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Restaurant To Sue Customer After He Leaves $3,000 Tip On $13 Meal
Secret Life of Mom ^ | Aug 18, 2023 | Leah Berenson

Posted on 08/18/2023 8:04:45 AM PDT by where's_the_Outrage?

There was a time when leaving a tip was optional and signified an extra gratitude for a job well done. However, as servers are often underpaid, the matter of tipping has become a hugely debated topic. Regardless, times are hard, and a little kindness goes a long way. Sadly, a seemingly good deed has led to a restaurant suing a customer, who seemingly left behind a generous tip.

In Scranton, Pennsylvania a restaurant is taking a customer to court after he left a $3,000 tip that turned out to be fraudulent. The tip was left in June of 2022 for a $13 bill. “It really meant a lot to me because everyone’s going through stuff. It really touched my heart.” Said Alfredo’s Pizza server, Mariana Lambert in response to the initial event. The restaurant attributed the act of kindness to an Instagram movement. However, in August of the same year, the restaurant discovered the gestured to have been a hoax......

Alfredo’s Vice President Leslie Minicozzi Galacci disclosed, “We received notice 45 days after he dined in our establishment.”

“We had already paid Mari the $3,000 by a company check so currently we, as the owners, are hit with the loss.” It turns out that the customer had disputed the charge to his credit card company. Although they tried to reach out to Smith, the restaurant got no response. Ultimately, Alfredo’s Pizza opted to move forward with filing charges at Magistrate Joanne Price Corbett’s Office in Lackawanna County.

Zachary Jacobson is the manager of Alfredo’s pizza and spoke with the local news station. “We thought somebody was actually trying to do a good thing. And then now we are, what, three months later? Not even, and there’s nothing. There’s nothing to show for it at this point.” He explained.

(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Chit/Chat; Society
KEYWORDS: excesstip; mealtip; resturant; tips
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To: where's_the_Outrage?

my kid worked in a DC restaurant where they actually pad the tip a ridiculous amount-


21 posted on 08/18/2023 8:31:25 AM PDT by ronniesgal (The bidens are actually more white trashy than the Clintons, and that's sayin' something)
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To: nickcarraway

“TWF”

(the wife factor)


22 posted on 08/18/2023 8:31:49 AM PDT by logi_cal869 (-cynicus the "concern troll" a/o 10/03/2018 /!i!! &@$%&*(@ -)
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To: circlecity

How many zeros are on the customer’s credit card receipt?. And has the decimal point been tampered with?


23 posted on 08/18/2023 8:34:59 AM PDT by Tucker39 ("It is impossible so to rightly govern a nation without God and the Bible." George Washington )
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To: where's_the_Outrage?
who seemingly left behind a generous tip.

The first thing I would do is track down the customer and ask if they made a mistake, I wouldn't run to the bank to cash a check.

24 posted on 08/18/2023 8:37:51 AM PDT by 1Old Pro
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To: circlecity

The error on $3.00 is feasible.


25 posted on 08/18/2023 8:39:58 AM PDT by griswold3 (Truth, Beauty and Goodness )
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To: NautiNurse

My non-expert opinion is that that is a pretty clumsy forgery. If it is, somebody should face criminal charges.


26 posted on 08/18/2023 8:39:59 AM PDT by HartleyMBaldwin
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To: Responsibility2nd
It takes 45 days for a credit transaction to pay? Something’s wrong here.

Not how it works. The card holder files a dispute at a later date and the CC company then notifies the restaurant and charges back the money that the restaurant was paid.

The customer either did it as a "prank", or he's just nuts and changed his mind later. It's on him & he needs to be taken to the cleaners. When he wrote that figure and signed the bill, he entered into a contract to pay that to the restaurant. His motives, regardless of their logic, are not legally relevant. Try doing that with any contract elsewhere and see what happens.

27 posted on 08/18/2023 8:40:01 AM PDT by ChildOfThe60s ( If you can remember the 60s.....you weren't really there..)
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To: mikey_hates_everything

I always take a photo of the signed restaurant copy


28 posted on 08/18/2023 8:40:06 AM PDT by Sgt_Schultze (When your business model depends on slave labor, you're always going to need more slaves)
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To: where's_the_Outrage?

Joe Biden’s birth place.

That explains a lot.


29 posted on 08/18/2023 8:40:53 AM PDT by tired&retired (Blessings )
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To: 1Old Pro
The first thing I would do is track down the customer and ask if they made a mistake, I wouldn't run to the bank to cash a check

Seriously foolish not to do that. Big error on the part of the restaurant. People do crazy things like that, but it's smart to verify.

My wife had an uncle that gave a waitress $5k to get her teeth fixed. It does happen.

30 posted on 08/18/2023 8:42:58 AM PDT by ChildOfThe60s ( If you can remember the 60s.....you weren't really there..)
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To: 1Old Pro

Sounds like they did this per the news video.

Even made a copy of the person’s driver’s license at the time.

Possibly an elderly person where someone else pays the monthly charges.


31 posted on 08/18/2023 8:43:49 AM PDT by tired&retired (Blessings )
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To: where's_the_Outrage?

Interesting story with not enough information. Did the tipper make a mistake or did he actually intend to tip $3,000 and then changed his mind? Is there a picture of the actual receipt with said tip? Hard to say exactly what went down here.

The restaurant did contact the man to try and collect the $3,000. It would have been nice if the restaurant had contacted the man soon after the tip and asked him if he really meant to leave a $3,000 tip and did that before writing that check to the waitress. That is a lot of money. Of course in this selfish world no one would ever think to do that.

I once was distracted and did my math wrong and left too small a tip. The easy thing would have been to let it go but I drove from home back to the restaurant and handed the waitress the extra money.


32 posted on 08/18/2023 8:44:56 AM PDT by plain talk
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To: tired&retired
Possibly an elderly person where someone else pays the monthly charges.

So not exactly intentional.

33 posted on 08/18/2023 8:45:18 AM PDT by 1Old Pro
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To: Sgt_Schultze

I always take a photo of the signed restaurant copy.

__________________________________________

What a shame things have come to that. But you still have to go through a dispute if they add an extra zero or two.

I only use a debit card. And always check the next day to be sure they clear the amount I specified.


34 posted on 08/18/2023 8:45:57 AM PDT by Responsibility2nd (A truth that’s told with bad intent, Beats all the lies you can invent ~ Wm. Blake)
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To: plain talk
would have been nice if the restaurant had contacted the man soon after the tip and asked him if he really meant to leave a $3,000 tip and did that before writing that check to the waitress

Of course

35 posted on 08/18/2023 8:46:33 AM PDT by 1Old Pro
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To: nickcarraway

Having worked in restaurants as a teenager I came to the conclusion that most restaurant managers are complete a-holes.


36 posted on 08/18/2023 8:46:34 AM PDT by Seruzawa ("The Political left is the Garden of Eden of incompetence" - Marx the Smarter (Groucho))
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To: plain talk

I once was distracted and did my math wrong and left too small a tip. The easy thing would have been to let it go but I drove from home back to the restaurant and handed the waitress the extra money.

__________________________________________

I once took the merchant copy with me. I felt so bad when I got home. It was a fancy Brazilian steakhouse and the tip for two (no drinks) was $40.00. The restaurant was about 50 miles away and I was ready to drive right back that very night. But I called them and they said if I emailed them the merchant copy I had - they could balance everything out.

And it all worked out.


37 posted on 08/18/2023 8:50:24 AM PDT by Responsibility2nd (A truth that’s told with bad intent, Beats all the lies you can invent ~ Wm. Blake)
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To: Sgt_Schultze

Great idea!


38 posted on 08/18/2023 8:51:43 AM PDT by NautiNurse (🇺🇸 Selling out the U.S.A.: The Briben Brand™)
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To: griswold3
The error on $3.00 is feasible.

Not really. The total should have been 16.25 in that case, and the forger would have come to erase the 6 and make it a 3 (with the same upstroke at the bottom of all the 3's) in order to make the total 3,013.25 instead of 3,016.25.

I believe the restaurant.

39 posted on 08/18/2023 8:52:26 AM PDT by Sirius Lee (They intend to murder us. Prep if you want to live and live like you are prepping for eternal life)
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To: NautiNurse

The 3 in the thirteen looks different than the other 3’s. The other 2 threes are squashed in the lower halves compared to the upper halves. The three in the thirteen looks symmetrical top and bottom. The smaller 0 looks added at the end of the three thousand. I think the man didn’t leave a tip so they forged the three thousand as revenge...my working theory!


40 posted on 08/18/2023 8:52:37 AM PDT by mdmathis6 (A horrible historic indictment: Biden Democrats plunging the world into war to hide their crimes!)
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