So tonight I was part of a group that went out to eat, with an older cheap-ass bad tipper who was paying the entire bill. There was five of us. It wasn’t a fancy place, just a southern fried-seafood place, average plate was ~$12. I didn’t see the bill, but it had to be around $80 or so, with sodas and all. The waitress was great, very attentive and friendly- I even had a personal conversation with her about the fact that I worked there and helped open the place 17 years ago, when I lived here before I moved to Arizona. So, nothing wrong with the service or the food whatsover.
As we were getting ready to leave, I noticed that the guy paying had left a one and a five on the table. He also had cash in hand to pay the bill at the register and definitely did not need change to come back to the table and leave more, and he didn’t.
I walked out of there so mortified and my face was red! I felt so bad for that woman, as I knew she didn’t deserve such a paltry tip and she’d feel bad when she found it. Alas, I didn’t have any cash on hand, as I almost always use my debit card and never carry cash. But I will make sure I have some bills in the future if I ever go out to eat with this person again. the other people in our party were just like, “Oh yeah, he does that all the time, he’s cheap” and they didn’t really care. These people have probably never been waitrons.
I’m thinking tomorrow I might go over there and leave a ten for her and explain that it wasn’t anything she did, he was just a cheap bastard.
This isn’t a thread to debate the ethics of tipping, so you’ll have to open your own thread if you want to discuss whether people should tip at all or not.
Would you go back and tip more or just forget about it?
If it’s not too much trouble, yeah, I’d go back and giver her a tenner.
I also rarely carry cash, but if I know I’m going out with a group - especially people I haven’t dined with before - I grab some cash before going. I’ve had to be that person who surreptitiously left some extra cash on the table.
We had elderly relatives who would always insist on paying for dinner, but they were terrible tippers. We finally settled on saying, “Well, at least let us get the tip!” and then leaving a decent amount on the table. We had to be discreet about how we put it down, because one of the relatives would invariably, if she could see how much we left, argue that it was “too much.”
When my department at work steps over to a nearby restaurant for a birthday lunch or other occasion where we pay our own checks, I always make sure I have some extra cash on hand for that. Not only are we a big table, coming in at the peak lunch ruch, we all have separate checks. Some of the co-workers are pretty demanding and some are just lousy tippers. Having been on the server’s side of the table, I appreciate their efforts.
Procedure should be that you leave zero tip and your phone number, if the waitress wants a bigger tip she can come round to your place after and “earn it” like all good girls should.
talk about a thread “hitting home”… my Dad is approaching 70, and his base-line tip is 12% - and that’s for good service. I’ve never seen it happen, but I assume he’d bump that up to maybe 15% if the waitress gave him a blowjob right there in the booth while I calmly walked away and pretended to take a phone call.
The best advice I can give is no better than what others have already said, because when my Dad insists on “getting the check”, I always get instantly uncomfortable.
I’ve done the “walk to the restroom and find the waitress in the expo area and hand her a $20” bit.
I’ve stood up to leave and, when he turns his back, then throw a wad of cash onto the table, and hope he didn’t turn around to make sure I was behind him.
I’ve shaken hands with him in the parking lot, watched him get in his car and drive away, and trek’d back into the restaurant to find the server and give him/her whatever it takes to make it to 20%-plus.
Good luck Alice! I feel your pain, and know exactly the feeling!
I still work with him, though he’s at a different company now (one of our distributors.) He’s still an asshole wrapped in a riddle cloaked in an enigma. He sent out a very nice email when I got promoted recently, talking me up about how great I was and what a good job I was doing. And then the next day I got a furious voicemail, something along the lines of “F*#! Why are you F*%^&#*% idiots doing F*&^( all about this F@#*%# (imaginary) problem?!”
When servers are a fair cross section of the population. I’ll consider becoming more charitable. But I am not donating my money to a job that employs exclusively attractive young women. They earn a disproportionate amount of money compared to the other staff and the entire system is just wrong.
If you show me a big ugly male college student or down on his luck guy in his 40s waiting tables then I’d start tipping. I’m not giving up my hard earned so some pretty young thing can afford another beauty treatment.
Having been a ghost for a long time and taken an even longer absence, is this how this board is now? Trolls just allowed to do whatever?
Dude, I waited tables at 200 pounds with a beard and got great tips because of my service and personality for several years. I would say at the different places I worked, the percentage is something like 60% female in all areas of the country I’ve been to, which does exclude the south.
I had the misfortune of having dinner with two guys who didn’t believe in tipping at all. So, fine: I went back and left a tip large enough for the whole party.
Later (in a fit of pique, and I shouldn’t have) I told them what I’d done. They were outraged at me, and said that I’d violated their rights!
Obviously, I never again have dined in any restaurant with these jerks.
This is a warning for you. Stop posting troll-like statements or you will be banned.
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ETA: Do not post in this thread again, as well. If you want to debate tipping, start your own thread either in GD or the Pit.