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Tipping
- Thread starter cycocelica
- Start date
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But why not tip at pizza and coffee places? You're the one going out for a good time and spending $X on something anyway. "You might as well tip".
I'm sure you've had a few nice surprises you didn't know about upon return trips to certain restaurants.
The "its for a cop" scene in Super Troopers comes to mind.
haha well my beliefs and actions are seperate
hard to be a cheapskate when on a date or with friends and those are the times i go out to eat lol
I'm glad, just the thought of returning to a restaurant and eating a fat loogie would make me tip 15%, haha.
Yeah, you definitely can't tip poorly on a date, that won't get you a call back.
This is the madness I'm talking about, the demand, in our culture, to tip for no reason other than to tip.
Tipping is supposed to be a feedback mechanism, a reward, to let servers know when they're doing something right, but it's been turned around against the customer, and used as a tool of fear. Messing with someone's food if they don't tip you is a "bully tactic," plain and simple.
What does this bully tactic result in? Once it gets out, it drives customers away from the establishment, putting it out of business, and the bully loses his/her job (and drags down everyone else with them).
Tipping only works when it's used in the correct context. When a server does their job well, they receive a tip. In the end, the customer leaves happy because of good service, and the server is happy because they're now 15% richer.
[edit] quoted wrong person earlier but it's fixed now
Thats if you think of tipping as leaving a tip or not leaving a tip. Its not so black and white. To me anyways, it seems like most people tip 15%, thats it, no matter how good or how bad the service. I think most service deserves a tip, I never, no matter how terrible the service leave nothing, 10% is the minimum I leave, thats for terrible service. I will leave 15% for average, and depending on quality of services from there I will leave up to 40% or 45%. If people rewarded quality service more substantially we would see more quality service, but they don't, its 15% all around, no matter how good your service is.
I guess where we differ is that you feel it is not of poor etiquette to leave a $0 tip. I feel that anyone making $4 an hour serving me food, even if they do it poorly, deserves a few dollars tip. Now had the person served me in a fantastic manner, they probably would have walked away with $15-$20 instead of $5. I think we both agree that if you do something poorly you should not expect much of a reward, we just disagree how small that reward should be. Its like being the poorest employee at a large company, even you get a small bonus.
So someone serves you poorly and not only do they get their wages, even though they didn't do their job correctly, and they get still get rewarded with a tip?
You're from california, no one in CA gets paid less than state minimum wage, there's no special case for servers in California. It's not the point, but you know... fyi.
I'm not saying I don't do the whole standard tip thing, but hypothetically, if you do something poorly, why should you be rewarded, at all, over what you're already contracted to receive? Do the words 'tip' and 'bonus' have no meaning to you?
Even the smallest employee in a large company receives a bonus because a company credits all its employees as a collective, for doing a good job and making the company profitable. This can't be compared to the one-on-one relationship between customer - service - server.
If someone serves you poorly, do you want to deny them the money to at least live decently? Bear in mind serving poorly does not equal to ill intent.
If they want money to live decently they should at least do their job correctly. If I don't do my job correctly I risk getting fired. Even if I don't get fired I don't expect to get a bonus or a reward. And since I really need my job I do my job the best I can.
Exactly, you don't get a bonus and risk getting fired. We are talking about minimal wages here. If the server is really terrible, there are avenues to complain (such as talking to the supervisor etc)
I should stop eating out because people choose to work somewhere knowing damn well they won't make minimum wage and I should make up for it? Please.
And if restaurants started including tip in the bill, those restaurants would never see my business.
i have no problem not rewarding those who dont do their job
as ive said, waiters make quite a bit when factoring in tips (100 was not uncommon for 5 hrs of work)
however, waiters know how the industry works before they start to work their. its akin to one complaining about brathing coal dust when working in a coal mine...they know the buisness before hand and if they dont like it, get another job
back to your quote, if the waiter's job is necessary to live decently and good service means getting higher tips then why on earth would they not give their best efforts in service? your logic is flawed to say the least
EVERYONE has control over their work ethic. no excuse
I've worked as a waitress. In one of the places I got payed very poorly. I still didn't expect tips, specially if I didn't do a good job.
The coffee shop employee and the steakhouse employee are doing almost the same thing. So why wouldn't you tip them if you asked for their service? This is of course going off what you say.
buuuut, we are not talking about min wages for most waitstaff when tips are factored in. in fact their wages are higher than most if you work at a relatively busy place.
why do you feel i must tip someone no matter how they perform? i have no problem tipping if they do their job. if they dont, i wont tip or tip very little. end of story
spot on with my views. well said
I tip when it's called for, and I read up on the tipping customs before going to another country.
The best thing about tipping is that you get to do math when it's a percentage of the price. Or, just as good, an excuse to show off your iPhone or iPod touch while using a tip-computing application!
The best thing about tipping is that you get to do math when it's a percentage of the price. Or, just as good, an excuse to show off your iPhone or iPod touch while using a tip-computing application!
Personally, I prefer to reward people if they do well, instead of punishing them if they fail to perform, mostly because performing to your standard is subjective. You can have one very difficult customer who makes your life hell and insist that they are right.
Yes, you should.
I don't see anyone pointing a gun at your head making you eat somewhere that assumes patrons will tip their servers. Why don't you stick to McDonalds if you have a problem with tipping?
Not if they do it wholesale (like in parts of Europe).
Unless you want to stop eating out entirely, which it seems like you don't.
Have you ever been to one of those places that adds a gratuity for a certain number of people? What do you do then, if you're there with a group?
punish them how? by not giving a tip, aka an act of generosity?
my standards arent high. i just want my beverages refilled and plates cleared when appetizers done and what not
i cant tell you how many time ive had to call down the waiter to get my drink filled.
also had times where they didnt refill it at all during the entire meal. also have had messy tables tables that didnt have the right amt of seats even when having a reservation
to say the least, i tip when they do their job.....serving the customer. its when they dont i wont tip
seriously, i dont ask for much when it comes to eating out
Wait, so you refuse to tip, even though waiters don't make minimum wage and need tips to survive. So you suggest that they be forced to pay minimum wage to waiters? Okay, then they're going to have to raise their prices to cover the increased wages. Oh wait, you said you won't eat at restaurants that do exactly that.
So really what you're saying is you want your food cheap and you don't care whether the waiter makes a decent living or not? Heck, if all the people working at the restaurant just made a dollar a day, think of how cheap your food would be.
Really, the bottom line is this. If you live in the US and refuse to tip decently, you're a cheapskate who doesn't care whether or not the person serving you and bringing your food has enough money to live. And if your solution to that person is to find a new line of work, obviously you don't know how hard it is to get a job these days...
If the suggestions of those who hate tipping were followed, there'd be a mass exodus of the waiting profession until the restaurants agreed to raise wages. Then the extra cost would be passed on to the customer in higher food prices, effectively making the time included. Then all waiters would make exactly the same amount of money and you'd have no control over it. The guy who took forever to take your order and gave you your food cold would get the same pay as the guy who attended to your every need.
In the US, give 10% at a bare minimum, and up to 20% if they were a good waiter. Anything less and you're just being a selfish cheapskate who cares only about one thing: getting your food at the cheapest price possible, damned anyone who's hurt along the way.
I agree with most of what you say.
I can count on one hand the number of times I've left zero tip, but if the service is just awful, I'm not against it.
You are absolutely correct. But tips should never be assumed. That's my problem. People assume you are supposed to tip, its become such a huge part of this eating out culture. If we are supposed to tip for a service, I should be tipping my teachers, the dude working at Target, etc.
We aren't Europe and I hope that aspect of Europe never makes it over here.
As for the group tipping, they might get $1 or $2 from me. I assume the other patrons will do the same. If not, then so be it. You did your job, you may have done it damn well but I didn't tip the the employee at the grocery store that went out of his way to go to the back and grab something for me while he was mopping. He did his job, just like waiter/ress did.
The servers, as I gather from this thread, are paid below minimal wages as the restaurant factor in tips as their wages.
This is your standard, it differs for people to people, from different countries, different backgrounds, we all have different expectations. The servers at least need some form of protection from these variables.