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I worked with a guy who seemed to have teh goal of getting a wiatress to cry. I think he would goad them in to doing a bad job so he could justify a poor tip. (and this guy was loaded)

He got mad at a waitress once because he wanted broiled chicken and the restaurant didn't have a broiler. Just plain embarassing, although quite entertaining when the waiter would pay it back to him.

I waitressed for years, and loved every minute of it. Put myself through school waitressing (put myself through a lot of other stuff, too, but that's a whole 'nother talk show!). After a few years, I learned a SURE-FIRE way to deal with rude customers who didn't tip.

The trick: treat them with slightly exaggerated overwhelming courtesey and kindness (but not so obvious that it shows), give them extra super-duper service to the point of it being nearly silly, just bend over backward for them. Three things happen:

1. The rude customer knows that he's coming across loud and clear as a mega-chump to all observers -- fellow customers, folks at the table, etc.
2. Customers within earshot, especially regulars, will be amused and sympatethic, and IF the chump stiffs you (or even if he doesn't), those customers will almost always tip higher than they might have otherwise just to make-up for the chump.
3. The chump customer can never look the waitress/waiter in the eye after such treatment, which is extremely gratifying!!!

Regarding tipping in general: A low tip from a kind customer was never something I took personally because I know that sometimes people simply don't have the money, or they don't understand the importance of tips to tablestaff. I never held low tipping against a nice customer. A rude customer who tipped low or stiffed, on the other hand, was worth simply shrugging off, because all the years I waitressed, the wonderful truth ALWAYS was that for every customer who stiffed me, there were two customers who would over-tip me. And another thing: every time I loaned a down-and-outer some money out of my tip-jar (I worked for awhile as a graveyard waitress in couple of coffee shops, so we got a lot of down-and-outers), I gave it expecting never to see it again. EVERY SINGLE TIME I got paid back, to my surprise.

All my life I left tips but later I took a job in a restaurant seating people and running the register. I got to know the waiters and busboys and found out that they did not make much money from wages but relied on their tips to live on. After that I became a good tipper. One thing to be careful of is that if you get a bad meal but the waiter gave you good service, tip him well anyway. It was not his fault that the kitchen screwed up your dinner. Another thing is that if you leave a restaurant feeling unhappy and abused, do not make a big scene, just leave and never go back.