Florida Church Gets Full Refund from Restaurant

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The professor was named.

 

If the restaurant felt it was due, they would have used their large party billing procedure that figures in the gratuity into the total.
We pick up food every Wednesday night at local restaurants. Its usually $500to $600. The prices are negotiated and we never tip. Every restaurant in town wants the business badly, so they must not be too offended about it.

 

I find it hard to believe the waitress got upset about not getting a tip if it was true that normal policy is not to tip for takeout.

 

If you search online there seems to be a lot of disagreement on whether or not (or how much) to tip on take out. I prefer the answer given by the Moneyologist on Market Watch: "...when you are unsure about whether you should tip, it’s usually better to err on the side of caution (or generosity, in this case)." Generous over stingy is always better, in my opinion.

That said, I don’t like the tipping system that has developed in the U. S. The Federal Fair Labor Standards Act requires a minimum wage of $2.13 per hour for (certain) tipped employees (yes, you read that right, $2.13 versus the standard minimum wage of $7.25 per hour). (However, some state laws require more.) Tips are considered part of a tipped employee’s wages. That’s not the fault of the diner, but it is the way the system works, nevertheless. I believe the way the law is expressed currently, if the wait staff’s wages and tips combined are less than $7.25 per hour, the employer is must pay the employee the difference. I believe this is the reason that many restaurants around here pool the tips and divide it among the staff -- which defeats the purpose of the diner’s tip, in my opinion (current FLSA allows pooling only for tipped employees).

 

This is how this stuff works. I used to have the security contract for our High school football team. One if our jobs was pick up the post game meal when traveling. The cost was pre negotiated. We were given a pre written chec. For the negotiated amount from the B.O.E. account to take to the restaurant. We were told to "be sure the receipt you bring back is itemized and matches the check." I never saw a tip as an item.

 

Maybe the person picking it up had a few drinks while the car was being loaded, too.

 

How about this...always give a huge tip and share the Gospel with them, no matter what. Call them towards Faith in Christ and Repentance towards God. Being in Christ's Kingdom is more than just eating and drinking.

 

I’m sure you can rationalize to justify not giving a tip if you wish but looking at it (this stuff) objectively and considering the customer (you and me) being put into the position that the employees count on them to supplement their income, even just to bring them up to minimal pay standards at times because of the employer’s taking advantage of the system, ...as said above I think it better (on this stuff) to err on the side of being over generous than over stingy.

These employers are able to appear to lower of the cost of YOUR food and get YOU in the door by putting YOU in position where the employees count on YOU to subsidize their pay. I wouldn’t want to be made part of a scheme to underpay hardworking employees which could turn out making ME the greedy bad guy for being the one responsible for undercutting them. If you can’t afford to play the game while being generous then you should probably be cooking, packing and serving your own food than rationalizing taking advantage of the system along with the employer.

 

No, I'm glad Outback fired her. You can't have employees badmouthing your customers on FB by name no matter what they do. The customer is always right.

Worked in restaurants before, on any to go order, the kitchen and the hostess would wrap it up and box it, the wait staff would have little to do with it. And even on a large order, it didn't take "all day", you had the order in advance. TGIF used to have a surcharge on a large to go order so things like this wouldn't happen. She needs to find another line of work with that attitude.

 

Over here many restaurants include service, that doesn't stop you from adding a tip if you wish, Some add 15% and some of those ask if you wish that amount to be removed from your bill. Mostly in this country tips are not expected but you can give them if you wish.

 

We have a Chinese restaurant that offers you a drink,wine,beer or soft drink. while you wait for your take away,

But they are much dearer than those who just do take away,

 

Good point, we shouldn’t overlook the employee’s poor behavior and the damage she could cause to the business because of her action. She is not innocent in this. The employer was not gracious, didn't even talk to her first, I don’t know the employee’s financial situation and responsibilities or if she even considered the repercussions to her actions, but people make mistakes and grace should be in the picture.

The church probably made an innocent mistake, but that issue is up for debate considering some don’t think you should tip for takeout. I don’t believe that is always the case that we shouldn't tip which brings us back to erring on being over gracious or over stingy. I still believe the church could have turned the situation from being looked upon as stingy (which is why this became news) to being gracious and reaching out help the employee who lost her job by giving her the refund for the food they did in fact eat. They could have come out shining but looks like they missed that boat.

 

Well, this church was a repeat customer and what probably happened here was the waitress knew it, knew they usually tipped on one of their big to go orders, and took the order over, expecting to get one big tip for herself. But the church sent in a newbie that day, then later the waitress went online and bashed the church for being cheap and one of her friends saw the post and called the church to troll them. Management got wind of this and fired her.

The church should show grace and refund the money and belatedly tip her? Why? it wasn't out of her pocket and the church did not force her to break her own employer's rules.

Yes, gratuity added is the way they do it in Europe and it ought to be adopted here. Too many people are thinking a tip is some sort of obligation to supplement wages, when it's really meant to be something for double-plus good service. It used to be 17 percent gratuity for a party of six or more, but that was for full service.

 

It is said you shouldn't add the tip to your credit card bill as the restaurant will pocket that, Many restaurants will insist that all tips are shared between all staff. Often a bistro will just have a pot by the till for tips.

 

Well, that's one way to look at it, but not sure what drove your judgment to arrive to these conclusions.

The very meaning of "grace" is that she doesn't deserve it. Kinda makes my point of how the church could have made a statement about what they were really about while many in the public are "probably" just ridding on that the church was stingy and she lost her for calling them out.

My point was to turn it around and come out on top rather than jump on the condemnation wagon.

 

Waitress probably took more time bringing the food out to the church's vehicle than she does for two or three tableside orders, probably worked harder at it too. I would have tipped her.

She was wrong to complain on Facebook and if the restaurant fired her, well, lesson learned.

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL

 

No, not really, seems like she's learned nothing:

“I feel that we should be allowed to say something, especially to big parties that don’t leave anything, that pay the exact amount,” said Yoder. “I still feel the same way, and I’d probably still do it the same way today. I wouldn’t change anything.”

I think the church should have refused the full refund offered by Outback and that would have been showing grace on their part. Returning to Outback after this fiasco is showing grace as well. As for this waitress, she is definitely in the wrong line of work and should be toxic to any future employer in the business.