A Facebook post blew up over a rounded-up restaurant bill. Here’s why
A woman having brunch at a local Paramus restaurant received $55 in change after paying her bill. By the evening, that same receipt was blowing up on Facebook.
The reason? It should’ve been $55.84.
‘Rounding up’ customers’ bills
On Friday afternoon, a woman who goes by Terry Cartiern on Facebook posted an image of a receipt she received from Turning Point restaurant on Route 4 in the We Live in Bergen County group. The receipt stated a total of $44.16, to which she paid with a $100 bill. When she was given her change, however, she only received $55.
“I just had a very disturbing and completely appalling experience at the new Turning Point restaurant in Paramus on Route 4,” Cartiern said. “Our bill was $44.16 and we received $55 back (NO CHANGE of 84 cents!). Although the bill says we were given the change of $55.84 − we were MOST definitely not.”
Cartiern went on to question the manager, who she said explained that this “rounding up” was part of company policy. The extra change, they said, contributes to the servers’ tips.
“We thought there was a mistake and questioned the supposed manager,” she said, “And were informed that they ROUND UP their bills because they do not carry any change in the restaurant and the extra goes to the waitress as part of the tip. REALLY??”
Angry — or in her own words, “furious!!” — Cartiern called corporate. She urged others who may have had a similar experience to do the same.
“Just think of just a mere 100 tables being assessed this rounding up because they ‘don’t have change,’” she said.
Because, at the end of the day, she tells others, “They’re adding at least a few hundred dollars to their bottom line before anyone tips!”
The restaurant’s side
We called Turning Point Restaurant and spoke to Casey Guillaume, the general manager who was working the floor at the time of the incident.
Guillaume did not speak to Cartiern on Friday morning, he said, but rather her husband.
“When her husband came to the host stand, I thought he was just looking for an explanation,” Guillaume said. “The server that gave him his change, I learned, was not his server, so she never saw his bill. She was just told to grab change by another server. I told him to give me a second to rectify the situation, but by the time I came back to the host stand — I was in a rush, I had a lot of tables to seat — he was gone.”
Guillaume explained that the restaurant does carry change, at least “20 dollars in quarters a day.”
“I never said we don’t make change for guests,” he recalls telling Cartiern’s husband before he left, “I just don’t accept change from the servers at the end of a shift because it’s harder to hand in to the bank deposit. At the end of the day, when servers give me their money, they are told to round up or down.”
It may have been that practice, he guessed, that caused the 84 cents server to make the mistake. Shorting change “should never happen,” though, he said, “to guests.”
“When giving change to customers — not to me — if we don’t have enough coins, we’re always supposed to round up. So he was supposed to get an extra 16 cents, not lose 84. I would rather have a customer have extra change than get short changed. We don’t short change guests. That’s just not something we do.”
But, interpreting Guillaume’s response differently, in his words, Cartiern and her husband had already left by the time he returned to the host stand to give them a dollar.
Facebook responds
If you believe Cartiern’s response to the loss of 84 cents — for whatever reason — sounds like an overreaction, you’re not alone. Her post currently has over 900 comments, most of which slam her for acting irrationally.
“You really called corporate over 84 cents??” a man who goes by Kefon Sheraton commented.
“Who cares?!” a woman who goes by Britt Winsick wrote. “Would you rather them put convenience fee and keep the 84 cents anyways? Or up charge your pancakes??”
Cartiern didn’t take the latter well, responding, “You have completely missed the point of the post. To try to explain it further would probably fracture your brain cells.”
Pennies vs. principles
On the flip side, some people were in support of Cartiern. A man who goes by Tommy Giordano explained it wasn’t about the amount of the upcharge, but rather the principle of not informing the customer.
“I don’t know why you wouldn’t be upset,” he wrote. “I’d be pissed even if it was a penny. If they don’t tell you ahead of time, it’s wrong.”
Sounds reasonable, but Justice Toujours’ comment that “Service workers are underpaid, undervalued, and exploited,” almost has us forgiving Turning Point’s sins — if, of course, we weren’t non-partisan (and we had verification that they truly happened for the reasons Cartiern wrote).
Because when all is said and done, he reminds us, “What’s another 84¢ they probably won’t see?”