Unleashing her anger by taking back advice to seek justice.

Our reader Amelia recently wrote to us about her recent restaurant experience, bringing up important questions about tipping, customer service, and handling conflicts.

Here’s her full story:

I (30F) went out to a nice restaurant with my husband (30M) last night to celebrate his big promotion. Everything was great until the very end, when the waitress spoiled it with her attitude.

When the check came, I left a $10 tip on our $85 bill. As she took the money, she smirked and said loudly, “Ten bucks? This isn’t the 1950s, you know.”

I was shocked. Her tone was so disrespectful, and my husband looked at me in disbelief.

“Excuse me?” I said, immediately annoyed. “I think $10 on an $85 bill is more than fair.”

The waitress rolled her eyes and said, “A standard tip is 20% these days. Don’t you know how to calculate that?”

I couldn’t believe her rude attitude. That $10 was over 11%, which is a reasonable tip. Her entitled behavior really irritated me.

“You know what,” I said, getting upset. “With that kind of attitude, you don’t deserve a tip at all!”

I quickly reached over and took the $10 back from the table. The waitress looked shocked and started yelling at me, calling me names and making a big scene. Other diners stared at us. My husband felt embarrassed. Finally, the manager had to come over and remove the waitress, who was still shouting at me. In the end, we just left without leaving a tip.

I’ll admit I probably overreacted, but her smug and rude behavior really made me angry. After treating a customer so badly, she didn’t deserve any extra tip. However, I’ve been getting mixed opinions about whether I should have let it go instead of causing a scene. What do you think?