What's the smallest tip you've left, and why?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

A few clarifications. First, I’m talking about cultures where tipping is the expected norm, such as the US. Also, I’m talking about on purpose. Saying “I snuck out of the diner without leaving a tip because I didn’t realize I didn’t have enough cash in my wallet” isn’t really what we’re after here.

For me it has to be the time a boyfriend and I went to a late-night restaurant after leaving Disney World. We’d waited in the car until the massive exodus traffic died, then we left. That was at least an hour, maybe two, by the way. So we went to a restaurant… Village Inn type of place, that was nearby. There were only a handful of other tables occupied, since the initial post-Disney surge had already come and gone.

We were seated, and then waited forever for our waitress to take our drink orders. In fact, we waited a long time for everything, and the waitress was dismissive and never checked back on us after we got our food. An eternity later when we were done, we waited over 45 minutes for our check. Another table nearby was also impatiently waiting for theirs. When we finally caught sight of our waitress (which was rare–I think she was hiding, and when she did come out, she pointedly avoided making eye contact or noticing that we existed) and asked her to bring the check, she gave us a hateful look. About five minutes later, on her way to the other table, she stormed past our table and, from a few feet away, threw our check at us, while not even making eye contact, and then stormed along her way.

I’d like to point out that through this whole meal we’d been nice to her, not impatient or rude or snappy. We exchanged a few bewildered glances with the other table, is about all.

Well, at some point in the previous week, for the hell of it, my boyfriend had used some pliers to bend a penny in half. Then we unbent it and rebent it until it broke in half. What can I say, we were bored. Anyway, he had this broken in half penny in his pocket at the time, so we left her half a penny as a tip.

When we got to the counter we asked the manager for a complaint card, which we filled out. The other table, who got up shortly after we did, saw us filling out the card and said “oh that’s a good idea” and asked for one of their own, which they then filled out.

2

Twenty-six cents.

The waitress and her friends were sitting at the corner of the bar laughing at my husband (he’s got long hair and a long beard, which I assume is why they were so amused :rolleyes: ) and basically ignored us the whole time.

3

I’m surprised you even paid the check, Opal.

I have a few examples, but the one the strikes me most was at Pizzeria Uno about a decade ago. I decided to sit at the bar, because table service at that place sucked ass. I ordered a caesar salad, which probably cost $8. When I was done, I tried to get the bartender’s attention so I could get the check. She ignored me. When she walked by, I tried to flag her down. I said “excuse me”, and waived a $20 in her face – and I do mean DIRECTLY in her face. But apparently, I had become invisible. She was far more interested in talking to some cute guy than in taking my money.

This went on for about 20 minutes.

I suppose I could have left the $20 and walked out, but I was damned if was going to leave her a 150% tip. I walked out without paying. Slowly, so she could catch me and I could actually pay for my food. She never caught me. She never even looked in my general direction as I left.

I hope she had to eat that check.

4

I’ve left two pennies for the reason you provide. That said, I am stealing your broken penny idea.

5

Some people pinch pennies; others, well… Best of all, you can use the other half for the tip next time you get lousy service. :smiley:

6

There’s been only one time I can think of where I left a grossly undersized tip (I’ve done 10% of the bill on other, rare occasions).

Our waitress brought us food and drink after a moderate delay, then ignored us completely. No checking to see if we needed anything such as drink refills or dessert, and an interminable time waiting for the check. The main reason seemed to be that she and a colleague were busy flirting with some guys seated near the bar.

I had twenty-seven cents in change in my pocket, and that was her tip.

7

When I was a child, my mother once left a penny and a note that said “Don’t chew gum when you wait on the customers.” I don’t remember why the service was so bad (it wasn’t just the gum, though). The restaurant was in the Saskatoon airport, probably not in the Michelin Guide anyway.

8

If a waitress doesn’t bring me a refill I go looking for the drinks station. I refill my own glass, and if they get upset with me for being in an area that customers don’t belong, I just tell them to make sure my drink glass is full. And if I haven’t received my bill, I’ll go to the register (if there is one) and tell them I haven’t received a bill and need to leave and what I had. Both of these actions usually bring to the attention of the manager the poor quality of service. Of course, a commensurately small tip is left as well.

StG

9

I think the worst service I ever had was at an Applebees or Chili’s or something like that. Our waitress took over twenty minutes to take our drink order, another ten to bring it and get our food order, and then brought us all the wrong food. We were so damn hungry by that point that we ate it without saying anything, not that complaining to that surly ass would have done any good. Eventually, the stars aligned and she came back to ask if we wanted dessert. We ordered a couple of slices of pie and waited another thirty minutes. She then came back with our checks and dropped them on the table without a word, a pen, or eye contact – no dessert to be found. At least she didn’t charge us for it.

Well, she had been rude, provided absolutely horrible service, and had neglected to bring us a significant portion of our meal. My check was $12, or thereabouts. I wrote “-$10” on the tip line and “$2” for the total, with an angry face drawn underneath it. They charged me $12 anyway :frowning:

10

Two Canadian pennies, upside down.

This was at a restaurant where my friends and I back in our post-college years occasionally frequented. The waitress, who we never saw before, was completely, totally silent with us – never uttering a word – but she was friendly with other customers. She also took much longer to take our orders and deliver our food than other tables she had. We have no idea why; we weren’t a group of obnoxious geeks or frat boys, but rather didn’t look or behave any differently than anyone else in the place.

11

I tend to be an all-or-nothing tipper. Tiny tips I reserve only for the worst service, since I feel that a paltry tip is far more insulting than none at all, since the latter could be mistaken for having been forgotten rather than as a commentary on the service. If I do have to tip low though, it will usually be a small assortment of small change – pennies, nickels, and/or dimes, generally not amounting to more than half a buck or so. I feel that this conveys my displeasure at the service by saying “This is all your service was worth, so here’s some small change I just wanted to be rid of anyway and that would probably cost more in the value of your time than it would to pick it up.”

I love the half-penny idea though. From the waiter/waitress’ perspective, (s)he must realize that his/her service must have been world-class crappy for someone to take considerable effort to break a penny in half just to tacitly comment on it.

12

We were at a Planet Hollywood, and the story was similar to those already described in this thread. Waiter took forever to get to us. Our drink order never came. Got two people’s meals wrong (out of four people) and then tried to convince us that was what we’d actually ordered. Finally got it right, but he never brought ketchup for the fries even though we asked. We ended up asking the table next to us for theirs. We asked for the dessert menu, and he brought us the check 20 minutes later, instead of the menu.

We left NO tip. Nothing. Paid him in cash left on the table, to the penny. We made our way to the door, and the guy followed us into the entryway to tell us the tip wasn’t included in the bill. I told him “I know. Have a nice day!”

That was several years ago, and since then I’ve learned to speak to managers when things are that dismal. I also take the trouble to speak to managers when the service is exceptional.

Now, I did feel a little bad about stiffing the guy. I know waiting tables sucks, and they have to deal with a lot of nasty people, and cheap tippers, and all that. But really, I have very low standards for restaurant service. Bring me my drink within a reasonable time. If I ask for anything, like ketchup or extra napkins, bring it to me. At least give me a chance to decide if I want dessert. And try not to go a half hour without walking by the table to see if we need something. If I have to stand up and wave my arms around or ask another employee to find you, something is wrong.

Bonus gripe: I hate restaurants that don’t let their waiters write things down. Maybe they’re trying to look classier and more professional, but when it results in them getting stuff wrong, or coming back to ask us three times whether it was swiss or provolone we wanted, it’s not helping.

13

Three friends and I went into an Italian restaurant in a nice part of town. We were dressed casually, but not tackily (jeans, cowboy boots or sneakers, t-shirt or polo shirt). The waiter, dressed in a black suit with a bowtie, treated us snarkily throughout the meal–like we weren’t good enough to eat in his restaurant. We were ignored; people who came in after us were served first; our glasses never got refilled; we couldn’t get his attention to pay the bill.

They had little pats of butter on chilled plates. We paid the bill up front, told the maitre d’ the service was terrible, and left four pennies (one for each of us) standing up, stuck in the butter. We probably reinforced the waiter’s prejudices, but I refuse to reward rudeness.

14

I’ve left no tip three times. The first time was at a new sushi place in town. I should’ve known it was going to be bad; I have rules as to wear I’ll eat sushi - the first rule is if the name isn’t in Japanese or related to Japan, I don’t eat there. The place was called Sushi Fresh. Strike one right there.

Strike two was that there were no other customers at lunch time.

I ordered calamari tempura. It was incredibly oily and overdone. I ordered a roll, but asked for it to be nori instead of soy paper. I got it with soy paper. The waitress didn’t offer to fix it. I had to ask for it to be fixed. Strike three. She never refilled our drinks, she ignored us. We had to ask for the check. No tip for you, Ms. Cruddy Waitress, and never coming back to this sushi place.

The other times were similar terrible service. I don’t ask for much, but if I have to hunt you down to refill our drinks, to pay the bill, etc, you’re not getting a tip.

15

Actually, I have another one - from last month in London.

We went into a restaurant that didn’t have bad service - it basically had nonexistent service. Only three tables were occupied at 6:00 p.m. (that should have tipped us off), and it still took the waitress ten minutes to take a drink order and bring menus. We never got refills. By the time we were ready to leave, I was steamed. She dropped off the check, and it had a 10% gratuity added in. I had to go and find her by the kitchen to pay the bill, and asked her to remove the 10%. She grabbed a menu and I said, “I’m sure you’re going to show me in the menu that there will be 10% added to our bill. You know how you took care of our table. Do you honestly feel you earned that 10%? You can either remove it from our bill, or I can explain to your manager why I don’t think I should pay it.”

She removed it and we left.

I’m with you there.

16

Wow, Opal you beat me right off the bat. My friends and I went to a restaurant in New York City, and had pretty awful service (unusual, for that place – I’d been there before had had no problems). I was all for leaving no tip, but my friends thought that they’d think we just forgot, so they made a point of leaving a single penny as a tip. I thought that was the ultimate, but half a penny beats that.

By the way – the waiter ran after us, saying that we left something, and giving the penny back. For a place with rotten service, that had a kind of class.

My parents once went to a restaurant where the waitress actually quit after taking their order (and, of course, before the food was served). but i don’t know what they did in that case.

17

$1.
But this was on a bill well over $100.
(technically, it was my dad paying it - but we were all present)
At the Kelsey’s in Westhills (which doesn’t exist anymore, no surprise).

It took 45 minutes for her to take our drink order. My husband never did get his Coke. Another 20 minutes after that for her to take our food order. My husband and my dad both ordered chicken burgers. There was even a big joke about it, with the waitress. She brought out hamburgers. They sent them back, requesting the chicken they had ordered. 45 minutes later, the chicken burgers finally arrive.
Up to this point, we have been very, very patient and friendly. We were having a good time.
Waited to get the bill. And waited, and waited.
Finally went and found another staff member to track the actual bill down.
Then waited and waited and waited for someone to come back.
Finally tracked ANOTHER staff member down. (our first waitress was definitely in hiding - she slunk by our table at one point) to run the credit card through.
By then Dad was good and mad - and we never did go back.

18

Gosh, there’ve been at least a half dozen times I’ve left no tip.

If the service is decent, it’s always 15%, and if it’s really good more, but if it’s really lousy, no tip. That’s the whole point of tipping.

19

I left zero once. It took forever for us to get food, and then no follow-up at all after that. Our drinks were empty and therefore we ate our meal with no drinks. Then it took maybe 20 minutes to get the bill.

Usually I’ll give:

10% for poor service
15% for average
20% for good service

20

I did it only once, long ago. I left one penny because our group was mostly ignored, asked for more water and never got it, that sort of thing.