Imagine you were working as a server and a customer leaves you a 2000 USD tip. What would you do? Jump up and down in excitement trying to process just what happened? Start making plans on how to spend your money? Well, the exact thing happened to a waitress in a San Antonio restaurant but unfortunately her moment of joy was cut short as the restaurant refused to allow the tip.
Short-lived happiness for one lucky server
The server we mentioned was Emily Bauer (21) who was just 2 weeks into her job at a seafood restaurant in San Antonio, Texas. Emily has two sons and a boyfriend who lost his job due to the corona pandemic. The family was struggling to make ends meet and Emily was especially worried that her kids will not get the Christmas they wanted.
But then it seemed that luck has struck her down. She was working on a busy Sunday at the bar, lots of customers and the orders were arriving slow. There was one customer who had the longest waiting hours and she kept apologizing for the delay. The customer was understanding and even mentioned he owned a few restaurants so he knew what it was to struggle to make all the orders in time. Nonetheless, Emily went back and forth apologizing for being slow. The customer then told Emily to cancel his food and bring him the check. Emily did what he asked and went away.
Christmas came early
As the customer left she went back to take the bill and nearly fainted when she saw the tip. The man had left her a 2000 USD tip and a cute note saying:” Merry Christmas, keep up the hard work!”
Credits to: kvue.com
Emily was over the moon and immediately started thinking about her sons and how happy they will be when they get everything they’ve ever wanted for Christmas. Her coworkers started congratulating her and everyone was just so happy for the struggling mom. She finally caught a break.
But unfortunately, her hopes and dreams were shattered when the restaurant manager told her that she will not be able to receive the money. Their system allowed for a maximum of 500 USD tips and couldn’t process a tip that big.
The other servers suggested they split the tip into 4 and try that but it didn’t do the trick either. No one had heard about this kind of policy before and they were all so disappointed.
The generous customer called back to see if Emily had received the tip and was bummed to hear about the trouble. He added that he was the owner of 3 restaurants in San Antonio and the big tip was not a problem for him. The manager told the customer that if he wants he can come back and leave the tip in cash, but he hasn’t returned yet. The restaurant manager just wanted to say that they didn’t take away anything from Emily because the tip didn’t go to the restaurant neither. They weren’t keeping Emily’s money, they just couldn’t process it.
Even though Emily couldn’t get the money she was still just so grateful for the generosity of the man. She wrote to her social media account, posting the tip, and stating that she just wanted the man to know how much she appreciated his kind gesture.
Let’s hope that her message gets through to the gentleman and maybe inspire him to go back and correct the mistake.
