Don't let your kids pay for the delivery pizza

The BBQ Pit
141

At our favorite pizza place it usually comes to around $13 for 1 medium pie. I always give a $5 tip. It may seem like a lot but, since they know they will get a good tip. I always receive the pizza extremely fast and piping hot.

At our favorite local bar. We always tip the bartenders $1 per drink and give each one of them a $25 gift certificate at Christmas.

At our regular restaurant (1 or 2 times a week). Before we even ask, the waitress is serving our drinks and has already put in an order for the appetizor we always get. She remembers everything we like and don’t like. Service like that is worth well over 20%.

142

Exactly, Honey.

Sauron,

Audrey was the only one who admitted to doing anything negative as a result of bad tips. The rest of us are stressing that if you want excellent service (in that definition, I include extras, like Honey pointed out) you’d better be prepared to tip well, and on a regular basis.

When I waited tables I had regular customers who brought me in birthday cards when they knew it was my birthday, Christmas presents, I once got tipped 70% one time, I kid you not. I made sure these people were very taken care of every time they came in. I just stress that people shouldn’t expect things without being prepared to give something in return.

Why should someone bust their ass to make sure everything is perfect for you if they know you’re going to give them a shitty tip? That just doesn’t make sense. I agree that you should tip based on the bill and the quality of service you recieved, but don’t waltz in there and expect VIP treatment if you have a reputation as being a cheapass.

143

I suppose I should preface my remarks by saying I eat out at a sit-down restaurant maybe twice a month, and I seriously doubt I’m remembered (either for good or for ill) five minutes after I’ve left. The one exception is the Shoney’s two minutes from my office; I’ll eat lunch there about once every ten days, and the waitresses remember me. They seem friendly, so I guess I’m in their good graces.

Likewise, I wouldn’t eat at a restaurant habitually if I felt the service wasn’t up to par. If the service is decent, I’ll tip at least 15 percent. If it’s bad, I start lowering the amount of the tip. Regardless of what anyone says, in the U.S. it may be customary to tip, but it ain’t mandatory. I’ll tip if the service is good; if it’s crappy I tip far less. I have done the three-penny tip before, when the service was spectacularly bad.

So I guess I’m not one of those people who would automatically be identified by a waitstaff as a “poor tipper.” I’m not in any restaurant often enough to get labeled. But expecting a tip is wrong, in my opinion. (And yes, I know waitstaff are paid crappily. I disagree with that, too, for what it’s worth.) I tip to recognize satisfactory or excellent service. I’m not tipping if you don’t do your job at a minimum standard of service. And as long as I’m your customer, I get to decide what a “minimum standard” is.

144

I’m totally behind you on tipping crappily if the service is crappy, I haven’t said otherwise on this thread. I disagree with saying someone shouldn’t expect a tip though. That’s just ridiculous. If someone shouldn’t expect a tip, then their pay shouldn’t reflect the fact that they’re supposed to recieve tips. There’s just no logic in your statement. Do you expect a paycheck? Tips are server’s paychecks. If they weren’t expecting tips then they would be working, for all intents and purposes, for free. How is that right?

145

Good thing I was never at Audrey’s bar, because she probably would’ve assumed I wasn’t going to tip at all and been underpouring my drinks. Although I’d certainly hope she felt shitty at the end of the night when the cash left on the bar was a pretty damned generous tip.

See my standard Friday night at the bar with a couple of friends involved me showing up with $40. During the course of a night, I’d drink no more than $30, ever. I wasn’t there to get rip roaring drunk, and I certainly wasn’t going to open a tab on a credit card and tempt myself into spending a fortune and getting hammered. I’d get there around 10 pm and be gone just before 1230 am. $30 worth of drinks left $10 on the bar for the bartender to keep. I tipped at 33% of my drink total for the night, always.

But Audrey would’ve assumed because I didn’t tip per drink and I didn’t use a credit card that I wasn’t going to tip at all. She would’ve underpoured my drinks, and I wouldn’t have gone back to her. Someone else can get the 30% tip, because a person who’s shorted me what I’m paying for once will certainly not get my repeat business. It’ll more likely than not be a different bartender at the same bar. Which is how I found my favorite bartender, who now has fun picking on the guy who lost out. :slight_smile:

146

I can assume by that statement that you didn’t become a teacher…

:smiley:

147

I agree completely. That’s why I said their pay should be raised. Will it happen on my say-so? Nope. But at least I recognize the disconnect in the system. Now, if I had my Ring, I could fix all this stuff. But noooo …

Two things:

  1. As has been pointed out, tips are most certainly not a server’s paycheck. Show me how I can legally hide 70 percent or so of my income from Uncle Sam, and I’ll agree that tips = paychecks. Until then, tips are “other income.”

  2. How is it “logical” to expect a person to receive payment for a service not rendered, or rendered poorly? Let’s take your logic and apply it to another industry … say, pool installation. You hire a contractor to install a pool in your backyard. You agree to a price. Let’s say you then tell the contractor, “Tell you what – finish this job in a week, and I’ll throw in an extra $200.” So we’ve established the possibility of a “tip” for good (or at least speedy) service.

The contractor shows up several days late, digs the hole only three feet deep, and then only fills your pool with water halfway when he’s done. He’s taken ten days. By your logic, the contractor is entitled to the amount you agreed upon at the beginning plus the tip, regardless of the job he has done; he was expecting that extra $200.

In my world, if he does his job crappily, he doesn’t get paid, much less the extra $200. Same with waitstaff. Apparently, though, some in this thread would argue that not only should I pay him and “tip” him, if I don’t I should expect him to pee (or worse) in my pool when he leaves.

148

I can’t speak for all restaurants, but it would have been impossible to have hidden 70% of my income.

  1. Our sales report were run every night, how much we sold could not be hidden. We were required to claim our tips every time we clocked out, based on our sales report.

  2. We were required to tip out to other restaurant staff based on the amount of our sales, that was money out of our pocket.

  3. We were required to claim taxes every time we clocked out based on our sales.

  4. Credit card tips are impossible to hide, there is a record.

So, you have 500.00 in sales. You did pretty well that night and averaged 15%, so you made 75 dollars. You tip out about 15 bucks to the bartender/busboys and another 5 bucks to the foodrunner, after tipping out, you walk with 55.00. You are required to claim taxes as you clock out, so you claim 50.00 (we always claimed 10%, although another poster in this thread said they always claimed 12%).

Please tell me how the average server is going to hide 70% of the money they make waiting tables? I used to wait tables, I just don’t see that from my experience.

149

I freely admit I’m not well-versed on the tax implications of tips; I was using information I’d gleaned from the thread, and I may have gleaned incorrectly. I was also using anecdotal evidence from old friends, who easily could have been blowing smoke.

However, if I’m understanding you … you were required to report income tax based on how much you sold, not how much you earned?

150

Well,…

I would be one that would prefer Audrey’s bar…

though I’ll probably be flamed for that :wink:

What is with this tipping bartenders at the end of the night? It seems unproductive. Friends and I usually prefer mixed drinks. I tip very generously for the first round. This is my signal to the bartender that there is money to be made by keeping me happy. I tip generously every round after that UNLESS the second round drinks are not beyond par or I don’t get attention quickly. If that is the case then I will greatly, GREATLY lower my tip or switch to beer and not tip. In my experience, the bartender cooperates 90% of the time. Big brownie points are made when the barkeep makes me look good. Sounds strange but there are some damn good bartenders out there.

I tip generously but expect something for it. Audrey and I would get along.

However, I never expected that bartenders would actually cheat other people to give me more. I just thought I got more… Naive I guess.

151

Sauron

Yes.

Because, as you pointed out, there is no way to know how much a server has earned, the only thing the government knows is how much you SOLD and they use that to calculate how much you should have earned (based on the accepted 15% rule) and tax you accordingly. We were taxed at 10% of what we sold (which usually came out about right, if you averaged 15% for the night and were required to tip out about 5% of what you made).

Now.

Is it easier to understand why some servers get really aggravated to the point of bad service when they receive repeat bad tips from habitual bad tippers?

If you had a table that ran up a 100.00 bill (or bought a 100.00 dollar bottle of wine as someone mentioned earlier) and stiffs a server, we still have to tip out and we still have to claim taxes on it. That table cost the server money.

152

That’s correct; and, truth be told, usually you earn more than you’re expected to claim for tax purposes (generally the good tippers make up for the bad ones), so you usually come out ahead.

However, it can be really frustrating to give perfectly adequate, polite, and professional service to a table and get little to nothing. I mean, if that happened with EVERY table (in some freaky Nightmare Twilight Zone… it’s totally hypothetical, but work with me here) then yes, it would actually be costing you money to wait on people, since as far as the IRS is concerned, if you sold X dollars worth of food and beverages, you received at least Y dollars worth of tips, whether or not that was the reality.

I think that good points are being made on both sides of this argument, but I gotta say one thing–if you’re not going to tip, FINE, and if you have a good reason (i.e., crappy service), it’s fine to explain to the server exactly why you don’t feel like the standard tip was merited, if you must.

But for the love of Christ on a cracker, DON’T play those mind-fuck power games with the server (especially if you really are not displeased with your service) with the lame “There went your tip!” jokes.

Yeah. Those aren’t funny.

153

I used to deliver food. I was mortified by how cheap people were. It is amazing to me how people can conclude that a person who walks ten feet from the kitchen deserves 20% tip, but the person who drives 6 miles round trip miles deserves 5%. Scuse me, I was blowing gas, wear and tear, dealing with weather, and I get a buck?

Cheap people make me ill.

154

I hereby retract the “hiding 70 percent of income from Uncle Sam” statement. Thanks for eradicating some of my ignorance today, folks.

I stand by everything else, though.

155

Look, as I said, the only people who are pissed off about this Evil System are either

a.) from the UK, and don’t get it, or

b.) anal and wanna get it for free in Their Perfect World.

The fact of the matter is, none of you who have a beef with what I’ve said have given me any real reason why you would work for free in my situation. You’re talking to me as a customer…probably a pretty cheap customer, who thinks they can cheat the system, demand to get the perfect service they deserve, and THEN get to decide whether they pay for it.

I’m talking to you as a bartender. And I’m saying that I show up to work for the money. Just like everybody else. I go where the money’s at, and I make sure the money’s happy. Andymurph64 gets it totally–he’s the kind of bar patron I make sure gets what he wants, leaves happy, and comes back for more. This ain’t rocket science, people. Money makes the world go round.

Why is this such a surprise for all of you? Maybe you show up to work on a “Maybe” but I don’t. Maybe you don’t mind working for people who don’t pay you, but I don’t. Maybe you’d give a 100% over and over again to someone who doesn’t pay you for it, but I don’t.

And you know what? I have a pretty cool bar. I have regulars who come to see me monthly…weekly…sometimes daily. Some of 'em are from out of state, and make a point to stay downtown so that they can come see me. I’ve had people tell me I’m the best bartender they’ve ever had. Just this morning I got half a case of Red Bull Fed-Exed to my apartment, as a thank-you from the Red Bull reps that were at my bar a week ago. (It’s the new sugar-free kind that isn’t on the market yet down here. YUM!)

So all this hypothetical bullshit about “You’re missing out on money and you’re a godawful bartender!” is crap. The only people who leave my bar pissed off are the ones I didn’t want there anyway.

So if you’re that person, you know what? I’m not losing any sleep over you.

156

I can see where Audrey comes from. At least somewhat.

I do think that (and this doesn’t apply to Audrey, at least I hope not) that in restaurants, a non-tipper will get barely competent but not fantastic service. No spit in the food, because (as someone else has already mentioned) that’s simply criminal. I thnk that anyone who spits in someone’s food or does something equally vile has lowered themselves as a human being. It should never be done. But not busting their ass? Just giving the required service, and nothing more? I’m totally OK with that.

In Audrey’s case, as long as she’s not spitting in their drinks or doing anything blatantly creepy, I don’t have a problem. Of course, I don’t go to bars much (and I tip for the glass of Coke I order, since I don’t drink) so I’m probably out of the loop with that.

I also had another thought—my dad, as I mentioned earlier, didn’t tip as a protest against the “system”. (Much to the chagrin of the rest of the family—fortunately my mom was usually able to slip in a tip and all was fine.) After realizing that the UK people don’t share our tipping system, I strongly suspect that this is where my dad got his non-tipping inclination. We have many relatives in the UK, his dad (my grandfather) came from the UK, he visited the UK a couple of times and we had UK relatives visit us regularly as well. My dad felt a very strong connection to the UK and had more than a few habits that stemmed from this influence. So, I think the UK folk definitely “corrupted” him! :wink: So it’s all your fault, you UK people!!!

It still sucked, though. We all hated going out to a restaurant with him alone, if mom wasn’t along to tip. The USA ain’t the UK, and he should have known that.

157

Anectdote:

My friend Steve is out with a few friends at a restaurant where the tablecloths are some kind of paper, and each table has a box of crayons on it, in addition to napins/salt/pepper/wahtever. The idea is that you can entertain yourself by drawing on the table while you’re there. Maybe it’s a family restaurant kind of thing, I dunno. Afterwards, take the tablecloth home if you want.

After seating them, the Waiter is back for drink orders, and as he is taking them, Steve starts writing on the corner of the table, right in front of him: “Tip: 15%”. Waiter begins to make friendly chit chat. But Steve is not a chit chat sort of guy, and crosses out “15%” and writes “13%”. Waiter takes the hint, leaves and gets the drinks. He returns promptly, the drinks are correct, and Steve crosses out 13%, writes 15% again. Waiter takes food orders. Waiter offers some suggestive selling - nope, Steve knows what he wants, down to 14%. A reasonably quick time later, the food comes, the orders are correct, Steve writes 16%. The Waiter proves to be good at keeping drinks filled - 18%. Check arrives at just the right time when Steve & friends are ready to leave - 20%.

Steve & the Waiter came to an understanding and were able to subtly work the feedback to their mutual advantage. I wish all tipping were this cool.

158

Sauron,

Did you miss when I said that I’m totally fine with giving a crappy tip for crappy service? Because I said it a few times. So your pool man analogy doesn’t hold water (pardon the pun).

And I know i’m late with this, but yes, servers get taxed on their total sales, so that is what the tip should be based on.

And tips area part of a servers salary, as explained by the taxing system. Severs are taxed assuming they will be making at least 15% of their total sales in tips, so logically, one would be right in expecting those tips. That is, if they are a halfway decent server. If they suck and therefore consistantly get crappy tips, then they should be looking for another form of employment.

159

Why do I tip the bartender at the end of the night?

Because it’s much easier for me to keep track of how much I’ve spent on alcohol and how many drinks I’ve had. I always have in mind a set amount of money that I’m willing to spend, and that’s all. If I’m at a bar where I’m a regular, the money sits on the bar the whole time I’m there, and a bartender who’s used to me knows that the last 30 - 35% goes to him or her. If I lay $50 on the bar at the beginning of the night, one of my regular bartenders will know that $15 is going home with them as a tip, and I’m spending $35 on drinks. If I’m going out and decide I’m in the mood to hit on a guy, they’ll end up with a $30 - $35 tip, because I’ll probably spend a hundred bucks.

160

For the record, Yosemitebabe, I’ve never spit/done anything awful/nasty to anyone’s food or drinks. I think that’s totally revolting, and kind of reverses the negative karma that bad tippers/assholes are bringing on themselves. :smiley:

But I’ve worked with people who have…although not in the great percentages that a lot of people fear. One of the oldest tricks in the book is adding saline eye-drops to someone’s drink. Totally tasteless, totally harmless, but apparently it’ll give you the runs like you WON’T BELIEVE. Ruin your night.

I’ve never done it…again, that’s taking things way too far…nor have I ever seen anyone do it. But I’ve heard stories. shrug Most of the spit/snot/whatever that makes it into peoples’ food and drink is probably urban legend.

With just a tiny percentage being, unfortunately, totally true. bleh