Hard times, New York.

Pam Real Thai rounded up three cents on my credit card. Ridiculous.

This could have been an interesting discussion about the intersection of principle vs. convenience. Unfortunately it had to happen on Gothamist.

everyone is upset about rounding up or down for a few cents to make things simpler, but nobody is upset about a $19.00 Dominios pizza or a $2.00 plain bagel or when ConEd raised their rates > 45% a few years ago claiming the increase was in response to the dramatic increase in oil costs, but never reduced their rates once the price of oil receded?

I am a server and I am absolutely guilty of doing this in some respects.

You see, in my restaurant, the servers carry all their cash and all their change with them throughout the night (shh....tell no one) and my managers are stupid stupid men who dont give two shits about keeping change or aquiring change for the evening. So sometimes we scramble to make change for customers, especially when I am monumentally busy with a million things. I rarely have coins on me, i tend to barter and trade with the other serving ladies for singles and quarters and whatever. However, if i find that I am short pennies or any change, I will always, always ALWAYS round up to the next quarter or dollar, because in the course of the night it wont matter.

Yes, I am young and stupid and it adds up. yes, it's my responsibility. No, I will never provide a disservice to the customer, and I think that's fine. Tip your servers, kids.

Gothamist commenters have failed to surprise me in a while, but I never thought a measly 4 cents would bring out all the bigots...

I wonder what his last name ends in? ...burg ...stein?

Are you fucking serious with this shit?

Miss my old favorite deli. Me & the cashiers used to round to the nearest dollar. Since I stopped there usually twice a day for years, statistically I'm sure it came about even, and much less hassle. Dump the penny, and agreed-upon rounding at an oft-frequented establishment sure saves time & hassle. Unagreed penny-rounding is no great fuss, carping about $0.04 is ridiculous. I just noticed there's no "cent" sign on my keyboard. Do have a ~,a^, and a }. I'm sure mr Weisz' keyboard is different. Don't sweat the small stuff.

This is such a joke. Can we just save the server AND the customer some time and say that we can let 4 cents slide? That's the cheapest thing I've ever heard. Servers don't always carry a pocket full of pennies to make change for customers, and if you don't want to wait for your server to wait for the bartender to make change, then maybe you can sacrifice those 4 cents to the hard-working server who just brought you your meal? I mean, come on.

Well, I used to work as a cashier, and I can tell you a LOT of people don't want pennies in particular. A few times people literally threw their change at me. I can also tell you that running a small business and providing large amounts of change can be challenging. Between the two I'm not at all surprised they round up or down. If you don't like it, pay with your card, or don't eat there again. Or be a jerk and don't tip the waiter. But either way, not really a scam at all.

i work in a restaurant, and honestly, we usually only keep bills in our registers. when a guest asks for change we try to accomodate, but usually either round up or down as necessary. it's not a scam. take the 4 cents you are owed out of the tip you leave. and if you get rounded up, lucky you! it's easy. sheesh.

Did the person writing this ever work in a bar of restaurant? Clearly not. I do, and rounding is just that...rounding. Sometimes up, sometimes down - I'm not lining my pockets with the extra 4 cents, nor am I digging in my tip jar to give back the 4 cents. It just gets put in the register, and at the end of the night, it works out even. Stop looking for a scam where there is none.

if this is a problem for you, you really can't afford to be eating out. 4 cents. you're probably using a computer at the library to report this.

I've had it happen in the restaurant's favor and in my favor pretty evenly.

That said, it has been egregious at times (a bill for $14.07 for example with $5 returned), in which case I just deduct a portion of the tip.

When it's anything less than a quarter, though, I've never cared, especially if it were as measly as 4 cents. My suggestion to Weisz is go outside and look on the ground for 10 seconds - I'm sure he'll find a nickel pretty quickly. In turn, my suggestion to the restaurant is to round down and give the person a nickel.

Has anyone on this page ever left NYC and spent time in Europe, this is a common practice, only here would we complain about 4 friggin cents

erm.. yeah, definitely not normal, and you were getting taken. i've spent time in europe, and lived in australia, and this doesn't happen as a normal thing.

I used to live in Europe. This isn't a regular practice and if it did happen you better believe someone would be complaining about it. Europeans (and especially the French) put New Yorkers to shame with their whining and complaining.

I think you are confusing including the tip with the meal with "rounding up." But then again there are shady people everywhere who will try to rip you off. For every one waitress that tries to steal a couple cents from you there are at least 200 that come back with the exact change.

Cook your own food and save money to buy drugs, I don't get whats not to get. Everyone i know who works at a food establishment winks into the food they told me. can u believe it. save money, make your own food & expand your mind. thanks.

-g

Just kill the penny once and for all for fucksake.