Server Waives Auto Gratuity for a Party of 8. Then She Sees Their Combined Tip for a $90 Bill: 'It’s Already Awkward at This Point'

A server waived an auto gratuity for a party of 8, but ended up baffled by the tip from their combined bill.

The incident was shared by @sophiealtheaw on TikTok.

For Sophie, the busy restaurant shift got so hectic that she wasn't willing to gamble on a large table leaving a decent tip.

However, one party of eight wanted another option, opting out of automatic gratuity, which protects servers handling large parties with a tip added for them.

As the TikToker shared, that Saturday, one employee had to leave early, so Sophie ended up working overtime. That day, she even had no food expo, bussers, hosts, or manager on duty.

Her workload obviously kept growing, as Sophie had to handle two parties of six, a party of five, a family of four, two couples, and the newly arrived party of eight.

At her restaurant, servers can add a 20% automatic gratuity for groups of eight or more. Sophie, for one, said she usually preferred to let customers determine their own tip.

Since she was "absolutely slammed" while working mostly alone, Sophie decided to add a 20% automatic gratuity for the party of 8 instead of taking her chances.

However, that became a problem, as the party responded, "We don't want to do that."

Adding to this, the diners even asked whether they could sit at two separate tables instead. Sophie then offered to lower the gratuity to 18%, but the group remained concerned about the charge.

While two people initially left, reducing the party to six, they returned later, with Sophie having to take all of their orders separately.

By that point, Sophie started wondering whether the diners were worried about money and decided against automatically adding the gratuity.

Plus, this group had made its feelings clear before the food was even ordered, so Sophie decided to give them the choice they had wanted.

"It's already awkward at this point," she said.

Thus, when she dropped off their split checks, Sophie specifically explained that she had removed the automatic gratuity.

"There's no tip on there," she recalled telling them. "You can tip me what you'd like."

The group's choices also kept the final bill relatively low, with them mostly ordering waters with lemon, while the children's drinks came free with their kids' meals, and some other diners shared food rather than ordering individual meals.

Altogether, the checks came to around $90.

Then Sophie added up the tips. Across all the separate checks, the party had left her exactly $18, i.e., 20% of a $90 bill.

This left Sophie baffled, because that amount was the same percentage that the party had objected to having automatically added in the first place.

"All of that commotion for a 20% tip," Sophie said.