldn’t expect someone to serve you!
Check it out!
Syd starts her imaginary skit by prefacing this situation is very real: “Hi thanks for coming into the memory that’s happened to me multiple times at multiple restaurants in real life.”
When Syd asks the customer what she can get started for them, they reveal something downright ridiculous: “We wanna let you know upfront that we don’t tip.”
That’s a great way to start off your meal, and as a former server, a way to ensure you will be getting the worst service I can possibly manage!
But Syd shocks them with a reveal of her own: That she will not be waiting on them!
“Absolutely. Let me accommodate you! In the next 15 minutes, if you could make your way to the host stand, we can place your order to go for you.”
Which is perfectly reasonable, if you don’t want to tip your server and just pay for the food, then its no problem for you to get takeout! But the couple didn’t seem to agree.
“Oh because we’re not tipping, we’re getting kicked out of the restaurant?”
So for some reason, Syd had to explain to these ignorant people how eating at a restaurant worked. “The tip is your service charge to sit in the dining area and have service provided.”
“If you’re upfront in telling us you don’t want to pay for and don’t care about the service provided, then we can just give you the cost of the food, which would be a to-go order.”
But the couple fought back with the age-old argument of people against tipping, which is ‘I don’t believe I should have to pay our salary.”
The people forget that us waiters wish you didn’t have to pay our salary too, but we don’t have any control over it.
You can protest the system of tipping all you want, but straight up refusing to tip only hurts your waiter. It isn’t some noble refusal to participate in the backward US tipping system!
“We can accommodate your food request. But if you’re not open to having table service, that’s totally fine. We’ll just get you some food and send you on your way.”
But these absolute rays of sunshine weren’t leaving without a fight: “This is actually the most appalling behavior I’ve ever seen.”
But Syd pointed out that there were paying customers who were waiting for a table: “We have a 45 minute wait for people that would love to be in the dining area and have our great service!”
I agree with her 100%. If you someone to serve you your meal, you need to be prepared to pay them their service fee, which is the tip! If you have a problem with that, don’t eat in a restaurant!
Check out her video for yourself!
@poorandhungry Saved us both so much time but I am not sure what exactly they expected to come next #server #restaurant #serverlife #customerservice #tipping
TikTok was definitely on Syd’s side, with this user pointing out that you can be against tipping without actively screwing over you servers.
This commenter said its always easy to spot the people who have never worked in food service.
And this person said the cheap people were exposing themselves in the comments!
But this user disagreed, saying even if she knew someone wouldn’t tip, they would never flat out refuse to serve someone.
And finally, this user reminded the comments that most servers have to tip out people like bartenders and bussers at the end of the night.
It’s really pretty simple, everyone. If you can’t afford to tip, don’t eat out!
If you liked that story, check out this post about a group of employees who got together and why working from home was a good financial decision.