How to pay waiter/waitress tips in a restaurant if I pay with credit card?

Question

Hi, everyone, I am a new immigrant. New to the US as well as its custom. Last night, I had dinner with my friend in a local restaurant. The dinner costed like about 40 bucks, and I paid with credit card, so on the bill, I have to fill out how much tips I want to pay and the total amount, so I wrote down 50 on the total and left the tips blank assuming the waiter would calculate the tips I wanted to pay (eg. 50-40 = 10 bucks) and wrote it down himself, but today when I lookep up my account online, I saw that only 40 bucks are charged from my amount! So what's wrong? Am I suppose to pay tips in cash or do they just mistakenly forgive to charge tips, or should I fill out the amount of tips paid instead of leaving it blank? Thx to anyone who can answer this simple question!!

Answer 1

There should be a blank on the receipt where you can write either the percent or the cash amount that you want to tip.  If you can't find it, I'm sure the waiter/waitress would be happy to help you.  :-)

Answer 2

I used to work in the restuarant business. Unfortunately for that waitress if you do not put a tip on the tip line legally she can not include the tip in the charge. Also, as an FYI to every out there that is going to eat out - if you tip the waitress on your credit card she is legally bound to claim those tips. If you leave her a tip in cash she can claim as much or as little as she wants. The IRS hopes/thinks that waitresses claim 100% but it's easier for them to survive if they don't ... cash is always best!

Answer 3

Next time don't leave it up to the waiter, you are supposed to fill in the "tip" portion yourself.  One day you may find that a waiter tipped themselves on your bill way too generously.

Answer 4

You did it right!  You may see a separate charge come through your account for ten dollars.  If not, the waiter didn't adjust the charge correctly.  Next time to be safe you may want to right in the tip and total it for them.

Answer 5

When I was a waitress, it was up to the server to add the tip into the computer.  It might just be an error on the waiter's part.  On most charge slips it has the tip line, the bill amount and then the total.  Even if you skipped the tip line, it was still up to your server to add the tip.  A credit card payment is a two step process for them.  If you gave them a total, then they should have finished it since you didn't.

Answer 6

you didnt do anything wrong. I work in the service industry as a bartender and people do what you did all the time. They probably just made an error.

40.00

_____

_50.00_

even if you left it blank like so... they should have worked it out when closing the reciept at the end of the night... no worries no problems

welcome to the US (even though I am from Canada)

Answer 7

If you wanted a $10 dollar tip charged to your credit card, you should have filled in the 'tip' portion of the bill. Or, you could have left cash on the table.

Answer 8

on the credit slip there is a space that says tip-you fill that out. if it is blank they figure you do not want to leave a tip. If you decide to pay the tip in cash the rest by credit than you write on the credit slip-tip on table or given to waitperson. when you wrote $50.00 they thought you made a mistake and corrected it.

Answer 9

u must fill out the tip line of the waiter gets nothing  some people pay the waiters in cash it is easier for the waiter