[tuccillo]

If it was me, I would have told him to keep the change from the 2 $20 gift certificates for the $34.69 check as the change would have covered the tip at 15%. I am sure his thought processes were that you would probably leave the change as a tip so why bother putting 31 cents down on the table just to pick it back up. The fact that he gave you a $5 instead of 5 1$ bills (bartenders and wait staff learn quickly to always give change in small denominations as it is easier to tip) indicates to me that this was his thinking. Is this a bit presumptuous? Sure. But from a pragmatic point of view it makes sense. I round up all tips to an even dollar amount so I really couldn't care less about the change, but that is just me. I have bartended but never waited tables. Most bartenders and wait staff work pretty hard and have to juggle a lot of things. You might want to consider cutting them some slack in the future. I really don't believe there was any malevolence.

Originally Posted by Springs1

We have stiffed before when they did that, because that's STEALING! It's ILLEGAL! Did you REPORT the theft? We did. My husband and I rarely pay with cash or gift certificates. Once, back in 2004, we used (2) $20 gift certificates to pay a $34.69 check. Our waiter gave us back a $5 bill, which our change was $5.31. So I go up to him to tell him. Instead of fixing it, he goes to serve a side salad. He finally gave back the change and did say he was sorry, but this was intentional, because he was TOO LAZY to get the change from the bar OR could have gave us OVER if he didn't want to rather than *SHORT US*, he could have shorted HIMSELF, but was TOO *SELFISH* to do so. I don't expect a server to short themselves, just to give the 100% CORRECT amount of change back, NOT to TIP THEMSELVES part of *OUR MONEY* to themselves. So I reported this to the manager and we left NOTHING, NOT ONE PENNY. There's no way it's not intentional since you aren't going to miss 3 coins and 99.99% of the time people's checks aren't exact amounts. I can count on one hand how many times exact where there's no cents on a check amount and we eat out VERY often.

It's OUR job to tip and if they are that selfish and lazy, they should get nothing. I made sure I waited to get the change just so the waiter could get ABSOLUTELY NOTHING so he couldn't steal ANYTHING from us.

What if the customer shorted the bill, would the server want to pay the 31 cents on every customer's bill plus the tip outs? That would add up and NO, they wouldn't.

I can't take 31 cents out of someone's purse or register without getting arrested, WHY can THEY get away with it?

They ARE SO SELFISH. I mean really, when once we got 10 cents over at a place that was a small town restaurant that only accepted cash payments about a couple of years ago we had gone to(our bill was $38.10, paid with (2) $20 bills, got back $2. So because she gave us OVER we tipped her MORE over the 10 cents and it was cool to not have 90 cents in change.

The only reason that happened probably was that because that was closer to the next dollar, but in our case with the $34.69, it wasn't, so that's why he did what he did, due to LAZINESS and SELFISHNESS. He could have given us $6 or $5.50 if he didn't want to get change. Also, it wasn't that busy the time to do such a thing.

Well anyway, my point is, it's a common practice among servers since they don't have a register they have to get the money from their own change bank in their apron pocket or go to the bar to get change. The thing is, STEALING(SHORTING THE CUSTOMER) is ILLEGAL and MORALLY WRONG!

So for 31 cents being selfish, he got stiffed. Does that make ANY SENSE to risk getting a crappy tip for 31 cents you servers out there? Why not just either not be SO LAZY to go to the bar to get change or bring some on you(exchange during non-busy times at the bar) or give us the next dollar then. If he would have given us $6 in change, if the service would have been good otherwise, he would have had over 25% tip. Because of stealing, he got his tip stolen back in a sense. The reason why I say that is because what we did was VERY LEGAL, what he did WASN'T. Stealing is illegal and wrong. He should have been fired on the spot and been arrested for what he did. As I said, I can't go into Walmart take 31 cents out someone's register and not get handcuffs put on me, WHY servers can do this and get away with it? It's a DOUBLE STANDARD! It's not fair.

Most servers are JUST SO SELFISH and LAZY! It's really both. They are too lazy to get change from the bar or bring change on them and they are too SELFISH to think "If I risk giving some of my few coins away maybe I might be stiffed from a cheapskate, but I could get more." No, all they think about is THEMSELVES! Every penny is about THEM. They NEVER can think about OUR MONEY. Then they wonder why they don't get a tip.

While I understand sometimes it may be about that they don't want to make the customer wait 10 minutes for the bartender to get the change, so that's when you short yourself as the server if you want a better tip.

Servers are JUST SO SELFISH today. It's sad. We have been through some mean servers. One at a Denny's said when I had a wrong price "I don't do prices." It's like we don't work here, so if we can see it, SO COULD HAVE SHE. I know she can't fix the price in the computer, but most managers can't either, they take it off the bill at the end. The difference is, if the server CARES about our money, they would have tried to find this issue BEFORE check time and gotten the manager to fix it BEFORE it came to us. It's not our job to check every price against the menu since we aren't earning a tip to do so. They don't care about our money, but they expect us to care about their money. THAT I DO NOT GET WHAT-SO-EVER?