Server accused of serving himself $71.23 tip

DESTIN A server at a Destin-area restaurant is said to have given himself a hefty tip on a customer's credit card, leading to his arrest for forgery.

[bill wedge]

nice timely article.

MAY 2009 ??????????

[greg]

the a-hole should have tipped. I don't blame the server.

[imasecret]

are you kidding me giving himself $71.23! thats a bit much! 15% of the bill would be about $5. yeah the guy should have tipped but what the server did is ridiculous.

[Crazy]

Servers seem to forget that tipping is optional, I owned a restaurant for over 11 years and it never failed to amaze me how much a server thinks hes worth. The average server spends about a total of 10-15 minutes per table, you tip them $5.00 for 2 people and they get mad. Thats you paying them at
least $20.00 an hour plus their pay. THEY ARE SERVERS not computer engineers. The worse thing the government ever did was start charging them 10% of their sales. I don't think a tip should be based on your bill price. A Denny's server works as hard as an Outback server, your already getting screwed for the food price, you should get screwed by the server as well? Just like at restaurants you buy a alcoholic beverage, pay $9.00 for it, a rip off, so you owe your server an extra $1.00 for carrying it to you. Its crazy. Don't feel sorry for these people. Waiting tables is easy work, and they bring home usually over a hundred a day. Do you make that much in 6 hours? Think about it!

[swoosh]

What this person did was wrong. However, "Crazy" is clearly off the mark. And from now on I'll address this person as "Clueless."

Clueless prefaces his post by saying he owned a restaurant for 11 years. BS.

First, the average dining experience lasts between 35 and 50 minutes, not 10-15.

Second, servers pay a percentage of their sales to the restaurant for bartenders, hosts, and bussers. If your bill is 100 dollars before tax, and you leave a 15 dollar tip, that's 15%. The server is required to pay between 3-5% of their sales of that check whether you leave a tip or not. If you leave nothing, the server has to pay 3 to 5 dollars to the restaurant anyway. If you left 15 bucks, which is 15% in this case, the server is really only netting 10-12 dollars.

Thirdly, tipping is optional, but food and drink is priced to allow for tips to be added onto a check. 15 to 20% is pretty standard and ensures good service. That extra % is priced into the menu!

Another point, if you believe you recieve the same service at a Denny's as you do at an Outback, I'd either frequent that Denny's or ditch the Outback.

Waiting tables isn't easy. Dealing with the public period isn't easy. And trying to explain these things to people like Clueless is generally a waste of time. Tossing out a generalization that servers bring home over a hundred a day is ludicrous. People should think before they spout off. And if this goofball posting above me owned a restaurant, no wonder he no longer does.