Twitter Attacks Reporter After He Shares Money-Saving ‘Hack’ That Slashes Servers’ Tips

I’m always looking for ways to save more money—who isn’t? But at what point is saving at the expense of someone else? That’s where I cross the line.

Let’s talk about tipping for a second. These days, it’s not uncommon for most hardworking servers to not even come away with making minimum wage. They rely on their customers’ tips to help support them and get by. And when they offer exceptionally good service, they deserve to be compensated for that.

A general rule on how much to tip waiters is somewhere between 15 to 20 percent of the bill. If you don’t have a calculator handy, this can get a little tricky, if you’re trying to get to 20 percent, most people just move the decimal point to the left two points and then double the amount. So for example, if the bill was $100, you’d move the decimal two over, making it “.10,” meaning you’d multiply by two and get $20 tip. Simple.

But some people might find that amount to be kind of a lot to pay on top of their bill, which is on top of tax. And one video on addressing this thought recently went viral, but not because it was insightful—because people down right hated the contents of it and thought the message it was sending was terrible.

The video consists of CNBC reporter Zack Guzman trying to teach us about a tipping “hack” that can save you money every time you go out to eat. While his intentions seem fine at first, the “hack” he offers is really just a way to ensure that you’re giving your serves lower than they deserve.

In the video, Guzman calls tipping a “seemingly insignificant decision that can add up over time.” While he notes the decimal point trick, but says there’s a better way that could save you money on your tip: Just double the tax amount, which will make the tip be around 16-18%. The hack, he says, could save you over $400 “without looking cheap.”

Well that backfired. People definitely think this makes him look cheap. While the “hack” might sound nice for the person paying, the server kind of gets screwed in this case. And people who saw the video were really unhappy with that.

“Nice! Also pushing down old ladies and stealing the change in their wallets could earn you up to $385/year,” someone wrote in response to the video. “Gotta be on the lookout for these important tips on how to be the f**king worst.”

“This vid makes me so angry, wow,” someone else tweeted. “It tells people to save money by tipping on their pre-tax total, that that still “follows rules of etiquette” ??? Clear[ly] that nobody in any stage of production of this vid has ever worked in food service.”

“Here’s a tip…you can still delete this,” someone else wrote.

Yikes. Maybe Mr. Guzman should just focus on making his meals at home. Maybe he’ll save some money then!

Check out the video everyone’s so enraged about below.

What do you think of this tipping “hack”? How much do you generally tip your waiter when you go out to eat?