re: Would you feel like you took advantage of someone in this situation?

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Leave the gift card as an extra tip next time. If the person ordering gets a cash order, they use the gift card to pay. I used to do this when I waited. Profit. And you don't feel bad.

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Not really profit for the location if waiter getting it as a tip (unless you mean cash is taken as overage by location & not pocketed by waiter). I can see extra tip if you think an hourly plus tips waiter did way more than necessary or got in trouble & shouldn't have because of situation causing you to get gift card. I have seen employees get fired for what you seem to be describing for not following polices in place to stop embezzlement and cash tips above set % not being reported (cash tips not usually checked but in cases like this its done reviewing gift card usage) Obviously worse if gift card or cards gotten fraudulently somehow by employee directly or through helping a friend work the system, but these cases cause what you described to be reviewed as well as gift cards given away to be tracked. I guess controls can vary by company and location as well as being handled differently if you meant location taking gain versus waiter taking it as tip (but usually process for that as well And not just waiting for cash sale).

Otherwise if you think gift card was not needed buy mostly food especially high margin stuff (if known) with just normal tip and let location make back some of the gift card $ that will end up hitting their bottom line.