A Rhode Island waiter served a five-top of teenage guests who walked in just five minutes before closing. When she saw what they tipped her at the end of the meal, she quickly handed the cash back to them.
In a video with over 519,000 views, TikToker Blondie (@blondieblast1) recounted her shift from the night before while eating a bagel in her car.
“I was a little bit annoyed, but I’m not going to treat them rude,” she says. However, she couldn’t believe how little they tipped her at the end of the night.
“They tipped me $3 on $141,” she exclaims. “They were like, ‘You can keep the change.'”
After she realized the tip was only $3, she decided to return it to the table.
“I brought it right back to them and said, ‘You guys can actually have that,'” she recalls. “Yeah, I’m going to give you your f—— tip back, b—-. I do not need your $3.”
Blondie notes that she understands the guests were young and questions whether their parents didn’t teach them to tip properly.
Have Other Servers Returned A Low Tip?
According to Reader’s Digest, it’s now customary to tip at least 20% when dining in person regardless of service quality. A lower tip might be more appropriate for takeout or delivery.
Some servers share their savage responses on social media for when customers don’t give them the bare minimum expected tip.
On the r/TalesFromYourServer subreddit, some say they ignore guests who tell them to “keep the change” if it’s an inappropriately small amount.
“I’ve returned the change/small tip and been told again ‘No, that’s for you!’ …all of a sudden I’m Helen Keller. I just smile and walk away,” one said.
“When some tells me to keep the change and it makes a ridiculously small tip I pretend I didn’t hear them and give them their change,” another wrote.
However, some servers are more direct when handling bad tippers.
A commenter shared, “Lady tipped me a nickel, I walked outside after her and threw it on the sidewalk. ‘You need this more than I do.’ Walked back in.”
Do Young Diners Get A Pass?
Some commenters agreed that the young restaurant guests might not know how to tip correctly and shared their own stories of teenagers getting humbled for bad tips.
“I had a teen not tip on a first date. An hour later the mom called to ask how much he tipped, bc she paid for the dinner in cash ahead of time and he pocketed the rest,” one server shared. “She dragged him back in by the ear to apologize and tip me.”
However, some servers said they don’t expect teenagers to tip at all.
“I feel you but I would never expect a teen to tip me. They are kids who are broke 95% of the time so that’s like expecting a 10-year-old to tip you. It’s silly to be upset about,” a server wrote.
“This high school couple used to tip me their CHANGE. Take their cash, leave the change on the table and tell me that it was mines. After the second time, I told them ‘trust me you need it more than I do,'” a second said.
Another added, “When they’re young I don’t expect a tip at all. Most of them don’t know and it’s frustrating.”
BroBible reached out to Blondie via TikTok direct message and comment. We will update the story when she replies.