http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=2085903&page=1&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312

I always worked with people that knew ways to rip off the restaurant or the costumer in some way and would eventually got fired....i wish i would have thought of this one.

6/17/2006 4:10:19 AM

dont rip off the costumer. rip off the costume.

6/17/2006 4:11:43 AM

we are not fighting a war, we are stabilizing a nation

6/17/2006 4:14:41 AM

actually, when i waited tables, I knew people who would change the customers tips on credit card slips.

generally they would only do it to real assholes, and only when the person was stupid enough to leave both copies, so they wouldnt have any record of what they really left.

an 80 dollar tab, you get stiffed with a $10 tip. its real easy to change that 10 into a 40.

moral: always take the customer copy of the credit slip with you. even if you're just gonna throw it away later.

6/17/2006 4:19:41 AM

aren't you supposed to give the customer copy to the customer?

6/17/2006 4:21:01 AM

there was one girl that i worked with that paid her electric bill with a credit card number she got off of a credit slip.

yeah she got arrested

6/17/2006 4:21:08 AM

i always liked the "I SAVED YOU GUYS 11 BUCKS BY NOT RINGING UP YOUR COKES" trick

6/17/2006 4:24:15 AM

daaaaaaaaaaaaamn, i wish i woulda known that one when i worked at crazy fire

6/17/2006 4:25:22 AM

Quote :

"aren't you supposed to give the customer copy to the customer"

you give both copies to them, they sign the tip/signature, then they are supposed to take their copy.

but some dumbasses give you a shitty tip, then leave *both* copies.

its like they're saying "im a stupid asshole. please just tip yourself whatever you feel like"

6/17/2006 4:26:14 AM

if the person looked really well off i might consider that

6/17/2006 4:28:26 AM

yeah. or single mothers.

6/17/2006 4:55:39 AM

6/17/2006 9:24:16 AM

I call a lot of that story bullshit. Sad thing is, that a lot of people will read that and think it goes on at every restaurant.

I've worked at a nice restaurant, a mid-level restaurant, local breakfast places, bars, etc... And non of that shit went on there. I'm not ignorant, I know it goes on at other restaurants, but I don't think it's anywhere near what that article makes it out to be. I worked at a really cheap local breakfast place and we'd always give rolls or toast to people in the morning, and they might not eat one roll or one piece of toast, and we always threw everything away. Most of the time I think the opposite goes on.

6/17/2006 9:47:14 AM

see tipping is retarded. why should i pay more for ordering steak than ordering chicken fingers? did the waiter do more work?

6/17/2006 2:25:44 PM

^no but if you are a big enough baller to order a steak then you should be able to tip a lil more.

and i have not seen a lot of the nasty things that were mentioned in the article in the restaurants i worked in but all of the money scamming things i have seen EVERYWHERE i have worked

6/17/2006 2:30:28 PM

We threw EVERYTHING away at Ruby Tuesday....

6/17/2006 2:39:58 PM

^^^you're not paying them for the food, you're paying them to bring your food in a timely manner, keep your drinks full and overall make sure you leave satisfied and want to come back. if someone gives you great service and you stiff them with 10%, believe me they'll remember you.

as for the article, most of it is bullshit. competent manager's would NEVER allow food to be re-used. also, almost everything is done by computer now. you can't re-use checks or use shitty handwriting to fool people since every order must go through the computer to get to the kitchen. ten years ago this article may have been relevant, now it's just absurd.

6/17/2006 4:41:08 PM

Quote :

"you can't re-use checks or use shitty handwriting to fool people since every order must go through the computer to get to the kitchen"

Says the n00b
I know of two restaurants in the area that still use hand-written checks, and they aren't a rarity.

6/17/2006 4:45:52 PM

When we stayed at the Sheraton in Atlantic Beach one time, we were having breakfast in the restaurant there (decently expensive, since it's at the beach). I want to say it was at least $18/head (for breakfast buffet) and there was 4 of us. I don't remember what the exact total was but she added in some zero's here and some lines there and luckily my dad was checking the receipt on our way out the door - not ONLY did this chick re-do his tip to make it look like he tipped like $60something, but she was dumb enough to do it on the original copy when the carbon was still attached so my dad would see it. He showed the manager and she was fired there on the spot.

I used to work at a certain restaurant and when people were assholes and complain that their meat wasn't done enough, the cook would practically burn it. One time we had this real bitch of a lady and we put hot sauce in her soup. That's as bad as it gets, though. My friend is a busboy at Firebirds in Southpoint and is always telling me hilarious stuff about bad customers they get. My older brother co-owns a restaurant he is also the executive head chef in and he has taught me to never ever tip stingy. When my sister and I ate there, it was $120 for us both, my brther paid for it anyways, and we still left a $40 tip

[Edited on June 17, 2006 at 7:59 PM. Reason : ]

6/17/2006 7:57:57 PM

i can pick up my own plate and place it on the table. (many restaurants have designated servers to do that instead of waiters) waiters suck.


i have to be a baller to eat steak? picking up a plate with steak and lobster on it and sitting it on the table is just as easy as picking up a plate with vegtable medley and sitting it on a table. they both are easy as fuck. running around filling up drinks is the bulk of the work.

6/17/2006 11:06:07 PM

I had a guy leave me ~$2.00 on a check that was ~$25.00... dumbass left less than 10% and then added it up to equal $45. He was a crabby middle aged guy. Guess which one I entered in the computer.

6/17/2006 11:20:49 PM

^ perhaps he forgot a zero?

"200" isnt that far removed from "2000" from a written standpoint

6/18/2006 2:15:04 PM

It doesn't take 5-10 minutes to call the restaurant up, speak to a manager, and have them credit your account if something IS wrong. I had a $12 tip on a $15 order, rather than a $2 tip ... saw the credit the day after I called.

Quote :

"I call a lot of that story bullshit. Sad thing is, that a lot of people will read that and think it goes on at every restaurant."

I think the article is a good representation of viewpoints/interviews with a couple authors of a couple books. Nowhere does it attempt to give any statistics/facts/studies/etc. backing up those viewpoints. Be curios if any do exist.

6/18/2006 5:27:38 PM

I went to a restaurant last night for dinner/drinks. I paid like 6 dollars a drink (stupid chain restaurant) and they put very little alcohol in the first one, and I don't believe any in the second one. I'm such a lightweight that if there had been a decent amount of alcohol in them I would have been tipsy. I'm kind of pissed. I think I want to write to the head of the company and complain.

6/18/2006 7:20:26 PM

^did you eat a big meal? I went out with some coworkers and they were all about me doing shots since they know i rarily drink...i was kinda worried because i was starving and they were like asking me to do shots and finally i was like what the hell. I ordered shrimp and ate that afterwards. I didnt feel any different. Well, at least i didnt pay for the shots... The next day i was fine...everyone was saying i would be feeling it but i didnt. Maybe the waiter didnt bring them whatever they ordered for me(he knew i didnt drink). At least it went on someone elses bill....lol

I was just suprised because my stomach was empty when i was doing that(that was before i ate) I guess the food "saved" me

[Edited on June 18, 2006 at 7:35 PM. Reason : s]

6/18/2006 7:33:01 PM

Not really a big meal. I had chicken quesadillas and that's it.

6/18/2006 7:34:12 PM

I've never seen butter re-used, but one shithole (now closed) I worked at six years ago would recycle bread.

I HAVE seen bartenders put only small amounts of alcohol or use well instead of topshelf.

6/18/2006 7:43:46 PM

for any drink in a blender, watch them do it. You cant taste the 1 1/2 oz of liquor in a frozen drink anyway, so the bartender might sell you just an NA drink at regular price and pocket 4 bucks or so. Also, that thing I saw about putting like a teaspoon of liquor in the straw and none in the drink is clever, makes me think their are other clever things out there for which to look out.

6/18/2006 7:52:35 PM

that article didn't tell me, or teach me, anything new.

6/18/2006 8:10:43 PM

Quote :

"as for the article, most of it is bullshit"

yep

at least now, despite what ambrosia say, the majority of restaurants nowadays use pos systems. and if you are too dumb to look t your receipt before you pay, that is your idiocy.

Quote :

"an 80 dollar tab, you get stiffed with a $10 tip. its real easy to change that 10 into a 40."

whatever, unless you do it to the dumbest motherfucker on earth, you are probably going to spend some tiem with the cops for petty theft and forgery. people that whine about their tips are just worthless crybabies. tips tend to even out if you are a good server, if you bitch about every bad tip you get, you will jsut give yourself a stroke.

6/18/2006 9:10:18 PM

if you whine about tips dont be a waiter anymore

6/18/2006 9:21:01 PM

Quote :

""an 80 dollar tab, you get stiffed with a $10 tip. its real easy to change that 10 into a 40.""

^but if the customer leaves both copies on the table they have nothing to show the police...

and re-using easy if the server is responsible for making the food....(i.e. a salad or soup)

Say a customer comes in and orders a soup / salad and a drink......the total is $10.50 say. I have seen daytime servers at restaurants save those tickets b/c the next time someone orders those things, which happens a lot during lunch, they will just make the food themselves. THen they give the customer the same check over and over and pocket the $10.

And BREN....most restaurants don't have competent manager's.....do you think that if they were THAT smart they would be working as a manager of a restaurant. Typically, the employees are a lot more slick then the manager is competent.

6/19/2006 1:49:24 PM

yea but it is pretty obvious if someone changes a tab, maybe not from 10 to 40, but def from 90 to 120. besides, the best case scenario is the customer claims he didnt write that and the tip is changed back to the original amount, worst case you go to jail.

as for the second thing, that rips off the owner not the customer.

6/19/2006 2:14:47 PM

only frozen drink that i know will be hefty w/ liquor is the margaritas at el rodeo

otherwise i make it myself

6/19/2006 2:21:05 PM

Anyone who works in the resaraunt industry and has seen the movie "Waiting" -- how accurate is that??

6/19/2006 2:25:46 PM

it's pretty accurate actually, and i worked in a really small pizzeria/bar. the only thing about that movie that didn't go on at where i worked was the nut-showing game.

same shit went down at a baskin robbins i worked at during high school too, except for the game and the fucking with food. all the other shit happened though.

[Edited on June 19, 2006 at 2:30 PM. Reason : ]

6/19/2006 2:30:13 PM

Quote :

"And BREN....most restaurants don't have competent manager's.....do you think that if they were THAT smart they would be working as a manager of a restaurant. Typically, the employees are a lot more slick then the manager is competent."

I really hope this is not how you see most managers. Being one myself, and knowing my fellow managers; I can tell you that not all of them are idiots. We all have respectable college degrees and are in this business because we want to be. We see a lot more that goes on than people think, but it is very difficult to see everything. Don't think a manager is not competent because he/she works in a restaurant. You try running a multi-million dollar business where the profit margin is about 4% and any major mess-ups can ruin you. Its a whole lot harder than anyone outside the industry thinks.

6/20/2006 12:45:44 PM

Quote :

"It doesn't take 5-10 minutes to call the restaurant up, speak to a manager, and have them credit your account if something IS wrong. I had a $12 tip on a $15 order, rather than a $2 tip ... saw the credit the day after I called."

maybe if you tipped an extra dollar instead of being a jew you wouldn't have had to deal w/ that

i love when people try to stiff you and just leave the credit card slip unsigned, nothing like getting a $10 tip on a $40 check from some triflin' ngz

6/20/2006 1:16:23 PM

The movie Waiting is pretty accurate as far as servers go. I've never worked in a place that has fucked with somebody's food though, it's tempting but most people value their jobs too much to do it.

Ambrosia - I think 6 years of food service experience far outweighs 38000 posts on an internet message board, don't come at me with that noob shit. You know of 2 WHOLE RESTAURANTS in the Raleigh area that use handwritten checks? Congratufuckinglations. I'll bet Courtney's is one of them, and I don't really expect a place with a sanitation grade of only 90 to be up to date with POS computers.

KeB - Some places do have incompetent managers (mostly in the fast food or applebee's style places). But unless the owner or GM is also incompetent, they don't last. It's a difficult job without much room for error.

Getting a shitty tip still chaps my ass a little. I'm lucky in that I average about 20%, so when I get hit with a 10% tip it's almost a slap in the face. And unfortunately, the ethnic stereotypes are still true. I don't lower my level of service for anyone, but there are certain tables I know I won't make shit from no matter what. A few beers after work usually takes care of that though

6/20/2006 2:23:32 PM

Yeah, my older brother has a Chem degree from USC and co-owns/semi-manages a restaurant/micro brewery in SC he is the executive head chef in....he's not dumb

6/20/2006 2:26:24 PM

<<<<<<

Served/Waited tables for 8 years starting at the Farmers Market Rest. by Lake wheeler Rd., then Rock-ola, then Macaroni Grill, then (formerly know as) Ruth's Chris Steakhouse.

went back to Bartending @ Macaroni Grill for 2 years.

Trust me, there is no server that can scam on any level like a bartender can. Not all people do it, but its ungodly easy to randomly call out an arbitrary number as the total for a few beers, especially when you see the guest has cash. Most people like to pay in cash at the bar, then use thier card at the table.

We would make it a little easier on ourselves by having a dumbass rule that the tabs at the bar couldnt be transeferred to the table, which they couldnt, and because of security issues, you could only use your credit card once in the same night, nearly forcing people to pay cash. All of that was true, but it definitely lead to an enormous upswing in tip money for us bartenders.

In all of my years in that industry...I have never seen someone take the bread off of a plate and use it as more food for another guest. I have definitely seen servers eat the scraps of nearly untouched meals, but never reserving eaten food to a new guest. That article seems a bit sensationalized.

[Edited on June 20, 2006 at 2:46 PM. Reason : asdf]

6/20/2006 2:43:44 PM

Quote :

"We would run make it a little easier on ourselves by saying that the tabs at the bar couldnt be transeferred to the table,which they couldnt"

haha....i always laugh when a waiter says that....and then i say "well figure it out". somehow they always do.

6/20/2006 2:46:00 PM

Quote :

"you could only use your credit card once in the same night"

what kinda bullshit is this??

6/20/2006 2:56:03 PM

Some lady at Crabtree tried to pull that bullshit on me. I had a mall giftcard, and the difference I owed was $12 and she said since the mall GC was a Visa GC I couldn't pay with another credit card, so I had to go to the ATM and pay $2 to take out $20 to pay $12

6/20/2006 3:03:34 PM

^^It's for security purposes. Lets say you came in on a date,I was your server, you had a $100 tab, paid it with your card, but accidentally left your card there.

That security device would keep me from making you buy me dinner without you knowing it.

Its much harder to dispute the transaction when the records show that you were actually there that night.

[Edited on June 20, 2006 at 3:07 PM. Reason : asdf]

6/20/2006 3:06:41 PM

Very interesting.
I accidentally left my Visa at Chili's one time and I came back in 15 minutes later and the boss was really rude and acted like I was a complete ass for forgetting it - the waitress never gave it back to me.

6/20/2006 3:09:28 PM

you see, what we fail to understand as non-restaurant employees is that in the real world, everyone we interact with in our-day-to-day tasks where we work is as pleasant as can be. therefore, we have no idea what it's like to have to deal with "rude customers" or "unappreciative assholes".

6/20/2006 3:32:26 PM

i hope you are being sarcastic

6/20/2006 3:35:02 PM

The restaurant industry is the one place the common man can still shit on the other common man.

And Roto-Rooter.

One day three girls came in a bar I used to work at, where we never messed with food or watered down drinks. This one girl was drinking gin and tonics all day, so eventually I said "ya know, if you got doubles you'd pay only $2.50 to make it a double rather than $4.25 to get another single". At this point, those of you in the service industry are thinking "way to go, dumbass!" and those who have never served someone else food in your life are thinging "man, that was nice". So did this girl appreciate my saving her money by putting a little extra tip? Lord I hope not, because she left me barely 15%. And I was on the ball with her drinks and food too. After that, I never helped a customer out again, unless it was an outside friend.

PS That was at East Village, where we NEVER reused food or modified checks. The management was really good about making us keep our composure even if

6/20/2006 3:46:13 PM

EVEN IF WHAT???

I AM TENSE WITH ANTICIPATION

6/20/2006 3:49:56 PM