Diner Backed After Refusing To Tip On $200 Restaurant Bill: ‘Completely Justified’

A restaurant patron has been defended online for deciding not to leave a tip on a roughly $200 bill because the staff “forgot” about them while they were glued to their phones.

The diner and original poster (OP), user RoseKaKe, took to Reddit on January 14—in a post that’s since racked up 22,000 upvotes—to detail the seemingly subpar service they and their wife received while they were out at a “nice place” for a celebratory dinner.

Missing Server

According to the OP’s post, when 15 minutes had gone by from the time their server had taken their drink order and she still hadn’t returned, they tried to track her down. However, they couldn’t find her.

So, they mentioned to the hostess that they were ready to order and would appreciate if their server could stop by the table again. But then 10 more minutes went by, the OP explained on the forum.

What happened next apparently didn’t leave the OP in a tipping mood.

“I went back up to the front desk and found our server and the hostess both scrolling on their phones in silence,” the OP, who added that the restaurant was “pretty quiet” at the time with only about 10 other customers there, wrote. “I said ‘Excuse me, we are ready to order when you’re ready.’

“They both jumped out of their skin and tucked their phones away.

“The server came and took our order and the night proceeded normally after that. Given that we waited 25 minutes to order our food (also didn’t get our drinks until after we ordered food), and I know what the server was actually doing in the mean time, I decided not to tip.”

More than 1,000 comments have accumulated in response to the OP’s discussion-sparking post, and many of the Redditors who weighed in in the thread firmly backed their decision.

One supportive user, for instance, replied: “As a former server, if they were slammed and had a legit reason for being so far behind that they couldn’t get to you, that’s one thing.

“If they are just scrolling their phones to the point that they forget to their job, you were completely justified.

“Tipping should be to show appreciation for service. You did not get good service.”

A second similarly commented: “Restaurant owner here. Absolutely [not wrong]. Tipping would have reinforced the server’s terrible behavior.

“Next time, feel free to inform management. You would be providing valuable customer feedback.”

And a third chimed in: “I see nothing wrong with not tipping in this situation.”

While tipping in general may feel automatic at times, customers are, “Never obligated to tip someone when they’ve provided you poor service or if you’ve had a rude interaction with them,” CNBC emphasized after consulting etiquette experts.

Speaking about tipping at restaurants in particular, one expert noted that in the case of a poor interaction with a server, for example, a diner “may be in the right” to dock their tip, but they should be sure to bring it up with management as well.

“If you address management and then leave a lower tip, they’ll know you weren’t just a jerk or uneducated when it comes to tipping,” etiquette expert Elaine Swann told CNBC.

“Whether they agree with your complaint or not, they’ll have an understanding of why you left a lower tip.”

Gen Z and Tipping

On a related note, Newsweek covered how members of Generation Z were revealed by a survey conducted by Talker Research last year as most likely to leave an establishment without tipping when faced with poor service, “challenging long-held gratuity norms in the U.S.”

Newsweek contacted RoseKaKe for comment via Reddit.

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