When Did "Tips" (Gratuities) Become So High?

[Amaris]

I'm surprised at all these non-tippers on a fairly left-leaning liberal political board. But then again, this isn't TNZ.

I'm very liberal, and I tip generously.


Ooh, that reminds me of another thing about those large church groups who would come to our restaurant, and make a mess of everything. Sometimes when they'd leave, instead of a tip, I'd get one of those "looks like a $20 bill folded up but it's actually about Jesus" tracts. At the time, I was a devout Christian, so my first thought was "you're wasting your time", my second thought was "what kind of witness is it to stiff someone who did everything they could to make your experience pleasant?"

Sometimes I imagine the conversation went like this:

"Bob, aren't you going to leave a tip?"
"What? No! This server probably needs salvation! He wasn't at church with us!"
"So what are you leaving him?"
"One of these folded money tracts. I'm sure he'll get a good laugh out of getting his hopes up before it starts preaching to him about Jesus."
"Good idea, brother!"
"Yeah! I mean, and even if it makes him mad, who's he going to tell? Jesus!?"
"Lulz."

 

[MacLeod]

I'm surprised at all these non-tippers on a fairly left-leaning liberal political board. But then again, this isn't TNZ.

I would have thought of this board as more centrist, but then again it comes down to perspective.

It might be fair to say, what the American's consider left might be considered more centrist or centre-right in other countries.

As I tend to be centre/cetre-right, if I could vote in American elections I would tend to vote Democratic which is on the American left.

 

[RobertVA]

No shit.

Went to a restaurant on Friday night and still left a 12% tip even though it took a half hour for the waiter to even come over and get the first drink order for me and my family then another fifty minutes to get our food.

Got out of a movie at eight and didn't get out of the restaurant right below it til almost ten.

I had a similar problem one time in pizza place operated by a large US chain . But after about twenty minutes waiting for a server to take my order I left a one cent "tip" (to make sure they knew I hadn't forgot) and complained to the manager on my way out the door. Since then the chain closed that location, it was operated for a few years by other restaurant owners and was recently replaced with a car wash. The chain is now primarily delivery and carry out.

More recently I experienced problems in one of those movie/restaurant places. I paid for my food in cash, but the waiter didn't bring my change back. I've had intermittent problems with that there before and more than once avoided them for a while before going back to give them another chance. When they bring my change back I give them an approximately 20% tip, but I make sure my change is significantly less. This last time after complaining to the manager he bought me my change and insisted I leave no tip at all.

 

[Thestral]

Ooh, that reminds me of another thing about those large church groups who would come to our restaurant, and make a mess of everything. Sometimes when they'd leave, instead of a tip, I'd get one of those "looks like a $20 bill folded up but it's actually about Jesus" tracts. At the time, I was a devout Christian, so my first thought was "you're wasting your time", my second thought was "what kind of witness is it to stiff someone who did everything they could to make your experience pleasant?"

I've been trying to avoid bringing the tracts up.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

Wow...not taking into account that's not the type of church I'd willingly attend in the first place (that unkindness would have to manifest in other ways), had I been there with that group somehow, that kind of behavior would have earned a sharp lecture from me and very likely gotten me to leave the group and that church. To my faith, "Jerks for Jesus" is an oxymoron.

 

[Turd Ferguson]

Ooh, that reminds me of another thing about those large church groups who would come to our restaurant, and make a mess of everything. Sometimes when they'd leave, instead of a tip, I'd get one of those "looks like a $20 bill folded up but it's actually about Jesus" tracts. At the time, I was a devout Christian, so my first thought was "you're wasting your time", my second thought was "what kind of witness is it to stiff someone who did everything they could to make your experience pleasant?"

Sometimes I imagine the conversation went like this:

"Bob, aren't you going to leave a tip?"
"What? No! This server probably needs salvation! He wasn't at church with us!"
"So what are you leaving him?"
"One of these folded money tracts. I'm sure he'll get a good laugh out of getting his hopes up before it starts preaching to him about Jesus."
"Good idea, brother!"
"Yeah! I mean, and even if it makes him mad, who's he going to tell? Jesus!?"
"Lulz."

Ooooooh I HATE those things. If those things were redeemable as cash I'd have my car paid off by now. Whoever initially thought those were a good idea/funny I would like to punch square in the kisser.

Note: there's also a particularly scummy portion of the Christian population that likes to lecture me about working on Sunday when I should be at church. Well, if your fat asses weren't at my place of employment, maybe I COULD go to church. Not that I would. I'd probably just sleep in. But they don't have to know that.

 

[FPAlpha]

Personally i'm no fan of tipping in general.

Why is it my "duty" to reward/punish a waiter for doing their job? That's the restaurant manager's job to motivate his people.. if the service is lousy people will not come and after a while he can close up shop and look for another place to work.

I'd gladly pay more for a meal if it means waiters get at least minimum wage and don't have to fear a bad day where all they get is lousy tippers no matter how good a service they provide.

If that happens and i eat a meal in a restaurant and the waiter is especially helpful and considerate and makes my stay really enjoyable i'll chip in an extra in the hope that i'll get a similar treatment the next time i'm there (kind of a monetary incentive i get in my job too for a job well done though i get above minimum wage pay and wouldn't rely on this incentive to pay my bills.. it's a nice bonus).

However the system is here to stay.. it has developed over decades (and maybe centuries) and it's a good system for the restaurant owners.. they get cheap workers, can pay them crap and get off free because of the social stigma attached to non-tippers (and it's even legal.. go figure).

 

[Captain Ice]

I have never seen a Buffalo Wild Wings with this setup.

Every BW3 I have ever been in has a cashier and a pick-up counter, and a fountain machine in the general seating area.

The bar is a different story.

Odd. Never seen that before, and I go to Buffalo Wild Wings a lot. Maybe it's a regional thing?

Must be since the ones I've seen are entirely sit down establishments.

For tipping - I generally start at 15% of the bill anymore and adjust from there, and the last time i wound up leaving nothing at all was while I was in Missouri in March. I stopped at a St. Louis barbeque restaurant named for a Cardinals announcer, ordered BBQ brisket with a baked potato, and received baked beans instead of my potato. After being alerted to the problem, it took half an hour and sending three different employees to the kitchen for it to get the potato.

Actually now that I think about it, the only thing I wound up paying for that night was my bar tab...and I did tip the barkeep.

 

[Yoda]

In my experience BW3 is a sit-down situation with waiters and waitresses as well. I would actually far prefer it if it weren't.

Let's face it, do I actually need someone to bring me my food and drink? Not really. I'd much rather grab my order when it's ready, and be responsible for my own refills. I'm better at waiting on myself than anyone else is ever going to be, after all I've got my full attention. There's never going to be a 20 minute period where I'm out of diet coke and I can't find my waiter to flag down.

Note: there's also a particularly scummy portion of the Christian population that likes to lecture me about working on Sunday when I should be at church. Well, if your fat asses weren't at my place of employment, maybe I COULD go to church. Not that I would. I'd probably just sleep in. But they don't have to know that.

Tell them you asked for the day off but your boss said he needed the staff to cover all the church groups who don't respect the Sabbath.

 

[Kelthaz]

I tip well, but I hate the system.

That about sums it up for me too.

 

[Sector 7]

I don't have a gripe against either rotten customers or servers. But I wonder...

When did it become the customer's obligation and responsibility to provide a tip, rather than a courtesy for the server to earn?

It seems that a customer is expected to leave a 20% tip to be a good guy and a 10% tip makes him a dick-- nothing about what the server did or did not do to deserve it.

The onus is on the customer to do right, pay a decent tip, or else be a scumbag customer.

The server? The server deserves a generous tip regardless because of the economics of food service minimum wage yadda yadda yadda.

The argument seems to be--customers have an obligation to pay a decent tip regardless, servers deserve a decent tip because of how they get paid.

Oh I've worked food service myself, I've lived both sides. I know.

But with the obligation of the customer to pay large tips or else, what's the incentive for any server to earn it?

I agree with you. The name calling has been in every "Tips" thread I've seen here over time. It gets rather tiring.

if you feel that strongly about it then lobby to get food servers equal minimum wage.

That's one reason I like McAlister's Deli: they actually DO pay at least minimum wage.

Where are you? [PM answer if you wish.] I almost always go to McAlister's Deli when in Charlotte/Matthews, NC. I was told it was a local deli.

Yeah, I will not tip bad service. If a server is truly "bad" (and I realize it's subjective), then I will not reward that behavior with a tip. All that does is encourage more bad behavior. I love to tip, and when I do, I tip generously. I'm generally good natured, and having been a server, I sympathize with the server right off the start, so if a server doesn't get a tip from me, some serious shit went south.

Insults, for one, will do it. Insult me or my friends, and you won't get a tip. I don't care if you're in a bad mood, if you denigrate me or one of my friends, you don't deserve anything for such completely unacceptable behavior. If you've got an attitude problem, you hold your tongue and you smile around me and my friends. There is a customer/server relationship, and success hinges on respect from both parties.

This is my feeling on the matter, as well.

I don't owe my servers a g** d*** thing. Period. I am obligated to pay what is on the bill. That is all.

Now, that being said, I tip, and try to tip well when it is deserved. If you keep my glass filled, get my food out to me quickly, and give me generally good service, you're getting a decent tip. If you neglect me, if I sit with an empty glass for a very long time, if you act rude or indifferent, then you are getting very little or jack squat. That's the way it works. Tips are a reward for good service. They are not an obligation.

Agreed.

People who have never worked in a particular field espically the service sector don't always realise the amount of crap they have to put up with. It doesn't matter if it's waiting on tables or being a cashier in a store.

And people that have ONLY worked in the service industry don't always realize that the rest of the freaking world works the same way, and that it's not unique to them. Actually BETTER in the service industry, as the pricks GO AWAY after an hour, instead of having to deal with them for years...

Everyone puts up with crap. As much as waiters bitch about bad tips, it's not commonplace. Never seen a waiter that wants to do away with the system, because despite the bad tippers, they're plenty more that are good, and it ends up being a decent-paying job for not requiring any difficult training or special skills.

For anyone bitching about tips, would you do away with the system and take a straight $10-15 an hour? Of course not. Because you'd lose money.

I have a half-brother who was a waiter. It took a HUGE salary to make him change careers. He must have been much different at work than with family, because he's a bitchy drama queen around family.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

McAlister's actually got its start in Oxford, MS, and seems to have spread significantly since then...

http://www.mcalistersdeli.com/locations/

 

[Robert Maxwell]

A group of us went to a diner over the weekend and got pretty lousy service. The guy seemed annoyed by our very presence, first of all--and it wasn't because we'd misbehaved or anything. He had a bad attitude from the start.

Anyway, he took our orders and brought us our drinks. Though he brought out our food, one person in our party didn't get part of his order, and the guy didn't even notice until it was brought to his attention. While we ate, not once did he come check on us to see how we were doing. Not once did he offer us refills. We were having water and tea, and he couldn't be bothered to bring a pitcher around to top us off, even though we were empty halfway through. It's not as though he was busy--he was just sitting on the other side of the room, having some coffee.

Once we were done eating, it took him quite a while to notice that, too. Didn't offer to get us anything else. Clearly, he just wanted to get us out the door and wasn't interested in providing any actual service.

I gave him a 10% tip and he was lucky to get that, for not even adequately doing his job.

 

[BillJ]

A group of us went to a diner over the weekend and got pretty lousy service. The guy seemed annoyed by our very presence, first of all--and it wasn't because we'd misbehaved or anything. He had a bad attitude from the start.

Anyway, he took our orders and brought us our drinks. Though he brought out our food, one person in our party didn't get part of his order, and the guy didn't even notice until it was brought to his attention. While we ate, not once did he come check on us to see how we were doing. Not once did he offer us refills. We were having water and tea, and he couldn't be bothered to bring a pitcher around to top us off, even though we were empty halfway through. It's not as though he was busy--he was just sitting on the other side of the room, having some coffee.

Once we were done eating, it took him quite a while to notice that, too. Didn't offer to get us anything else. Clearly, he just wanted to get us out the door and wasn't interested in providing any actual service.

I gave him a 10% tip and he was lucky to get that, for not even adequately doing his job.

See. This is where I become a douchebag and drop a quarter in one of the iced tea glasses.

 

[Shaytan]

I'm starting to understand why tourists find French waiters rude :lol

In my opinion you are the weird ones but I guess it doesn't matter

 

[Sector 7]

McAlister's actually got its start in Oxford, MS, and seems to have spread significantly since then...

http://www.mcalistersdeli.com/locations/

Wow! I guess the 'owner' lied to me... very sad. Thanks for the heads up.

A group of us went to a diner over the weekend and got pretty lousy service. The guy seemed annoyed by our very presence, first of all--and it wasn't because we'd misbehaved or anything. He had a bad attitude from the start.

Anyway, he took our orders and brought us our drinks. Though he brought out our food, one person in our party didn't get part of his order, and the guy didn't even notice until it was brought to his attention. While we ate, not once did he come check on us to see how we were doing. Not once did he offer us refills. We were having water and tea, and he couldn't be bothered to bring a pitcher around to top us off, even though we were empty halfway through. It's not as though he was busy--he was just sitting on the other side of the room, having some coffee.

Once we were done eating, it took him quite a while to notice that, too. Didn't offer to get us anything else. Clearly, he just wanted to get us out the door and wasn't interested in providing any actual service.

I gave him a 10% tip and he was lucky to get that, for not even adequately doing his job.

See. This is where I become a douchebag and drop a quarter in one of the iced tea glasses.

In cases like this, I have been known to leave a penny with a note, then tell the manager on the way out in extreme cases of rudeness.

 

[RoJoHen]

A group of us went to a diner over the weekend and got pretty lousy service. The guy seemed annoyed by our very presence, first of all--and it wasn't because we'd misbehaved or anything. He had a bad attitude from the start.

Anyway, he took our orders and brought us our drinks. Though he brought out our food, one person in our party didn't get part of his order, and the guy didn't even notice until it was brought to his attention. While we ate, not once did he come check on us to see how we were doing. Not once did he offer us refills. We were having water and tea, and he couldn't be bothered to bring a pitcher around to top us off, even though we were empty halfway through. It's not as though he was busy--he was just sitting on the other side of the room, having some coffee.

Once we were done eating, it took him quite a while to notice that, too. Didn't offer to get us anything else. Clearly, he just wanted to get us out the door and wasn't interested in providing any actual service.

I gave him a 10% tip and he was lucky to get that, for not even adequately doing his job.

See. This is where I become a douchebag and drop a quarter in one of the iced tea glasses.

Yeah, that's just unacceptable. I had service like that once, and that was the only time I didn't leave any money. I left a note telling my server everything she did wrong.

 

[O'Dib]

Oh wow, so one could say you gave her a few professional (wait for it) TIPS!!!11

hue hue hue hue hue hue

...

Phew

just havin' a laugh.

 

[RoJoHen]

Yep, pretty much. She literally stood on the other side of the restaurant, staring at our table, and when we flagged her down because we needed something, she walked into the kitchen and didn't come back out for another 10 minutes. Easily the second-worst service I've ever received.

The absolute worst service I ever received was, ironically, at the restaurant where I am now a manager.

 

[Kestra]

It's so weird for me to hear these stories about horrible experiences because those don't seem that abnormal to me.