Community Chat

[Tinkrbl44]

If IHOP wanted to reimburse the $200, well that's good PR, but they don't have a right to demand the waitress give it back ....

I wonder if she got ANY tip after the $200 was returned?

[Irshgrl31201]

On 4/10/2014 tansy said:

On 4/10/2014 Irshgrl31201 said:

On 4/10/2014 tansy said: Okay, different terrminology then. I'd consider that sharing

Well I guess you could consider it sharing in some way. It isn't like they used to though. Say I make $1500.00 in food sales, each job gets a different percentage usually between 1-3%. Whether I make $300 in tips (which is what I should make with $1500 in sales) or $200 I still have to tip out the bartender 1.5%, the busser 1% and the food runner 1% of my total sales. Long ago they would have taken my $300 and took whatever the other servers made and split it between all the servers working. That old way worked out good for the lazy people who don't hustle but not so good for the hustlers. Also if you are a hustler you will get bus boys fighting over you because they know your sales will be higher and you will tip better. They also worked harder because they want to help you turn over those tables as fast as you can so you can make more.

The bus boys "fought" for my tables because they knew I'd hand over 10% of my tips at the end of the shift and not try to shortchange them. That was the expected cut for the bussers.

I was trying to remember what we tipped out our bussers when I was a server. It has been a while. We tipped 3% on our total sales. (Bartenders got 1.5 and food runners got 1 if I remember correctly) I averaged about 1500 a shift in sales back then. They made a nice little profit from me considering they were bussing for other servers too and they made minimum wage which I did not. I am not complaining because with tips I made well over minimum wage. What I tipped them had absolutely nothing to do with what I made in tips but what I made in sales. It is also more fair that way for them. So if I sold 1500 worth of food and beverage I tipped them out 45 whether I made 300 in tips or 150. Most restaurants now work that way and don't tip on a percentage of tips but rather a percentage of the food sales. Servers can hide how much they make in tips but cannot hide how much they make in sales because you have to print that out at the end of the night and everyone knows what % they should be getting.

[esmerelda]

On 4/10/2014 Tinkrbl44 said:

If IHOP wanted to reimburse the $200, well that's good PR, but they don't have a right to demand the waitress give it back ....

I wonder if she got ANY tip after the $200 was returned?

The restaurant didn't get the tip...the waitress did. How can they give back what they didn't get?

She must have seen the tip was a mistake, even if only after it was pointed out to her. She must be living on the edge to want to sacrifice her job for it.

[JaneMarple]

On 4/11/2014 esmerelda said:

On 4/10/2014 Tinkrbl44 said:

If IHOP wanted to reimburse the $200, well that's good PR, but they don't have a right to demand the waitress give it back ....

I wonder if she got ANY tip after the $200 was returned?

The restaurant didn't get the tip...the waitress did. How can they give back what they didn't get?

She must have seen the tip was a mistake, even if only after it was pointed out to her. She must be living on the edge to want to sacrifice her job for it.

Please go back and read irshgirl's post that at the end of the evening, the restaurant hands out the tips to the servers. Why didn't they catch it first/ they could have withheld it if it seemed a bit funny.

[esmerelda]

That doesn't change the fact that the waitress got the tip...not the restaurant.

And the final point is it was a mistake on the customer's part. But she didn't want to let it go even after she and everyone else knew it.

It wasn't up to the restaurant to pay to make it right. She got the money; she should give it back.

[JaneMarple]

On 4/11/2014 esmerelda said:

That doesn't change the fact that the waitress got the tip...not the restaurant.

And the final point is it was a mistake on the customer's part. But she didn't want to let it go even after she and everyone else knew it.

It wasn't up to the restaurant to pay to make it right. She got the money; she should give it back.

Sorry this lies on the shoulders of IHOP, they should never should have asked her for the money back a week later! They also know it's their fault.

[Cakers1]

On 4/10/2014 JJsMom said:

"You have seven days to pay it back or else," Carter says she was told.

Carter refused to return the money, and she claims she was fired as a result.

"Nobody's rights have been violated here," said NBC 12 legal analyst Steve Benjamin.

There has been no unlawful termination. She didn't have to return the money, but they can in turn fire her because she is just employed at will."

I understand "employed at will" but guarantee this employee would not have been fired if this incident didn't arise. It's an analysis that doesn't work.

They used employed at will because IHop was just too cheap to step up and take the $200 loss. Whoopee.

[Kalli]

After reading the comments here, I still feel that since the waitress knows the tip amount wasn't really what the customer had wanted to give, she should return it.

Everyone makes mistakes. But to give it back would be rising above, IMHO. And when someone rises above, it makes this world a better place.

-Kalli

[evelomaddict]

the restaurant also originally thought the tip was correct since they paid it out to the server at the end of her shift.

the employee at will firing really showed ihop to be jerks and i won't be patronizing them any time soon. no ma'am!

[JaneMarple]

On 4/11/2014 Kalli said:

After reading the comments here, I still feel that since the waitress knows the tip amount wasn't really what the customer had wanted to give, she should return it.

Everyone makes mistakes. But to give it back would be rising above, IMHO. And when someone rises above, it makes this world a better place.

-Kalli

The restaurant paid the customer back.