Waiting Tables and why I don't do it anymore — Page 4

I've never had the cc handling fee charged back to me when I was working in restaurants. I imagine that would be illegal?

For those who are curious how the waiters get credit card tips, it works something like this (at least this is how it worked where I have worked). It's a bit confusing so bear with me.

The waiter acts as sort of a "bank" for each shift - that is, the money on items the waiter "sold" doesn't go to the actual restaurant until the end of the waiter's shift. The waiter holds cash transactions and credit card transactions in his pocket. At the end of the shift, the waiter has to basically reconcile the transactions with the restaurant.

He closes out all of his checks, each is coded as "credit card" or "cash" or "gift card" etc. If he has a credit card tip(s), indicates the amount of the tip on the computer when the check is closed out.

Once he is finished, he runs a report of all his sales and transactions for the evening. Then he "pays" the restaurant the sales, minus the credit card tips he is owed. If the waiter has no cash because all of his tables were credit cards, the restaurant pays him the credit card tips. It's all outlined on the report. If the waiter had all cash tables (rare), he simply pays the restaurant what he sold, and keeps the rest. Usually it's a combination of cash and credit card sales, so the "reconciliation" is important. The manager usually has to sign off on the report before the restaurant will "pay out" or accept the waiter's "pay in."

Then typically, the waiter uses his own remaining tips (by this time, all credit card tips have been converted to cash) to give a percentage (usually a percentage of his sales, not of his tips, although this is really up to the waiter) to the bartender and another percentage to the busboys. This is called "tipping out." Tipping out is important, not only because the bartenders and busboys work hard and deserve it, but because they remember which waiters are "good tippers" and the service they provide YOU as a waiter can be affected either positively or not so positively.

Sammich - thanks for the Reservoir Dogs bit! I had forgotten about that.

Updated On: 4/20/07 at 10:40 AM

Interesting, Calvin. I didn't know it's illegal to set a minimum purchase amount on credit card purchases. My school's general store thing used to do that, and it always honked me off.
Props to servers, yo. I eat out a lot and I know for a fact that I couldn't hack it. IMHO, retail is a lot easier.

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"What ever happened to "Hello, may I help you" "Thank you", "have a nice day" a smile even...none of that happens anymore and it's pathetic."

Yes, it does. I make it a point to ask each customer who comes up to cash wrap at least "Did you find everything all right?" and to smile. Some people, despite my best efforts, choose not to respond or to just stare at me sullenly. I don't get it.

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Where I work the management and the bar don't get a cut. Two of the managers are actually co-owners of the restaurant and the bar is a basically a different entity than the restaurant. We do have a sommelier but he gets a big ass salary so he only gets 2% from us.

I think the credit card handling fee or interchange fee or whatever it's called is like 3% of the total bill. I remember working at Baskin Robbins one summer when I was 16, and my boss told me that's why he had a minimum purchase sign up on the register, because if someone was buying like, a single scoop of ice cream for $1.79 than it was just such a hassle and the cost of ink and paper would end up costing more than the actual cost of the ice cream. Incidentally, that cheap old bastard used to keep everyone's tips too. We had a little tip jar out in front where people would leave quarters and such and he would do random sweeps and just dump the whole thing into the register. And once in a while people would tip a few bucks on a receipt and he would never ever reimburse us on out paychecks. He should be arrested, lol. So listen you guys, if you're ever in Falls Church, Virginia and feel like getting ice cream, please do not go to the Baskin Robbins on Route 7. :) Go to Ben and Jerry's instead.

Speaking of tips, have any of you current or former servers had to deal with pooling tips? I found that to be an ever-lovin' nightmare anywhere I worked where I had to do that. Inevetiably I always wound up walking with less than I actually earned.

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You have to earn tips from me and Ivan. We just don't hand out 20% because it's "expected".

The most I've ever tipped is 50%, and that was because our server ROCKED.

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Except for that whole "DYKE" incident...

That wasn't a very friendly staff member.

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I'd be thrilled if anyone would call me a dyke.

I've been working on my butchness.

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