Greedy Waiter

[Gruesome]

This guy would have been paid more if he wasn't trying to weasel it out of me. At lunch yesterday I went to a sit-down place that was fairly slow due to bad weather. Service was fine, no complaints but he wasn't a superstar or anything. The final bill was just under $10 and I paid with a $20, expecting a 5 and 5 ones. The guy brings me back two $5 bills.



Now I had planned to tip $4, what I thought to be a very generous 40%, but his attempt to pry a 50% tip out of me just rubbed me the wrong way. I scrounged up all the singles and change I had and he is lucky he got $3.50.

I know waiters have a lot stacked against them and thats why I try to be generous, but I'm much more generous when I'm allowed to decide that for myself.

[i4wolves]

In all fairness to the waiter it could have been an honest mistake. He could have just grabbed two $5 bills without thinking about it. You did not tell him how you wanted you change. Maybe he thought that he would be rude is he gave you a $5 bill and $5 ones assuming he would receive a tip. I think you are being a little unfair to the waiter by assuming he was greedy and expected a $5 tip (it could have been an honest mistake).

[Evil Queen]

I have to agree with i4wolves. Sorry, but I honestly don't see how he was trying to pry extra tip out of you, he probably expected a small tip considering how little your meal cost.

[spookysonata]

Yeah, I don't think about denominations when I give back change, unless the customer asks for something specific. Otherwise, they get what I have available.

[Gruesome]

I am surprised by these responses. I seem to almost always get "tippable" change from servers, most often in the form of too many singles. I was under the impression that the make-up of change was pretty much guranteed to be NOT random. I fully expected to get a $5 and 5 singles from him as thats what nearly always happens in a situation like that. To me anyway.

Perhaps I misjudged him, but from my experience that was a move designed to get a big tip.

[Evil Queen]

Maybe he was low on singles?

It's okay Gruesome, we still like you.

[aurelemsrealm]

I don't know about serving at restaurants as I've never done that. In the retail setting, however, sometimes we are limited on what denominations are available in the register or safe at the time. I always try to give customers change in the simplest way possible, but I have to go a different route than I'd like sometimes to make it all work out. Sometimes, customers will make requests for change back in certain denominations. I never make promises on that either as it largely depends on how much of each denomination I have at the moment. I'm not shorting myself on any denomination to fulfill a request since I'm responsible for the register, especially if the store is busy. I do my best, but sometimes it's just not possible.

[MaggieTheCat]

Yeah, I thought at first maybe he just didn't have enough or very many singles.

Could also be that if waiters are taught (or figure out) how to give back "tippable" change, maybe he's newer and doesn't know that trick yet.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

The restaurant I worked at had a cashier. We put the card or or money into a little folder, handed it to the cashier, then came back and grabbed it on our way back out into the dining room. Most of the time, we didn't even really know what was in it unless the patron actually said "keep the change." And even there, there was no guarantee we'd look until after the cashier gave it back.

We were just too busy to bother with it.

I think you are reading way too much into something the poor guy may have not even thought of.

"Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity."
-Hanlon's Razor

"Or simple oversight."
- RecoveringKinkoid's Two Cent Addition to Hanlon's Razor

[Kogarashi]

Like aurelemsrealm, I've never been part of waitstaff, but I have been in retail. As a retail cashier, we gave back change in the simplest form possible unless requested otherwise. At Walmart, with the convenience of the CSMs to break larger bills as needed, I could get away with shorting one denomination over another so long as I sent for the appropriate change ASAP.

It's possible your waiter was trying to weasel a larger tip out of you, but it's also possible that he was simply giving you the simplest change possible. It'll probably work best in the future to ask for the singles explicitly so you can make change, rather than banking on the waiters doing it by default.

Like Evil Queen said, though, we still like you.

[HYHYBT]

I was on the fence about this one until looking at the amounts again. If the change were arranged to make a 25% tip the most convenient, that would be one thing, but I just can't swallow the idea that anyone would expect one as large as 50%.

[Red_Dazes]

As with several other posters, I have never worked in the serving industry, but as a retail worker I would always try and give my customers the LEAST amount of change I could, unless they asked for it split in a specific way.
I know I always appreciate it when a waiter brings me only 2 or 3 bills as opposed to 6 that I then have to try and fit into my tiny coin purse.
So I'm thinking, while he could have been trying to get you to leave a bigger tip, it is more likely he was just giving you less bulk to put into your wallet.

^_^

[MaseMan]

Maybe he was new, but in my experience, when a waiter gives you change back, they should know to give you a few singles back. It's pretty common, at least around here.

$3.50 on a $10.00 bill is a pretty good tip regardless.

[VicSilver]

I have worked as a server before, and I never divided change into singles unless I was asked to. For me, anyway, it's rude to make the assumption of a tip (even if it really is an expectation). Some servers will do it automatically, but many will not. I'm a stickler for etiquette though. It also drives me nuts when servers ask "Do you need change for this?" Grrr...of course they do! If they want you to have it, they'll leave it or tell you no change!

I think it's possible that you jumped to the wrong conclusion.

[Cia]

I would have given you back the smallest amount of change a $10 or two $5's. I would make no assumption that you were going to use the change to leave a tip and it wouldn't have even entered my mind in the first place. Since you wanted a $5 and five $1's you should have asked for them when you handed over the $20.