Here’s a Tip
Try better service:
Summit County authorities have filed felony theft charges against a Park City food server who allegedly doctored credit-card receipts to reflect larger tips – up to $100 more.
Fernanda Vieira Smith, 27, of Park City, has been charged with third-degree felony theft in Summit County’s 3rd District Court.
According to the charging document, Smith allegedly altered a number of credit-card receipts between Jan. 26 and March 18 at the upscale Ghidotti’s restaurant near Kimball Junction, where she worked as a server. Authorities said she overcharged more than a dozen customers a total of $1,010.
…
County investigators believe the alleged scheme may have started when the server was left a paltry tip on a large bill.
County Attorney David Brickey said that although food handlers might, from time to time, feel slighted by cheap diners, it is not an excuse to break the law.
Brickey said he prosecuted two similar cases last year in and around Park City.
I bet it happens. An English friend was asking me about tipping. He didn’t understand how much, why. I explained they actually are allowed to pay waitstaff less than minimum wage, and the tip is part of how they get paid. It ensures good service. It’s the American way. Service, tip. No service, stiffed. He was amazed by all of this. Couldn’t believe it.
So I said, “Well, how’s the service in England?”
“Bloody awful.”
“How’s the service in America?”
“Fantastic. The food’s a lot better, too. It’s really good.”
“There you go. Over here, if they want to get paid, they have to hop to.”
Either that, or they just doctor your credit card bill. America is a great country. I saw a light go on in his head. Slowly but surely, my English pal is coming to recognize how vastly superior America is in all respects.
He told me with horror one day, “I overheard an older man in the mall telling a younger lad, ‘The American military is the greatest force for peace in the world. I couldn’t believe it.”
“I know,” I said. “It’s really amazing, isn’t it, once you figure that out.”
“Wot?”
We’re still working on that one. But I’ve explained to him one of these days, he’s going to be back in his own dismal corner of old Blighty (”How was England?” I asked after his last visit. ”Dreary, just the way we like it.”) and some gaptoothed Pom will be sounding off about America this and Yanks that and Iraq Bush blah blah blah, and he’ll find those words coming out of his mouth: “Yeah, well, I don’t expect you to understand it, but the American military is the greatest force for peace in the world. Not only that, but the restaurant service doesn’t suck.”
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 12:17 am Comments (2) on Wednesday, March 26, 2008
2 Responses to “Here’s a Tip”
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March 26th, 2008 at 10:18 am
Heh. Keep at it, you’ll bring him around some day.
March 26th, 2008 at 2:08 pm
This is why you keep all your receipts and match them against your credit card bill.
One of the good things about a weak dollar is the larger number of foreigners who get to visit the US and see what it’s really like (no cowboy shootouts on the streets, no snake-handling Christian fundamentalists burning witches at the stake). If only more of them would push on into the dark heart of the interior, instead of getting all their impressions from the East and Left Coasts.