‘You never once asked me how my lemonade tasted’: Server says customers gaslit her to get out of tipping
A server is outraged after she says two customers gaslit her to get out of tipping. Fellow servers in the comments empathize with her experience.
TikTok user Kaitlynn Marie (@kadiekaii) is the server who posted the video about the situation over the weekend. “This happened last night, and I’m just as confused as I was last night,” she says.
The situation happened the night before, Kaitlynn says, when she got a table occupied by a “sweet”-looking elderly couple. According to Kaitylnn, the couple said they were at the restaurant to order a specific dessert, but they each ordered entrees as well.
Two customers gaslight to get out of tipping
“He got chicken; she got steak,” Kaitlynn says. “He got a lemonade; she got a water. They were really sweet. I loved going over to them. I asked them multiple times if they liked their food, how everything was. They all said everything was great multiple times.”
However, when Kaitlynn returned to the table to offer a couple of takeout boxes, the vibe shifted, she says. “This is where the story begins,” Kaitlynn says. That’s when the wife complained about her steak. Kaitlynn says she not only apologized, but she offered to refire the steak and even take it off of the bill.
The couple declined and instead requested the dessert, which they appeared to enjoy when it arrived at the table. “Drop off their check. The check had their dessert and his chicken on it, mind you,” she says. “Which I guess he was not happy that I still made him pay for the bill, but it was everything that they did eat.”
After the husband paid for the bill, Kaitlynn says she was ready to head to her next table. But that wasn’t the end of the interaction. “‘This was the worst service I’ve ever had in my life’—mind you, this is the man talking,” Kaitlynn says. “What was the issue with the service?” The man told her he was upset she didn’t ask him whether he liked his lemonade, which he claimed was sour, Kaitlynn recalls.
Therefore, Kaitlynn says, the man informed her he wasn’t leaving her a tip.
Viewers react to the story
The video has amassed more than 23,000 views. In the comments, servers shared how they deal with this customer tactic.
“‘How is everything’ kinda covers it,” wrote one user. Kaitlyn replied, “Right. Like do I need to hold your hand?”
A former service industry employee wrote, “I always used to say ‘How’s everything tasting?’ as a blanket statement for food and drink. I’m so confused lol.”
Another server said, “Twenty-six years of serving and I have never asked how a lemonade was.”
Kaitlynn wrote in response, “RIGHT. I can MAYBE understand a strawberry lemonade or anything with syrups that they were on the fence about. But a standard lemonade?”
Finally, one user wrote, “Don’t need to gaslight the service just because you are too cheap to tip.” Kaitlynn wrote, “Honestly.”
This wouldn’t be the first time a restaurant customer attempted to get either a comped bill or a viral video out of a frivolous complaint. This TikTok user reported someone being served alcohol by mistake on two different occasions, leading to speculation about the veracity of the report.
@kadiekaii how did you get to this point #server #servertiktok ♬ original sound - Kaitlynn Marie
The Daily Dot reached out to Kaitlynn via TikTok comment and direct message for comment.
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