Don’t count on Dunkin Donuts being non-tipping- I worked at a Dunkin Donuts in high school that had counter service- you sat at a stool at the counter and I brought you your coffee,soup, sandwich, whatever. Whether I spent my shift doing counter service,take out or frosting donuts I was paid less than minimum wage, because supposedly, my share of the tips would bring me up to minimum (althought they rarely did.)
Audrey Levin said:
In addition to what TwistOfFate said, may I point out that you are STEALING FROM YOUR EMPLOYER! It’s no different to giving your mates free drinks.
In my book that’s a sackable offence, and comes as a direct consequence of tipping culture.
Lucretia, I hate to tell you this, but we joke about that very thing. “Be sure and go back and tell all your cheap friends not to come here, either!” 
I’m sorry to break it to you, but nobody–not even you, I’m sure–works for free. If your boss told you that, just because he didn’t feel like it, he wasn’t going to pay you your salary this week…even though you’d done your job…how long would you keep showing up to work? Would his speeches about 'IT’S YOUR JOB!" mean much to you at that point? Or would you roll your eyes and hunt down greener pastures?
Get real. Seriously.
And my bar manager is, for the record, an ex-bartender himself…who do you think taught me half of these Evil Ways?
bwahahahaha
I’m sorry you get paid shit for doing a difficult job, but that dosent excuse you from ripping off customers just because they don’t tip to your standards.
If you supply good service consistently and to everyone, you’ll walk away much better tipped than just glad handing the good tippers to the detriment of the rest of the customers.
In fact, I’d say that most people leave you shit tips as a reflection of your attitude to them after the first round, rather than any stringency on their part.
I have no idea how bars are run in the UK, but in the bars I’ve worked at here, bars are run according to percentages. In other words, the bar manager expects a “bar cost” of 22%. As long as I give him that number, he doesn’t really care how I arrive at the figure he wants. Overpouring and underpouring are how you build a bar with good solid regulars, and weed out the undesirable customers. I was told this, two years ago, by my first bar manager…you take care of the people you want to come back, and you don’t take care of the people you don’t want at your bar.
Think of it as pruning.
So no, I’m not stealing from my employer. I’m giving him the percentage he wants, and building a steady crowd of regulars who come to see me. Why do you think I’ve worked at this bar for over a year? Don’t you think he would have “caught on!” if I were ripping him off right and left?
Get real. Like I said, who do you think told me half this stuff?
you know, I’d be glad to not drink at a bar where the staff had your attitude.
Your missing out on a lot of good custom just because of your poor people skills.
In fact, why not just go and work at a tittie bar? lots of tips there.
You make it sound like that’s a bad thing 
OpalCat,
ex-tittie-dancer
Can anyone tell me how we got from kids paying for pizza to working in tittie joints? I think I missed something.
Its a festivus miracle!
Actually, that’s not necessarily true . . . those gals can get, um, stiffed (pardon the pun) just like waitstaff, bartenders, pizza delivery folks, etc. One of the most common complaints I hear from dancers is that guys come in, drink, and watch the stage show, and maybe shove a coupla bucks into some g-strings, but cheap out on the lap dances, which is where the real money comes from (and of course, there are those who don’t tip the dancers on stage, either).
Also, I’m told that each dancer is required to pay the club 30 bucks to work for an evening, so if she doesn’t get enough lap dances, and only walks away with, say, 25 bucks from her stage dances (which go on rotation, so the number of times she gets on stage in an evening depends upon how many women are working that night), she’s basically just paid 5 bucks to show other people her titties.
Now, whether or not this system is common (or even legal) for dancers, I dunno, but it seems to me that anybody working for tips runs the risk of getting screwed (again, no pun . . . ).
Oh, and apologies to Gary Kumquat for continuing the “Pizzas to Puntang (sp?)” highjack.
Having never worked at a tittie bar, I bow to the knowledge of the dopers 
Audrey is exactly right.
Let’s say I have two tables (going to use two real life ex regulars at my restaurant).
- I used to wait on this great family with this adorable kid. They always ordered the same thing to start, two maragaritas on the rocks with extra salt, the kid loved the cheese sauce for chips. The always ended the meal with two cups of coffee and a scoop of vanilla ice cream. These folks were GREAT tippers. As soon as I saw them seated, I would just bring their drinks, extra napkins and a bowl of cheese for the chips (which I did NOT ring up). Since I knew they left me great tips, they got excellent service and as much free stuff as I could slip them (like the two cups of coffee and the ice cream).
And as far as “stealing from the restaurant,” my management routinely comped tickets for repeat, valuable business. These were once-a-week customers who were greatly appreciated and I made sure they knew it.
- Two lunch time regulars we had who always ordered two taco salads and two diet cokes. They were very easy to wait on (so that blows the “only people that run you to death” are asses theory) but ALWAYS left one dollar as a tip, but not a bill, each of them left two quarters. These people got their food and their drinks, and I was never a BAD server to repeat bad tippers, but they got NOTHING extra, just the absolute bare minimum because they just weren’t worth it.
Reuben
Honestly, waiting tables is a very hard job. If you’ve never done it, if you’ve never felt the adrenaline rush of “being in the weeds,” never had a hostess triple seat you with some people that want to order now, but aren’t quite sure what they want, but don’t want you to leave the table while they decide and you know that another table’s food is up in the window and getting cold and you have to go upstairs to get some bar drinks that are melting and your first table is giving you the evil eye because they want their check… I don’t know who would do it for what a restaurant would pay without tips. As far as being rude, rudeness comes around. You leave a bad tip, you get what you pay for.
Lucretia
Few people ever got flat out bad service as a result of not tipping. They still got their drinks and their food and their baskets of chips refilled and their check brought promptly, they just didn’t get special or attentive service. No free stuff, no extra napkins without being asked, if they wanted an extra side of sour cream, I charged them.
These are the reasons I’m no longer a waitress, this bizarre attitude that I was somehow expected to provide excellent service for people who did not deserve excellent service. As soon as I got out of school, I got a job where no one ever said, “Hey, this is your JOB, we don’t have to pay you to do it!”
This is still the stuff of my nightmares, and I haven’t waited tables for almost 5 years.
I notice that most of the arguing about tipping is coming from outside the U.S. It’s different here people, and servers aren’t so noble as to give you fab service when you don’t tip 'em shit.
It’s just the way it works, if you don’t wanna play, don’t go to the party.
I always tip really well, and I pick a certain few places and return to them repeatedly and you know what? I get awesome service when I go out. My coffee place knows me and has my drink ready when I get to the window, the waitstaff at all my favorite resteraunts know me and fight over who gets to serve me (they’ve told me this, and I always get killer service), I never have to wait at my nail place and they always do a great job, when I order Chinese or Pizza I get it from the same place and it’s always here in 20 minutes or less.
I for one, think the system shouldn’t change. These people work for tips, when I waited tables, I worked for tips. Can you imagine the kind of service you’d get here in the U.S. if they weren’t working for tips? If the employees at Walmart are any indication, I shudder from the thought. Not all people who worked for tips are as noble as Lucretia (who I still believe is talking out of his/her ass or is looking at her/his past serving experience with very rose tinted glasses…:rolleyes:
For a start, I’ve no prolem with tips. I agree that the service industry is extremely underpaid and they deserve better treatment.
What annoys me is that people like Audrey DEMAND that they are well tipped or they provide terrible service.
In short, Glory couldn’t be more right, I couldn’t explain it better myself, and thanks for giving me the nightmares back…
I used to work all day Sunday from 8:30-4 by myself, until another server came in at 4:00, then I’d work with a crew until about 9. Lemme tell ya, at times, the resteraunt would be almost full (bout 20 tables, it was a small reseraunt) and I would be the only server. Yup, every Saturday night I’d have the “waitress nighmare” in preperation for my “hell day”. I once walked with $300 cash after one “hell day” though, so it was worth it. For awhile…I finally threatened to quit if the owner didn’t get me some help on Sunday days, he gave in. 
Okay now this is interesting, I used to have waiting tables nightmares ALL the time, they have only recently stopped and I quit waiting tables 6 years ago.
Terrible dreams, where I knew it was late at night and I should be in bed sleeping but they just would keep seating me. It would make for a really restless night!
Any other servers/former servers experience nightmares of waiting tables?
TwistofFate
I guess we turn it around and think, what’s wrong with people who DEMAND excellent service but tip terribly? You can rail against the unfainess of the existing system, but right now it is the system. When you don’t tip or tip poorly, you have the potential to cost servers money. If I’m paying YOU to sit in my section, don’t expect much.
But Glory you don’t agree with Audrey.
You still waited on them. You still gave them service. Of course it wasn’t stellar service, but you handled yourself in a professional manner.
If you were Audrey you’d have ignored them. You’d have found other things to distract yourself with while they tried to get your attention. More importantly, you’d have given them one taco salad to split and a cup of half diet coke and half water.
Do you see the difference?
I grew up in a culture of tipping. I routinely tip well. But for the life of me I don’t understand these threats I hear in this thread. Tip well or your food will be spit in. Tip well or you won’t get even a fraction of the drink you paid for. Tip well or you can expect to be purposely ignored even when the waitstaff has nothing else to do.
Glory, we’re not talking about you doing the minimum amount of work for bad tippers here. No one can fault you for working out a cost/benefit analysis here. It’s a simple fact that good tippers are going to get you more money. Fine.
But some of these servers aren’t providing minimum service. They’re destroying your food and sabotaging your dining or drinking experience which you have paid for. That’s way below minimum. We’re into criminal territory now.
Ah, but see, customers have a right to expect excellent (or at least satisfactory) service from the waitstaff. It’s what the waitstaff is supposed to do. It’s part of the job description.
No one has shown me a “customer” job description yet. If part of the job description includes “tipping handsomely regardless of circumstance,” then I’m gonna have to decline that job.
That may be, but I’m telling you how it actually works in the real world. If you are a habitual, shitty tipper everyone that works in the restaurant will know it. They aren’t going to want to waste time on you since they know they are going to receive a bad tip. They will focus their energy and their best service on other tables who have the potential to tip better.
I didn’t say “tip handsomely regardless of circumstance,” I had bad nights, I forgot stuff, I received poor tips that I knew were deserved (although sometimes it was for things outside of my control) and I didn’t get bent out of shape about it. A little disappointed maybe, because I was trying to make rent, but I never blamed a customer for tipping poorly for poor service.
I never said to “tip handsomely” either. 15% was always acceptable. A 15% tip meant that I could tip out the busboys, bartenders and food runners and still walk with the 10% I claimed for taxes.