Oops

I made a mistake on Seamless Web tonight and didn't even realize it until it was way too late. I still feel really guilty about it.

Usually, when I order from a restaurant, the tip section fills in automatically with a certain percentage of the bill amount. I don't think about it. Ever. It just has an amount, I go to the next screen to enter payment details, and it's done. I have ordered so many times at the office over the past few years that I usually just pay attention to my order and the total, and never look at the taxes, fees or tip amounts.

Today, I ordered from somewhere new. When I went to pick up my order, the guy told me there was no tip. I was confused, even when he showed me the paper, because I hadn't done anything different when I ordered. I certainly hadn't gone in to eliminate their tip because I would never do that. And since I just did the same thing I always do, why would there not be a tip amount? I was really confused and told the guy that the tip always got added through the system. I thought they might just be new...

I went back to my receipt when I got upstairs and couldn't find the tip. How could that be? There's always a tip there! So I went back into the system and tried re-running the order to see what happened, and it said the tip was $0! I felt SO guilty. But I also couldn't understand why it would say that, after the hundreds of other orders I had done where I was fairly sure there had been a tip amount...

So I experimented. I tried a different restaurant, and the tip filled in automatically there, so it wasn't a uniform change. I tried going back to this restaurant, without re-running the same order, and it said tip $0! It must be something in their settings. But I don't think I have ever come across this before. Usually it's just filled in!

I couldn't believe it when I realized that it really didn't give them anything for tip. Was that a setting that they selected to not have a default tip amount? Why would they ever do that? People order so quickly on Seamless Web (especially at work), and I'm sure a lot of people are like me and never take a second look at the tip section because they figure it's automatically done.

Anyway, there's nothing I can do now. They only reimburse us at the office up to a certain amount, and since I didn't realize tip wasn't included in the total at the time, it would be over the limit now. It's a place in our neighborhood, so I guess I can go there some other time and maybe tack a little extra on each time we go there to make up for it. I'm sure we'll go there at some point so that's not the issue. I just feel so guilty because I would never not tip the delivery person! And I really thought I had, but I didn't. I feel terrible!

But I have learned my lesson. I will check the tip section on the order form before I finalize the order next time. I have just done this so often that I don't look anymore, but I will from now on!

So... if you're a Thai restaurant in New York and this story sounds somewhat familiar... please add the tip default so that someone else like me doesn't do the same thing. And I'm really, really sorry about the mix-up and will make it up to you!