Charleston server gets a 9% tip after a friendly interaction. Then she asks viewers if she should confront the man, sparking a debate on tipping

Tipping culture in the United States sparks national debates on a seemingly regular basis, and the latest spark came from Gabby Kozlowski (@gabbykozlowski on TikTok), who works as a server in Charleston. Kozlowski took to TikTok with a question for servers after a customer left a tip she was unhappy with, asking whether they would ever confront a customer about a tip.

Kozlowski explained that she felt her interactions with the customer went well, but when it was time to pay, he asked how to enter a custom tip instead of the restaurant’s default 25% on the payment tablet. She walked him through the process to change it, which meant she watched him lower the tip amount from 25% to 9%.

Kozlowski worried that her service was disappointing

In her video, Kozlowski said she wanted to ask the customer about his tip because she wondered if her service was disappointing. She felt that her interactions with him were positive, so it felt like his tip wasn’t appropriate for the service.

Unsure about confronting customers about tips, something she’s never done before, Kozlowski asked TikTok if anyone who works as a server has actually confronted a customer about a tip. While not the same, there have been situations from the customer’s point of view shared online, such as one woman who was confronted by her DoorDash driver about a 20% tip, which used to be the accepted tipping standard in the past.

The overall agreement was that she shouldn’t confront customers

Commenters had a lot to say, but the consensus was that it’s not a good idea to confront customers about tipping, despite stories like this one in Ohio where an owner chased customers across the street because of their tip.

One comment reads, “That’s so nice he gave you a tip, regardless of the amount.”

Another comment says, “Tell your boss to raise your wage. You work for them anyway, not the customer.” While that comment had a reply asking if that’s their excuse to be stingy, another reply agreed with the original post and said, “So you want the customer to be responsible for their pay? Nowhere in the world is this normal. Pay the people you employ to work for you, or shut down the business. This is modern-day slavery: work and not get paid by the people who hired you to work.”

Most comments fell along similar lines, and one in particular summed up what many feel about tipping culture in general by saying, “So if 10% used to be the norm, why isn’t it still? Food and beverage prices have at least risen 50%, and now you expect 25%. That’s wild. No one else’s wages have gone up that dramatically.”

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