Tipping is accustomed across North America and is often a great way to show the waitstaff what a great job they did during a meal. A restaurant is now looking to sue a customer who tipped a server $3,000 only to later dispute the charge with his credit card company.
Mariana Lambert works as a waitress at Alfredo’s Pizza Cafe in Scranton, Pennsylvania. She was shocked when a customer tipped her $3,000 for his $13.25 stromboli. “It really did mean a lot to me because everybody’s going through stuff. It really touched my heart,” Lambert said.
The customer, identified as Eric Smith, wrote “Tips For Jesus” next to his generous tip on the bill. He explained that he likes to surprise servers with thoughtful gestures like this one.
At first, it seemed like too good to be true but according to Lambert, they “ran his card and everything went through properly. They took his I.D. and took pictures of everything, so they waited a little bit to make sure it was legit and went through, and it ended up being real.”
Turns out, the whole situation was a bit out of this world when the customer later disputed the charge with his credit card company. As is standard, Lambert had already received the generous tip, leaving the restaurant in a sticky situation.
Management reached out to Smith on Facebook to determine if the “aggravating” situation was a misunderstanding but he eventually stopped replying to their messages. In order to hold their crook accountable, they decided to take him to court to address their $3,000 loss.
“Unfortunately, we had to file charges through the magistrate’s office because now we’re just out of this money, at this point,” said manager Zachary Jacobson. “And he told us to sue him, so that’s what we’re going to end up doing, I guess.”
He added: “I hope that he owns up to his actions and comes forth and does pay this because you shouldn’t have done this if this was the end result.”