Do you tip?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
41

I like to think that my boyfriend and I are okay tippers by student standards - around $5 on a $30 meal for regular-to-good service. The best service we ever had was at a pizza place (Il Gambero on Lygon, if any Melbournians are interested - HIGHLY recommended), and then we tipped about $10 on a $25 meal because everything about the service had been just outstanding.

I’m a bit hesitant about tipping when I go out with a group of friends because inevitably some people don’t pay as much because they expect the tip will cover their part of the meal (“oh, you’re paying fifteen? I’ll just put in twelve then”).

I’ve never even thought about tipping mechanics, hairdresses or the lady that does my eyebrows. Actually I have considered tipping the eyebrow lady but that’s because she’s a genius.

42

I’m not so sure about this … my preferred stylist (whom I visit when I can afford the $40) used to work at her salon and now has bought and renovated it. Each stylist is an independent contractor (I think they rent booth space) and sets their own price. She never accepts a tip from me, though - she thinks I’m entertaining enough while I’m there.

43

I waitressed for a while and I learned to appreciate the work that happens to get the meal to the table and to balance keeping 10+ tables happy and moving. I don’t ever want to do it again.

My husband and I tip commesurate of services rendered. When we’re the only souls in the place and I have to go seeking out the waitress to get more coffee the tip is not going to be as good as the one I give to the waitress I can see balancing a whole section and still miraculously popping over to cheerfully refill my coffee before I even start to signal for it.

I have yet to find a hairdresser I’m in love with but I always leave a tip dependant on what I get done. Perming my waist length hair gets more of a tip than a trim would. Oh and a friend of mine who is a hairdresser told me that she made less money when she owned the shop than when she just worked in it.

My husband and I also make sure we compensate for our parents/grandparents when we go out to eat. When 8 people descend on a restaurant the waitress deserves more than a dollar! (Unless she totally sucked)

If it is a place we frequent often we also tend to tip really well as we don’t want a bad reputation among the waitstaff! Before we moved we went to this one place ~3 times a week and they always treated us very well.

44

Ok, it sounds like she was rude, but how does your supervisor feel about this? I don’t think being rude back to her was the answer. If I were her and felt I had a legitimate gripe (and I am not saying she does, just that she probably thinks she does), I would write a letter of complaint about you. Mentioning the tip (or lack thereof) just isn’t done. Replying with customer rudeness with rudeness of your own is not the best way to good customer relations. Heck, even if I were a customer who only witnessed that, I probably wouldn’t be back.

45

Oh, btw, I tip well. Honest.

46

I tip in resturants about 15% for decent service, exceptional service (flirting helps!) gets 25%, and crap service gets %0 or a penny, which is what I was taught in home ec class in high school.

I tip outside baggage handlers at airports a buck a bag. (I always check bags outside, even if I walk up to the curb and use the kiosk for check-in). At Christmas, I tip the guys driving the little vans around the parking lots.

The pizza man, a couple of bucks.

I tip maids $5-10. More at Christmas. Same for my hair stylist.

I try to tip service people, like movers, garbage men (home and office), paperboys, handymen, around Christmas.

I tip the bartenders where I’m a “regular” at least $20 whenever I’m there. I’ll tip more, if I’m paying, to the waiters my roommate antagonizes.

Most of this was behavior I was carefully instructed in by my parents, a legacy of being a white, middle-class, generous Southerner. I’m grateful for the service I get, after all, and I know the folks I’m tipping need the money far more than I do. Guilt, perhaps? My hairstylist back home is a member of the church with a harder life than my family has, and slipping a couple more bucks her way seems a way of taking care of the community.

I don’t buy “college student” as an excuse, because being able to pay my first tips on my first meals was a rite of passage for me, and for my college years I overtipped because of the gleeful rush of power it brought. This has been weened out of me by exceptionally bad service, so my range of behavior has become greater.

As for tipping in groups, this was definately a problem in college when we were all broke and starving, but now that I’m an adult the people I go out with generally expect to pay their share of the ticket AND the tip.

47

Serial-Overtipper here. My mother (single-mom) paid the rent and put food on the table by waiting tables 40+ hours a week when I was a growing up so I’ve always been a heavy tipper to service industry people.

Waiter/Waitress - 15% minimum, usually 20% to 25%. You had to really, really screw up to get below 15% out of me.

Bartender - 25% to 50%, guarantees quick service, heavily mixed drinks, and “regular” status.

Valet - variable depending on amount of service, usually no more than 2.00 total tip.

Stylist - 20% to 25%

Hotel Maid - I usually leave a few dollars at the end of my stay on the dresser/desk for the maid.

MeanJoe

48

Food - I tip anyone who brings stuff to me.

  • car hop - round up and they keep the change.
  • pizza guy - $1.50 per pizza
  • buffett staff - $1.50 per person
  • Wait staff - 10% minimum, 5% added for each time my water glass is filled (I drink a LOT of water.)
  • Bartender - 20 %

Hair/Salon - anyone who touches me gets a tip

  • hair washer - $2-$5
  • Stylist 25%
49

You just round up here in the Czech Republic. Thank god. I also hate tipping when Stateside for every goddamned thing. Tip jars on the counters of Subway or even the gas-station, sheez! And yes, I worked in the restaurant biz for years and still feel like Scrooge. I was paid to take the order and deliver the plates from the back to the front, thus I deserved 0% extra for doing my job. Everything else I did on top of that was what earned me my tips. But if all I did was the basics, then I deserved nothing more. I pay 10% - 15% for good to real good service, 20% for excellent service under adverse conditions (like large groups).

Plus it irks me that people whine like babies when the tips they are getting are UNTAXED. Oh yeah, I forgot, you do claim at least 10% of your tips, right ? :rolleyes: You’re getting a free 30% more mileage out of your income than I am, quit bitching.

-Tcat

50

I’m a little conflicted about tipping my hair stylist/ manicurist too. I love what she does to me, and I always try to tip, but she doesn’t let me! We were friends before I started going to her, and I expect that sooner or later we will be family, as I’m seriously involved with her cousin. The first couple of times I went to her, she let me tip when I insisted, but obviously wasn’t comfortable with it. I’ve kind of compromised by buying her drinks now and then when we go out together, but I always feel like I’m stiffing her for her professional services.

Otherwise, I tip well for wait staff and bartenders. I try to even the cosmic balance for my poorly-tipping SO, but I won’t go behind his back and add money to a table as that would be insulting to him. I just make it up for the next person that I pay, and hope it evens out in the long run.

51

I just looked at the taxing issue, they seem to have addressed that. Back when I was a waiter it wasn’t based on sales…Apologies on that front. It was standard practice to only claim tips on credit card receipts and nothing else back in the 80’s. So I might have to think about leaving 8% minimum since that is what they are taxed on…Hmmm…

-Tcat

52

I almost always leave 20%, unless they were pretty bad. Then I leave 10 or 15. If they were really bad, I leave nothing, but it has been a very long time since I last did something like that.

I get a cheap hair cut at one of the chains, usually around 12 bucks and I usually leave a 5 dollar tip. The woman who told me I looked like John Candy only got 2 dollars.

Buffett, usually a dollar.

I don’t pay attention at the bar, but I pretty sure that the bar tenders make out well when I’m there, 'cause they all remember me and treat me well when I go back. If there is a shift change, I always make sure that I settle up before one tender leaves so that he or she gets a tip on what they poured for me.

53

Hey Tomcat thanks for retracting that statement. I on the other hand claim 100% of my tips. Why? Well have you ever tried to go to the bank and get a loan on $2.13 + tips? You better have some proof you made $$$, because simply telling them that you made it and didn’t claim it doesn’t cut it.

I tip, but I guess that I am biased since I work in the business. I even tip the groomers that work on my dogs. If I get bad service I still tip just to cover their taxes and tipout.

54

At restaurants I almost always tip 20% unless I had a problem with the service; buffets sometimes a little less, although that depends on the level of attention I get from the server.

I get my hair cut at a discount place near my house - $6.00 for the haircut and I usually tip $2.00.

When I travel I tip baggage handlers a buck or two per bag, and housekeeping a buck or two per day - more if there was extra work involved (like the time the bathroom needed extra cleaning :frowning: ).

55

Okay, you’re probably right that saying “tipping is part of the cost of the meal” may be overstating things a bit. I actually didn’t mean it literally, but meant it in that an adult should be well aware that if they are going out to a sit-down, waited-on restaurant, they are going to be expected to tip a minimum of 15% (except for unusually bad service), and that should be figured in to what they know they’re going to need to pay for the meal. My point was that if you are so poor that a 15% tip on a meal is going to kill you, you shouldn’t be eating at a sit-down restaurant. Simple as that. No, it’s not literally ‘a part of the cost of the meal’, but as you yourself say, it’s ‘customary and a good idea and even a large portion of the waitperson’s pay’, and a decent person expects to spend that extra money in a society that tips.

That said, and knowing that I didn’t mean it literally, just in a ‘well, you should know you’re going to be expected to leave this on top of the bill’, I’m sure you’ll see that you’re movie theater/concession stand analogy is irrelevant.

And thanks for reminding me about the pit thread. I did know about it, have posted to it, and if I have anything else to say that belongs there, I’ll be sure to post there again. :wink:

56

As someone else said, “When in Rome…”

Not that it’s exactly equivalent, but: Suppose it is o.k. to enter a church in my hometown wearing shorts. However, If I’m in Italy or Spain, that is not standard practice, and I don’t do it. I cover up as per the local practice. It’s customary for women to go topless on some European beaches. That doesn’t mean French women take their bikini tops off when they are in America, regardless of their opinion of local rules.

Yeah, waitresses and bartenders get paid. But not very much. I hope you are reading the rest of the posts explaining the tax and other implications.

57

All I have to add is that I love the tipping system.

I currently work for tips, and I believe it to be the best form of payment available.

Do a good job? You get a good wage for the day.
Come in with a bad attitude? Suck at your job? Get a bad wage.

Thus far I have not had anyone not tip me, but I am sure that time will come. When it does, I will move on to the next table…Just like the contractor who does a couple of grand worth of work and ends up not getting paid.

58

I tip well in restaurants, because it’s no problem remembering what the rules are.

Other than restaurants, I hate the tipping system. You know why? It’s really, really simple.

You tip people who provide you personal service in various capacities. These people are supposed to be making your life easier, not more complicated. Yet it’s exactly the opposite: there are all these innumerable situations where you’re not sure whether or not a tip is appropriate, or how much it should be. Bartenders, maids, valets, baggage handlers, hairdressers, newspaper deliverers…the list goes on and on.

You know why those SmartCartes are found in pretty much every U.S. airport nowadays? I think I do: people would rather plunk a couple of bucks into a cart, and push their own luggage, than face that awkward moment when they don’t know whether, or how much, to tip the damned porter.

AFAIAC, tipping is a leftover relic from a world in which you were either one of the landed gentry, or one of the working classes. The former didn’t have to work for a living; their ‘job’ was to master the social graces. One of those graces was knowing how to tip in all possible situations.

But mastering that body of tipping knowledge isn’t my job, any more than learning to wear a tux is. I’m tired of there being a zillion tipping situations, where I might run into a given one of them once in a few years, but will run into one of the galaxy of them once every few months - just enough to get under the skin. So most nonrestaurant tipping situations are like being thrown into a game with no printed rules, only you’re playing with real money. What fun, huh? I’d really rather go to the dentist.

59

My two cents
I tip in most restuarants here even tho its not necessary, I just do it. In most places here its not done with the bill, you put the money in a tin on the counter…
In the likes of Hairdressers, im sorry to say, i dont. Why? Well because here it seems to over priced. About three months ago I paid €105 on Easi Meche Highlights, it took about an hour and a half, surely thats enough to pay without adding a tip as well?

60

Ok, it sounds like she was rude, but how does your supervisor feel about this? I don’t think being rude back to her was the answer. If I were her and felt I had a legitimate gripe (and I am not saying she does, just that she probably thinks she does), I would write a letter of complaint about you. Mentioning the tip (or lack thereof) just isn’t done. Replying with customer rudeness with rudeness of your own is not the best way to good customer relations. Heck, even if I were a customer who only witnessed that, I probably wouldn’t be back.

I can see your point of view, and if I was a paying costumer and I was treated rudely, I wouldn’t be too happy.
However, the treatments this person had were one our body scrubs and such, and she came in twice a week.
For the record, I did apologize. And mentioned it to my supervisor.