When it comes to leaving a tip, most people work out an appropriate amount based on their server's attitude and attentiveness. But that's not always the case as one waitress came to understand.
One diner has explained how he ended up getting his waitress fired after leaving her a "low tip" on a $49.82 (£40.76) bill. He said on Reddit: "I was dining at an upscale restaurant and the bill came out. I pulled out a $50 to pay, and told the waitress I didn't need change. It should go without saying, but I was planning on leaving the rest of her tip on the table."
However, before he got a chance to speak another word, the waitress walked off in a "huff" over her measly 18 cents tip.
"The waitress misunderstood my intentions and said 'Really?' loud enough for all the other diners to hear," he added.
"Before I could say anything, she said something like 'Wow - thanks for the generous tip', snatched the payment from the table, and walked away in a huff.
"All the diners around me were staring daggers at me. It was humiliating."
Wanting to resolve the situation, the man flagged down the manager to let him know what happened - saying he'd "never stiff servers".
The man said: "He offered to comp the meal, but I said it wasn't necessary. I just wanted to let him know what happened and would be on my way.
"The manager insisted that I was owed an apology. It made sense to me at the time. She apologises, gets her tip, I leave, everyone is happy.
"When the manager called the waitress over, both of us saw her roll her eyes as she was walking here.
"As soon as the manager saw this, he put on his 'you're about to get fired' face.
"All the tears and pleading made no difference. It was ugly. People were filming with their cell phones."
When he arrived home, his wife called him out for being an a***hole for making a "huge scene out of nothing and getting that poor girl fired".
But wanting another opinion, he has turned to Reddit to ask users for their views.
He added: " I feel like all I did was share a legitimate complaint to the manager. She is the one who escalated it by rolling her eyes at us. Am I being unreasonable? What would you have done in this situation?"
In response, one user said: "It was a misunderstanding and you weren’t wrong to notify her manager because it was extremely unprofessional.
"That manager is an a***hole, though. That’s a back of house conversation not something done in the dining room. It was unnecessarily brutal."
Another user added: "She had no way of knowing how you'd planned to tip. She's the a***hole here for reacting before everything was settled.
"Does it suck as a server to get stiffed? Absolutely. Do you ever, as a server, confront a paying customer for not leaving the tip you think you deserve? Nope."
A third user said: "I don't understand why you pulled out the $50 and then said you didn't need change.
"Why wouldn't you pull out the full amount of money you intended to pay, including tip?
"It's not like you'd pay $49.82 + $10 tip and expect 18 cents change.
"The only reason I can think you doing that is because you wanted to engineer this whole event."
One more user added: "As a former server, you know that 'keep the change' meant she for sure thought she was getting 18 cents for all of her work.
"Why didn't you just put her tip in the folder along with your $50 like normal people? Then, you called her out to her manager on the floor.
"That said, I would have probably fired her too, because while it sucks to get stiffed, she should have remained professional, but you definitely instigated the whole scene in a big a***holey way."
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