Waitress slams man for paying tip with Amazon gift card instead of cash

A waitress has gone viral on TikTok after she shared a video of a customer’s unusual request when it was time to pay his bill.

A US TikTok user has gone viral for showing a customer paying a tip not with cash — but a $25 Amazon gift card.

The clip was posted by waitress @kaittwest with the caption, “Holidays left us #broke.”

In the video from an unknown restaurant, the customer’s bill came out to $95.24. But when it came time to tally up the gratuity, the customer offered an unusual substitution.

“He asked if he could tip with an Amazon gift card,” the video read.

The TikTok has since has over 85,000 views and almost 4,600 likes. It was set to the sad sound of “SpongeBob Sad Song Steel Lick”.

The video has sparked a heated debate over tipping practices in restaurants and eateries.

Some commenters commended the patrons’ generosity, saying that a $25 tip is actually quite a bit more than a 20 per cent tip of $17.19.

“That’s actually really generous,” one user wrote. “As a waitress I would love it! Lol $25 that’s more than 20 per cent too,” another pointed out in the comments section.

However others slammed the gift, saying that gift cards won’t pay bills. “As a waitress no, I need bills paid not Amazon,” said one person.

“People really going out to eat when they don’t have any money huh,” wondered another commenter.

The customer took the unusual step of paying with a gift card, enraging the waitress. Picture: TikTok

TikTokers have recently been exposing the bad tipping habits of customers through their short snaps. Commenters on the social media platform recently shamed a user who couldn’t afford a 20 per cent gratuity. The user shared a bill from an Applebee’s Neighbourhood Grill & Bar in New York’s Staten Island last month that showed a person leaving a 9 per cent tip. The bill came to $73.45, and the restaurant asked for an 18 per cent tip of $12.14 or a 20 per cent tip of $13.49.

But the customer left just $6.55, and left a note that said: “You was great. Holidays are just rough right now.”

Another thing that has left viewers puzzled is the act of “tip baiting.” A US truck driver slammed the practice that lets not-so-nice customers promise a large tip to delivery drivers on online apps. However, they reduce the gratuity amount once their food has been dropped off at the desired location.

Uber Eats driver Owen Lindstrom posted a video on TikTok to shade the stingy buyers.

“In food delivery apps, the customer has the ability to increase or reduce the tips after drop off,” Lindstrom explained in the clip. “Tip baiting is when a customer offer a large tip to get their food faster and then take it away at the end. While it’s good to protect the customer from having bad service by holding the tip over your head, it leave a big opportunity to screw over the driver.”

This story originally appeared on The New York Post and is republished here with permission.