Don’t you people have machines?
(Serious question - I feel like I’m reading a thread from the nineties…)
We don’t. It’s not like Canada or Europe at all. Not yet, anyway.
the correct the correct answer is that you enter a total on your charge slip. You don’t even have to enter anything in the tip area. At the end of their shift, your server has to correct his credit card tabs with the correct totals. The difference is the tip. If you write in a big tip but you write in a smaller total, the server doesn’t benefit from your error.
Former server here. I’d have to run the tip through as a second transaction…it was a long time ago, but I’d have to key in some code unique to the receipt and add the tip on to that. IIRC, the restaurant would pay out the credit card tips in cash at the end of the night.
I’ve had one fraudulent tip, at a Mimi’s Cafe which is no longer there. She added about $10 to my tip, and I did not undertip. I went to the restaurant and showed them my receipt and I was refunded the money, but I really didn’t get an apology from the manager, more of a “oh, her finger must have slipped” sort of thing.
It seems strange that such a capitalist and commercialised society as America wouldn’t have the most advanced credit card machines, but there you go.
FWIW, here in the UK, in most cases (probably 8 or 9 times out of 10), the waiter will bring the bill over, then if you indicate you want to pay by card, they will bring the machine over, put your card in and enter the total (without tip), then hand you the machine which will give you the option “Do you wish to add a gratuity? Y/N”, you press the relevant button, and key in the amount of the tip (a couple of machines I’ve seen even provide suggested 10%, 15% etc options for the numerically challenged). Then you key in your PIN and the transaction only goes through at that point, with the tip included.
No offense, but I hope we don’t get this for a very long time.
Why? It’s quick and easy and you don’t have to faff about writing things on bits of paper. And, more importantly, you know exactly how much is being charged to your card, without having to trust that someone will add on the correct amount by reading a scribbled receipt.
The whole U.S. banking system needs to be dragged (kicking and screaming) out of the 1980s. We still don’t have a straightforward electronic interbank payment system for everyday payments.
It doesn’t seem easier than me just handing my card to a waiter and they take care of all that.
It takes about six extra button presses (eg for a £15 tip, "YES, 1, 5, 0, 0, “ENTER”), on top of the five it takes to type in your pin and hit enter. Plus, you don’t have to tell the waiter how much you are adding as a tip, or even if you are leaving one at all, which could cause embarrassment.
Ok ok 
My way is NO button presses
Thanks for the clarification CookingwithGas. When I worked in retail, we still used carbon paper and ATM’s weren’t a thing at all; so who sets the rules and how that works is still foreign to me.
As far as the hijack question, most of the servers I have talked to seem to prefer cash tips, although I think that has to do with the fact that cash tips are harder to track for tax purposes. Credit card tips can be looked up and tracked to some extent I guess.
They do this with gift cards too. When eating with a large group, I tried to use the face value of the gift card by having the waiter run a check for me for $100 – I was going to take back $75 from the cash the others put in. Waiter came back saying the charge was denied.
I checked the transaction later and found that at least in restaurants the gift/credit card company adds 20% to cover possible tip. So to cash out your gift cards, ask for a check no more than 80% of the face value, then add enough ‘tip’ to clear out the balance.
Just to add that many of us prefer to hand any tip in cash to the server. This is because some chains have been known to skim card tips or share them among all the employees. They sometimes use them to dodge minimum wage rules.
Many restaurants add a service charge to the bill - 10% to 15% usually, and as you can see from the above, none of that has to go to your server.
The government has finally promised to change the law so that service staff get to keep their tips, however they are paid.
here in Cleveland there was uproar that high-end restaurants DID charge credit card fees back to server (some even charge servers for uniforms!). Since restaurants are already paying fees, it’s gouging low-income employees out of greed
Some restaurants have had this for a long time. Going by memory, I believe Chili’s and Outback Steakhouse are two places that do it. You can actually run your own card from a device at the table, choose the tip percentage, sign electronically (with a stylus or finger) and finalize the pay on your own. I really like it, it is quicker for the customers who don’t have to wait in the server to bring a bill, then wait for the server to gather the card, then wait again for the server to return with the receipt to sign. And it saves the servers time and effort too.
This way the card never leaves your sight, often not even your hand. Between the physical control and the need to enter your PIN, fraud has been dramatically reduced.
Having visited Canada I like their system better. I never carry any cash around unless I’m know I’m going to some place that won’t take credit cards so I can’t tip in cash. When the waitress takes the machine over the card is never out of my sight so no one can copy the number and it gives a menu of suggested tips so I don’t have to figure out what 15 or 20 percent of the bill is.
This is a problem that’s slowly (at least in the U.S.) but surely going away. I live in a small town (2,300 people) and most of the restaurants in town process the credit card right in front of you. You enter the tip, confirm the total, and the receipt (paper or electronic) is the exact correct amount.
Even the little tea shop that I own doesn’t have customers sign paper receipts or fill in tips on paper. You walk up to the checkout station, put the tip on the card or drop cash in the jar (or, like about 1/3 of the customers, just don’t tip) and your paper or electronic receipt is 100% correct and matches the amount charged.