ONLY ORDER WHAT YOU CAN PAY FOR!!

Story Prologue:
A table of 4 came in and we were supposed to be closed but as usual we let in these random tables when the kitchen is closing as well as side-stations and we have to rush people in a ridiculous way. Unfortunately I work in a place where by the time they get to being sat...they are FAR away from the front door to usually want to turn around. A young (meaning she's like 17) host started to seat this 4-top but kept getting shaken off by every server that saw the table. This was due to people wanting to be finished working(not wanting the last table) and also because they were black kids.
One waiter was embarrassed by this and decided to just take the table. Well this waiter says he is a 'restaurant person' and I admire him for that as much as that can be admired(I mean it's not like he brought peace to the world). It
turned out that the table did not have enough money to pay the whole bill.
So this server's nice deed went bad...not only did he wait on them for free...it cost him money to do so. You feel bad for the guy but it brings up a great point.
How can people feel they can order whatever they want and not think about its price(s) beforehand?!? I don't know if this is a fair comparison but let me try:

I call up a dealer and tell him I'm coming over to buy 5 of his finest paintings.
I get there and naturally I want to view them. I take out my $100 for the 5 and he tells me that it's $500 per painting. Now I would probably say give me one $100 or 5 smaller $20 paintings...but I doubt the dealer would be amused that I called asking for his 5 best ($2500 worth of) paintings and showed up with $100.

I don't know if it's a case of these people not looking at prices before ordering OR thinking they could just get discounted whatever they couldn't afford?!?

I know there's a race issue here as well and some of you might think that's the most important issue here. The fact that all the other waiters prejudged the table correctly doesn't make their shakeoffs right. The host should have sat & left them in whatever section was open and next.

If it was my table I would have stood there and said "I don't care whom you have to call to bring you money or a credit card....but you have to find someway to pay the check". We only add gratuity on parties of 6 or more but we have to tip out based on sales so I would have added it regardless...I would have added it due to the bill being over 100 bucks...not because of their color. I don't think I'm wrong, because NO waiter should have to work for free. I know there are lots of people with issues about having to tip and having to tip more than a certain amount...but waiters more than any other profession live solely on their tips. People at Mcdonald's get paid more hourly than waiters do!

Now I would not have guessed the table didn't have enough money to pay but I definitely would have assumed my tip was not going to be higher than 10 percent. My basis is more about the type of place I work in where I assume many people will not leave me more than 10 percent for a whole number of reasons/issues I'm not going to get into now.

I personally have had tales like this one where people didn't have enough money to pay the check. The table I had was also a black family but I know we've also had white people come in who couldn't pay as well. I'm sure all over the world..every single ethnicity, race, creed, religion, etc. had someone whom ate out and did not have enough money for their check. I have never read any articles or seen any coverage on the news about any such incident. I only see articles about unfair gratuities added to checks due to race or because they were foreigners or some other reason.

NOW TO MY STORY:
My story was that my place was handing out coupons on the street for free video games in our arcade which could only be used if they purchased an entree.
It wasn't a busy night and this group came down to my section. I was happy because it was my first gratuity table - 7 people. Well they ordered an appetizer and a few sodas. They ate and I dropped the bill. The gratuity was like 7 bucks.
They had just come from a sporting event and this father had bought them all new jerseys and hats. It looked like he had spent A LOT of money that day. He comes to find me alone in the back and smirks..

"Is this a joke?"

I respond : "Is what a joke?"

He says : "This bill...$70 for an appetizer and some sodas"

I said : "No"

He says : " I don't have enough money to pay this bill"

At this point....why is this MY problem?!? I then have to do a lot of extra work to help out a guy who can't even pay his bill which after tipping out only leaves me with a whole $4 tip from my $7 gratuity. It's at THIS point he lets me know that the only reason they had anything to eat was so they could use their game coupon.

I got the bill knocked down like 10 bucks and he had to get his mom's credit card number and I had to have documents typed up and signed by him so there would be no problems. (People like to call back and try to get out of paying for meals by saying they NEVER ate there...they either DON'T sign the slip or take BOTH copies...sneaky & evil people in the world) This wasn't a kid but a grown man who had to be pushing 40.

So getting back to the prologue...I felt for this waiter and personally feel every check in this country should come with 18 percent gratuity added to ALL checks with an additional line for more if the customer wants to leave extra on top. I know service charges can be added which go to the restaurant and sometimes the waiter...but
an article I read said only 15 percent for parties of 8 or more can be added if stated somewhere in the restaurant or on the menu. I don't know how true that is since many places add anywhere from 15-20 percent from all different party sizes?!? That is another post to be started.

The positive with paying the waiter is that the waiter can keep better track of his tips(actually entering in credit card tips him or herself) where as the positive thing with having to pay a cashier on the way out is walkouts can no longer be blamed on the waiter(one would think since the customers have to go by the cashier on the way out?!). I guess depending on the size of the check...the police would be called -- and would charge the customers with a felony or misdemeanor..although I have never seen anyone charged with such but saw the police called once.

Long post...thoughts on moronic patrons, waiters being prejudice, or other restaurant baloney..