A waitress named Shaina Brown, who works at a Waffle House in Raleigh, North Carolina was awarded an unusually large tip. Her employer, however, made it difficult for her to receive it. Brown, who is a single mother, received a $1,000 tip from a man who did not reveal his name. Yet she had to go through a long process to actually get the money.
Brown talked with the customer, who ordered a bacon patty melt with hash browns and a cup of coffee. Brown mentioned that she is going to school full time while raising three children on her own. The man promised to “bless” her before leaving, but Brown didn’t realize at the time what he had in mind. The man ended up leaving a total of $1,500 as a tip. $1,000 was for Brown while the remaining $500 was awarded to another customer in the Waffle House, a woman who had given Brown a necklace as a gift for Mother’s Day.The complications came about because the man left the tip using his credit card.
As it turns out, Waffle House has a policy of not allowing wait staff to keep large tips left on credit card purchases. This is to protect the company from possible charge backs. Although Brown’s manager had the man’s phone number and called him to confirm that he really did intend to leave such a large tip, the manager still declined to give the money to Brown. She did not give up, however. She reached out to a local newspaper and had a reporter contact the tipper, who turned out to be a restaurant owner himself. A meeting with the man was arranged, and he gave Brown a check for the $1,000.
