Two people arrested in Philadelphia for not tipping

Its never pleasant but you have to keep your eyes open all the time. Many of these customers,if you let them get one over on you,will come back and try to beat you out of twice as much.

Very true!

Davydd


wj,

I'll take Minnesota Nice over the attitude of the Northeast Corridor anytime. One of my jobs at Target was to troubleshoot construction and maintenance problems at their stores all over the country. There was a wide difference in attitude and subsequent upkeep in stores by employees and the Northeast was the worst place in the United States, IMO. I lived in the Northeast briefly. Leaving Newport, RI for Minneapolis was like a night and day change to me in the way people treated each other.

Ahi,

A tip is coupled with service. Restaurants and wait people have to understand that. It's kind of a golden rule thing. You give back what is given to you. I do tip the service of my wait person and not the management.

Davydd

I'm not disagreeing, although, like Billfish said sometimes others will take advantage of this. I used to see this happen in my own field of insurance back in Seattle. It was too stressful for "this blunt, honest, to the point New Yorker to dance on eggshells" so I  had 3 choices- adapt- migrate- or die. I chose migrate.

Here's an except I found on Youtube of that Seinfeld episode i was talking about. I remember I was living in Seattle at the time and was telling my coworkers and friends that this really does happen- no one believed me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQ6e9siQyrY

Joe's shop has a sign hanging in it that reads "Prices subject to change according to customer attitude"

Man that's a good episode.

Kramer: "...but what am I going to do for fruit?"

Kramer: "...now get the ones that are red on the inside."
Jerry: "How do I know what look like on the inside?"

The best part of that episode is the very end after Jerry can't "please" Elaine and they're laying there in bed and she's hungry...Jerry realizes he's got the mangoes....

The customer may not always be right, but the customer has to be egregiously wrong before I face him down.  Win the battle, lose the war.  Back when I had my restaurant it was just the risk of an upset customer spreading bad word of mouth about my business.  Nowadays, thanks to the Internet, multiply his ability to communicate by hundreds, thousands or more. 

In this case of a customer refusing to pay a gratuity, depending on how wrong we were and how obnoxious the customers were, I would have either just told him to forget it, and hope we do better the next time they come back, or told them to forget it, and please don't come back again.  Actually, it wouldn't happen because I am totally against imposed gratuities except for catering and special functions.

East coast attitude - just another stereotype.  Sometimes true, sometimes not.  Sometimes it is just the matter of taking a minute to break through the outer crust.  Probably true that there is less BS tolerance on the east coast, but I find that refreshing unless I happen to be the one doing the shoveling.

Mandatory gratuity; an oxymoron if I ever heard one. I don't care if it's on the menu. It doesn't mean it has to be paid and it won't hold up in court. I like the example of when it's printed, "We are not responsible if......." Fill in the rest. As a college student I went to an establishment that had a mechanical bull. It was around the time that the movie Urban Cowboy came out. I liked to ride the bull, but I had to sign a piece of paper saying that I wouldn't sue if I got hurt. My Business Law professor told me that I could sue the pants off of them. Same thing with the disclaimer printed on the back of a ticket to a baseball stating the Mets are not responsible if you are injured due to being hit with a thrown or batted ball. These cases are settled all the time.

The manager or owner should not have thought twice about letting these people go without paying the gratuity. He should have apologized and perhaps given them a round of drinks. These customers did nothing wrong. Perhaps that should have sought out the owner/manger earlier. From what transpired, I doubt it would have helped. I hope this place gets what it deserves.

Besides the national press coverage and the reviews on yelp, (many of which are being deleted) both of the colleges the patrons attend have college newspapers. Lehigh University's student newspaper ran a story and editorial:
http://media.www.thebrownandwhite.com/media/storage/paper1233/news/2009/11/20/News/Two-Local.Students.Arrested.For.Refusing.To.Tip.At.Lehigh.Pub-3837030.shtml

http://www.thebrownandwhite.com/home/news/2009/11/20/Opinion/Editorial.Is.Not.Tipping.A.Crime-3837086.shtml

Moravian College has a monthly newspaper, and they have a good satirist on staff. I 'm waiting to read their story:
http://home.moravian.edu/students/org/comenian/

The Faux Nooze channel in  Philadelphia also had some fun with the story; see the video:
http://www.myfoxphilly.com/dpp/good_day_philadelphia/112009_Is_Not_Paying_A_Tip_An_Arrestable_Offense

David_NYC thanks for all those links. Sounds like you're on the pulse of this thing...let us know what comes of this.

This story has brought the satirists to yelp. One first time poster giving a location of Weed, CA (a real place, but doubt he lives there) posted a real gem which is sure to get deleted soon. It would be a shame to lose this  literary gem. Here is a short excerpt that is not as gross as some of the rest of his review:

"The beer I ordered, which I am convinced was actually a mixture of motor oil and seltzer, was finally served to me two and one third hours later in a mostly hollow human skull. Our half-feral waiter insistently growled that this was all that remained of the last patron not to pony up the mandatory 22% gratuity.

My pasta was watery and far from the al dente style Italians prefer, as well as being topped with what I'm quite sure was canned salsa. It, too, was served in an inattentively hollowed-out human skull.

Having successfully completed a course of tetanus boosters necessitated after blundering into the fecally-stained caltrops left near the register, I expect to be back to work any day now. "
 
Other pundits uploaded COPS-type photos to the listing. The featured photo for this restaurant listing right now is of a man's hands handcuffed behind his back.

There was a picture of a man shooting himself in the foot...not sure if it's still there...that was pretty funny.

I heard that a judge threw out the case against the two who were arrested. There was a small paragraph about it recently in a newspaper. Does anyone know anything more? I'm wondering if this Pub has lost a substantial amount of business.

This article talks about the charges possibly being dropped:
http://www.philly.com/phi...e_charges_dropped.html

...and this one talks about the "popularity" of Lehigh Pub now:
http://www.lehighvalleyli...nts_who_refused_t.html

They don't really talk about how business is. I wonder myself. It is actually possible that people have been going there to just say they did. Anyone in the area want to stop in for lunch and report back to us?

Davydd


wj,

I'll take Minnesota Nice over the attitude of the Northeast Corridor anytime. One of my jobs at Target was to troubleshoot construction and maintenance problems at their stores all over the country. There was a wide difference in attitude and subsequent upkeep in stores by employees and the Northeast was the worst place in the United States, IMO. I lived in the Northeast briefly. Leaving Newport, RI for Minneapolis was like a night and day change to me in the way people treated each other.

Ahi,

A tip is coupled with service. Restaurants and wait people have to understand that. It's kind of a golden rule thing. You give back what is given to you. I do tip the service of my wait person and not the management.

DavyD,

Could not agree more being a former next state neighbor of yours.  My wife and I have had many discussions here in Charlotte with locals who say they are sick of the arrogant rude attitudes of people from the northeast  moving here.  I know that might upset some of you but I am not speaking about all of you.  These are quotes from people down here that I just struck conversations up with while sitting at a cafe, neighbors, co-workers and pubs.  It is what it is.

I tip based on service.  I have tipped as high as 40 percent for good service when the experience knocked my socks off.  But once, I left a penny just to make a point when service was non-existent.  And yes, I did talk to manager and explained in a very civil way why I did what I did.