The tip is not included

 

You will never get a tip with a bad attitude.

 

It had to happen to me one day, and that day was today. It was a hot day, so I wanted to go for a good bowl of ice cream, one that would remind me of the days when I used to go to old and famous cafeterias in the center of Bucharest and chill off the day.

In search of a good ice cream. It was a mission for the start because it was hard to find a place which offers a bowl of ice cream with biscuits and fruits, whipped cream and strawberry sauce. So I walked down on Rytirska Street behind Mustek, and asked in some of the coffee places if they have some good ice cream. Since I couldn’t find what I was looking for, I kept walking past Stavovske Theatre and ended up in Grand Café Orient – Kubisticka Kavarna, which is a well-known coffee place in Prague with long-term tradition. I was hoping that this would be the place where I would get a great ice cream and a good service.

Wrong place. It turned out I couldn’t be more wrong. I sit down, and read the menu. I found an ice cream which sounded perfect, chocolate ice cream with sour cherries, chocolate chips and whipped cream. The waiter comes and without looking at me, he asks if I am ready to order. He was looking down, I don’t know, maybe to look if his shoes were polished, waiting for my answer. I was waiting for him to pay some attention at me, the client, who should get some service. When he finally looked at me, I gave him the order, and I was looking forward to eating it. Few minutes later, the ice cream comes, and it was much smaller than I imagined. Just one scoop of ice cream and that one was melted. When I try to eat it, I realized that he gave us a fork instead of a spoon. I never had Ice cream with a fork before. Never mind that, I ate it and it was nothing special for 135 kc.

Bad attitude, Cheating, No manners.  In the meantime, I hear a conversation between two waiters, complaining about the tip that the previous clients left, and he seemed very upset about it. I didn’t pay attention to it much. Not until, my turn comes to pay the bill. He comes to the table and without giving me the bill, he said “Its 380 kc”. I give him the money and I say, please bring me the bill. I knew already that he was trying the cheat me. He came with the bill which was just 340 kc, and before I have time to comment on it, he starts to explain to me that THE TIP IS NOT INCLUDED and that is why the bill is less than what he charged me. And here I LOST IT, but I’m a lady… I told him very politely, that I understand the tip is not included, and it’s up to me NOT him to decide IF and HOW MUCH I will leave a tip. Then he starts to argue with me that I don’t understand what he is telling me, giving me a long story, that people make mistakes between the tip and the VAT, and they think it’s already included but it’s not and he has decided to take his own tip, just like that. I was astonished, and I tried again to explain to him, that it’s not the first restaurant I go to, I know what is VAT and it’s still up to me to decide. Then he asked me IF I AM NOT SATISFIED WITH THE SERVICE. I got up and told him I’m going to talk to his boss about their approach, right now. Then he decided to take a touchy approach, and ask me if I know how much is his salary? He said ”Do you know, that I get only 7000 kc from my employer?” I couldn’t believe it, this guy had no common sense, not to mention manners. A man trying to get tip from a lady and then arguing about it, like it was his right.  Am I missing something here?  Instead of apologizing, and coming with some excuse, he was arguing for his right to get a tip.

When he saw, I’m serious about getting him in trouble, he returned my money, and left. I remained pretty calm, I must say, but I was still thinking of going to the manager and complaining about his attitude. And then I decided not to do it. I could get him unemployed, and he deserved it, but I felt pity for him. What a sad case.

I would have left tip, even if I was not happy with the service or the ice cream. It was definitely nothing to talk about, a less than average experience, but I leave a tip most of the times. That until he decided to make the decision for me, as it is his right, he thought. How sad, how truly sad. He will be poor and sour for the rest of his career as a waiter, because he has no idea how to make money.

Attitude matters. A little tip from me, for him, would be to help him understand how things work. Its pretty basic, even my dog understands how things work. If you are nice to people, they are nice to you. If you connect to people, look at them, smile at them (or not, I personally don’t care for fake smiles) give them a good experience, they will be more likely to tip you, thank you and come back again. On the contrary, if you cheat them, argue with them, and make them feel uncomfortable, your tip is leaving with them.

It had to happen to me, at some point.