c.) More than happy to tip when they receive tip-worthy service, but pissed at hell at the way that the system foists responsibility inappropriately to the customer, who should not have to bear the burden of ensuring that the server is adequately compensated, should not have to concern themselves with a number of side issues (tipping out, tax rates, etc.) and should not have to do mental payroll gymnastics to make sure that no one is shortchanged at the end of the dining transaction!
I’d be more than happy to pay more for my food and beverages if the restaurant raised wages across the board to ensure that people could live on what they made in salary, leaving any gratuity to be exactly what the word implies: something extra in compensation for something extra.
What tlw said. Very well put.
Btw, what if traffic-lights could be tipped? Say you pull up to a red light at an interchange and you want the minimum wait, you could quickly slip a couple of bucks into a slot on the traffic pole! Bingo - your light changes to green within 5 seconds, and all those cheapskates crossing the other way have to wait longer. Suckers!
Would that ever seem better than an egalitarian system that assumes everybody’s journey is equally important?
Great. When that day comes (servers have been waiting for decades for it), I’ll credit you for your kindness. Until that time, though, you’re still a jerk if you don’t tip. Just grit your teeth, quit whining about it, and tip.
Reading a post in its entirety is a good thing, Hamlet. Did you see the point where I said that I’m more than happy to tip when the service is tip-worthy? My standard tip is 25%. I’ve waited tables. I don’t stiff anyone, I don’t undertip, and if the service is inadequate, my preference is to cut the problem early by getting the manager involved mid-meal, and I’ll request a new server if I think it necessary.
But (for the third time) that doesn’t mean that I have to be happy with the fact that restauranteurs are screwing their customers and their employees simultaneously, the government has endorsed the practice via law, and no attempt is ever made to remedy the situation because we can’t get past petty arguments like this redundant thread.
My understanding was that the server was cool with it. Steve is not mean or disrespectful with wait staff (I guess you gotta know him).
Anyway, my point is that feedback between servers and customers can be awkward, and writing the tip down sort of got around that.
Not everyone expects the same things as part of “good service”. People in a hurry want speed, bored customers might appreciate a more friendly server who takes a minute or two to talk, people engrossed in converstaion among themselves might prefer fewer distractions, etc. The really good servers pick up on stuff like that and adjust accordingly.
If a waiter gets what he feels is a poor tip and doesn’t know why, is the onus on the customer to explicitly tell him the reason, or should the waiter open the subject by asking? Not all people have the diplomatic skills to discuss stuff like this and have it come off as constructive criticism rather than complaining or whining. The fact that a customer has often left before the tip is received by the server means there won’t be much chance to discuss it, anyway.
I once worked in a place where there was a “regular” who’d order coffee and toast with extra butter on the side. He’d take the extra butter into the restroom , come out after several minutes (sans butter), drink the coffee, leave the toast untouched, and leave a $20 on the table.
This is what would cost you my business. I’d be happy to take my business and my tip money to a bartender who doesn’t flat out expect me to hand them a generous tip up front so that they’ll do their job. A tip is not the method of guaranteeing that a bartender will pour a drink for me, it’s the method of generously thanking a bartender who has kept me happy by starting to pour another Guinness when I’m 2/3 done with the one I have in front of me.
My favorite bartender and I worked well on that system because he did it no questions asked the first time I was in his bar and I left him a very nice tip for his troubles. In the three hours I was there I spent $4 per drink and bought 8 pints of Guinness Stout and never had to ask for another. When he brought the last one over, he got the rest of the money on the bar. Since I’d started out the night with sixty bucks and took none of it home, he poured me $32 worth of beer and pocketed $28 in tip.
Through all my travels, he’s still my favorite bartender, and I still never have to ask for what I want when I go to his bar because he can tell what to pour based on the way I’m dressed and the mood I’m in when I get there. In my club duds, I get a dry gin martini no olives, in jeans and t-shirt it’s beer, and if it looks to him like I’ve had a rough day, it’s a shot of Mescal with no salad. In four years he’s never gotten it wrong and never gone without getting nearly half the money in my pocket as his tip. Two years after I started going to his bar, he’d come over when I got there with my drink and a cup of coffee for himself and shoot the shit with me. He doesn’t ignore other patrons, but he spends free minutes trading info and sometimes picking my brain for advice or telling me his chick trouble.
I’ve gone to the point of switching bars when he did because he’s always treated me well behind the bar and I like to give him my business. Never would have happened if he expected me to hand him cash up front and say ‘Remember me.’ During the times I have lived elsewhere, I definitely noticed the lack of such good bartender/patron relations.
catsix, I don’t think that Audrey was saying she expects a tip up front from every customer. I think she was simply saying that the “Eight Dollar Guy” went about trying to get an “upfront guarantee” of good service in the wrong way. I think she just meant that if you’re going to go flashing your cash before you get any service (in an effort to get the 'tender’s attention), then the patronizing power play is the dumb way to go (and I agree, despite the Steve anecdote). Simply handing over the cash (without the attitude) would have been a smarter way to assure good service (and, in the case of Eight Dollar Guy, a good way to stay in the bar).
Hey, a good tip is a good tip, whether it comes before or after, so you’re golden.
She did say that she would assume someone who paid cash per round wouldn’t leave a good tip, so unless she was tipped per round or (it seems) got handed cash up front, she’d underpour on drinks.
Oh please. :rolleyes: Why don’t you just wrap the little darlings in bubblewrap until they are adults.
You saw this? Did you notify management? Did you prevent the food from being served?
That’s fucking lovely.
Good God, what a humiliating situation. Had I been the waiter, I would have taken a crayon and crossed out the 15%, wrote 0%, and then proceed to give the table the most minimum service possible. I wouldn’t be anyone’s monkey puppet for any percentage of tip. What a dick.
A 15% tip may be expected, but I am the customer, it is my money, and I have the power to decide how much the service was worth. Not so good, I’ll give you 10%, average service and you’ll get 15%, above average and I’ll give you more.
Last weekend I left a $20 tip on a $50 meal. It was at a little hole in the wall Mexican family restaurant that has wonderful food and fantastic service. The waiter we had at our last visit was exceptionally good. A few weeks ago we left a $1.00 tip on a $20 breakfast at Denny’s. The waitress forgot a milk after having been reminded twice (she brought it at the end of the meal), didn’t refill our coffee, we had to get a place setting at another table because she didn’t bring another even after we asked, never brought a check. I saw her bullshitting and laughing with other staff during our entire meal.
Again, it is my money and my decision of the amount I leave for a tip regardless of the 15% rule.
I went there with a friend once to get desserts at around midnight, and after we were seated NOBODY came to our table. The waitress who was there (the only waitress on at that time, we later learned) went to all the other tables and talked to the other patrons and served them, but she never brought silverware to us, never came to take an order, never even said hello. She had to have seen us, because she walked past us to get to all the other tables.
After 25 minutes the cook came out of the kitchen and took our orders, then told us we would not be charged because the waitress never spoke to us at all. We had our dessert and coffee, the cook refilled our coffee twice, and refused to give us a check.
So we each gave her $5 and thanked her for her troubles. Haven’t been back to Denny’s since.
I gotta agree with this. Particularly since a few folks were kind enough to explain the tax on tips situation. If you’re made to declare tips based on the total sales, then when someone uses a two-for-one coupon the total sales amount has gone down, thus lowering the amount you’re required to claim for taxes. It can’t work both ways.
Yep - I saw it. The manager saw it. One day, the District Manager pulled a chicken breast out of the garbage and sent it out to be served.
The head waitress and shift supervisor (same person) was the most notorious horker. Piss off Gina, and she’ll gob in yer food.
So, to answer your question, no - I didn’t prevent the food from being served. I didn’t notify management, because they were often the perpetrators of the crime, and mostly I just felt sick to my stomach, and vowed to always be extra nice to my servers. I notified my dad - a traditionally cranky customer - to do the same, which he has.
So remember folks - if you go to a restaruant and figure that you’re going to pull a power trip on your server (ala Steve - I don’t even want to think about what when into his food), then you could possibly wind up with stuff in yer food you don’t want.
When people feel powerless and put upon, they have a tendancy to retaliate in any way they can.
Sort of a “rock and a hard place” thing, isn’t it? I once worked at a place where the owners/managers were forced to withdraw from one of those “Taste of the Town” programs (where you pay like 20 bucks for a booklet containing coupons for various restaurants around town–2 for 1 deals, etc.) due to pressure from the waitstaff, who were getting lower tips because of the discount.
I guess the thing is that it would be one thing if your sales were low because you didn’t have much business for an evening, because at least then you wouldn’t be working as hard. But when your sales are low because of discounts, then you’re working as hard as ever, but only getting tipped as if you’d done half the work.
Y’know?
For example, let’s say on Tuesday night, you wait on 10 tables (roughly 30 people altogether) in eight hours. Your sales are $500, so you walk away with about $65. Not great money for an eight-hour shift, but you got some homework done, got your sidework done early (so you could leave earlier), and didn’t go home with sore feet.
On Wednesday, the coupon books go on sale, so on Wednesday night, the place is packed with folks coming in to get 2-for one deals. Therefore, on Wednesday night, you wait on 20 tables (roughly 60 people). Normally your sales would be $1000, but thanks to the coupons, they’re still at around $500, and you’re tipped accordingly, so you STILL walk away with $65, only this time you’ve been running around like a decapitated chicken all night (in no small part because it takes a wee bit longer to ring up the coupons with the check, and then there were those 4 tables who forgot to tell you about the coupon before they paid, so you had to flag down a manager–who was busy bussing tables and filling drinks to help out through the rush–to fix everything in the computer). Therefore you’re exhausted, your feet are killing you, you smell like a combination of sweat and rancid fried pork chops, you have a glob of dried Ranch dressing in your hair (you were in The Zone, man, you didn’t have time to wipe it out), and you’ll have to stay an extra hour after the place closes to do your sidework, because what with being so busy, you neglected to get a leg up on that during the shift. . .
. . . and after that, you still have to go home and finish up that psych reading.
I know it doesn’t make sense to want it both ways as a server, but the only other recourse is to tie up your managerial staff en masse and threaten them with explosive ketchup bottles until they promise never to offer coupons again.
Like someone said earlier, that is assault that could result in serious illness or death. It’s disgusting and uncalled for. Any “surprises” in my food or the food of my family, you can be assured that I will do anything in my power to make you only lose your job as well as seeing me filing a lawsuit and pressing criminal charges.
People who work in the service industry should know BEFORE they accept the job that there will be a range of clients from wonderful patrons to fucking assholes. If you aren’t willing or emotionally equipped to handle all types of people without resorting to such disgusting behavior, then get another job.
Say I have 3 tables and then I get 2 more tables in 3 minutes. I am now swamped. Not just busy but fucking incapable of serving all 5 tables well. One table is notoriously bad tippers.
I’ve got a choice:
Serve all 5 tables equally where every table receives poor service and I end up with $2 from every table except crappy tipper table for a total of $8
Or concentrate my time on 4 tables and end up with $4 from those tables for a total of $16
I am going to chose the one where I get the most money.
In my experience, waitressing is one of the few jobs when something has to be done NOW. Not 5 minutes from now, not 5 seconds from now - NOW. And when you have 5 things to do NOW you have to prioritize.
I have no doubt that coupons make it harder on everyone involved. I’ve read that in many cases those coupon deals wind up being an overall loss for the restaurant, because the people who came to try out the restaurant will only visit if there’s a deal going on (in other words, they don’t become regular customers).
However, none of that is my (the customer’s) problem. If servers are telling me that taxes are based on total sales, and therefore tips should be calculated based on that amount, then servers have no justification for coming back and saying “Oh, but in the case of coupons, tip what the meal should have cost.” It doesn’t work that way.
I tip. I usually tip well, at least 15 percent, if service is acceptable. But I’m not gonna pay someone for not doing their job properly.
Waiting tables is hard, demanding, frustrating work. However, it offers the possibility of instant rewards. In other words, if a waitperson does their job well, they frequently (or at least occasionally) see an immediate payoff in the form of a large tip. In my business, I can bust my hump for six months on a project and see absolutely no difference in my income than if I’d slacked off for six months.
I was sitting here trying to figure out how to address the discounted food question, then got to your post. Beautifully put.
And thanks for the fond memories of “The Zone”. I put on events now and still get to experience it when things get goin’ but not nearly as regular of a basis. Kinda miss it…
I stopped reading halfway down page 4, so maybe this was brought up…
I understand that if you go to a bar, and the bartended is also the owner (there are a few small local taverns here like this), then tipping is not necessary.
Sounds reasonable to me, although I still toss him a buck or two during the evening.
, come out after several minutes (sans butter), drink the coffee, leave the toast untouched, and leave a $20 on the table.
I put on events now and still get to experience it when things get goin’ but not nearly as regular of a basis. Kinda miss it…