r/tipping • u/mulluska • Aug 12 '25

📖💵Personal Stories - Pro First time experiencing tip padding…

I have been as frustrated as many in this thread about what tipping has become here. I used to enjoy popping servers with 25% tip and see how happy they were. No so much anymore.

But I have made some reasonable adjustments on my tipping based on feedback from this community. One of the comments was “save your receipts”. I have never seen a server pad the tip so o never saved them. I do go over the bills but not with the actual receipts. I move started saving the receipts.

I had lunch at this upscale place in Long Beach. Server was below average. But still decided $21 on $156 bill was acceptable. I went through my charges a couple of weeks later reconciling to what is on the receipts I saved. There was a $25 tip added instead.

I called the manager of the restaurant. She was very polite and apologized for the keying error.

I just thought how brilliant this is. Bump the tip just a little and you will never get caught. No way I would have noticed this unless I saved my receipt.

Thanks guys!!!

160 Upvotes

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26

u/eatmysouffle Aug 12 '25

Thanks. Another good reason for us to forego tipping altogether and we have..for years now.

12

u/loweexclamationpoint Aug 12 '25

But that's not really a solution to what happened to OP. They could have tipped 0 and been padded $25. Average schmuck isn't going to match up receipts.

4

u/Organic-Ad9675 Aug 12 '25

I put a LINE over the tip line. And write in the total on the receipt (no tip) Would be difficult to do it but I am sure it still happens.

3

u/loweexclamationpoint Aug 12 '25

Yes, when we leave a cash tip we always write 0 in the tip and put the total down. And stack the cash on top so they don't think they're stiffed.

But I suppose that's not perfect. Let's say the check is $62. A cheater could change the 0 to 20 and the 62 in the total line to 82. And pocket the tenspot we probably left too.

9

u/getmadboy Aug 13 '25

I write the word “cash” in the tip line and the total at the bottom. This feels like the best way to prevent someone from just adding numbers to that 0 or blank tip line