I've heard stories like this too. I agree with the rest of y'all that the tip system is b0rk3d, both for customers and waitstaff. Having been a waiter myself for a couple of years, I'm pretty conscientious about leaving tips and I feel for the waitress in your story. If you wait tables to actually support yourself and not just for some extra spending money, there's a lot of anxiety over whether you have a good night or a bad night, tip-wise.

At the restaurant where I worked (which was in a hotel), there were many, many evenings where the slow trickle of customers would have hardly provided enough tips to send one waitperson home happy, much less the three of us on duty. It's depressing to go home after six hours with $12 in your pocket and another $18 or so coming in your paycheck. If you're good at your job and you work at a busy establishment, there's good money to be made in waiting tables, but I'd rather have a moderate wage that I could count on than the stress of lull, lull, JACKPOT!!!, lull, lull, lull...

Oh yeah, and I've also wondered about tipping haircutters. Don't they get paid adequately without tips?

Iss "likes beef tips, though" achar