Community Chat

[Estellee]

If I go to a restaurant I pay cash, tip as well. I only order food if I can pay cash when they deliver. Not comfortable doing it any other way.

[depglass]

We have a change in procedure here for card purchases at restaurants.  They hand you this baby thing that looks like the size of a small phone.  You are supposed to know how to operate it, punching in the amount of the meal and the tip.  If you get screwed up they tell you what to do or do it themselves.  The third time this happened I revised our habits and now carry enough cash to eat at most places. I'm not spending my life verifying credit card purchases.

[Tanya89]

When I go to my favorite diner, I always like to leave a cash tip under the receipt.

When i watch them clean up my table they almost always smile and look for me.
They be thinking that I left no tip when in reality it was always at the very end of the service

[Marsha2003]

Like others, I only use cash at restaurants and gas stations and the post office.  Recently, I was at the post office and the counter person was asking people to use a credit card because the till was short on cash.  So I did and within hours, my credit card had a fraudulent charge (caught by the credit card company) and I had to get a new card which is a hassle.  I hadn't used my card anywhere else, so now I'm wondering if the postal employee had a NFC reader under the counter and was pulling data when people were using their card.

[CelticCrafter]

Every week Shoprite will have a deal on gift cards, spend $50 and get a $10 or $100 and get a $20 coupon good for your next grocery order.

We will buy restaurant cards if they are included in that weeks deal but never buy them with more that a $25 value. 

They get used up in one swipe and what little bit may be left gets left as extra to the tip that we leave in cash .

[LavernLuvsShoes]

Don't know if it's considered a "Scam" or not, but last week I purchased a few items from W-Mart...

I did the self-checkout thing, and left.

Got home and looked at the receipt and noticed that one of the items rang up TWICE.

It was only $9.97 and I thought about just letting it slide and consider it a lesson learned - Check receipt BEFORE leaving the store.

Then I looked at the receipt again, and decided to go to the W-Mart/Survey.com website listed and list my "issue with checkout"

Well, long story short, after a couple of hours, I got an email from the "Frontend Manager" of the store that I frequent, and she said she saw my complaint, and she would be happy to REFUND the extra charge.

I plan to take the receipt to Customer Service this week, and apply the $$ to something else I need.

Happy Ending! ♥

[cheriere]

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@LavernLuvsShoes wrote:

Don't know if it's considered a "Scam" or not, but last week I purchased a few items from W-Mart...

I did the self-checkout thing, and left.

Got home and looked at the receipt and noticed that one of the items rang up TWICE.

It was only $9.97 and I thought about just letting it slide and consider it a lesson learned - Check receipt BEFORE leaving the store.

Then I looked at the receipt again, and decided to go to the W-Mart/Survey.com website listed and list my "issue with checkout"

Well, long story short, after a couple of hours, I got an email from the "Frontend Manager" of the store that I frequent, and she said she saw my complaint, and she would be happy to REFUND the extra charge.

I plan to take the receipt to Customer Service this week, and apply the $$ to something else I need.

Happy Ending! ♥

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I'm so glad they refunded your money for the extra charge.  I rarely check my receipt before leaving either.  That's a good reminder of why we should.  Thanks for sharing this.🌸

[shoekitty]

I have always tipped cashed , but my reasoning was the server didn't have to wait for credit card tip. But since I started doing this years ago things have changed and it probably doesn't make difference , maybe in small places where servers keep their own tips, and tip out to bussers, and others  by themselves.  My granddaughter actually works in a place where all servers on that shift equally share in tips. But I can see how I have been  protected a bit from people doctoring the tips, which I have heard has happened a lot.  

[beach-mom]

Someone told me there was some kind of problem with not leaving a tip when you use a card. I can't remember what it was, but he said he always puts $1.00 in the tip line and tips the majority in cash, so the server gets the entire tip meant for them. I wish I'd paid more attention when he was talking about this! Maybe someone else can elaborate on it!  

We used to tip in cash too, and stay at the table until we could hand it directly to the server. That's hard to do now. Some places are busy, with people waiting, and you can't linger at your table. If you ask the busser to please give it to the server, you can't be sure the server will get it. The busy busser might just drop it off at the register. 

So we have gone back to adding the tip on the receipt. I have asked some restaurants if the server gets the tip or if they are "pooled." If we have exceptional service we want to reward it! DD was a hostess one summer during college, and said the servers' tips were pooled. 

Many restaurants near us have now gone to either cash only, or adding 3.5% to the bill. It's hard to keep things straight! 

And the prices have gone up! DS recently told me he ordered two poke bowls for him and a friend. He ordered large bowls and asked me how much I thought it cost. I guessed around $40, if they didn't get expensive drinks. She didn't want one, so he didn't get one either. They both got sodas. So I figured $40 - $45. He said it was $60. The restaurant added a fee that he hadn't noticed before. 

Eating out is not as easy as it used to be!  

[AuntMame]

A friend went out to dinner and she and everyone she was with had an extra $10 added to their tip. They all got their money back. No word on whether the wait-person was fired.