Holiday Time: Do you tip your "service" people?

Just to add something not many think about...

One of my brothers always brings See's Candies gift certificates to the local fire-houses on Christmas Day, for the firemen and women on duty over the holiday.

It's not much, maybe $75 U.S. for two or three fire stations, but they always seem to be quite appreciative of the effort.
 
deryk said:
Not many people tip for other services here (except people who provide beauty services).
Click to expand...

Maybe it's a west coastish thing? My wife is from Oregon, I'm from Lil Rhody.
 
yellow said:
Maybe it's a west coastish thing? My wife is from Oregon, I'm from Lil Rhody.
Click to expand...

I think it is. Though, waitron staff in Colorado do make the paultry $2.50 an hour, unlike OR.
 
I deliver papers in the mornings to local houses (papers like the times, proper, morning papers), as its the only job I can do around here at my age. I get paid OK. I'd say about 50% of people tip me for delivering their papers to them at 6.30 am every morning for the year.. and its definitely a nice gesture. I'm sure everyone you tip really appreciates it.
 
I like overtipping especially in diners. Otherwise, here goes
Mail carrier gift certificate for some coffee shop (it gets really cold here) and some cookies.
Newspaper delivery $25
Hairdresser cost of a haircut, shampoo and blow dry
I usually tip the cost of a basic service I use because they are owners and work very hard.
In diners we'll leave $5.00 sometimes for a $10.00 because it's so nice not to eat in a chain restaurant.
Pizza guys get 25%
We don't order out too often and we've been seeing the same hairdresser, etc for years. My Mom calls me a pushover but hey it's the holidays. :)
 
All I have to say is I was truly amazed at one of my tips today. I opened the envelope expecting at most $30 because thats what they ususally top out at, but this person gave me $100!!! Im definitly giving them the paper on the door from now on.
 
iGary said:
I usually give my hair guy $20.00
Click to expand...

Being that I get my hair cut at most once every 4 months, this doesn't happen 'round here. :p

That said, having worked as a barista recently (fancy name for a coffee server in a coffee house), I'll say that I very rarely really expected tips, but was pleased to get them. There were only a few cases where I expected the people to tip, and was extremely displeased when they didn't. I have extreme patience with people, and always gave even the rudest and most troublesome patrons the best service...and I hoped for a bit in return.

Random things I think about tipping:

--When a father came in holding his daughter, who proceeded to throw up all over the counter, behind the counter, and into the back room as he rushed her to the employee bathroom in the back. He tipped $25 on a $3 order.

--People who would waste my time. Most people from NYC seemed to think that they know better than me how to: grind coffee, steam milk, pull shots etc. They seem to think that the process is aided by their leaning over the counter and giving me advice.

--Parties of more than 10. When people would come in huge groups, drop a massive order, and I'd remember and execute it perfectly, providing them with everything they wanted extremely quickly, only to get a 10 cent tip, or no tip at all, I was not pleased.

--Special needs people. Ordering custom drinks and being an ***hole about it does not endear you to your server. Remember this.

--Friendly guys. Believe it or not, I don't want to have a 'conversation' about the Land Rover you just bought and attempted to parallel park out front. I'd actually rather you left, maybe next time you wouldn't spend an hour of my time telling me about how your Land Rover purchase was justified by the fact that your forth wife sold your Rolex at a pawn shop.

:D

(The Land Rover thing is actually real...I saw a brand new '05 Land Rover try to parallel park, end up perpendicular to the street, and finally get all four tires up on the sidewalk before backing out into the street and parking elsewhere. They guy came in later and was bragging to his buddies about his awesome land rover.)
 
XIII said:
I deliver papers in the mornings to local houses (papers like the times, proper, morning papers), as its the only job I can do around here at my age. I get paid OK. I'd say about 50% of people tip me for delivering their papers to them at 6.30 am every morning for the year.. and its definitely a nice gesture. I'm sure everyone you tip really appreciates it.
Click to expand...
When I had a paper route, I was surprised how many people tipped at Christmas. I'd say it was about 50% too. I got around $100-150 in tips for Christmas every year, and I wasn't exactly the best paper boy. I always was late and slammed the paper on their door :D Paper routes were fun. but also a huge pain in the arse... I miss those days :)
 
deryk said:
I think it is. Though, waitron staff in Colorado do make the paultry $2.50 an hour, unlike OR.
Click to expand...

God I love working here where, as a waiter I earn at the absolute least AU$17 an hour on weekdays and $20/$24 on Sat/Sun. Public holidays = ~$40 an hour. You can actually make a living doing it and you don't have to scrounge and kiss arse for tips - you can actually maintain some sort of dignity.

I worked in Alberta for $6.50 an hour and was shocked that it was higher than minimum wage - nobody can make a living on that!! No wonder you guys tip (not me, I wasn't in a "tip worthy" job as a barista for Starbucks even though I make a much better coffee than Starbucks could ever hope to) nobody could afford to eat without getting tips.

Mind you, my sister works up in the same little town as my folks - very popular escape town for all the hot and bothered cashed-up Sydneysiders and she can pull in $100 a day in tips as a waitress/bartender and she's an Aussie bartender, no table service - you come up to the bar and order and take your own drinks away and she doesn't have to dress like a hooker to get tips - the wonders of staff uniforms.
 
kainjow said:
When I had a paper route, I was surprised how many people tipped at Christmas. I'd say it was about 50% too. I got around $100-150 in tips for Christmas every year, and I wasn't exactly the best paper boy. I always was late and slammed the paper on their door :D Paper routes were fun. but also a huge pain in the arse... I miss those days :)
Click to expand...

Damn man when did you have a route? Cause I feel super rich right now cause I'm raking in that much a day in tips and believe me im not the best paper boy either plus I drive a car. But I do have about 160 customers between my two routes so that kinda helps.
 
Well i live in Atlanta and work as a server only making $2.13 an hour. When the holidays come around it is nice to get a little extra tip since there is really no such thing as a "Christmas bonus" when working as a server.

deryk said:
...waitron staff in Colorado do make the paultry $2.50 an hour, unlike OR.
Click to expand...
 
The Mailman = $10.00

The Garbage Men = $10.00 X 2

My 2.5 year old son's preschool teachers X 6 = freshly baked (by me) ginger-spice cakes in a holiday ceramic dish.

I am baking the teachers gift because I don't have a lot of money, and he is only there 2 mornings a week for 2.5 hours. I hope they don't think I'm being cheap, especially since baking the cakes took alot of time to do. I am definitely second guessing myself on this one though...
 
OutThere said:
--Friendly guys. Believe it or not, I don't want to have a 'conversation' about the Land Rover you just bought and attempted to parallel park out front. I'd actually rather you left, maybe next time you wouldn't spend an hour of my time telling me about how your Land Rover purchase was justified by the fact that your forth wife sold your Rolex at a pawn shop.

:D

(The Land Rover thing is actually real...I saw a brand new '05 Land Rover try to parallel park, end up perpendicular to the street, and finally get all four tires up on the sidewalk before backing out into the street and parking elsewhere. They guy came in later and was bragging to his buddies about his awesome land rover.)
Click to expand...

Was he a doctor?
 
Jaffa Cake said:
That said, it is a bit of a tradition to give a Christmas box to various people, like the binman, the paperboy or the milkman.
Click to expand...

Yeah it is tradition and yet most of these people do utterly crap jobs for me.

The binmen only have to pick up a bag and put it in the truck and yet they still manage to leave crap behind all over the place and they park their truck in the middle of the road to block the whole street off. Our binmen are basically a bunch of hicks that seem to see it as a bit of a laugh rather than a job. Maybe I'll tape a note to the side of the bin bag saying "There's a £20 tip in here somewhere". ;)

The paperboy is a 50 year old man that talks to the dog through the letterbox in a high pitched voice. The dog doesn't seem to like him but he'll get a tip anyway.

The window cleaners do an okay job so they'll get a tip.

Postman is hopeless. Leaves things on the doorstep. Posts a card through the letterbox to tell us to collect from the Post Office without even attempting to ring the bell or knock the door. We get other peoples mail all the time and I've even found mail on the drive or in the street.

Milkman is okay... although I swear I pay for two weeks too often. I should keep a milk diary. lol He'll get a tip.

I was wondering whether to give the guys at my local Starbucks a tip as they always have a tip box on the counter. To be honest, they rarely seem interested in their customers anyway so I wonder why I should bother.

I worked in my parents coffee shop a couple of years ago and none of us got any tips at all depsite being really reasonably priced and selling a great product (with a smile!).

Mom's now back in her own hair salon and she makes a fortune in tips at this time of year. I was in there the other day and their were people giving her 10 and 20 pound notes as they were leaving.

I'll be made redundant in March so maybe I should think about becoming a hair stylist. :confused: :p
 
kainjow said:
When I had a paper route, I was surprised how many people tipped at Christmas. I'd say it was about 50% too. I got around $100-150 in tips for Christmas every year, and I wasn't exactly the best paper boy. I always was late and slammed the paper on their door :D Paper routes were fun. but also a huge pain in the arse... I miss those days :)
Click to expand...

See, I'm a good paper boy. :) Apart from when I just go back to sleep in the morning, and am late.. about once every two weeks, lol.

My average tip is prolly £5. Meh. For a year's delivering papers.

What annoys me is the people you are nice to, deliver the paper well, on time, not wet, and they don't tip anything, or even say anything. Meh.
 
Well, today is the day.. last night we made from scratch some gingerbread men and sugar cookies. I got bored with the frosting pretty quickly and thought to myself.. **** this, it's a garbage man! But I put out the cookies/cash for the 2 garbage dudes this morning, and stuffed the mailbox with the cookies/cash for the postal carrier. Hope the cookies didn't suck!

I'm thinking next year.. gift certificates.
 
yellow said:
... But I put out the cookies/cash for the 2 garbage dudes this morning, and stuffed the mailbox with the cookies/cash for the postal carrier. Hope the cookies didn't suck!
Click to expand...

No need to be concerned if the cookies sucked ... the garbage dudes traffic in trash on a daily basis. When they and postal carriers get tipped as "service people," it might as well extend to the person who places a loaf of bread inside a bag at the corner store and those who run your numbers through a Lotto machine and then hand you the tickets.
 
See, I disagree.. the people that do a regular service for me, at my home, they deserve a 'tip'. Like I said, I might have to dispose of a body somesday, I want those guys on my side.

I don't tip the guy at the local foodmart for ringing up a RedBull once a week, or Johhny Teenager at the grocery store for bagging my ****. Maybe if they delivered it to my house..
 
yellow said:
... Like I said, I might have to dispose of a body somesday, I want those guys on my side.
Click to expand...

So long as you are possibly going to be dependent upon them to dispose of human remains, I suppose that would make them eminently tip-worthy. ;)

In my world, postal and sanitation are civil service jobs and even though they are delivering MY mail and removing MY trash, it is still not a personal service, notwithstanding the fact that it is either a daily activity or one that happens twice weekly.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Back
Top