The first was an enormous (for the small place) party of 16. The family came in at 11:40 (when we closed at quarter to twelve) and were immediately rude, demanding and unorganized. It was apparent the check would be large, the tip little, my side work would wait while i answered their demands and they would try to get at least one thing comp’ed.

After a few sexually suggestive comments from one of the men at the table, having to wrap several left-overs of one or two wings for the entire party, fetch refills continuously because they never requested them at the same time and declined my offer of getting them one while i ran to refill others and fighting to get one woman in particulars attention to clarify her order when it wasn’t remotely on the menu the check finally arrived at $111. I was hoping for five bucks, The service? How I treated everyone, warm, patient and friendly. The man paying the (thankfully) single tab told me the tip was on the table. I noticed they left some of their leftovers so i ran to grab to give it to them in the parking lot noticing they didn’t tip at all. I thanked them for their patronage.

The second stiff came from a group of 12 from I believe India. One at the table spoke English, a male (often Indian men treat women harshly– at least from my experiences) he was no exception. They mostly drank Corona, were loud, disturbing others in the restaurant and had me split the check 12 ways after I had asked them in the first place if they wanted separate checks. They left me two dollars on a combined check of over a hundred. My coworker noticed that the two dollars a table getting coffee next to them didn’t have the two dollars on it anymore. They stole another table’s tip. We split the tip and laughed about it over a drink at the end of our shift.

And a good story too! Serving can be a lot of fin if you get a decent group of people. I had a party come in late before we were about to close. No problem, as long as you order before the kitchen closes (everyone knows kitchen folk get MAD when people order 30 minutes before close, even). It was large, about 10 or so, some ate, some got water and some got cocktails. We joked the whole time, they were from out of town and visiting the area, and the entire table was polite, funny and engaging and treated me with incredible respect. They stayed later than my manager would have liked but they were so nice no one really minded. Their check was only about 70 bucks, they gave my a hundred and eighty for the tab, told me I was a wonderful server and everything was excellent. Even without, my highest percentage tip ever for sure, they would still have been one of my favorite tables.

Submitted by: Bo

They seemed like a nice family, parents and one young kid. Everything went fine, and a few minutes after I dropped off the check, the man made a point to personally hand it to me, thanking me for doing such a great job.

I open the check book after they leave and see he left me $3 on a $60 dollar check…for “great” service…

At least he was nice, sometimes that’s enough of a tip in itself.

Submitted by: A Working Waitress

Read about the tip he left on an $800 dollar bill here.

[Source: www.tmz.com]

I had two young women come in and immediately start asking me questions before I could even greet them. The questions were about which drink is the strongest, which plate of food is the best deal, etc. Anytime I’d ask them if they wanted a drink they’d respond by asking another question about the menu. They finally ordered drinks and I quickly brought them over. Seconds later as I walked away they yelled for me to come back to them, because the drinks weren’t strong enough. This has happened before when customers try to get free drinks, so our store policy is that we take the drink away and order something new (and void the first drink). When I took the drinks away they were not happy, obviously thinking I’d let them finish their “weak” drinks and give them something else for free.

Then they ordered their food, and when I told them we were sold out of the potato salad, one of the women literally rolled her eyes at me and turned her head to face the wall, in disbelief. Moments later she turned back, shrugged, and switched her order to cornbread. The food, like always, came out quickly and the women were happy, except for one thing: that darned cornbread. They were made it wasn’t made to order. It would be lovely if we could make cornbread to order, but we unfortunately don’t have 45 minutes to bake cornbread for every customer who orders it (which is plentiful). They asked for my manager, who was smart enough not to give into their obvious demands to want something for free.

At the end of the night, they were the worst customers I had all week. They constantly waved me over or yelled for me loudly when I was in the area, even though I would walk by their table minutes earlier. I kept a happy face on trying to “kill them with kindness,” but at the end of the night, received $40 total for the $39.46 bill.

Submitted by: Heather

This particular waitress, we’ll call her Susy, was having an extremely busy night in the restaurant we both worked at, and her last table of the night was two older women who were both impossible to please.

When it came time for them to pay their bill, they left around 70 cents for a tip on a 40 dollar bill, and this Susy would not stand for.

She proceeded to follow them out of the restaurant, and just like every other Server in her position has dreamed of doing, actually threw the change back at them.

As a result she was suspended for a month, but in my mind it was totally worth it.

This happened a few weeks ago when I was the closer.

Two people with a baby came in 10 minutes before close, the baby was around 1 year old and the two were pretty far apart in age themselves. Not sure if they were a couple or not.

They proceeded to order a full course meal with apps and steaks, and she was dominating long island iced teas.

Her total count was around 3, and then she started complaining that she wanted her next one to be stronger, to which I obliged.

At this point it’s past last call, the baby is crying, they are the only ones in the restaurant, and she asks for yet another long island, this time she wants it stronger than her previous 4.

After a heated conversation about not being able to give her one since the bar was closed, the late comers finally decide to call it a night, and you guessed it, got a crappy tip on top of my troubles, not even 10 percent.

Submitted by: Mary

So, I work at this sushi restaurant (this is a family owned business and a very small place) so I am the only waitress.. translation, if something goes wrong it’s pretty much blamed on me.

So this guy and girl come in and I get their drink order which was like some wine and beer and wow, my bad, I bring the drink opener out to them (isn’t that just unheard of??). I was extremely nice and checked on them a lot and said thank you or I’m sorry, blah blah blah pretty much all for the sake of a good tip in my pocket at the end of the day.

So I give them their check once they finish their meal and they ask for a to go box to carry their food in too. So I notice after they get their check and finish that they are sitting their whispering to each other.. and I’m kind of sweating and my intuition tells me this has something to do with ME. So the guy I notice spends an extra twenty minutes writing on a napkin and then they get up to leave and I say “Bye, have a nice day!” … I get no reply. I know something is definitely up.

I wouldn’t care really if it wasn’t for my boss being a total b*tch and always blaming everything on me, so before I get back to the table I see her looking at the napkin.. I am DRIPPING in sweat. On it is a list of all of the things wrong with me or place. Such as me bringing the drink opener to the table instead of doing it myself before hand, the wine is too cold, the plates were too hot for the sushi and other small details like that.

Funny how they eat all of their food and used a to go box though… needless to say I didn’t get a tip and of course my boss somehow blames all of this on me, yet I seem to recall not having any control over how hot the plates are or how cold the wine is.. plus my boss told me to bring the drink opener out with the drink… *sigh* being a waitress sucks.

You wouldn’t believe how may customers got angry with me when I tried to tell them about the special, so suspicious, always thought I was trying to somehow pressure them into spending more or getting something they didn’t want, to I don’t know amuse myself?

One group in particular came in.. Can I tell you- NO!! we know what we want! extremely complicated order for ten half slab rib meals ensues… each one with special request for the baked potato, extra butter extra bacon, no onions, etc. They then have me recite everything so they know I have it.

Still trying to be nice I again try to explain that not only will the get the extra chicken but its actually cheaper to order the special, again I am interrupted NO!!! they don’t want to hear about it!!! then as the order is about to come up, one of them is on their cell and learns about the special from a friend.. they want to change their order even though its already done.

I oblige, and then they berate me for not telling them about the special… nope, no tip either. Even though they had excellent service, everything was good and they got their chicken and reduced prices. UGHH

Submitted by: Jenny