Earning a 0% Tip
I had been working at this Thai place in my town for about 8 months , and for the last 4 months, I’d seen the same teenaged couple come in every Sunday and leave 0% regardless of service. One day my boss decided enough was enough. “Tui noy!” she all but yelled to me.
(That’s my Thai Nickname. It’s an endearing name generally given to chubby children that loosely translates to “little something”) “I don’t care whose turn it is, you take them next week, and you make sure you earn that 0%” I do a bit of a double take… She can’t possibly mean what I think she means.
“You mean?” She nods and gives me this smile that is equal parts devious and smug. A week later they come in 5 minutes into my shift.
She seats them in my section, smiles at me and tells me to do my worst. Here is a fairly detailed account of the wonderful 45 minutes that followed.
I wait a good 5 minutes before going to greet them and bring waters. They’re ready to order. I don’t have a pen. I’ll be right back.
I promise. I go out back, power smoke a cigarette (takes me about 90 seconds) before I return. They’re my only table and I’m not handling food yet, so I don’t wash my hands.
I reek of smoke. I take her order, pad thai no bean sprouts like always. As he opens his mouth to tell me he’ll have the same I give him the “just a minute” finger and pull out my phone. I text my fiancé and ask if he wants to get dinner from my place or his tonight.
I take his order. I somehow misunderstand and write down extra bean sprouts. Their food comes up while I’m telling my boss and the other waitress a story about my cat.
I finish telling the story before I get their food. I bring it out and walk away as they’re starting to complain about the sprouts. About 5 minutes after they get the food I get a second table.
One is a customer from a former job of mine and we spend a few minutes catching up when I go to greet them. The 0%’s try to signal me as I leave the table, but I stare straight ahead.
I come back for my new table’s order and see that their glasses are missing roughly four sips of water. This simply won’t do!
I hang their ticket and come back to fill their glasses. I look at 0%’s empty glasses, look the guy straight in the eye, smile, and walk away.
He stops me as I’m walking over with apps for my new table and asks for boxes. I tell him I’ll grab them right after I drop off this food.
I play a game of 2048 all the way up to 1024 before bringing them one small box. They ask for two bigger boxes and the check.
I promise I’ll be right back, and then ask my boss to keep an eye on the table I like while I go smoke again. (Obviously I don’t usually take this many smoke breaks, especially not this early into a shift.)
I come back and my boss tells me they came to her for boxes and to pay and told her they’re never coming back. She voids their check, gives me the $20 some dollars, and tells me I earned it. [deleted]