Via iStockphoto / @gabriellamasseran TikTok
A bartender from Denver has called out a customer after they decided to tip her $00.00 for her service after 'suckling those cocktails down.'
Getting a low tip is both embarrassing and demoralizing for a bartender. But did this one customer take things too far?
Tipping culture discourse is a hot topic these days. As it continues, TikTok user and bartender Gabriella Masseran (@gabriellamasseran) shared a recent customer receipt.
Masseran has shared customer receipts with viewers before. She says she couldn’t resist sharing this one because the tip was “wonderful” and “so funny.”
Covering up the customer’s name, she shows the receipt to the camera.
“I like whenever, like, I get tipped $0, and it’s four zeros,” she says. “Like, that’s just every bartender’s dream—four zeros. As if one zero’s not enough on the receipt, you gotta put four. Almost like you’re trying to show a time clock, you know, but you’re confused between a time clock and how to write money and… four zeros. I think that’s so funny.”
She then points out that the customer spent $26 in total.
“I mean, they suckled those cocktails down, but they didn’t feel like tipping, but that’s OK. … But it’s been a long time since I’ve gotten a $00.00 tip,” she concludes.
In an email to BroBible, the TikToker said, “My only comment is that service industry workers live off tips and work for tips. If you can’t tip then don’t go out.”
What Did Commenters Say?
Commenters had different reactions to this video.
“Looks like infinity to me you essentially own that credit card now,” one quipped.
A fellow bartender added, “No my favorite is $0.50. … $0.50 is going out the way to say they hated me!”
Similarly, another bartender wrote, “My favorite was when my customers wrote ‘Merry Christmas’ on the receipt and proceeded to tip me zero.”
A fourth suggested that the patron made that choice on purpose. The idea, apparently, is “to prevent any idea of you thinking there is a penny or any fraction of a penny.”
Wanting justice, a fifth joked, “Anyone know who was at that bar, at that time (look at the receipt) and knows that handwriting?? Call him out.”
Elsewhere, several commenters suggested that the TikToker put a number in front of all those zeros.
What Is ‘Troll Tipping’?
It is possible that the $00.00 tip was “troll tipping.” The idea behind this involves a ridiculously small tip in order to mess with the bartender or server.
As explained by one Redditor, “Back in the day, it was apparently a thing to tip exactly a quarter dollar if the service was bad—a troll tip, decades before trolling was a thing!”
According to another Reddit user on this post, tipping somebody something tiny like 25 cents or even 1 cent is “meant as a reminder that you didn’t just forget.”
The original Redditor also said that “the idea is that the data analyst would tend to ignore zero values, whereas something like 0.18 (or 0.02, or 0.25) being a common custom entry would garner more attention.”
Based on this, a $00.00 tip isn’t a “troll tip” in the traditional sense. But arguably, somebody taking the trouble to write not one, but four zeros surely falls into this category. It shows that they aren’t just being cheap about it all. Rather, they are meticulously communicating that you don’t deserve even a penny of their money.