I’ll admit I was wondering about this earlier this week. I had given the cashier my slip, she punched in the amount, handed me the slip to sign, I wrote in the amount of the tip, and handed it back to her.
As I was leaving it occurred to me that I didn’t know how she charged my tip to the original amount. When she punched it in, she didn’t know how much I was going to tip. Maybe I was supposed to tell her before she rang up the amount? I was worried that all these years I might have been stiffing people on tips because I didn’t understand the correct procedure.
I’m relieved to hear the restaurant is able to add in the tip afterwards.
Yeah, it’s a pending transaction. The card is authorized for the amount of the check and those funds count against your balance but the transaction won’t be finalized until the tip is added and the restaurant “captures” the funds.
My company has a relatively low volume internet store (million a year, small potatoes in eCommerce) and our web store infrastructure is run by a third party. Our old provider (Yahoo) allowed us to capture a higher dollar amount than the authorization which was something we used frequently. We sell specialty electronics and review every order because people order the wrong stuff or neglect required accessories all the time.
Our current provider insists that doing this is simply impossible, despite the fact that Yahoo Small Business and every goddamned restaurant in North America does it. Our current platform has significant advantages over Yahoo, but on many points, they obstinately refuse to accept reality.
I used the restaurant analogy with them (they stood by it being IMPOSSIBLE!) and I use it with customers all the time. The customers always get it, but if I have to edit a $600 order to $650 with my current provider I have to void the original authorization and then start a new one. So now they have the original $600 tied up, plus a new charge for $650. The $600 will be released after a few days, or if they need me to, I can call their card issuer and if I get a competent rep they will release it immediately. It’s a pain in the ass for everyone. Except our web store provider. Obviously it’s a hell of a lot easier for them to make everyone else’s life more difficult.
They slide your card before the tip is added. It always shows up later.