those crazy college kids

A buddy sent me the following story about a bunch of college kids which I was hoping would involve multiple acts of sexual debauchery but alas it hit another nerve in the TOR universe.

• College Students Arrested For Refusing To Pay Tip



Should you be required by law to pay a gratuity if you don't think the restaurant's service was worth it? The police in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania think so, and they arrested two college students for refusing to pay a $16.35 tip over what they claim was poor service.


"You can't give us terrible, terrible service and expect a tip," said Pope, a 22-year-old Moravian College senior who's a Pottsville native, according to the Lehigh Valley Express-Times.


They had to find their own napkins and cutlery while their waitress caught a smoke, had to ask the bar for soda refills, and had to wait over an hour for salad and wings, they told NBC10.


The pub, which was very busy that night, took the $73, but then called the cops, who treated the matter as a theft.

TOR has been a big backer for the fight against automatic gratuity and this once again proves that the law is on the side of the big corporations and not the individual. The auto-gratuity is complete racketeering as it forces you to pay a price for something that should be a service and doesn’t allow for anything.

Now this story above involves a bunch of college kids who are probably spoiled and disrespectful and the fact that they got arrested although not warranted for the ‘offense’ committed is probably justified for other crimes like peeing in public, smoking dope or having sex with underage chicks but it is time that this travesty is brought to the national stage. This comes down to highway robbery as the innocent patron gets taken advantage of by the lazy waiter. See there is no reason for the waiter to work any harder if his tip is assured, so like a union teacher he can piss in your mashed potatoes and still be entitled to this compensation. I go out to dinner very often with parties over six and –as long as the service is at least adequate- will always leave 20% so I’m insulted that I’m forced to pay something which should be left up to the discretions of the patron.

I’ve worked in the service industry, I have been a waiter and I typically tip very well but I don’t believe I should be forced to tip a certain percentage just because my party is 6 people. The cut-off is arbitrary as I am sure there is no data to show a party of 6 will undertip more often than a party of 5 would so if you are going to have a restaurant that forces auto-gratuity do it for everybody not just large groups and while you are at it change your name to McDonalds.