[dgammon6]

My wife and I want to say thank you to the Sumter County Sheriff and the Management at Cody’s Roadhouse restaurant for the investigation and arrest of one of their servers. It seems the server would change the tip amount on a charge card receipt. This occurred to at least 90 different customers’ receipts, and my wife and I were one of the victims.
Hopefully this will result in customer’s being more vigilant in comparing their receipts to the credit card statement, and any server that has thoughts of doing this will now have second thoughts.

[Pats2010]

Thanks for the heads up. So far we have managed to never use our credit card for restaurants. We made this rule over 30 years ago and am glad we did. I may be old-fashioned but it just doesn't seem right to me. But your miles may vary.

[getdul981]

Only when we get caught short will we use a credit card or debit card for a meal. We don't carry a large amount of cash either, so we make frequent trips to the ATM.

[BogeyBoy]

We had this happen to us once in PA. We went to a rather upscale restaurant that was recommended by someone. (We were out of town on some personal business.) The service was about as bad as it gets. I left a 10% tip which I thought was generous, based on the service I should have left zero.

When we got the credit card statement the charge had been increased to make the tip 20%.

We called the credit card company to dispute the error, I had my signed receipt for the correct amount. They received a response from the restaurant that the amount was correct. I asked the credit card company if they had received a copy of my signed receipt - they had not.

I called the restaurant and asked to speak to the manager. The manager was aware of what was going on but said because most of their customers leave 20% they assumed I had made a mistake when calculating the tip - and changed the total. I then asked to speak with the owner who called me back a few days later to apologize. He also corrected it with the credit card company.

I guess they weren't trying to steal from me, just thought that they were so high class that everyone left 20%.

Unlike some of you we use credit cards for just about everything. Frequent flyer miles and cash back cards are our favorites. We have always kept every receipt, now we scan them with a high speed scanner and store them on a hard drive. (FYI, we tried one of the Neat Receipt scanners and didn't like it, moved up to a Fujitsu Scan Snap S1500 - not cheap but an amazing machine.)

BTW - we did let the business that recommended the restaurant know what had happened so they might reconsider that recommendation.

[carm310]

We usually use a debit card and leave a cash tip. I don't know whether that would help but I do reconcile my bank account online almost daily. Especially when I have been using the debit card. We don't carry much cash with us. We will definately be even more diligent in looking things over. Thanks for the heads up.

[Pturner]

dgammon6,
Thank you so much for the "tip".

We use credit card for almost everything. We do check our receipts against the statement each month. Have thought about getting a receipt scanner. Might look into it again.

[Kelsie52]

When we use the credit card for dining out --I always leave a cash tip and cross out the tip space on the receipt or write ZERO

I only do that because my son was a waiter for a few years and his boss always shorted him on the tips saying he had to pay the Credit card company a few percent on his tip--

This did happen to one of my friends a while back now he writes out the amount on the receipt ----one hundred and one dollars instead of 101.00
like a check -----

[2BNTV]

My son works in the hotel management industry and this is the first time I am
hearing of a difference between what is left on one's credit card for the waiter and their not getting their tip for the service rendered.

I leave a tip based on the service rendered and and add the cents to make the dollar amount total a round number. I know of restaurants that automatically state on the menu that a 15% gradtuity will be added to the bill.

I will in the future try to leave my tip in cash as no one should be cheated for their hard work.

Thanks for the heads up.