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Elite Veteran
Posts: 617
 
| After 7 years of waitressing where I do, I'm finally ready to throw in the towel. They are very difficult to work for, but the customers and coworkers have kept me there. Was hoping to stay until I was done with school, but I'm looking for a new job.
Unethical or illegal? Let me know.
1) If we ever make a mistake on the food we pay for it full price. So if i put in a the wrong entree...well guess I just bought myself dinner. I think this is unethical. It does make it so we don't make mistakes, BUT we are human and do sometimes. The other night someone opened the wrong beer and set it aside. The owner went NUTSSS!!! Yelling someone was going to pay for this and it wasn't going to be her! Half the servers are under 21...umm wouldn't that be illegal to charge THEM for a mistake beer? If so, if they wouldn't have to pay for a mistake drink... why should people over 21 do so then??
2) At the end of the night we pay them 6% of our credit card tips to cover expenses of using the credit card machine. I am not mistaking this for taxes because we do pay taxes as well. Unethical or illegal?
3) If a customer uses a credit card, when it prints the receipt we are required to write down the 3-digit security code on the restaurants copy of the receipt. I have had people MAD, because its suppose to be a SECURITY code. I totally understand because I myself have had my identity stolen.
Would like opinions. Thanks! |
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 Firecracker Dog Lover
Posts: 3175
  
| Sounds to me like I would be looking for a new job. None of it is illegal but if those are their policies not much you can do about it. As a customer no WAY would you be writing down my security code from my card. Wow. |
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 Midget Lover
Location: Kentucky | All of it seems sketch.... I've never worked in the restuarant biz before, so not sure. You may want to PM TxDad and see what he says. I'd be looking for something else though. Paying them 6% of your tips seems illegal to me. |
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Sideways Riding Expert
Posts: 11371
Location: ND--it snows, it floods, it snows, it floods | The credit card thing seems sketchy but the rest seems to be okay but very difficult to work with and I would definately be looking somewhere else. |
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  Shipwrecked and Flat Out Zapped
Posts: 16390
Location: DUMPING CATS AND PIGS IN TEXAS :) | I feel your frustrations and think a new job is in order, HOWEVER, NEVER, NEVER complain about an accidental unopened beer.......you scoop that bugger up, run to the bathroom and down it as fast as you can! The rest of the night will seem soooooo much better. |
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 Water Weight Barbie
Posts: 6829
Location: Oz, Kansas | Wow do you work for Amy's Bakery in Phoenix? There's no way in he!! I would give anyone the security code on my receipt. Can you contact the Attorney General's office in your area & ask them? |
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 Hawty & Nawty
Posts: 20424
| I've been that business for years and everything you just described is an utter joke. Please do yourself a favor and get out of there.
Paying for mistakes? They are already pricing those meals for mistakes, I promise you that.
Charging 6% tip for use of credit cards? It sounds illegal as heck but who can afford to check? Nobody.
Unless you're making more than a hundred a day, forget it. |
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 Serious Snap Trapper
Posts: 4275
Location: In The Snow, AZ | When I waitressed, we had to "tip-out" 10%. So 6% doesn't seem too bad. We actually had bussers that would take tips off the table and pocket them. Managers didn't care.
As far as serving alcohol, I thought one had to be of legal drinking age to serve? I could be wrong... |
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Shipwrecked and Flat Out Zapped
Posts: 16390
Location: DUMPING CATS AND PIGS IN TEXAS :) | Side note.....did you ever see that I Love Lucy episode where she and her co-worker eat the "candy" because it's coming too fast for them to wrap it???? lol.....I'd make my mistakes disppear so fast......what unopened beer?? I don't see any beer here.........
What? Somebody put pickles on this burger and the customer didn't want them? Down the hatch......all gone now. No body is going to charge me for some extra pickles lol.... |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 617
| ~BINGO~ - 2014-04-01 10:54 AM
When I waitressed, we had to "tip-out" 10%. So 6% doesn't seem too bad. We actually had bussers that would take tips off the table and pocket them. Managers didn't care.
As far as serving alcohol, I thought one had to be of legal drinking age to serve? I could be wrong...
We do tip out bussers 10% also lol I dont mind that though... I like the kids, they do a good job. I don't think any of them would ever take from us...sorry u had jerks :/ |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 617
| LRQHS - 2014-04-01 10:51 AM
I feel your frustrations and think a new job is in order, HOWEVER, NEVER, NEVER complain about an accidental unopened beer.......you scoop that bugger up, run to the bathroom and down it as fast as you can! The rest of the night will seem soooooo much better.
I am laughing so hard!!!! I freaking wish!!!!!! |
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Shipwrecked and Flat Out Zapped
Posts: 16390
Location: DUMPING CATS AND PIGS IN TEXAS :) | cn1705 - 2014-04-01 10:58 AM LRQHS - 2014-04-01 10:51 AM I feel your frustrations and think a new job is in order, HOWEVER, NEVER, NEVER complain about an accidental unopened beer.......you scoop that bugger up, run to the bathroom and down it as fast as you can! The rest of the night will seem soooooo much better. I am laughing so hard!!!! I freaking wish!!!!!!
Don't wish, little buddy! Make it happen. You put that beer under your apron and run like the wind lol.... |
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 Veteran
Posts: 288
| ~BINGO~ - 2014-04-01 11:54 AM
When I waitressed, we had to "tip-out" 10%. So 6% doesn't seem too bad. We actually had bussers that would take tips off the table and pocket them. Managers didn't care.
As far as serving alcohol, I thought one had to be of legal drinking age to serve? I could be wrong...
Tipping out other employees that assist you doing your job (bussers/dishwashers or event the bartender) is one thing and pretty customary IMO, but tipping out the OWNER because the owner decided to increase her sales by installing a credit/debit card machine.. that is the wackiest thing I ever heard. Essentially you are paying her to work for her if that is the case. You should not have to give any percent of your tips back to the owner. They sound like greedy money grubbers. |
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The Advice Guru
Posts: 6419
| I would speak with the labor board, on hypothetical. Keep documentation, photos, dates, times, etc. When you have a different job report them. |
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 Neat Freak
Posts: 11216
Location: Wonderful Wyoming | I really don't know any answers but I am thinking if you are under 21 it is illegal to serve the alcohol? Maybe not...
I was a cashier/hostess at the Little America in Cheyenne. let me tell you, I used to go home and have nightmares about my day at work. It was so stressful and I only worked in the coffee shop. The customers were HORRIBLE. Being older (I was 16-17 then) I would now just dump the food all over the couple old nasty regulars and QUIT. I still look back and think how fun that would be. Most of my coworkers were fun and a couple of the managers were nice...guess that is what kept me in check. |
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 Witty Enough
Posts: 2954
Location: CTX | I have never worked as a waitress, but it does sound funny to me. So if you can find something else I would go for it!
Now, your comment about the security-code made me think..... (thanks a lot, now I got a headache....  ) but everytime we give our CC to a waiter/waitress to run through the system they can write down the nr without us knowing.... Me thinks, I will be paying cash from now on.... |
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 Damn Yankee
Posts: 12390
Location: Somewhere between raising hell and Amazing Grace | No advice....but part of the reason hubby and I never put tips on a card if we use a card to pay for the meal. We always tip in cash. I don't know if it helps or not but I think too many times servers, at least the good ones, are way under appreciated.
We also would NEVER in a million years let someone write down the security code. We don't even allow servers to take our cards. We will walk with them to a register if need be. Hubby had almost 2k wiped out of his bank account by a server at a resturaunt in GA two years ago...... |
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 Fact Checker
Posts: 16575
Location: Displaced Iowegian | Legalities
In general, it's not illegal in the United States for a restaurant to assess credit card processing fees against their servers. While there are some exceptions as determined by each state, restaurants are free to assess a processing fee for credit card tips against their servers as long as it doesn't reduce their hourly wage below minimum-wage limits for the state.
Exceptions
Some states, such as California, Colorado, Alaska, Montana, Oregon, and New Mexico, have statutes prohibiting the practice. Washington State has a disclosure statute. While restaurants are not prohibited from the practice, those participating in fee distribution are required to post a notification of such practices in full view of their customers.
Considerations
Servers, many paid only $2.13 per hour without tips, rely on tips to bring their hourly wage up to a livable income. Servers are taxed 15 percent on their tips by the federal government. When tips are left on credit cards, they are 100-percent traceable and auditable by the Internal Revenue Service. Add to that another 1.5 to 3 percent for credit card processing fees and your server takes home $4.10 to $4.17 of your $5 tip. Tipping in cash allows the server to circumvent the processing charge. I don't know what state you are located but here are a few guidelines for the credit card fees....in some states, it IS illegal. Additionally, I am pretty sure that in most every state a waitress MUST be of legal age to serve beer or liquor......it would be illegal to let the person serve and illegal to charge the person for the drink. |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 999
Location: Sunny So Cal | Don't know how you worked there for so long? I would have left long ago. I used to waitress but could not handle all the crazy people haha! I do know it is illegal for anyone under the age of 21 to serve beer, let alone handle it. |
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 Miss Laundry Misshap
Posts: 5271
| In Iowa you only have to be 18 to serve beer. EDIT (I think) I seem to remember serving it when I turned 18. I know I couldn't before that and the kids under me couldn't serve it.
As for having the security code for the CC, I think that's baloney. I ran CCs through and you didn't have to have the CC security code, just the front number.
As for the CC fees, I would think that would come with running a business and shouldn't be the employees responsibility to pay. I know we didn't have to pay for them, that was a part of the owners responsibility.
As for any of this being Unlawful, I would check your state statutes. For it being unethical, that's sort of hard to judge because ethics have to do with personal information and decisions.
Edited by Nateracer 2014-04-01 1:25 PM
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