Anyway, when she opened I picked up a few shifts.

So last night this table comes in. It was 3 women and one of them owned a website that basically features best restaurant, hotels, best things to do, etc in my city.

So the owner sat with them for a while. At the end, the owner comes up to me and says “Don’t give them a check”

So they ask me for a check and I told them there wasn’t one. The website lady said “Are you serious? Then you are getting a nice tip!”

So anyway, their check would have been like $64 and she gave me a $60 tip (she didnt know how much her bill was).

So a few minutes later the owner was like “How much did they give you” and I told her and she said “ok, I want part of that to help offset the check. I don’t want to have to eat that whole thing”

So she basically made me give up $30 of my $60 to pay for the check.

Besides being in complete shock, I am still trying to rationalize this by thinking- well, I probably wouldn’t have gotten a $60 tip if I had presented the table with a check. But even still, I think what she did was completely wrong….

Some are OK with it once I explain it, but others see it is an opportunity to give me attitude.

How is it my fault?!

Submitted by: Lisa

I would hear this for what felt like hundreds of times a day, and each time the customer thought he/she was the only one to ever think of such a clever request.

The worst part was that I needed to force a small laugh to make the customer feel like a regular comedian, and tip happy each and every time.

Submitted by: Rob from MD

Worst. Meal. Ever.

If you’ve ever been a server, you’ve definitely experienced this situation; A customer will eat his/her entire meal, lick the plate clean and then complain about how terrible it was.

Usually you can tell they’re just shooting for a free dessert or a comp. on the check, which makes the whole ordeal that much more infuriating.

This is the ultimate “swallow your pride” moment when you need to apologize for a meal they clearly enjoyed, and grovel for their forgiveness all in the hopes of still getting a tip.

A family of five (two parents and three young children, one of which was still a baby the other two maybe six or seven)came into the restaurant one night and I was their waitress. I went up to the table and introduced myself and asked if they would like to hear our specials. “Of course not” was their reply.

I asked what they would like to start off with for a drink and they said just bring some waters for the kids for now. So I went to the kitchen and poured waters and brought them back to the table at which point, the parents decided they wanted waters as well. I poured two more waters and as I was setting them down the baby (whom the father was holding in his lap) grabbed at the glass I had in my hand and yanked it onto his father’s lap.

The man- thinking I had done it on purpose- stood up, the wife screamed and for the next three minutes he berated me and then demanded to speak to the owner about his apparently racist employee who should get fired.

They rallied for another waitress to take care of them. Who, of course, they didn’t tip.

Submitted by: Erin

1. No identifiable fingerprints
2. The right to laugh at any guy who picks up a hot plate and says “ouch”

Submitted by: Sarah from GA

When I worked at a restaurant in my 20′s, I would sometimes have people order Hamburgers without buns, which just really irked me for some reason. I mean, if you’re going to eat a hunk of ground meat, why not just get a steak?

I understand its probably part of the pack your stomach full of bacon Atkin’s diet, but if  you’re a man, and you are eating a hamburger with a knife and fork, I’ve instantly lost all respect for you.

Submitted by: Brian from VA

The Toasted Oat Enemy

I always hated when I would be semi-busy and a family with several young children came in. This meant a few things:

1. Scrambling for a highchair.
2. Cleaning said highchair.
3. Preparing for a barrage of cereal on the floor.

There is something about cheerios especially that makes babies love to throw them all over the floor. Seems like parents are always totally unaware that it is happening too.

I’ve walked up to many tables that looked like a Cheerio A-Bomb went off with mass casualties. Of course what usually happens is, the party leaves, and none are picked up. So that means I’ve got to pull out the sweeper, and lose some precious dignity by crawling on the floor.

But of course they leave an extra tip for the additional cleaning involved, right? WRONG!

Submitted by: DJ from PA