Customers Leave Waitress With No Tip On Their $160 Bill After She Refused To Serve Alcohol To Their Underage Daughter
Who knew you could lose money just by doing your job?
@participationawardwife / TikTok / Davideangelini / Shutterstock After a Pennsylvania waitress refused to serve a customer who did not have their ID on them an alcoholic drink, her parents decided to make her entire experience serving them a nightmare.
And it didn’t end even after they left the restaurant.
The customers did not tip the waitress on their $160 bill since she would not serve their underage daughter alcohol.
In a series of three TikTok videos, a waitress recounts the story of what she calls her “worst table ever,” she claims that the lack of tip money was not even the most significant issue. It was how the customers treated her after she did her job and refused to serve alcohol to their underage daughter who failed to show her identification.
The story begins during one of the waitress’ evening shifts when a table of four was seated in her section, a couple and their two young adult daughters. “The adult daughters were young, looked maybe 18 or 19 or their early twenties,” the waitress shares.
After inquiring about nearly the entire menu, the table put in their drink orders. The younger of the two daughters ordered a cocktail. However, when the waitress asked her for her ID to ensure that she was at least 21 years old, she claimed that she did not have it on her.
“I said, ‘I’m really sorry, but it’s Pennsylvania state law that I cannot serve you without an ID,’” she informed the young woman. Although her parents did not agree with the state law. “Her mom and her dad were like, ‘We’re her parents! We can vouch for her!’” the waitress says. She informed them that she needed physical proof of their daughter’s age before she could serve her alcohol of any kind.
After the young woman shared that she had a photo of her passport to prove her age, the waitress ran it by her manager, who told the family that she needed a physical copy of her identification. The waitress claims that the woman became “furious” and began acting like “the biggest brat in the world.”
“Was she 21? I don’t know, it doesn’t matter, you don’t have your physical ID,” she says. “If you want to be responsible enough to drink, you need to be responsible enough to bring your ID.”
When the waitress returned to the table with their appetizers, the young woman’s mother slid her drink over to her young daughter within plain sight of the waitress and asked her if she could order another one for herself. “Did I underage drink? For sure. But did I do it in a restaurant? No, because I’m not going to make it someone else’s problem that I wasn’t responsible enough to bring my ID,” the waitress says.
After she alerted the manager of what the mother was up to, he remained in sight of their table so that if he saw her pass her drink to her daughter, he would ask them to leave since their liquor license would be at risk.
The mother then had her older daughter, who the waitress says was “very uncomfortable” by the entire situation, order a drink herself and attempt to sneak some to her younger sister. According to the waitress, the older daughter was born in 1999, meaning that the younger daughter must have been born in the early 2000s and most likely underage.
Frustrated after the younger daughter was refused a drink, the family made the waitress’ shift tortuous by complaining about every single food order that arrived, sending it back to the kitchen each time and claiming that the alcoholic drinks they did receive were “watered down.”
“We’re never coming back here,” the father informed the waitress, who agreed that they were not a good fit for obvious reasons.
The family then left the restaurant without tipping the waitress at all for their $160 bill. “I’ve been serving for over 15 years in some capacity and they were probably the most disrespectful table I ever had,” she shares. Since it was a slow night and they were her most expensive table, she, unfortunately, went home with very little tip money.
Photo: TikTok
The waitress begs others to have compassion for wait staff when they dine out at restaurants, noting that certain things, including serving alcohol to customers who fail to present proof of age, are out of their control.
State laws regarding alcohol consumption vary across restaurants. Most of them require customers to present some form of ID. Generally, an acceptable form of identification includes a government-issued photo ID such as a driver's license, passport, or identity card, which indicates the person's date of birth.
If you fail to present this, you may be denied any alcoholic substances. However, it is no reason not to provide your hardworking servers with a tip.
Megan Quinn is a writer at YourTango who covers entertainment and news, self, love, and relationships.