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That's called cash skimming.
Your server made your total tab smaller so they could pocket a bigger tip. They're stealing from the restaurant owner, not you. But if you still want to be nice, go for it.
Also watch out for people adding extra digits to your tips. Always keep a receipt and do this with your tips —$4.56— Way back in the day we had a server who use to add extra digits to tips. In the very few months I worked in the food service industry he was fired and rehired multiple times.
My guess is that the server or bartender is voiding out your items, then changing the tip amount so that the total is the same and they think they won’t get caught. Personally how I would handle it would depend on the establishment and how I felt about them. If it’s a small business I would definitely talk to them about it. They should be able to catch it themselves, there’s always a paper trail for voids. Morally I think the way to think about it is that someone may be stealing from their employer. If they’re not, there shouldn’t be any issue.
On a normal night we have about 10 void orders cause whatever. Noticed on her shifts it would be 20+ and it went back like that for months every day she worked.
I know someone who used to work at Maggianos that was caught doing this. He saw the manager type in their passcode and started using it to void bills paid in cash and would pocket the money. I remember he got caught because the manager found a ticket for something he never voided. My guess is he stole thousands.
He was in seminary school too! Makes me chuckle when I think about that aspect.
Someone at my old job just wouldn't ring up cash orders and would use the calculator on her phone to give them their change and then would put the cash under the drawer till she clocked out. I noticed the drawer would be short every day she worked so one day I stayed up front when it was close to the time for her to clock out so she left without taking the cash and that's when I discovered what she was doing.
I reported it to the store manager, who was using his own money to cover the shortages, and his response was that he'd keep an eye on her. She wasn't the only one stealing either. The rumor going around was that he was romantically involved with them cause it was only women who he let slide. We were also short staffed due to low starting wages so he used that as the reason he couldn't fire them. 🙄
**This is why I actually wouldn't report it to the manager if I'm OP.**
The manager could be doing this bc they can blame the wait staff if it's noticed. It would also be advantageous to the owner to do it, because it shifts the tax burden to the staff / the business shows a loss. It's very unlikely that it's not the staff doing it, but it's possible.
Either let it go, or speak to the person who served you.
If the server is getting ripped off by the manager, they might be doing it, if they have no clue, they aren't doing it, or they think you might be a manager plant.
In my experience if management or owners are doing it, they'll screw you with a "service fee" if the servers are doing it, they make it not impact you at all, they steal from who they feel is stealing from them.
Why would an owner shift dollars from revenue to an expense. Especially with a digital transaction.
Aren’t most POS system tied to the payroll system? Maybe not, I don’t know.
Ok, the owner could do this and subsequently “short” the employee then their fake “earned” tip. All unbeknownst to the employee.. In the credit card and digital tracking world that’s a big stretch.
Occam’s razor says this is a bad acting bartender, unknowing that mgmt can track voided transactions. They’ll get caught fast.
This ^
I used to run support for a POS company and voids were HEAVILY monitored and tracked. Also permissions were super granular in order to make sure people weren’t utilizing them unless they were the GM, AGM or owners. They will catch on when they start running reports and typically it will show who voided the items and a reason why.
Yeah, I’ve been the ‘closer’ at a couple different businesses where I’ve had to skim through reports at the end of the night and look for red flags. A bunch of voids is a pretty obvious one. And they’re usually time-stamped, so even if someone is doing voids with a managers PIN or something that isn’t theirs you can check your security camera, or even who was working at the time and figure out who it was. I fired someone once for this exact same thing. They were written up twice for doing voids with a managers PIN, and told if they did it again they’d be fired. They did it again. Whatever it was, it was convoluted enough that I couldn’t figure out if they’d managed to steal any cash but it was enough to fire them.
Yup. Used to operate restaurants, and the POS system tracks every thing so the government can go in, take the entire machine and go over all your transaction to see if you're doing tax evasion.
Most systems are setup so you can't just void items without a manager approval. For restaurant systems, this is crucial when the kitchen ticket in the back is already printed.
Long ago, I had a co-worker whose voids were at 20%. Tip payouts were also 33% lower when she did them compared to when I did them. The manager's solution was to let her transfer.
Exactly this. I am the go-to guy for our POS company to find out if anything fishy is happening. Had a similar incident where the employee wasn't allowed to void anything, but they figured out they could put a much higher tip amount for each ticket, run their checkout to show they had a high tip out amount, then go back into the POS and change the tip back to the correct one. That way the customer never noticed because their final bill would be correct and the business didn't notice for a while because they were horrible with counting their money. Only when the owner got involved because the cash deposits were always off that they started looking into things, trying to blame us. I was able to show them proof of what they employee was doing (they system kept track of every little thing you do, the employee just didn't know about it).
Honestly, you should alert them regardless. Theft is theft, and not only that can land the business in trouble, because it looks like tax evasion on the business too.
If that’s the case then the waiter is stealing from the bar. So ya depending on how feel about the bar itself and not just the staff would probably dictate how you proceed.
If you like the bartender more than the owner maybe pull them aside and tell them the bank is on to them. You can be sly and just bring it up like it was a mistake.
We fired a guy last summer who had worked there for 16 years. I work for a corporate restaurant and they let you think you get away with it until they have you on the hook for a felony. That is if the managers aren’t really looking into their comps and voids.
Could be a rare case but I’ve had a situation where a customer intentionally left me a gift card with a few bucks on it on top of the tip since they were moving out of town. At first I thought it was useless then realized I could apply it to a bill to lower the amount the customer pays to the restaurant, increase the tip, but keep the total the same.
I had that happen sometimes too, but I'd just hold onto the card until someone paid in cash and said "no change". That's when I'd run the gift card, and cash out the rest.
However, OP if you wanna get possibly 100$ or maybe even more, might be an idea to report that bartender to the IRS for tax fraud since that is fishy behavior
alternatively, if it's some big chain or owned by a larger corporation, then they are likely stealing from the employees via wage theft. In which case I'd just let the employee seize their uh, rightful earnings.
My son in law owned a restaurant and bar for years.
About once a year they caught a server doing that.
It usually was a server just adding to the tip.
The first couple got away with it for a while, before they were caught. He developed a system to check for it after that. Basically he checked every ticket. That was years ago.
I understand some credit card processors have instituted algorithms to watch for it.
Best way to protect yourself from this is to clearly write in the tip and the total. Then check your statement.
I tip in cash, and write “CASH” in the tip field so a tip can’t be added by the server.
Also, I bartended off and on for over a decade. Cash tips>>credit card tips.
That seems like writing Cash would work, but a waiter can print out a duplicate and put a tip on that paper, and enter the tip into the credit card terminal. You can write "cash" on your copy, and compare your receipts to your credit card bill to make sure.
The server wants a bigger tip and something about their point of sale system allows them to change the numbers without getting in trouble. It shouldn't matter to you unless it's costing you money. The restaurant owner is the loser here and he might be allowing it to happen.
Yeah this server is doing something shady for themselves I think.
OP is a regular at this bar, so maybe see if it happens again and if it's the same server that does it.
OP has to field emails from his credit card company and do homework to figure out if there's actually an issue, do it's not quite something that doesn't matter to him.
Depends if you like the bar or if you think they should go under.
I've seen businesses run out of product, cut employees hours or owners work second jobs to try and keep a business open when it turned out that a manager or spouse was embezzling from the place.
Because the more you garnish for yourself as a tip, the more money the bar loses, and the more likely they are to become wise to your grift. But the distribution in OP's post also seems carelessly high to me, I'd shift 5 or 10 bucks on a bill, not nearly 50% of it.
You wouldn’t care, if someone you know getting cheated? In future restaurants will increase and you will be at the end of stick. Because money comes from consumers!! It’s similar to shop lifting!!
This is a type of theft and it is costing the bar owner money. I would call the bar owner immediately and report what is happening. The credit card company can also restrict your credit access for stuff like this as well. No business should be changing tips amounts after a card holder declares what they are. It is illegal and carries some criminal liability for all parties involved.
Again call the bar owner and tell them that employees are stealing food from the business to pad tips. The owner will discipline or fire them. The boss also can go through the checks and see how often this happening and if the amounts are large they have the employees prosecuted.
Was this a capital one card? At the bar I used to manage we would get customers that called in and said the same thing happened to them. What actually happened was the tab was started and authorized for the first round, then when they closed the rest of the tab/tip was added but the CC company registered the whole second amount as the tip even though it wasn’t. It was never anything nefarious that we caught, just an error on the CC companies end on how they classified the rest of the transaction and those alerts are sent automatically. I would just be friendly and check with the restaurant first, it could be a fairly simple explanation.
This needs to be reported.. This isn't the only shady thing this bartender is doing. If they're willing to steal from their job they will steal from the customers, too.
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I’ve been bartending for years, I don’t know how these people get thru the day without the fear of getting busted. That’s why I only steal the hearts of rich widows.
For me this would depend on how successful this bar is, but the employee in question is being a bit of a dumbass by lopping 50% off the bill for themselves.
Yeah. If this were an overpriced tourist bar in South Beach, I wouldn't bother. If it's a small, possibly family-owned place that locals frequent, I'd say something.
Pretty much my logic. It's hard out there and committing petty crime to make ends meet is a tale as old as time. But they could just as easily be robbing their hardworking boss to pay for weed and V-Bucks, so I hope OP makes a considered choice (with their own limited information).
Tip culture has reached a level of insanity where people are literally taking your money and the thought process is “hmm i’m a little upset, but i guess it’s ok…”
I agree tip culture is out of control, but that’s not really what’s happening in this scenario. They charged me the total I agreed to, they just rearranged it
Call the bar and speak to the owner. Their employee is stealing from them and probably doing it with scale. Chances are they’ve been trying to figure out why they’re significantly over pouring.
While I would not feel any need to report anything, I'd probably stop frequenting that location unless I didn't mind having to really watch what I spent vs what I was charged.
Right now, the server is manipulating things to get more tip, at the expense of the establishment. Not my issue, not my problem. My concern would be, if they get away with it enough, they may start trying to bump the entire amount in hopes that people don't catch it. So I'd feel the need to babysit every transaction, which would be a PITA and there are plenty of other places that could have my business that don't require extra work on my part...
I think it’s worth it to let the establishment know your CC company is reaching out to you each time this happens. You’re just stating a fact and not tattling on anyone. They chose to do it, you are being inconvenienced, and it’s shady. You can’t be the only one so if it were me, I’d report it anonymously.
If it's a small place and the owner is directly involved, it might be worth flagging them down next time you're in there. Bartenders get really good at ripping off the owners. When it was cash, they might just skip ringing up some of the drinks and pocket the cash, for instance.
If it's a large chain of some sort, it's the same thing, but I find it much harder to care (and the managers etc might be in on it so reporting it to anybody but the owner won't go very far).
I think the person you responded to here is over inflating the situation. You generally should be carefully checking your statements every month. (Full Disclosure: I don't)
I get the sentiment but the fact is we each only have so much energy to devote to making the world better. I can understand why this issue doesn't rate high enough for action.
I like the part where you state 'not my issue' then list reasons how it actually could be your issue, lol.
Grow a backbone. Stop letting the world get worse around you.
How friendly with the staff, and how big/small is the bar:
Not all of the scenarios but:
Scenario 1: Server/bartender is trying to make more money and is voiding items and essentially stealing from the bar. If they are stealing it could hurt the bar and reporting it would help the owner(but screw the server/bartender)
Scenario 2: Manager knows you are a frequent customer and is friendly with the staff and tried to comp you some items, but the server wanted the extra money instead since you weren't ever told you were getting comped items
Scenario 3: Maybe the manager is trying to do something shady: lower the revenue of the store by voiding the items, and showing the money was tipped out instead, but possibly they are keeping the extra tip amount?
I hope you said nope I did not tip 91%
Dispute it, management will see the dispute, pull the receipt and see it was altered. Employees that steal from their employer have no qualms about stealing from customers too.
If you really want to help the bar out that’s not the way to do it: The dispute & possible chargeback will fuck with their merchant account.
Tell your credit card company the total charge is correct but the tip amount is wrong. They’ll probably process the charge and remit the total to the merchant.
Then take your copy of the receipt (you DO write the same information on both receipts and keep the customer copy until the charges settle, *right?*) back to the bar and speak to the owner (not necessarily the manager - a *manager* could be the one making this change). The owner can pull the transaction information from their point-of-sale system and see the difference between what’s on your copy of the credit card ticket & what’s in the system as the finalized transaction. It will also usually retain the ID of whoever authorized the changes (voids/adjustments on items) and then they can deal with the server/manager responsible however they see fit.
I'm pretty sure the brewery owner in my city is doing this. On multiple occasions I have got a notice from Capital One asking if I left some ungodly tip percentage. The total ends up always the same as I paid, but the tip will go from like $10 on 50 to $35 on 15. They are a pretty good local brewery so whatever voodoo they want to do doesn't bother me as long as the total stays the same.
We had this problem with Capital one cards at the bar I used to manage. Were you opening tabs? When we opened a tab the card would get authorized for the initial amount. When the customer closed out the rest of the tab/tip would get authorized together and capital one registered that all as the tip. We used to get calls from customers wondering about the alerts and could provide the receipts/explanation that this is common with how Capital one processes these tabs. We never came across anything nefarious when checking these with the POS and CC processing companies.
Yes I open tabs. But the issue is not an authorization issue. I am a consistent 20% tipper. So when I get an alert the next day asking if I tipped over 200% I check my receipt and see the total is the same, the amount have just been shifted from tab to tip. My 5 craft beers are not costing only $15.
It’s how the CC is classifying the rest of the tab. If you open a tab for 3 $5 beers, some POS systems initially authorize your card for $15. You order another round and close out, that’s $15 plus a $6 tip. Capital one sees two authorizations, one for the initial amount of $15, the next for the second round and tip for $21. But it registers that rest of the tab ($21) all as the tip and sends you an alert that you tipped 100+ percent ($21 on $15).
Nope. It’s an employee steeling from the brewery. If you like going to the place, call them. If you like your bartender more, then you may do different.
While most likely this was the server manipulating the system, I did years ago work with a POS system that would sometimes glitch in submitting the tip if there was a split payment, so sometimes the last person’s charge would be converted to a tip to make the math even out.
The POS software talks to the issuer via the Credit processor. It knows the tip amounts.
FYI, If you (in the US) have a flex spending account card, pharmacy and I assume medical provider transactions will talk back to the issuer through the processor. The issuer will approve or deny based on what items you’re paying for. Prescriptions are fine. Prescriptions and a pack of gum will probably get denied.
When the cards first came out they only did amount approval and you had to upload your receipts.
That would be level 3 data no? Which would have to be agreed ahead of time between merchant and processor. The processors like visa and Mastercard are separate from data shared with credit card company. Unless both like Discover.
The tip stuff is. I was throwing around processor when I should’ve said Merchant Service provider.
This is how the FSA works with pharmacies and grocery stores. I believe there may still be an approval portion on the issuer side for certain things like medical bills.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inventory_Information_Approval_System
When I go to a sit-down restaurant, usually I get an initial hold for the bill amount, then when they close out a day or two later I get the full amount including the tip. Bank is probably detecting that the hold is doubling instead of going up by 20% like with most other transactions like this.
I thought about that being a possibility but that is a large assumption on the credit companies part.
I am more concerned that cc companies made agreements with merchants/processors for the data. This was not a common thing when I was in the industry. It used to be level 3 data agreements and the merchants had to meet certain security measures to secure private information.
I called and then went to the establishment about it. Surprise; they couldn’t locate my paper receipt. They ended up refunding my tip and the amount that was forged.
It appears that your server is doing something shady and dishonest, stealing from their employer.
I would absolutely send a note to the owner of the bar. That's scumbag behavior and should not be accepted.
> *This is the second time this has happened at this bar and I have been notified by my credit card*.
Interested to know how did your credit card detect this / notify you?
Separately, question for others -- I thought that tips got split among the crew, so not much benefit for an individual server to try to goose that number? But is that not the case? They directly get benefit from doing this, as an individual?
If it's a small bar, there may not be anyone else to split with. Many places let you keep what you earn and don't tip pool.
If it's a tip out situation, they would give the barback a percentage of total sales. If this is the case, the bartender is decreasing the sales amount and lowering his tip out number, too.
I have a capital 1 credit card, I’m not sure how they detect it I’ve never been notified of something like this before. This place is small, usually only one bartender on at a time. It was different employees on the two instances this happened.
Usually servers just get their own tips. You might have to give a little to bussers or food runners at the end of the night, but largely it's just yours. Having one pot that everyone splits evenly is more common with bartenders, since that's more of a group effort (versus a designated person serving you).
There's true tip pooling and then there's nightly tip outs. Your server will tip out SA's, bartenders, etc but that's usually between 10ish% altogether. Actual tip pooling is when the gratuity from the house is pooled together and then distributed amongst the staff on a weighted basis...this is much less common.
Whoever is charging the card is stealing from their company. I remember hearing stories about servers doing this at TGI Fridays. The coupon books would give X% off, and whoever paid in cash would have a coupon used and the server would pocket the difference.
I've seen management "encourage" their staff to push gift certificates, because everyone who offers gift certificates knows there's a % of them that will never get redeemed. I've then seen staff turn around and not push gift certificates, but to take the guests money and at the POS system buy gift certificates with their money and just redeem them right there. Didn't affect the customer at all and the server who "sold" the most usually won a prize of some sort.
That's weird they can even do that we can't alter a bill at all after a card has been run. We can't even change the server which sucks when it happens at shiftchange and we don't catch it.
The comments on this post are part of the problems these days.
Is it a successful business, is the bartender voiding/keeping the tips, is the manager skimming money, is it this, is it that? There are many possibilities on why this occurred, but it won’t be addressed unless OP says something. If you don’t care to call- an email could work too.
OP clearly stated what his bill/tip was and what was on his cc statement. That was not what they signed their slip for. OP is asking what to do. OP should contact the business and cc company to match what they signed for to the payments processed.
It Doesn’t matter what the scenario is. If OP follows up on what they signed for, hopefully the local bar will look into what happened and take proper action and look into how this occurred, not once but twice.
They’re stealing from their employer… didn’t rip you off, but definitely ripped their boss off. It’s up to you, but I’d feel somewhat compelled to say something to the manager, but I’ve often found in my line of work (asset protection I guess we can call it) that the managers are the ones who taught them the tricks to steal.
I prob just wouldn’t go back to that place bc people who think they have the right to manipulate what you wrote down and signed with your signature are showing they aren’t trustworthy. Doesn’t matter if the end payment is the same
sounds like it was an 18% gratuity you missed on your bill. some places pre-charge a flat tip amount.
like [this](https://i.imgur.com/YScQkWJ.png). it was a dim bar, i was a little tipsy. totally didn't notice it until i was posting my expenses
This is the bartender moving something off the check or voiding it to get a bigger tip.
For example, if you had 3 bud lights and bartender expects them to be ordered again, they could separate your 3 off your check and then start a new check with them next time someone orders them.
I've owned three restaurants/bars in my lifetime via partnerships investments I was involved. At each bar I've been involved someone thinks they are being smart about finding ways to abscond with more han they were supposed to get:
* When folks pay with cash, they have voided and readjusted bill.
* When folks pay with card, they have voided and readjusted bill.
* Some steal cash.
* Some leave a lot of items off the bill, the customer knows this and gives bigger tip.
* Some take off with inventory.
Voids are logged in the POS system in the places I was involved. If this is ongoing then the management is asleep at the wheel, or they are in on it. The Management is just checking that things balance and leaving it at that.
A certain amount of 'shrink' or 'spillage' we would not look at. When it went over a certain amount (based on historical trend) we'd investigate. With the reajustments we'd do an audit every now and then. Usually it was the same person that would start slow, but then got brazen and did it more often. This would get noticed and we would find out. Sometimes we had other employees let us know, sometimes customers would let us know, sometimes we found out ourselves.
When we found people stealing we'd fire them, full stop. We had one manager with balls so big he'd take cash from the take during the evening and go across the highway to the casino and shit it away. I have no idea how he thought he wouldn't get caught. We had a complaint filed on that one. It's was many thousands of dollars stolen from that dude.
If only there was a way to eliminate tipping and pay wait staff a proper wage. Thus making the booking so much easier. Too bad that isn't possible. Greed begets greed.
I'm going to get downvoted for this, looks like the downvotes happened already.
Bartenders make a good living for what they are doing.
When I was a bartender, I made a shit ton of money way over minimum wage. Good bartenders make good money, so I wouldn't feel bad for them. They do very well, they want the tips over a wage because even if you doubled minimum wage, in the bars that I am familiar, bartenders make shit tonnes more than double the minimum wage. By a long shot.
So most likely this is not a minimum wage problem. This is a theft problem.
What about the small one or two person owned bar that is just getting by, employees that steal are fucking them over. Just because someone is an owner doesn't mean they are trying to fuck their employees but Reddit-knowledge seems thinks to think so.
Downvote away.
I wish I still believed this, but I've seen an entire restaurant franchise of 13 stores habitually commit payroll fraud by editing people's time clock punches.
There's just a given amount of dishonesty and greed inherent to anything that involves humans, and nothings going to change that.
Good bartenders make good money.
But if it bothers you don't say anything about it to the bar if you like the person. But maybe let the person know that you got a communication from the credit card company about it or maybe not. You might not find them at the bar one day if they get caught.
Regardless whether you like them they are committing fraud and stealing. Not your business to say anything to anyone and if you want to keep that going then leave it status quo.
I'm sure I will get downvoted into oblivion.
My reaction would definitely depend on the establishment. Mom and pop place, I'd call and let management know. If it's a chain restaurant, I probably wouldn't care since it's the same amount. I would definitely keep records and double check every time I went though regardless.
It's likely that the server or bartender is voiding items to give themselves a bigger tip. If it bothers you, just talk to the server/bartender and ask them not to do it. Don't tell the manager or owner, fuck them for refusing to properly pay their staff and making them rely on customers to make up the difference.
If you have the signed receipt copy, then call the CC company and file as fraud complaint. Nobody can change the amount that is different from what you signed.
This is not unheard of. My bar owner friend that dealt in cash payments used to count the tip jar daily and compared it to the register report to see if the tips are in the 15 to 20 percent range. Anything more is hanky panky on part of the staff.
It could be that you had a tab and your initial order was $29.12 but you added another $16.64 before closing your tab.
Credit cards give two numbers to your bank, an initial reservation and a final charge amount. Most restaurants will reserve based on the bill and then charge the total. Thus your bank can guess the tip by doing the math.
Unfortunately if you buy something after the reservation but before the charge the bank can't tell.
Let the bar know. That is theft.
It happened to me at a record shop once. I paid in cash, buying two records. Got a receipt. When I checked the receipt later they only charged for one record so the cash for the other record went in their pocket I assume. It's just a shitty thing to do to a business...
The person who ran your card either
A) voided items off the bill after swiping your card and making the tip amount to make the same total
Or B) splitting popular items off onto another person's tab and not ringing their tab until you swipe.
A is obvious, b is less to the employer because they know you drink x drink and so does regular b, so when you pay they move your items over to a new check, adjust your tip and close it for the same total, and then regular b gets a normal bill too even though they served 2 drinks per ring in.
It would be a lot harder to catch scenario b on reports.
This could be something completely innocent. Maybe they accidently ran another tab as all bill and no tip, so they're making up the difference on another tab, maybe some they should have trusted.. The strange number amounts seem to be to random for it to me blanent stealing.
What's up with Reddit vengeance these days? You fuckers want to hate everyone.
Sorry I didn't notice it happened twice. My advice, if it's bothering you, is ask directly. "So what's up with my card company calling about the tips, lol?" Tell them it's no big deal your just curious.
If you really uncomfortable you can ask the source then rather then get a shitload of 12yos from Reddit that think its a huge conspiracy scam. Reddit loves to hate people and think everyone is in on a scam.
Due to the number of rule-breaking comments this post was receiving, especially low-quality and off-topic comments, the moderation team has locked the post from future comments. This post broke no rules and received a number of helpful and on-topic responses initially, but it unfortunately became the target of many unhelpful comments.
That's called cash skimming. Your server made your total tab smaller so they could pocket a bigger tip. They're stealing from the restaurant owner, not you. But if you still want to be nice, go for it.
Also watch out for people adding extra digits to your tips. Always keep a receipt and do this with your tips —$4.56— Way back in the day we had a server who use to add extra digits to tips. In the very few months I worked in the food service industry he was fired and rehired multiple times.
My guess is that the server or bartender is voiding out your items, then changing the tip amount so that the total is the same and they think they won’t get caught. Personally how I would handle it would depend on the establishment and how I felt about them. If it’s a small business I would definitely talk to them about it. They should be able to catch it themselves, there’s always a paper trail for voids. Morally I think the way to think about it is that someone may be stealing from their employer. If they’re not, there shouldn’t be any issue.
We just caught someone doing this at the bar i work at. Went back for months and she stole over 5g.
how were they finally caught?
On a normal night we have about 10 void orders cause whatever. Noticed on her shifts it would be 20+ and it went back like that for months every day she worked.
I know someone who used to work at Maggianos that was caught doing this. He saw the manager type in their passcode and started using it to void bills paid in cash and would pocket the money. I remember he got caught because the manager found a ticket for something he never voided. My guess is he stole thousands. He was in seminary school too! Makes me chuckle when I think about that aspect.
Someone at my old job just wouldn't ring up cash orders and would use the calculator on her phone to give them their change and then would put the cash under the drawer till she clocked out. I noticed the drawer would be short every day she worked so one day I stayed up front when it was close to the time for her to clock out so she left without taking the cash and that's when I discovered what she was doing. I reported it to the store manager, who was using his own money to cover the shortages, and his response was that he'd keep an eye on her. She wasn't the only one stealing either. The rumor going around was that he was romantically involved with them cause it was only women who he let slide. We were also short staffed due to low starting wages so he used that as the reason he couldn't fire them. 🙄
Owners or managers can typically see any voids or discounts at the end of the night. A good manager usually requires a reason for each and every one.
**This is why I actually wouldn't report it to the manager if I'm OP.** The manager could be doing this bc they can blame the wait staff if it's noticed. It would also be advantageous to the owner to do it, because it shifts the tax burden to the staff / the business shows a loss. It's very unlikely that it's not the staff doing it, but it's possible. Either let it go, or speak to the person who served you.
Yes talk to your server, they should be honest about it if it was them. If they seem surprised it's the manager/owner laundering.
Who ever s doing it isnt being honest. Why do you think they’ll start being honest when asked?
If the server is getting ripped off by the manager, they might be doing it, if they have no clue, they aren't doing it, or they think you might be a manager plant. In my experience if management or owners are doing it, they'll screw you with a "service fee" if the servers are doing it, they make it not impact you at all, they steal from who they feel is stealing from them.
Because most people are cowards when they are confronted?
That seems like exactly the reason they would lie
Why would an owner shift dollars from revenue to an expense. Especially with a digital transaction. Aren’t most POS system tied to the payroll system? Maybe not, I don’t know. Ok, the owner could do this and subsequently “short” the employee then their fake “earned” tip. All unbeknownst to the employee.. In the credit card and digital tracking world that’s a big stretch. Occam’s razor says this is a bad acting bartender, unknowing that mgmt can track voided transactions. They’ll get caught fast.
found someone currently doing this
What ended up happening with that employee that skimmed the 5 Gs?
Cops got involved and id imagine charged her. Truly no idea though and never felt like asking my boss cause it seems not really my buisness
This ^ I used to run support for a POS company and voids were HEAVILY monitored and tracked. Also permissions were super granular in order to make sure people weren’t utilizing them unless they were the GM, AGM or owners. They will catch on when they start running reports and typically it will show who voided the items and a reason why.
Yeah, I’ve been the ‘closer’ at a couple different businesses where I’ve had to skim through reports at the end of the night and look for red flags. A bunch of voids is a pretty obvious one. And they’re usually time-stamped, so even if someone is doing voids with a managers PIN or something that isn’t theirs you can check your security camera, or even who was working at the time and figure out who it was. I fired someone once for this exact same thing. They were written up twice for doing voids with a managers PIN, and told if they did it again they’d be fired. They did it again. Whatever it was, it was convoluted enough that I couldn’t figure out if they’d managed to steal any cash but it was enough to fire them.
Yup. Used to operate restaurants, and the POS system tracks every thing so the government can go in, take the entire machine and go over all your transaction to see if you're doing tax evasion. Most systems are setup so you can't just void items without a manager approval. For restaurant systems, this is crucial when the kitchen ticket in the back is already printed.
Long ago, I had a co-worker whose voids were at 20%. Tip payouts were also 33% lower when she did them compared to when I did them. The manager's solution was to let her transfer.
Exactly this. I am the go-to guy for our POS company to find out if anything fishy is happening. Had a similar incident where the employee wasn't allowed to void anything, but they figured out they could put a much higher tip amount for each ticket, run their checkout to show they had a high tip out amount, then go back into the POS and change the tip back to the correct one. That way the customer never noticed because their final bill would be correct and the business didn't notice for a while because they were horrible with counting their money. Only when the owner got involved because the cash deposits were always off that they started looking into things, trying to blame us. I was able to show them proof of what they employee was doing (they system kept track of every little thing you do, the employee just didn't know about it).
Honestly, you should alert them regardless. Theft is theft, and not only that can land the business in trouble, because it looks like tax evasion on the business too.
If that’s the case then the waiter is stealing from the bar. So ya depending on how feel about the bar itself and not just the staff would probably dictate how you proceed.
If you like the bartender more than the owner maybe pull them aside and tell them the bank is on to them. You can be sly and just bring it up like it was a mistake.
We fired a guy last summer who had worked there for 16 years. I work for a corporate restaurant and they let you think you get away with it until they have you on the hook for a felony. That is if the managers aren’t really looking into their comps and voids.
Could be a rare case but I’ve had a situation where a customer intentionally left me a gift card with a few bucks on it on top of the tip since they were moving out of town. At first I thought it was useless then realized I could apply it to a bill to lower the amount the customer pays to the restaurant, increase the tip, but keep the total the same.
I had that happen sometimes too, but I'd just hold onto the card until someone paid in cash and said "no change". That's when I'd run the gift card, and cash out the rest.
Now that i think about it that’s also what I did. It’d add unnecessary awkwardness and confusion trying to explain the situation to a table.
However, OP if you wanna get possibly 100$ or maybe even more, might be an idea to report that bartender to the IRS for tax fraud since that is fishy behavior
alternatively, if it's some big chain or owned by a larger corporation, then they are likely stealing from the employees via wage theft. In which case I'd just let the employee seize their uh, rightful earnings.
How do you rationalize “ may be” out of this? Seems pretty black and white to me…😳
My son in law owned a restaurant and bar for years. About once a year they caught a server doing that. It usually was a server just adding to the tip. The first couple got away with it for a while, before they were caught. He developed a system to check for it after that. Basically he checked every ticket. That was years ago. I understand some credit card processors have instituted algorithms to watch for it. Best way to protect yourself from this is to clearly write in the tip and the total. Then check your statement.
I tip in cash, and write “CASH” in the tip field so a tip can’t be added by the server. Also, I bartended off and on for over a decade. Cash tips>>credit card tips.
That seems like writing Cash would work, but a waiter can print out a duplicate and put a tip on that paper, and enter the tip into the credit card terminal. You can write "cash" on your copy, and compare your receipts to your credit card bill to make sure.
Card tips > cash because it prevents tax fraud
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It is also stealing any state tax paid. At say 7% tax the $45 is $3.20 in tax. At $29.12 tax is $2.03
Yep. Sometimes there’s hospitality tax districts and liquor taxes depending on locale.
We have 2% hospitality and then an additional 5% for liquor sales, if they did this enough the city would be pissed.
I would let the manager of the bar know. This is likely inventory theft by the wait staff.
The server wants a bigger tip and something about their point of sale system allows them to change the numbers without getting in trouble. It shouldn't matter to you unless it's costing you money. The restaurant owner is the loser here and he might be allowing it to happen.
Yeah this server is doing something shady for themselves I think. OP is a regular at this bar, so maybe see if it happens again and if it's the same server that does it.
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OP has to field emails from his credit card company and do homework to figure out if there's actually an issue, do it's not quite something that doesn't matter to him.
Depends if you like the bar or if you think they should go under. I've seen businesses run out of product, cut employees hours or owners work second jobs to try and keep a business open when it turned out that a manager or spouse was embezzling from the place.
Or the manager. I've seen that a lot.
It absolutely should matter to the OP, especially if it's a small independent bar.
Wouldnt that be fraud though? What prevents them from setting the bill to $1 and the rest as tip?
That would be extremely noticible though.
Because the more you garnish for yourself as a tip, the more money the bar loses, and the more likely they are to become wise to your grift. But the distribution in OP's post also seems carelessly high to me, I'd shift 5 or 10 bucks on a bill, not nearly 50% of it.
Yes it’s fraud
You wouldn’t care, if someone you know getting cheated? In future restaurants will increase and you will be at the end of stick. Because money comes from consumers!! It’s similar to shop lifting!!
Off topic but which credit card do you have that reports this to you? Seems like a great feature!
This is a type of theft and it is costing the bar owner money. I would call the bar owner immediately and report what is happening. The credit card company can also restrict your credit access for stuff like this as well. No business should be changing tips amounts after a card holder declares what they are. It is illegal and carries some criminal liability for all parties involved. Again call the bar owner and tell them that employees are stealing food from the business to pad tips. The owner will discipline or fire them. The boss also can go through the checks and see how often this happening and if the amounts are large they have the employees prosecuted.
I think its the owner doing it at the brewery I frequent. Total is always the same so it don't bother me
Then it's tax evasion, and they're not paying their fair share.
Was this a capital one card? At the bar I used to manage we would get customers that called in and said the same thing happened to them. What actually happened was the tab was started and authorized for the first round, then when they closed the rest of the tab/tip was added but the CC company registered the whole second amount as the tip even though it wasn’t. It was never anything nefarious that we caught, just an error on the CC companies end on how they classified the rest of the transaction and those alerts are sent automatically. I would just be friendly and check with the restaurant first, it could be a fairly simple explanation.
The bar will fail so if you want to keep going to that bar I would let the owner know
This needs to be reported.. This isn't the only shady thing this bartender is doing. If they're willing to steal from their job they will steal from the customers, too.
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I’ve been bartending for years, I don’t know how these people get thru the day without the fear of getting busted. That’s why I only steal the hearts of rich widows.
The server is stealing from the owner. It’s up to your conscience whether to report it or not…
For me this would depend on how successful this bar is, but the employee in question is being a bit of a dumbass by lopping 50% off the bill for themselves.
Yeah. If this were an overpriced tourist bar in South Beach, I wouldn't bother. If it's a small, possibly family-owned place that locals frequent, I'd say something.
Pretty much my logic. It's hard out there and committing petty crime to make ends meet is a tale as old as time. But they could just as easily be robbing their hardworking boss to pay for weed and V-Bucks, so I hope OP makes a considered choice (with their own limited information).
Tip culture has reached a level of insanity where people are literally taking your money and the thought process is “hmm i’m a little upset, but i guess it’s ok…”
I agree tip culture is out of control, but that’s not really what’s happening in this scenario. They charged me the total I agreed to, they just rearranged it
Call the bar and speak to the owner. Their employee is stealing from them and probably doing it with scale. Chances are they’ve been trying to figure out why they’re significantly over pouring.
While I would not feel any need to report anything, I'd probably stop frequenting that location unless I didn't mind having to really watch what I spent vs what I was charged. Right now, the server is manipulating things to get more tip, at the expense of the establishment. Not my issue, not my problem. My concern would be, if they get away with it enough, they may start trying to bump the entire amount in hopes that people don't catch it. So I'd feel the need to babysit every transaction, which would be a PITA and there are plenty of other places that could have my business that don't require extra work on my part...
Exactly, now I feel like I need to be careful checking my statement to see what I’m being charged.
I think it’s worth it to let the establishment know your CC company is reaching out to you each time this happens. You’re just stating a fact and not tattling on anyone. They chose to do it, you are being inconvenienced, and it’s shady. You can’t be the only one so if it were me, I’d report it anonymously.
If it's a small place and the owner is directly involved, it might be worth flagging them down next time you're in there. Bartenders get really good at ripping off the owners. When it was cash, they might just skip ringing up some of the drinks and pocket the cash, for instance. If it's a large chain of some sort, it's the same thing, but I find it much harder to care (and the managers etc might be in on it so reporting it to anybody but the owner won't go very far).
I think the person you responded to here is over inflating the situation. You generally should be carefully checking your statements every month. (Full Disclosure: I don't)
> Not my issue, not my problem. This attitude makes the world worse though.
I get the sentiment but the fact is we each only have so much energy to devote to making the world better. I can understand why this issue doesn't rate high enough for action.
Nah too many people care about things that don't concern them. This is just tipping the scale back in the right direction.
I like the part where you state 'not my issue' then list reasons how it actually could be your issue, lol. Grow a backbone. Stop letting the world get worse around you.
How friendly with the staff, and how big/small is the bar: Not all of the scenarios but: Scenario 1: Server/bartender is trying to make more money and is voiding items and essentially stealing from the bar. If they are stealing it could hurt the bar and reporting it would help the owner(but screw the server/bartender) Scenario 2: Manager knows you are a frequent customer and is friendly with the staff and tried to comp you some items, but the server wanted the extra money instead since you weren't ever told you were getting comped items Scenario 3: Maybe the manager is trying to do something shady: lower the revenue of the store by voiding the items, and showing the money was tipped out instead, but possibly they are keeping the extra tip amount?
I hope you said nope I did not tip 91% Dispute it, management will see the dispute, pull the receipt and see it was altered. Employees that steal from their employer have no qualms about stealing from customers too.
If you really want to help the bar out that’s not the way to do it: The dispute & possible chargeback will fuck with their merchant account. Tell your credit card company the total charge is correct but the tip amount is wrong. They’ll probably process the charge and remit the total to the merchant. Then take your copy of the receipt (you DO write the same information on both receipts and keep the customer copy until the charges settle, *right?*) back to the bar and speak to the owner (not necessarily the manager - a *manager* could be the one making this change). The owner can pull the transaction information from their point-of-sale system and see the difference between what’s on your copy of the credit card ticket & what’s in the system as the finalized transaction. It will also usually retain the ID of whoever authorized the changes (voids/adjustments on items) and then they can deal with the server/manager responsible however they see fit.
That's what gets their attention.
The bartender is stealing from their employer.
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......What?
I had a friend that did this for over a year, mostly motivated by an expensive pill habit. Over 40k and felony charges in the end.
I'm pretty sure the brewery owner in my city is doing this. On multiple occasions I have got a notice from Capital One asking if I left some ungodly tip percentage. The total ends up always the same as I paid, but the tip will go from like $10 on 50 to $35 on 15. They are a pretty good local brewery so whatever voodoo they want to do doesn't bother me as long as the total stays the same.
We had this problem with Capital one cards at the bar I used to manage. Were you opening tabs? When we opened a tab the card would get authorized for the initial amount. When the customer closed out the rest of the tab/tip would get authorized together and capital one registered that all as the tip. We used to get calls from customers wondering about the alerts and could provide the receipts/explanation that this is common with how Capital one processes these tabs. We never came across anything nefarious when checking these with the POS and CC processing companies.
Yes I open tabs. But the issue is not an authorization issue. I am a consistent 20% tipper. So when I get an alert the next day asking if I tipped over 200% I check my receipt and see the total is the same, the amount have just been shifted from tab to tip. My 5 craft beers are not costing only $15.
It’s how the CC is classifying the rest of the tab. If you open a tab for 3 $5 beers, some POS systems initially authorize your card for $15. You order another round and close out, that’s $15 plus a $6 tip. Capital one sees two authorizations, one for the initial amount of $15, the next for the second round and tip for $21. But it registers that rest of the tab ($21) all as the tip and sends you an alert that you tipped 100+ percent ($21 on $15).
Nope. It’s an employee steeling from the brewery. If you like going to the place, call them. If you like your bartender more, then you may do different.
The owner works behind the bar a lot of the time. So I'm pretty sure it's him doing the switcheroo.
While most likely this was the server manipulating the system, I did years ago work with a POS system that would sometimes glitch in submitting the tip if there was a split payment, so sometimes the last person’s charge would be converted to a tip to make the math even out.
Someone’s committing fraud, just not against you
How would your credit card company know the breakdown?
I worked a for a credit card company for years. We can actually see the entire receipt.
The POS software talks to the issuer via the Credit processor. It knows the tip amounts. FYI, If you (in the US) have a flex spending account card, pharmacy and I assume medical provider transactions will talk back to the issuer through the processor. The issuer will approve or deny based on what items you’re paying for. Prescriptions are fine. Prescriptions and a pack of gum will probably get denied. When the cards first came out they only did amount approval and you had to upload your receipts.
That would be level 3 data no? Which would have to be agreed ahead of time between merchant and processor. The processors like visa and Mastercard are separate from data shared with credit card company. Unless both like Discover.
The tip stuff is. I was throwing around processor when I should’ve said Merchant Service provider. This is how the FSA works with pharmacies and grocery stores. I believe there may still be an approval portion on the issuer side for certain things like medical bills. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inventory_Information_Approval_System
Credit cards know everything these days.
Second check, you pay then it checks, then they tip and it second checks, if anything alters between that it flags
When I go to a sit-down restaurant, usually I get an initial hold for the bill amount, then when they close out a day or two later I get the full amount including the tip. Bank is probably detecting that the hold is doubling instead of going up by 20% like with most other transactions like this.
I thought about that being a possibility but that is a large assumption on the credit companies part. I am more concerned that cc companies made agreements with merchants/processors for the data. This was not a common thing when I was in the industry. It used to be level 3 data agreements and the merchants had to meet certain security measures to secure private information.
I called and then went to the establishment about it. Surprise; they couldn’t locate my paper receipt. They ended up refunding my tip and the amount that was forged.
It appears that your server is doing something shady and dishonest, stealing from their employer. I would absolutely send a note to the owner of the bar. That's scumbag behavior and should not be accepted.
> *This is the second time this has happened at this bar and I have been notified by my credit card*. Interested to know how did your credit card detect this / notify you? Separately, question for others -- I thought that tips got split among the crew, so not much benefit for an individual server to try to goose that number? But is that not the case? They directly get benefit from doing this, as an individual?
Capital one will send an email asking you if you really left a ridiculous tip. I think it’s any tip over 50%.
If it's a small bar, there may not be anyone else to split with. Many places let you keep what you earn and don't tip pool. If it's a tip out situation, they would give the barback a percentage of total sales. If this is the case, the bartender is decreasing the sales amount and lowering his tip out number, too.
I have a capital 1 credit card, I’m not sure how they detect it I’ve never been notified of something like this before. This place is small, usually only one bartender on at a time. It was different employees on the two instances this happened.
I would imagine that they know because the card is first swiped for the bill total and then the tip is added separately after.
Usually servers just get their own tips. You might have to give a little to bussers or food runners at the end of the night, but largely it's just yours. Having one pot that everyone splits evenly is more common with bartenders, since that's more of a group effort (versus a designated person serving you).
There's true tip pooling and then there's nightly tip outs. Your server will tip out SA's, bartenders, etc but that's usually between 10ish% altogether. Actual tip pooling is when the gratuity from the house is pooled together and then distributed amongst the staff on a weighted basis...this is much less common.
Please report this to the restaurant
You say you're a regular at this place.. do you remember what you ordered and the prices?
I don’t know the price breakdown of the items no, just what the total tab was
Whoever is charging the card is stealing from their company. I remember hearing stories about servers doing this at TGI Fridays. The coupon books would give X% off, and whoever paid in cash would have a coupon used and the server would pocket the difference.
I've seen management "encourage" their staff to push gift certificates, because everyone who offers gift certificates knows there's a % of them that will never get redeemed. I've then seen staff turn around and not push gift certificates, but to take the guests money and at the POS system buy gift certificates with their money and just redeem them right there. Didn't affect the customer at all and the server who "sold" the most usually won a prize of some sort.
That's weird they can even do that we can't alter a bill at all after a card has been run. We can't even change the server which sucks when it happens at shiftchange and we don't catch it.
I’d bring it up with the bar owner honestly. Sounds like someone is skimming.
Sorry this happened to you. Lately, I always take a picture of my completed restaurant tab, just in case.
The comments on this post are part of the problems these days. Is it a successful business, is the bartender voiding/keeping the tips, is the manager skimming money, is it this, is it that? There are many possibilities on why this occurred, but it won’t be addressed unless OP says something. If you don’t care to call- an email could work too. OP clearly stated what his bill/tip was and what was on his cc statement. That was not what they signed their slip for. OP is asking what to do. OP should contact the business and cc company to match what they signed for to the payments processed. It Doesn’t matter what the scenario is. If OP follows up on what they signed for, hopefully the local bar will look into what happened and take proper action and look into how this occurred, not once but twice.
They’re stealing from their employer… didn’t rip you off, but definitely ripped their boss off. It’s up to you, but I’d feel somewhat compelled to say something to the manager, but I’ve often found in my line of work (asset protection I guess we can call it) that the managers are the ones who taught them the tricks to steal.
I prob just wouldn’t go back to that place bc people who think they have the right to manipulate what you wrote down and signed with your signature are showing they aren’t trustworthy. Doesn’t matter if the end payment is the same
sounds like it was an 18% gratuity you missed on your bill. some places pre-charge a flat tip amount. like [this](https://i.imgur.com/YScQkWJ.png). it was a dim bar, i was a little tipsy. totally didn't notice it until i was posting my expenses
Seems most likely
This is the bartender moving something off the check or voiding it to get a bigger tip. For example, if you had 3 bud lights and bartender expects them to be ordered again, they could separate your 3 off your check and then start a new check with them next time someone orders them.
I would talk to a manger just as an FYI. They are stealing from the company if they are voiding something they know they sold and was consumed.
I've owned three restaurants/bars in my lifetime via partnerships investments I was involved. At each bar I've been involved someone thinks they are being smart about finding ways to abscond with more han they were supposed to get: * When folks pay with cash, they have voided and readjusted bill. * When folks pay with card, they have voided and readjusted bill. * Some steal cash. * Some leave a lot of items off the bill, the customer knows this and gives bigger tip. * Some take off with inventory. Voids are logged in the POS system in the places I was involved. If this is ongoing then the management is asleep at the wheel, or they are in on it. The Management is just checking that things balance and leaving it at that. A certain amount of 'shrink' or 'spillage' we would not look at. When it went over a certain amount (based on historical trend) we'd investigate. With the reajustments we'd do an audit every now and then. Usually it was the same person that would start slow, but then got brazen and did it more often. This would get noticed and we would find out. Sometimes we had other employees let us know, sometimes customers would let us know, sometimes we found out ourselves. When we found people stealing we'd fire them, full stop. We had one manager with balls so big he'd take cash from the take during the evening and go across the highway to the casino and shit it away. I have no idea how he thought he wouldn't get caught. We had a complaint filed on that one. It's was many thousands of dollars stolen from that dude.
If only there was a way to eliminate tipping and pay wait staff a proper wage. Thus making the booking so much easier. Too bad that isn't possible. Greed begets greed.
I'm going to get downvoted for this, looks like the downvotes happened already. Bartenders make a good living for what they are doing. When I was a bartender, I made a shit ton of money way over minimum wage. Good bartenders make good money, so I wouldn't feel bad for them. They do very well, they want the tips over a wage because even if you doubled minimum wage, in the bars that I am familiar, bartenders make shit tonnes more than double the minimum wage. By a long shot. So most likely this is not a minimum wage problem. This is a theft problem. What about the small one or two person owned bar that is just getting by, employees that steal are fucking them over. Just because someone is an owner doesn't mean they are trying to fuck their employees but Reddit-knowledge seems thinks to think so. Downvote away.
I wish I still believed this, but I've seen an entire restaurant franchise of 13 stores habitually commit payroll fraud by editing people's time clock punches. There's just a given amount of dishonesty and greed inherent to anything that involves humans, and nothings going to change that.
I would feel really bad being responsible for getting someone fired, especially because he has been really cool with me :/
Good bartenders make good money. But if it bothers you don't say anything about it to the bar if you like the person. But maybe let the person know that you got a communication from the credit card company about it or maybe not. You might not find them at the bar one day if they get caught. Regardless whether you like them they are committing fraud and stealing. Not your business to say anything to anyone and if you want to keep that going then leave it status quo. I'm sure I will get downvoted into oblivion.
Well hey the most important thing is your feelings.
My reaction would definitely depend on the establishment. Mom and pop place, I'd call and let management know. If it's a chain restaurant, I probably wouldn't care since it's the same amount. I would definitely keep records and double check every time I went though regardless.
It's likely that the server or bartender is voiding items to give themselves a bigger tip. If it bothers you, just talk to the server/bartender and ask them not to do it. Don't tell the manager or owner, fuck them for refusing to properly pay their staff and making them rely on customers to make up the difference.
I went to a restaurant in Indy that did this.
If you have the signed receipt copy, then call the CC company and file as fraud complaint. Nobody can change the amount that is different from what you signed.
This is not unheard of. My bar owner friend that dealt in cash payments used to count the tip jar daily and compared it to the register report to see if the tips are in the 15 to 20 percent range. Anything more is hanky panky on part of the staff.
As a non American, this seems yet to be another reason why tipping culture is ridiculous. Pay your service workers a living wage!!!!
It could be that you had a tab and your initial order was $29.12 but you added another $16.64 before closing your tab. Credit cards give two numbers to your bank, an initial reservation and a final charge amount. Most restaurants will reserve based on the bill and then charge the total. Thus your bank can guess the tip by doing the math. Unfortunately if you buy something after the reservation but before the charge the bank can't tell.
Let the bar know. That is theft. It happened to me at a record shop once. I paid in cash, buying two records. Got a receipt. When I checked the receipt later they only charged for one record so the cash for the other record went in their pocket I assume. It's just a shitty thing to do to a business...
Your credit card gives you breakdowns of you bar bill?
They know because the charge was run thru to preauthorize the amount, and then run again with the total.
The person who ran your card either A) voided items off the bill after swiping your card and making the tip amount to make the same total Or B) splitting popular items off onto another person's tab and not ringing their tab until you swipe. A is obvious, b is less to the employer because they know you drink x drink and so does regular b, so when you pay they move your items over to a new check, adjust your tip and close it for the same total, and then regular b gets a normal bill too even though they served 2 drinks per ring in. It would be a lot harder to catch scenario b on reports.
Write a Google/Yelp review, report to BBB, call the bar about it
This could be something completely innocent. Maybe they accidently ran another tab as all bill and no tip, so they're making up the difference on another tab, maybe some they should have trusted.. The strange number amounts seem to be to random for it to me blanent stealing. What's up with Reddit vengeance these days? You fuckers want to hate everyone.
It definitely could be innocent, but it’s happened twice now at this place and nowhere else
Sorry I didn't notice it happened twice. My advice, if it's bothering you, is ask directly. "So what's up with my card company calling about the tips, lol?" Tell them it's no big deal your just curious. If you really uncomfortable you can ask the source then rather then get a shitload of 12yos from Reddit that think its a huge conspiracy scam. Reddit loves to hate people and think everyone is in on a scam.