He didn’t get the $7 tip he was forced to return for delivering pizzas, but now it seems a pizzeria worker who was stiffed the first time around by a Massachusetts car dealership will be doing just fine: A GoFundMe campaign set up by a stranger who saw the video and was outraged has hit $20,600 (as of Friday afternoon) in donations in just two days. [More]
the tipping point
Car Dealership Workers Demand Pizza Delivery Guy Return His Tip, And The Internet Is Displeased
By 1.15.15
Everybody wants to go viral, but for workers at one car dealership in Massachusetts the dream of Internet popularity went totally awry after a video posted online appears to show employees stiffing the pizza delivery guy out of his tip. [More]
Passenger Tips Philly Cab Driver Almost $1,000 For A Two-Minute Trip
By 1.15.15
It’s a dream come true for anyone who depends largely the generosity of others to make a living — land a huge tip for a small or otherwise not difficult job, and walk away happy. But one Philadelphia cab driver was so shocked by an almost $1,000 tip for a two-minute that he was more worried the passenger had made a mistake than he was excited about his windfall, at first. [More]
L.A. Restaurant Adds Gratuity Line For Kitchen Staff To Every Check
By 12.4.14
While it’s surely the mark of a good consumer to reward a server for taking orders and ferrying food to and from the kitchen, what about the people on the front lines who are making that cuisine happen? Though many restaurants pool tips to ensure that line cooks and other kitchen staff get a piece of the pie, some workers feel they’re not getting their fair share of gratuities. That environment has prompted one L.A. restaurant to add a line to all checks to make up for any tipping gaps. [More]
Florida Couple Tips Waiter $1,500 And Buys A Few Cases Of Beer For The Staff
By 11.12.14
There are some stories we’re sick of hearing about frequently — consumers behaving badly, data breaches and scummy scammers — and then there are those that only increase in delight the more often we encounter them. In yet another example of the generosity of strangers, a Florida couple tipped their waiter $1,500 and bought a few cases of beer for the entire staff to share. [More]
Diner Leaves Waitress $1,000 Tip On $15 Meal After Waiting For The Right Chance To Pay It Forward
By 11.7.14
Sometimes we see things on the Internet that inspire us to do really ridiculous things (cut to: actually attempting to open a wine bottle with a shoe, wine bottle shards flying everywhere). But then there are the times when the good stuff cuts through all the muckety muck of the daily grind, inspiring people to perform acts of kindness we might not otherwise have thought of on our own. Such was the case for one diner at a Colorado restaurant recently. [More]
College Students Pitch In To Tip Delivery Driver $1,268 For Two Pizzas
By 10.10.14
Tipping a lot for pizza isn’t unusual — how else can one adequately express thanks for delivering a cheesey piece of heaven? — but in most cases, “a lot” means maybe $10. But when a bunch of college students pooled their resources to make one pizza guy’s night, they managed to drop a pretty hefty chunk of change on just two pizzas, giving him a $1,268 tip. [More]
Couple Waits More Than An Hour For Their Meal, Tips Overwhelmed Server $100
By 10.1.14
The reaction most common when you’re waiting for what feels like forever for your meal at a restaurant is, obviously, annoyance. You’re hungry, you’re angry, you’re hangry and you just want to shove every available food item in your mouth as soon as possible. While this kind of experience often leads to the temptation to be snippy towards the staff, one couple who had to wait for more than an hour for their entrees to arrive took another, kinder approach toward their overwhelmed server. [More]
Restaurant Owner Won’t Apologize For Shaming LeSean McCoy Over $.20 Tip
By 9.9.14
Not to overwhelm the pages of Consumerist with stories about NFL running backs, but when the league’s best set of legs shows himself out to be one of the country’s worst tippers, we can’t not cover the story. [More]
Restaurant Realizes Maybe It Shouldn’t Force Servers To Pay Credit Card Fees Out Of Tips
By 8.21.14
Earlier this month we told you about the Minnesota restaurant owners who decided the best way to offset increases to the state’s minimum wage was to deduct credit card transaction fees from servers’ tips. While it’s legal for businesses to do this, a poll of Consumerist readers found that 91% of you think it’s not a wise idea. Looks like the restaurant owners have finally gotten that message. [More]
Restaurants Can Deduct Credit Card Fees From Servers’ Tips, But Should They?
By 8.7.14
A few days ago, the minimum wage in Minnesota increased for the first time in years to $8/hour, putting it slightly above the federal minimum of $7.25. Some businesses are responding to the pay hike by tacking on “minimum wage” fees to customers or by taking credit card service charges out of servers’ tips. [More]
Waitress Claims She Was Fired After Facebook Friend Printed Out Her Complaint About Bad Tippers
By 7.2.14
It’s always tricky when it comes to dealing with work woes and social media — sure, you want to complain about a rough day on the job, but whatever you post on Facebook or Twitter can always come back to haunt you. In the case of one Ohio waitress, one of her Facebook friends happened to be one of her customers, who then happened to read her complaint against bad tippers. [More]
Servers Sue Celebrity Chef Daniel Boulud For Wage Theft
By 6.12.14
Workers at Daniel Boulud’s eponymous restaurant in New York City who ferry $220 meals to customers say the Michelin-starred chef has been cheating them out of tips and other wages. [More]
Waffle House Sort Of Sorry For Refunding Waitress’s $1,000 Tip
By 6.11.14
Yesterday we told you about the Waffle House waitress in North Carolina whose $1,000 tip was automatically refunded to the customer who’d left it because of a policy at the restaurant chain. After being shamed in the media for keeping one of its employees from keeping money that would have greatly improved her life, Waffle House is now saying that maybe it should reconsider things. [More]
Waffle House Policy Keeps Waitress From Keeping $1,000 Tip
By 6.10.14
If you’re looking to leave a very special tip for your Waffle House server, do it with cash. That’s the lesson learned from the story of one WH waitress in North Carolina who couldn’t keep the 4-digit tip left by a generous customer. [More]
Would You Opt Out Of Tipping While An Employee Watches You?
By 5.21.14
Reader Bill was getting some sandwiches and paying with a credit card when he noticed something new and unusual on the payment machine. It prompted him to leave a tip between ten and twenty percent, to choose his own tip amount, or to decline tipping entirely. This makes sense in a country where most of us don’t carry much cash anymore, but there’s something about it that Bill doesn’t like. [More]
If Someone Left You A $5,000 Tip, Would You Share The Wealth With Co-Workers?
By 5.9.14
The “Tips for Jesus” movement appears to have struck again, with a mystery diner here in Philadelphia giving a $5,000 tip to his waitress and leaving another $2,000 for the restaurant’s bartender. These two can now do what they want with the money, but what about the co-workers who weren’t lucky enough to serve the generous tipper? [More]
Bartender’s Dog Makes Full Recovery After Customer Left $1,000 Tip For Pet’s Surgery
By 5.2.14
It’s Friday, which makes it the perfect time to relay this happy news: Tucker the Dog, whose owner is a bartender who received a $1,000 tip to help pay for his surgery, is making a full recovery. He had to undergo emergency surgery to after swallowing a plastic ball. “”There are so many nice people out there,” she said of Tucker’s well-wishers. “We really got lucky.” [NJ.com] [More]
