AITBF for not tipping after bad service and then arguing with my friend about it at the table?
This was three days ago and my friend group is still weird about it.
We went to brunch, four of us, not a cheap place. The service was bad from the start. Twenty minutes before anyone came to take our order, two orders came out wrong, server disappeared constantly, i watched him stand at the bar on his phone while our empty plates sat in front of us. My friend asked for water twice. It arrived eventually. Fine.
When the bill came i didn't leave a tip. Not trying to be dramatic about it, the food was okay, kitchen was fine, but the service was genuinely not good and i made a decision.
My friend Sarah clocked it immediately and said loudly enough for the whole table to hear "you're not tipping him?" i said i didn't think the service was good enough. She called it classless. I said i get that servers rely on tips which is exactly why service matters. She said i was being cheap and making it weird. i said she was the one making it weird by announcing it to the table. it went back and forth for a bit and then we just stopped talking about it and left.
One friend texted me later saying i wasn't wrong but could have just left something small to avoid the drama. The other two haven't said anything which probably means they think i'm wrong and don't want to tell me.
I don't think i was wrong about the tip. Maybe wrong about arguing back instead of just dropping it. honestly not sure anymore becuase the Sarah thing is what everyone seems more bothered by than the actual tip.
AITBF?