And YOU are threadshit-shitting.
Which I suppose makes me a threadshit-shitting-shitter.
Oh, I see now why this thread just won’t die. Springs1, be a good little cunt, and fuck off, will you?
Well, I do this, but not the way your friend means it. I leave a 15% minimum, but if I can see that the waitress is busy and has been hustling, I’ll fork over extra dough. And if I’ve been sitting in a cafe for hours with only a cup of coffee, so the total bill is only a few bucks, I’ll tip 200%.
Wow. This is just crazy.
And very odd. I don’t think I’ve ever changed the type of soft drink I was having with a meal. I would suspect that 99% of customers are the same. If I did change, I wouldn’t be surprised to be charged for a new drink and not just get a re-fill. Since, ya know, it’s not a re-fill.
Maybe I’m wrong on that. Any folks that have worked in a restaurant want to fight my ignorance?
Also, how often do people change their type of softdrink?
Anyway, the time wasted argument is total horse shit.
If a waiter comes to your table with a re-fill that you don’t want, he simply goes and gets what you did want. How does that take longer than coming to your table and asking what you want and then going and getting what you want?
99% of the time it will be a re-fill that the customer wants, so time would usually be saved by just bringing it to you in the first place.
But then I guess we are all just beating a dead horse here.
I don’t want to say never, but it’s so close to never that Springs1 is out definitely of line to complain when a server brings out a refill what she’s been drinking up to that point.
In my 5 years as a server, with thousands of tables served, and countless more individuals served, I can count, on one hand, the number of times this has happened.
Most people would view a server who brings out a refill without having to be prompted first as a good thing. That’s what I did. If I walked by a table and saw a drink that was half full or lower, I’d automatically bring a new one out.
And to Springs1, I’d like to offer you some advice. Next time you go to a mind reader, try and remember that you are entitled to a substantial discount. If there was a Pandora’s Box of stupidity, you would be its contents.
It’s been years now, but I’m certain every place I’ve worked charged per glass, with the exception of water, coffee and maybe tea. I can’t recall anyone switching soda flavors. That’s something I imagine children would enjoy doing in a place with free refills, which apparently is more commonplace now. I usually only drink one glass of soda, so I hadn’t noticed free refills were popular now outside of fast food joints where you serve yourself.
I can’t believe I am jumping in this train wreck but I have the perfect option for Springs1. Stop going to those huge corporate cookie cutter restaurants and give your business to some home grown, owner present establishments. They tend to not offer free anything and when they do, they certainly aren’t going to risk losing the 25 cents on bringing something that might get wasted.
You also may get an idea what good food actually tastes like when prepared by someone creative and talented. True you’ll usually pay a little more but think about the new servers you will get to abuse.
Did I ASK for a DEAD Horse?!!
Here’s the funny thing. If Springs1 was drinking a Coke and wanted another Coke, she would be better served if the waiter brought her a refill without asking. It would be faster to do so!
There are lots of other points I could make, but we’ve made them all, time and time again. Yes, i’ve read through all 14 pages of this thread. It just keeps getting funnier.
I think most people’s point is this: We don’t see a problem with how servers serve us. In fact, we approve and encourage the status quo. We like that good servers serve us efficiently and great servers can determine for themselves what the most efficient means possible is without our supervision. It leaves us time to do what we came to the restaurant for: relax and spend time with our fellow tablemates.
Springs may disagree. That’s her opinion and she has a right to it. But seeing as she is (and thus far she has not disproven my theory despite several requests) THE ONLY PERSON IN THE KNOWN UNIVERSE TO HOLD THAT OPINION, then I don’t believe restaurants should change based upon the .0000000001% of patrons who wish things were done differently.
And that’s my final say in this matter. I’ll still be chuckling at the responses, though.
I’m just waiting for the time to come when they start offering free refills on beer.
I am totally stealing both of these.
I’m not in this thing other than here, right???
Just askin’
Tip-Toes back out…
Q
Non-contributing? Hardly. This has been one of the most entertaining threads in the past year. I love this thread.
You know, now that I think of it, there was this time at Outback when I asked for a glass of water and the bartender gave it to me with a straw in it. How INCONSIDERATE of her to ASSUME that I want a STRAW for my WATER! I had to TAKE THE STRAW OUT MYSELF WASTING MY TIME If she was a THOUGHTFUL, CONSIDERATE HUMAN BEING with even an OUNCE OF DECENCY, she would have ASKED ME if I wanted a STRAW FIRST. That’s .25 SECONDS OF MY LIFE I’LL NEVER GET BACK BECAUSE OF A THOUGHTLESS, INCONSIDERATE PERSON WASTED MY TIME
Not if the soup slopped around and hit his thumb. If the soup would have been touching his thumb were it perfectly still, then yes.
Also if he brings your drinks holding them by the rim of the glass.
But if he actually brings you some kind of refill and doesn’t leave you to suck a dry straw all through the meal, let him live.
14 pages, and nothing new has been posted since page 6?
This is why I love living in a country which isn’t arseways about tipping. Regardless of the cost of the meal (I rarely eat in anywhere expensive, usually places that cost about 30/40 euro a head tops) I put between 8/10 euro. I figure that I’m tipping almost an hour’s wage for 10 minutes work bringing food to my table.
I’d tip the same if I was eating at 100€ a head place also. Why does the cost of the meal mean I should tip more? I’m not tipping the chef for cooking fancier food, or the owner for setting more expensive prices, why tip the staff more in the expensive restaurant than you would in the mid priced one for the same level of service?
Hey, the drinks were free but there was a 10 cent charge for the plastic cup, so I’m within the 20% margin!
After you received your warning (days later, in fact), the thread was moved to the Barbecue Pit forum, where calling names is de rigueur. So you are now welcome to respond in kind.
Depends on the type of soup.
I’ve never changed my type of soft drink (at least, not that I recall), but I have changed from iced tea to soft drink if I didn’t like the iced tea (some restaurants actually serve the powdered mix).
Just for the record, every single restaurant in this town (except the Subway, but I’m not sure if that counts as a restaurant), is home-grown, owner-present, and every single one of them offers free refills on coffee, tea, iced tea, and soft drinks. Policies on lemonade vary.
Former waiter checking in.
Regarding the consideration of customers’ wishes: A healthy percentage of customers didn’t know what the hell they wanted and couldn’t be arsed to decide while I was standing there. I got a feel for which ones would take what you gave them and which one’s were going to be picky and demanding.
Regarding the soul-crushing aspect: I had to get thick-skinned and even a bit surly at times. Many patrons would tend to try to take advantage of the notion of service and walk all over me. I learned to put those people in their place. Hell, you’re already suffering the abuse and arbitrary whimsy of cooks and managers, and now the customer is getting cheeky?
And funny thing, the tip wouldn’t be adversely affected by the chagrin - in fact, in general the opposite was true. Unfortunately, the managers pathologically side with the customer and you end up eating a lot of shit. This is why I often am caught kissing my diploma.
Regarding efficiency and the points-off-the-tip phenomenon: In my experience, I found it most acceptable and efficient to try to treat everyone the same while still doing a good job, be as unobtrusive as possible, and be mellow and easy-going (i.e. be myself). If me not living up to Springs1 standards was a result and I got a 11.625% tip on a two-top, big whip – the tips end up averaging out fine, and I was able to minimize though not eliminate the frustration I read in the OP.
Regarding working at Chili’s: I was fortunate to learn the trade at an independent family-owned outfit with moderate prices, then progress to finer establishments from there. But I knew plenty of servers from the chain places like Bennigan’s, Chili’s, Tchotchke’s, etc. From their stories, I concluded that those places are frequented by ignorant assholes. You’d have to be out of options to work there, or else a special breed.
Hot damn did I used to drink like a fish when I was a waiter, though. Any restaurant I worked at, I would make a monetary arrangement at the service bar to keep the whiskey flowing.
And I still have the waiting tables, hopelessly in the weeds, just got quadruple sat nightmares 10 years after the fact.
Springs1 - I have been reading this thread with some amusement, and thought I’d put in my two cents worth (********YES! ONLY TWO CENTS!!! ********). It’s pretty clear that the large majority of the respondents in the thread don’t agree with you and would either consider it a positive to get automatic refills or at least to be neutral about them. I’d hazard a guess that the likelihood of a random customer being the type to take offence like you do is a lot lower than a random customer being the type to appreciate automatic refills.
If that is the case, then all your arguments cease to matter, and in fact your feelings about automatic refills (or anything else that offends you but almost no one else) don’t matter. What matters is whether a given behaviour raises the likelihood of getting a tip from the average customer, not whether a given behaviour lowers the typical tip you choose to give.
… here’s what every server gets from me - regardless:
-
A smile
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A greeting with eye contact - not because I’m on the prowl, but because it’s important to establish that little “bond” for the duration
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Sweeping the crumbs from the table onto the plates when I finish (old German custom, JA!:D)
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And last but not least, a little note on the credit card merchant copy which reads “Thanks for the GREAT Service _______!!!” and my own kinda smiley face.
Everybody gets that - why? So I’ll be remembered!
And here’s where I make a leetle change: If I got treated nicely as the result of 1-3 above, but thought there might could have been some improvement (that’s VERY rare down south), I leave a 25% tip - and that’s usually a first-timer, but I bet when he/she sees me again he/she’ll remember the note and the 25% if nothing else and like I said, that’s rare.
I usually tip 30-35%.
I only frequent 4 restaurants here, and it really makes me feel great when “Lisa” or “Bobby” see me and say: “Amber Bock, grilled chicken - no sauce and a “Big Catch” salad with balsamic vinegar!”
“YES!!!”, say I… “Thanks for remembering!” (or something “old-man schmaltzy” like that. and sometimes I bring my own balsamic - I’m a tad eccentric like that;) - I’m also just a smidge ANAL!)
So that’s my routine, and it hasn’t failed me yet.
On the holidays (Christmas and New Years), 40% (depending on degree of inebriation), and then, after the bill is paid, and just before I walk out one server on each holiday gets a 50 dollar bill. Chosen at random before I leave from home.
“Big Spender”, huh?, “Braggart”, huh?
Nope, I genuinely like people and whether young or old, that’s a hell of a long time to be on one’s feet and a **godawful ** long time to hold a smile.
This happened just recently at Beef O’Brady’s: Traci hadn’t seen me with my beard, complimented me on it and asked what made me decide to grow one (last time I had one was at age 40)?
“'Cause I got tired of you cardin’ my ass!”, says I with a growl and a wink!
So I feel a little “kinship” with ‘em, especially since I just finished my own job of being on my feet and holdin’ a smile.