‘It was like a cult’: Cheesecake Factory server says customer made her write in her own $75 tip. Why?

A customer told a server to "take a chance" and write her own tip, and then was oddly encouraged to do this questionable deed by the other folks at the table.

The tale came from creator Allie Sciulla (@truecrimeandrealestate), who is based in Michigan according to her TikTok bio. The video, posted Tuesday, registered more than 27,000 views as of Friday morning. While she didn't reveal the name of the restaurant she worked at, she left several clues in the video itself and the comments intimating it all went down at a Cheesecake Factory location.

An odd request

She starts by observing, "At night, I work as a server in a corporate mid-restaurant that is trying, trying to be fancy. We're not, but we try."

She then described the scenario that puzzled her, prefacing it with, "Sometimes we get guests who are also trying to be fancy, which is totally cool. I don't mind being a server. If you want just leave a tip, just leave a tip. And be normal. If you want to leave a tip, you know, it's nice. It helps us."

And yet, she says, "The other night, I had a table and the guy said—older man—'give yourself a $75 tip, but I want you to write it in yourself and sign the credit card slip for me.'"

Sciulla says she explained to him that she's not allowed to do that, but offered to run his credit card and then he can write the tip and sign it.

His response? "Take a chance. You have to write it in yourself."

She says she then ran the credit card slip and let co-workers know what was up. She claims they also said, "Take a chance, take a chance, Allie."

That led her to say, "It was so weird. It was like a cult."

She did what the man asked, and after telling him she appreciated the tip, he said, "I'll bet you do."

She indicated at the end of the video that this incident was one of the many reasons she questioned her life choice of being a server.

The caption accompanying her video simply wondered, regarding the whole affair, "Why?"

@truecrimeandrealestate …why #serverlife #servertiktok ♬ original sound - Allie Sciulla

Is this really a thing that happens?

A quick trip to the r/ServerLife subreddit on Reddit reveals a similar story corroborated by others.

In this case, it involved a flirty patron trying to charm a server.

"It was slow so I had the time to talk with him a bit as he was my last guest," the server wrote. "When the bill came, he handed me the check and said, 'Write down what you want as your tip.' I was in shock and said 'You sure? It’s going to be 3 digits if you let me.' The bill was $60. He smiled and said, 'Do it.' And I gave myself a $100 tip. He almost frowned and said, 'You undervalue yourself.' Which shocked me. I work in a semi-fine dining restaurant and this has never happened to me."

Someone responding to that post noted, "I had something similar happen. Polite and friendly maybe mid-thirties couple. Well dressed but not over the top. The man says, 'How much do you want for a tip?' I laughed because I’ve been asked this before and it’s generally gearing you up for 25% so I said, '$1,000 is a nice round number.' He nodded and stroked out an easy 1k. The wife didn’t even look up from her phone and said, 'You should have asked for $2k.' Never saw them again."

Commenters have thoughts

The story piqued the interest of a number of people moved to comment.

One observed, "I hate when they make you practically put on a performance to earn your tip."

"I'd fear that he would report fraud on his credit card bill and you'd lose our on the money for the whole bill because it's not his signature," someone pointed out.

Allie chimed in, "I swear if that happens, I will … cry in the walk-in."

Someone else suggested, "Just tell him it’s illegal and you can get fired for it, and you really need this job! That will make them feel like a jerk for suggesting it!"

One decided to sleuth out the specific restaurant she was talking about, offering, "13 seconds in and I clocked this as Cheesecake Factory."

Allie responded, "Maybeeee."

The Daily Dot has reached out to the creator via Instagram and TikTok direct message and to Cheesecake Factory via email.

Internet culture is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here. You’ll get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.

Sign up to receive the Daily Dot’s Internet Insider newsletter for urgent news from the frontline of online.

The post ‘It was like a cult’: Cheesecake Factory server says customer made her write in her own $75 tip. Why? appeared first on The Daily Dot.