Waitress gives herself tip on my Credit card

[Forbin]

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to the people claiming this is extremely common:

you're getting robbed

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Actually it's the other way around. Restaurants and bars do this so that they don't get robbed. I don't know the exact reason restaurants do it, but I worked at a bar for 3 years and we did this regularly in $20 increments. We would start a tab with a person's credit card. If we didn't preauth. the cards, they could start a tab, drink all night long, walk out on their tab, and the bar would be responsible for covering the money.

After the preauthorization clears your card is charged the normal amount.


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A tab is quite a different beast. That is the bar effectively extending credit to someone just because he has a card. If you plan to charge it, you have to check that it is good.

The only way that would apply to the situation here is if the OP handed over his credit card when he first walked in. Then as he ordered a drink, an appetizer, a main course, and then desert, the waitress kept incrementally authorizing charges.

[mbillie1]

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To the OP, there really is no reason why an authorized amount (usually showing up as "pending charges" on card web sites) should not be exactly what your bill was. If the restaurant is authorizing over what they should be, you should point this out to them so they can correct it. If it shows up as an actual charge, then someone (the waitress? the owner?) is stealing from you, and obviously this should be pointed out to them as well.

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I assume the reason this is done is because since people now pay with debit cards, credit card gift cards, etc it is possible for the bill to be say, $42 and the individual have $44 on his/her debit/gift card, leave a tip amount and have that amount "bounce" when it is attempted to be processed later. I've had the pending charge exceed the final charge amount multiple times and it's always reverted to the correct amount. This is to make sure that you have enough money on available credit/in your account to pay the tip, should you choose to leave it on your card (like most people do who pay with cards).

I don't think this is a giant individual rights issue...

[cuadpi]

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Would a server rather you leave a cash tip or one that is part of the credit card charge?

Stu

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It depends on how they report their income for tax purposes. They are supposed to report all taxes, but since that is difficult to track, the common requirement is 8% of sales. At the bar where I worked it was recorded as so: Any credit card tips were recorded directly and then an additional 8% of cash sales was added to the total to be reported. If one of the cc tips was zero, then it usually evened out the bigger cc tips to be closer to 8%.

Some restaurants have the waitresses/bartenders tip out to the bussers, cooks, etc., so the tips are counted and recorded exactly. I would assume that those are used as tax reporting as well, so unless they are hiding cash tips to keep from tipping out as much, it doesn't matter if it is on cc or cash.

So basically it depends on how honest you want your waitress/bartender to be and if you care what they do with their taxes. If you want to make sure they tip out/report as much as they should you should tip via cc. If you figure it is their business either way, then you should do whatever makes it easiest for you (i.e. if someone else is picking up the tip while you are putting the meal on cc).

[Forbin]

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Except it's not going to show up as an actual charge because no one is stealing from him. Why are you getting so worked up about this?

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I think worked up is a bit much. I'm surfing the web while doing some other things on my computer, and correcting some misinformation people are spreading as "common practice."

Either way (preauth for too much or actual charge too much), the OP should know that something was done wrong. After that it's up to him whether he does anything about it.

[hmkpoker]

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Chalk it up as the expense of a life lesson.

Next time, draw a line through the tip when you are not tipping on your card.

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I think I have to agree with this. If it was a sizable hunk of money I'd tell you to take action, but it's only eight bucks. Check with the restaurant to make sure that they don't have a policy of including gratuity. If she's making a habit doing something against restaurant policy (which I imagine this has to be), then rest assured that she'll soon be caught and fired.

[CappyAA]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
to the people claiming this is extremely common:

you're getting robbed

[/ QUOTE ]

Actually it's the other way around. Restaurants and bars do this so that they don't get robbed. I don't know the exact reason restaurants do it, but I worked at a bar for 3 years and we did this regularly in $20 increments. We would start a tab with a person's credit card. If we didn't preauth. the cards, they could start a tab, drink all night long, walk out on their tab, and the bar would be responsible for covering the money.

After the preauthorization clears your card is charged the normal amount.


[/ QUOTE ]

A tab is quite a different beast. That is the bar effectively extending credit to someone just because he has a card. If you plan to charge it, you have to check that it is good.

The only way that would apply to the situation here is if the OP handed over his credit card when he first walked in. Then as he ordered a drink, an appetizer, a main course, and then desert, the waitress kept incrementally authorizing charges.

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I agree - I'm not sure why a restaurant would do this. But the bar I worked at also was a restaurant during the day, and we did this for some reason on food orders as well. I don't necessarily agree with it when it is only charged once, but I can see that it would happen like that.

[Forbin]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

To the OP, there really is no reason why an authorized amount (usually showing up as "pending charges" on card web sites) should not be exactly what your bill was. If the restaurant is authorizing over what they should be, you should point this out to them so they can correct it. If it shows up as an actual charge, then someone (the waitress? the owner?) is stealing from you, and obviously this should be pointed out to them as well.

[/ QUOTE ]

I assume the reason this is done is because since people now pay with debit cards, credit card gift cards, etc it is possible for the bill to be say, $42 and the individual have $44 on his/her debit/gift card, leave a tip amount and have that amount "bounce" when it is attempted to be processed later. I've had the pending charge exceed the final charge amount multiple times and it's always reverted to the correct amount. This is to make sure that you have enough money on available credit/in your account to pay the tip, should you choose to leave it on your card (like most people do who pay with cards).

I don't think this is a giant individual rights issue...

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It isn't some rights issue, I'm just trying to point out what the actual rules are. Visa has the rule in place for precisely the reason the OP made this post, and they explicitly say that in that pdf:
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Say, for example, a cardholder’s restaurant bill is $100, but the staff adds on a 20 percent tip—that is, $20—for authorization purposes. If the cardholder only adds on a $15 tip, or leaves the tip in cash, the authorization “hold” on the larger amount may make it appear he or she was overcharged. And that, in turn, can mean angry phone calls from unhappy customers—and the potential for reduced business.

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That sure sounds familiar.

So in the past you've seen lots of charges show up smaller than the original hold. That's great for you. But both you and the OP should know that that should not be happening.

I don't understand why it bothers you to have this info pointed out.

[testaaja]

Tipping haha, that's something we don't do in Finland. But yeah that's STEALING.

[hiho]

I think that the waitress just added it on thinking that it wouldn't be noticed. I've waited before and you'd be surprised how many people wouldn't even notice this. Word to the wise, if you're a bad tipper and you pay the bill with CC and give a small cash tip, expect to be charged extra on your CC. Its the only way to make up for bad tippers sometimes.

[bobman0330]

Wait a few days then call the police. Alternative plan is to try to shake down the restaurant for free stuff, but be a good citizen and get her fired/arrested.