Tipping can be a minefield for even the most well-meaning customers. Whether it’s due to the rising cost of things like eating out or simply because the customer and server have different ideas about what is an acceptable tip, this practice can quickly become a source of conflict while on the road.
A restaurant customer reported that she encountered resistance when she attempted to pay for her breakfast order and tip with a prepaid Visa gift card in order to tip the waiter that way.
Waiter refuses 35% tip – because it is on a gift card
In a TikTok post by @tinysparksvixen, the content creator says she tried to tip about 35% on her order using money loaded onto a prepaid Visa gift card, but her waiter was very opposed to getting tipped that way.
“A while ago, I went out to breakfast with a friend and used a gift card,” she says in the video. “It was a $40 gift card. For coffee and a little bit of breakfast, the total came to, say, $28, $29, $30 after tax. I’ll tell you something. I told her to take the card and keep everything that was on it and just take the full $40, OK?”
@tinysparksvixen notes that the money left on the card was about a 35% tip, but the server confronted the customers as they left.
“We’re cleaning up our bags and packing up our things, and she comes back to us and says, ‘I hope you had a great day,'” the TikToker says. “(She) looks at the table and says, ‘I don’t know if you know this, but it’s really rude not to tip the waiter.'”
@tinysparksvixen was stunned. “I said, ‘No, we tipped you and it was on the gift card. It should have been $40,'” she told the waiter. “Was there a problem? Because if that wasn’t what it said, OK, I’ll tip you more. I have cash on me.”
When she explained that she wanted to tip with the gift card, she said her waiter did not want to accept the tip in the form of the VISA gift card at all and even said it “does not count”.
“She says, ‘No, it doesn’t count if it’s a gift card. Sure, there was like $11 left, but that doesn’t count. You have to tip me cash too,'” the TikToker says in the video.
Here, @tinysparksvixen was torn. “I was like, ‘I don’t think gift cards work like that,'” she says. “And now I’m like, ‘Maybe she’s right, the tip doesn’t count if it comes from a gift card? But I thought gift cards worked the same way as credit cards?'”
She says the situation left her completely confused. The waiter concluded by reiterating that tips in the form of VISA gift cards do not count.
“Well it’s a morning shift, I had to get up early to be here, it’s about 11:30 now. You really should tip me cash,” the waiter reportedly told @tinysparksvixen. “It’s not okay to just tip on the gift card like that. It’s the same as not tipping at all.”
@tinysparksvixen took the topic to TikTok to hear viewers’ opinions. “I’m like, this can’t be true, can it?” she asks in the clip.
The Daily Dot reached out to @tinysparksvixen via TikTok direct message and a comment on the video.
Can waiters accept tips from gift cards?
While some restaurants have the option to accept tips from prepaid gift cards, it really depends on what type of POS system they use in the first place.
It’s usually helpful to tell someone handling a transaction up front that you’ll be tipping using the balance on the card, as the poster in this video did. It may also simply not be possible to use the remaining balance on the card as a tip. This so-called “tip tolerance” means that up to 20% of the total balance on the card will be withheld. It’s a feature of card agreements for many different prepaid cards from credit card companies.
With this tactic, prepaid card companies prevent their customers from spending more than the amount loaded on the card.
Some viewers reported that tips in the form of gift cards were permitted – to some extent – at their workplaces or those of their relatives.
“If someone leaves a gift card at my restaurant, we can’t use it as a tip,” wrote one commenter. “But if they leave it, I just use it at my next table where I have to pay cash.”
“As a server at Texas Roadhouse, in our system that we use, it’s a separate tab called Aloha,” said another. “It says add GC tip and you enter it. It counts toward our CC tip that night.”
“I work at Texas Roadhouse and if you have a gift card we give you a receipt like a store credit and you tip and sign as usual and we get to keep the tip,” wrote a third.
@tinysparksvixen #greenscreenvideo #giftcards #card #tip #tips #tip #tips #tip #tipculture #server #serverlife #serverproblems #deadpoolwolverine #parisolympics2024 ♬ Original sound – Tiny Sparks
Others took issue with the waiter’s reaction to the gift card tip.
“As soon as you ask for a tip, you don’t get one,” commented one.
“I would have immediately asked for the gift card back with the difference and she would have received nothing,” added another.
“I would ask for the gift card back and leave $5,” wrote a third commenter.
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