Not getting coins/change back at restaurant. Ne w trend?

[sweet angel]

I've never heard of this happening, but I'd be pissed. I absolutely HATE when a server asks if I need change. They should ASSUME you need/want change unless told otherwise.

I generally tip 20% rounded up because I don't normally carry change (because it's in the jar at home) -- so don't try to stiff me my change because that will likely get you 15% rounded down.

 

[sookie]

It's a little off topic, but I use my debit for everything.
I tip well - usually 20 - 25%. Anyway, we received awful service one night, and I deliberately left a bad tip (and I can count on one hand in the past 10 years that I have done that - I've been a waitress at a BUFFET no less, so I know how hard being a waitress is - and how much it sucks to get stiffed all night long). So, I filled out a comment card and left no tip.
Low and behold - the woman adds 6 bucks onto my ticket! Really?! Really?! I ended up calling the resturant and told them about it and they fixed it. I do not know the end result.

 

[FireDancer]

I rarely use cash at restaurants but I've never not gotten proper change back unless I said something ahead of time like keep the change or just bring me back $5. I think if it is a situation where they don't have change they should round up, not down. If they owe you back $5.45 and don't have change they should bring $6, not $5. A lack of proper planning (having the right amount of change for example) should favor the customer not the establishment.

 

[ChristmasElf]

I rarely use cash at restaurants but I've never not gotten proper change back unless I said something ahead of time like keep the change or just bring me back $5. I think if it is a situation where they don't have change they should round up, not down. If they owe you back $5.45 and don't have change they should bring $6, not $5. A lack of proper planning (having the right amount of change for example) should favor the customer not the establishment.

But it doesn't Favor the establishment. It short changes the server.
Restaurants have slim profit margins in the food dept (most that have bars make the most profits from here)
Food costs run 20-24% at cafe, deli type places-on average
36-40% at steakhouse type places.

Usually when you order a glass of wine at a restaurant whatever the cost of that 1 glass of wine is, is usually the cost of the entire bottle for the restaurant.

The server sees none of these profits. They make their money from the tips plus that whopping $2.13 per hour.

 

[DeniseinNS]

They make their money from the tips plus that whopping $2.13 per hour.

Holy moly, I would not any job for $2.13 an hour!!! I am a server and I make $10.00 an hour.

 

[TinkPirateMom]

It's a little off topic, but I use my debit for everything.
I tip well - usually 20 - 25%. Anyway, we received awful service one night, and I deliberately left a bad tip (and I can count on one hand in the past 10 years that I have done that - I've been a waitress at a BUFFET no less, so I know how hard being a waitress is - and how much it sucks to get stiffed all night long). So, I filled out a comment card and left no tip.
Low and behold - the woman adds 6 bucks onto my ticket! Really?! Really?! I ended up calling the resturant and told them about it and they fixed it. I do not know the end result.

When using a debit or credit card at most dining establishments they run the card through first for an authorization. That authorization is for the total amount plus an average tip amount which now is usually 18%. It is then finalized once the slip is signed. So sometimes debited amounts are incorrect for about 24 hours or so, similar to getting gas on a debit card at certain places

Frankly, I really don't see what the big deal is.

If the server just brings back bills and leaves off the coinage, just deduct from what you would have left as a tip.

You have to consider that most of these kids are only making an average of $2.13 per hour as a server and rely on the tips to make their ends meet.

Some restaurant chains like Darden (which they no longer own Smokey Bones and have added Longhorn Steakhouse to their family of chains)

Anyhow, when the server has to carry a bank around with them and its a Friday night and the joint is jumpin', people are waiting in the lobby for a table with a average of 30 min wait, the kitchen is backed up, the server may have been triple seated, etc. ...and here they are trying to count exact change down to the penny: all the while trying to keep an eye on 4-5 other tables to avoid walk outs or people upset they didn't get their umpteenth refill of sweet tea.....

So I take all this into account and don't sweat the small stuff.
I also don't think that the server is trying to "steal" a whole 27 cents from me either.

But to go out to dinner, run the server for the better part of an hour and not to leave a tip because she left off my few cents of change for whatever reason is pathetic on me if I were not to leave a tip IMO.

I don't see the big deal either. Just deduct it from their tip doesn't mean take the tip away all together. I think people these days are just looking for reasons not to tip (it took 5 minutes to get my 3rd soda refill so I did not tip, the server didn't give me my $0.12 change back so I stiffed them, etc) so they can rationalize to themselves and maybe others that it was okay to stiff the server.

My DH wants me to serve 2 nights a week at his friend's restaurant because his friend needs someone experienced (previously served for 7 years) and we could use the money but all the tipping threads on the DIS boards make me want to run in the opposite direction from ever serving again.

 

[jrmasm]

Frankly, I really don't see what the big deal is.

If the server just brings back bills and leaves off the coinage, just deduct from what you would have left as a tip.

You have to consider that most of these kids are only making an average of $2.13 per hour as a server and rely on the tips to make their ends meet.

Some restaurant chains like Darden (which they no longer own Smokey Bones and have added Longhorn Steakhouse to their family of chains)

Anyhow, when the server has to carry a bank around with them and its a Friday night and the joint is jumpin', people are waiting in the lobby for a table with a average of 30 min wait, the kitchen is backed up, the server may have been triple seated, etc. ...and here they are trying to count exact change down to the penny: all the while trying to keep an eye on 4-5 other tables to avoid walk outs or people upset they didn't get their umpteenth refill of sweet tea.....

So I take all this into account and don't sweat the small stuff.
I also don't think that the server is trying to "steal" a whole 27 cents from me either.

But to go out to dinner, run the server for the better part of an hour and not to leave a tip because she left off my few cents of change for whatever reason is pathetic on me if I were not to leave a tip IMO.

It's a big deal because it's theft. If the establishment you work for makes you make you own change and you round, it should always be favor of the customer.

I was a server and I think this is a big deal.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

But it doesn't Favor the establishment. It short changes the server.
Restaurants have slim profit margins in the food dept (most that have bars make the most profits from here)
Food costs run 20-24% at cafe, deli type places-on average
36-40% at steakhouse type places.

Usually when you order a glass of wine at a restaurant whatever the cost of that 1 glass of wine is, is usually the cost of the entire bottle for the restaurant.

The server sees none of these profits. They make their money from the tips plus that whopping $2.13 per hour.

Doesn't matter. That is a restaurant issue. The customer is not responsible and thus should not be shorted.

If the customer is owed $5.45 and they don't have change--they do benefit from the 45 cents if they only give the customer a 5 dollar bill.

In retail, pricing errors are a big no no and a company can get in trouble for overcharging.

In this scenario, the restaurant is indeed overcharge for failing to have adequate coins to take care of change. They do benefit regardless of what their profit margins are. Fire Dancer did not say they were getting wealthy off of it.

For those servers that manage their own cash--I would imagine that at the end of the night, they pay out, wouldn't they? So if they have extra coins due to shorting customers, the computer won't know. Again--they don't get wealthy off of it, but in some situations, they do benefit even if the benefit is miniscule.

 

[FireDancer]

But it doesn't Favor the establishment. It short changes the server.
Restaurants have slim profit margins in the food dept (most that have bars make the most profits from here)
Food costs run 20-24% at cafe, deli type places-on average
36-40% at steakhouse type places.

Usually when you order a glass of wine at a restaurant whatever the cost of that 1 glass of wine is, is usually the cost of the entire bottle for the restaurant.

The server sees none of these profits. They make their money from the tips plus that whopping $2.13 per hour.

Profit margins have nothing to do with it. It comes down to not giving your customer less back than they are owed because of poor planning on your end and by poor planning I mean not having the means to give correct change. If you owe someone $5.75 in change and have no coinage don't give them only $5, give them $6.

I can't think of any other establishment that would give their customers back less than they owed. If for some weird reason we couldn't give a customer correct change we would never give them less than we owed them.

 

[Bob NC]

I've been asked "do you need change?" and I find even that offensive. If I didn't want change, I would have said so. To assume I don't want it is presumptious.

I don't find it offensive. I have had waitpeople ask this question and the reason they ask is if I DO need change they will expedite the ring up, if I DON'T need change, they can take their time without leaving me waiting.

 

[OceanAnnie]

I have had my change withheld twice. The first time I didn't catch it until after I pulled off (drive through). It wasn't much and I had somewhere to be so I didn't worry about it.

The second time it was so blatant. The guy counted out my cash back and he walked away. I was puzzled and looked at the receipt. Yep, I was supposed to get some change. So I waited. I asked him about it and he said, something like, "Oh, okay.". I thanked him and he snarkily said, "No, THANK you.". That really made me mad. So I'm on top of it now. The next one that tries to take my money and gives me an attitude better watch out. My nice meter went down a notch because of that guy.

Not cool at all. If it is a trend, it stinks.

 

[brerrabbit]

First let me say that I agree the customer should get correct change or an overage.

Second let me say that I waited tables and bartended. At the bar you should always get the right change because the bartender has a till right there in front of him. However when I waited tables there were several "rules" we had to live by. First you had to provide your own started cash. In other words every night when I walked in the door I had to have a roll of 1's, 5's, 10's and yes even twenties as well as coins becasue many a night the first customer would give you a $100 to pay for a $18 tab. Secondly the resturaunt told us we were responsible for the change, not them, so don't ask, don't go to the bar, but just deal with it. We kept all the money and at the end of the night when we checked out with the manager on duty the tape would say what we owed. We would give them charge slips for that amount and cash for the rest. The tip on charges would be deducted from the cash we owed. Whatever was left was what you made for the night, less you starting till. I worked as a waiter from 1980 throught 1982. I was in college with bills to pay and believe me some nights it was really hard to come up with enough cash to have a decent starting till.

I know the change is your money and it belongs to you and I alway gave back the right amount or more, but I can assure you that 99.9% of the time the coins I gave in change got left on the table as part of my tip. Certainly it is presumptious to assume that will be part of a tip, but it seems like it almost always is. Also because of the payout system at the end of the night the resturaunt did not make additional money, the extra was just considered tip and the waitperson got it.

Again the root of my problem and so many other waitpersons problem was the resturaunt they worked for and it's easy to say you would never go there again, and the policy is stupid (which it is) but it was the rules we as waitstaff had to deal with. If you have never waited tables it might be hard for you to understand. I personally did not want to quit and find another job because dispite the issues I made good money and was just interested in that and taking care of my customers, not protesting the resturaunts policies.

 

[DisneyLoverUSA]

I've had it happen before but in my favor. We just left a little larger tip to cover the difference.

On a side note, we were at a national chain restaurant when we brought DD#2 back to school in Aug. The bill was around $60. DH gave the waitress a $100 bill to pay. She made a smart comment along the lines of "the rest is mine for a tip right?" We were so taken aback that we all just sat in silence at the table. It took her about 15 min to bring the change.

I would have said UM NO not hardly. Bring me ALL of my change. Then I would have left her NOTHING for a tip. I don't like to be asked about the tip, have the tip mentioned to me, nothing. Everyone knows it is standard practice to tip, most ppl know the standard rate to tip, so I don't need any verbal assistance in that area. So if they do dun me for money, they get ZERO from me.

She was just joking, I have said the same thing a million times to customer must just say sure and laugh.

I have even had customer say I will need change back from a hundred really, I thought you were going to let me keep the 50 dollars LOL.

If you said that to me you wouldn't get any tip. Asking for a tip is obnoxious. I would stop that if I were you. It is probably affecting how much you COULD BE making in tips if you stopped asking for them. I PROMISE YOU I am not the only one who doesn't like to be asked about the tip.

I've been asked "do you need change?" and I find even that offensive. If I didn't want change, I would have said so. To assume I don't want it is presumptious.

I find that offensive as well and if the change was just a few dollars I would say NO I don't need change and that would be the ONLY tip they got from me. If there was more than 2 dollars coming in change I would say yes, and take my change and leave. I usually tip 30% or more, but I won't give a dime if I am asked for it.

This happened to me a few years back at a restaurant and I DID inquire about my change.

I was polite to the server and simply said, "Excuse me. But, did you forget to give me the rest of my change? I didn't get back my (I don't remember how much) cents."

He got incredibly angry. He stalked away and came back and literally threw the change at me. And said, "Here. If you need this money that bad, take it."

And this is where the poop hit the fan.

A: I'm an awesome tipper. I always tip big, because I believe that good servers and servers in general are underpaid and they deserve it.

B: Don't EVER throw something at me and expect to walk away unscathed. AND

C: If I'm going to tip you, it's up to me to do so. You don't get to determine the amount of your tip. (minus required minimums)

When he threw the money at me, I almost lost my mind. The incident ended in him being fired. I never felt bad about it either.

As far as I'm concerned, when I tip, I get to decide the amount (again, minus required minimums). Should you decide to keep my money, clearly you've decided that that's the only tip you should receive.

I think it's incredibly poor practice for a server to keep any amount of money without permission. If I were you, I'd speak up! I've never had this happen before or since the incident I mentioned above.

I agree with what you did and would have done the same thing.


I would never let a restaurant or a server keep my change and just assume they could keep it because it was only 72 cents. If they did that to me that would be their 72 cent tip AND I would go talk to the manager about the server helping themselves to my change.

But we always use a debit card to pay and it gets charged the exact amount of the bill plus tax and I tip on the whole bill, tax and all and usually 30% or more. (Unless someone asks me about a tip)

We're not really doing any DISNEY sit down meals when we go. We are having some in DTD but paying OOP. Because I know if you have the DDP and use it to pay the servers keep reminding you the tip is not included and asking you how you want to pay the tip. I have a feeling if I went to those kinds of meals and that happened, the tip situation wouldn't be very good for the servers.

 

[Free4Life11]

I would have said UM NO not hardly. Bring me ALL of my change. Then I would have left her NOTHING for a tip. I don't like to be asked about the tip, have the tip mentioned to me, nothing. Everyone knows it is standard practice to tip, most ppl know the standard rate to tip, so I don't need any verbal assistance in that area. So if they do dun me for money, they get ZERO from me.

Wow, you seem to have some serious issues when it comes to tips!

Based on your attitude, I think it's a good decision that you aren't on the DDP...would hate for one of those servers to "slip up" and mention that three-letter-word which shall not be uttered!

 

[BellvilleDad]

I've had it happen before but in my favor. We just left a little larger tip to cover the difference.

On a side note, we were at a national chain restaurant when we brought DD#2 back to school in Aug. The bill was around $60. DH gave the waitress a $100 bill to pay. She made a smart comment along the lines of "the rest is mine for a tip right?" We were so taken aback that we all just sat in silence at the table. It took her about 15 min to bring the change.

I had to go find a waitress in the kitchen at a national steak house chain to get my $30 in change back from at $100 bill. That really ticked me off.

 

[bgirldeb]

I haven't had it happen to me, but I would be pretty peeved if it did on a regular basis.

Gratuity is voluntary and not obligatory. It's in very poor taste for a server to mention the tip or ask the table if they need change.

Keeping the change without being instructed to do so is extremely presumptuous.

 

[OceanAnnie]

I had to go find a waitress in the kitchen at a national steak house chain to get my $30 in change back from at $100 bill. That really ticked me off.

I would have been steamed.

 

[TinkPirateMom]

I would have said UM NO not hardly. Bring me ALL of my change. Then I would have left her NOTHING for a tip. I don't like to be asked about the tip, have the tip mentioned to me, nothing. Everyone knows it is standard practice to tip, most ppl know the standard rate to tip, so I don't need any verbal assistance in that area. So if they do dun me for money, they get ZERO from me.




If you said that to me you wouldn't get any tip. Asking for a tip is obnoxious. I would stop that if I were you. It is probably affecting how much you COULD BE making in tips if you stopped asking for them. I PROMISE YOU I am not the only one who doesn't like to be asked about the tip.



I find that offensive as well and if the change was just a few dollars I would say NO I don't need change and that would be the ONLY tip they got from me. If there was more than 2 dollars coming in change I would say yes, and take my change and leave. I usually tip 30% or more, but I won't give a dime if I am asked for it.




I agree with what you did and would have done the same thing.


I would never let a restaurant or a server keep my change and just assume they could keep it because it was only 72 cents. If they did that to me that would be their 72 cent tip AND I would go talk to the manager about the server helping themselves to my change.

But we always use a debit card to pay and it gets charged the exact amount of the bill plus tax and I tip on the whole bill, tax and all and usually 30% or more. (Unless someone asks me about a tip)

We're not really doing any DISNEY sit down meals when we go. We are having some in DTD but paying OOP. Because I know if you have the DDP and use it to pay the servers keep reminding you the tip is not included and asking you how you want to pay the tip. I have a feeling if I went to those kinds of meals and that happened, the tip situation wouldn't be very good for the servers.

I think it would be funny if someone at your job's payroll held onto your paycheck and if you so much as mentioned compensation or getting paid for your work they said nope sorry you don't get paid, nothing for you because you mentioned getting paid in their presence!!!!

Once again this is not to say that I agree with not getting the correct change or asking if you need change. I always gave out correct change or rounded up a quarter to the customer's benefit and I always said I will be right back with your change. However, if a server did not give me the coin portion of my change or asked me if I needed change I would never think that was grounds to leave no tip at all.

 

[HM]

Holy moly, I would not any job for $2.13 an hour!!! I am a server and I make $10.00 an hour.

What kind of restaurant do you work in?
I've worked in several, both chain and independent, and I was always paid $2.13 + tips. (It's been over 22 years now though).

 

[FireDancer]

I think it would be funny if someone at your job's payroll held onto your paycheck and if you so much as mentioned compensation or getting paid for your work they said nope sorry you don't get paid, nothing for you because you mentioned getting paid in their presence!!!!

Having your pre-agreed upon salary or bonus which you are entitled to withheld by your employer is not the same as having gratuity (which is optional and not an entitlement) withheld by a customer.