A restaurant patron thought twice about his contribution to tip culture when a waitress expressed disapproval for what he and his partner left behind. 

On Sunday, July 6, a 32-year-old man aimed his complaint to the Reddit thread “Am I The Jerk” to determine whether his reaction to the waitress’s outburst was warranted. The original poster, or OP, recalled going out to eat at a “not highly sophisticated” Italian restaurant with his partner, 29. 

Their server, whom OP nicknamed Samantha, seemed to be “in the weeds” during their service and made multiple mistakes, including losing OP’s drink order twice, serving the wrong starter and “vanishing for what seemed like an eternity” when it was time for the couple to order their desserts for the evening.  

“It wasn’t the end of the world; I’ve worked customer service myself, and I get that hectic nights go wild,” OP stated. “However, the service was really poor.”

When it was time to pay the check, OP included a 10% cash tip and added that while it wasn’t “excessive,” it seemed “reasonable given the circumstances.” Unfortunately, Samantha didn’t see it that way and responded with, “Seriously? This is it?” when she saw her tip from OP. 

Samantha continued, “You know, servers can’t pay their rent because of people like you; if you can’t tip properly, don’t dine out.” OP and his partner stood in silence, along with the rest of the restaurant, before he added, “Sorry you feel that way,” as they were getting ready to leave. 

However, when Samantha allegedly mumbled, “Whatever, cheapskate,” loud enough for other patrons in the vicinity to hear, OP walked back to take the tip back and left with his partner. 

“My girlfriend later informed me that I did fine with it; but one of my friends feels like I had overstepped by insisting on getting the tip back; that no matter what, you just leave it and move on,” wrote OP. “I feel like to be scolded and humiliated on account of a 10% tip that I actually did leave is way out of bounds.”

From the comment section of the thread, it seems most people are on the side of the OP. One Redditor explained, “She expected and then demanded a good tip for a crappy job. You were nice enough to leave her something but she wanted to be ungrateful.”

Others added their personal experience and logic for what type of service deserves a higher tip percentage. “I’m a manager of a nicer place and I really hammer into my staff that they can’t expect 20% on a $200 check and give diner-level service. You can’t just be an order taker,” wrote one commenter. “You need to be extensively knowledgeable about the menu, food and drink culture, wine pairing and have the ability to be able to explain food preparation extensively.”

And finally, one comment expressed what multiple comments summed up: “Good servers make good money. Bad servers make bad money. Trash servers talk about their tips in front of customers.”