A pit thread in which a waitress chases a customer down to demand a tip made me think of this.
About 10 years ago I ordered Chinese food to be delivered. They told me the total on the phone, so when the delivery guy got there, I had already filled out a check with the total plus a few dollars for the tip.
He looked down at the total and said, “Say, how about adding to this tip? I mean this is nothing, how about a real tip?”
I was embarressed and flustered, but didn’t give him any more money. I never ordered from that restaurant again.
In the original Pit thread, several servers chimed in saying that had done (or had witnessed) waiters confronting customers (with varying degrees of tact) about a small or non-existant tip.
No, I’ve never been hassled about the amount I’ve left for a tip.
Had what you described in the OP happened to me, I would have taken the check back while apologizing and gave him another one for the exact amount of the order.
I used to frequent a bar with a retired NYC Transit cop as the bartender. Real nice guy, but if you pissed him off (took too long to order, changed your order midway through, etc) he got ornery. Once, I was at the corner of the bar, and watched this guy order a round for his friends (6-8 drinks all together). His bill was maybe $29.50 or something like that. He tipped 50 cents!! The guy had walked the length of the bar, and turned the corner into the pool room, when two quarters whizzed past his head and bounced off the wall behind him. Jim thanked him the charming manner that Brooklyn guys have.
I made sure I left at least $5/night behind for him from then on.
Uh, no, but I have had a guy on the street (presumably homeless) ask me for money and, when I obliged, tell me it wasn’t enough (and in response to the shocked look on my face, he pressed, “Hey, it’s Christmas.”).
I didn’t cough up any more, either.
I mean, hell, he hadn’t even brought me any food. You bring me food, I pay you well. If not, you take what you can get.
The only time I’ve gotten hassled was when I bought a bottle of orange juice from a coffee shop and the guy behind the counter got pissed cause I didn’t tip him for grabbing a bottle. Now if I order something that they have to make I’ll tip… But grabbing a bottle of oj from the cooler?
I’ve heard many of my co-workers threaten to throw the change at people. I’ve never seen it done. About the only thing I’ve ever seen done is when the table says keep the change and it’s literally just change. Normally the server just takes it back with a smile on their face. Normally this gets the point across. I’ve never seen a server outright demand a tip though.
I was about to leave a tip on the table but realsized that I only had a fifty. So I proceeded to the cashier at the front of the resturaunt to get some change. Before I even get to the register, the waitress starts yelling at me from 30 ft. away! Amidst her huffing and puffing, I explained the situation to her, but also explained that, because of her rudeness, she would not be reciveing any tip.
I was cocktailwaitressing at CBGB’s. It was a big show night so the place was packed (so I was already stressed out). There was a group at the very front of the club, up by the stage, who placed a big drink order. I had to practically climb over people to get back to him while balancing a huge tray of drink (none of which spilled than you very much). Then the guy paid me and tipped me…nothing. Absolutely nothing.
I was so pissed off I bopped him on the head with my tray :). Ok, hardly professional of me, but what did he expect from a punk rock waitress :D.
No, I’ve never been hassled about a tip, but tipping is not expected here in Australia. Generally though, I’ll leave a small tip if the food and service is excellent and I won’t leave a tip if it’s ordinary.
Chinese restaurant, late '70s. I left a decent tip, a five dollar bill on a twenty dollar check, on the table, paid the bill and was starting to exit when the manager came up behind me and starting hollering angrily, “Why you no leave tip? You no leave tip! Why?” I walked back to the table, extracted the five from the plates and cups, showed it to him, and explained, “NOW I no leave tip,” pocketed the bill and left.
Very satisfying, even though I could never eat there again, for fear of being served Moo Goo Gai Spit.
I’ve never been hassled about not having tipped well enough. Then again, I’m a pretty good tipper. When I short on a tip, it is because the service or food has been unusually crappy. If the food is bad, I make the server aware of it so they can do something about it. If they don’t take measures to correct the problem, well then, I don’t think they’ll be too surprised. If the service was lousy, review the previous sentence.
I make sure to let servers know when the service is lousy. I don’t necessarily tell them (sometimes I do), but it’s hard to miss that penny under my plate.
If the service is good thenI’ll tip appropriately, when I was delivering pizza I had a guy tip me 50 bucks because I got there very fast, I was driving a trans am at the time
It’s not so much a reward as it is a bribe. If you don’t tip, you may find yourself waiting around a long time for a drink. The better the tip, the less time you spend with an empty glass.
Eating at a sushi place with a small group of friends. One of the group had a gift certificate from the restaurant which ended up being for the same amount of money as the tip. The manager didn’t notice the gift certificate and came to the table visibly upset. She demanded to know what was wrong with the service. She was a little embarrassed when she realized what happened.
Birthday dinner for a friend sponsored by his friend Gina who I did not know very well. Gina had called in advance and asked if she could bring in her own cake. They said it would be no problem but that they would charge a couple bucks a person (cake-age fee!). That’s pretty reasonable in my opinion and even if it wasn’t she knew it was coming in advance.
We have a nice dinner and they serve the cake that Gina brought. When the bill comes, Gina opts to not pay the extra fee. This fee was about what the tip should have been. None of us were at all aware of the controversy over the fee or even saw the bill. Gina just told everyone how much we owed and we paid her. Right after we left the restaurant, the manager grabbed me by the shoulder and started shouting at me. I didn’t have a clue what he was talking about. The Gina ran over and started screaming at him for him blaming me. I left the scene while the two of them were still going at it.
The three times in my life that I really did stiff the waitstaff because the service was horrible, no one said a word.
No, I’m so anti-tipping, all I need to hear is someone biching about it.
One time though, I was getting a hair cut when the guy leans close to my ear and whispers, “You know, my BEST customers leave good tips”. It’s a good thing I didn’t have to pay for the hair cut right then because, what could I do, risk a bald spot on the side of my head.
Needless to say I never went back there. I didn’t tip him any more than I would have either.
Have you seen this thing with Dunkin Donuts with the tip cup at the register. WHAT? They just took a donut and put it in the bag.
If that’s so, I guess where supposed to tip people at a deli counter, McDonalds, Home Depot for a guy pointing to the “screw” section. SHEESH.
Once. One night, my mom and I ate at an Italian restaurant in a nice area of Boston, and since we each only had a plate of pasta and drank water, our bill came to $25. We left a $5 tip. As we were leaving, the waiter came by and started clearing our places, saw the tip, and said loudly, “Five dollars? Five dollars!” in a “I can’t believe you’re such cheapskates!” tone of voice. I stopped and said (not as loudly as I would have liked) that $5 was 20% of $25, so what was the problem? He just mumbled something and turned away. Man, I was pissed…we hadn’t done anything wrong!
Many years ago I had a waitress run out to the parking lot and stand between me and my car door while I was trying to leave.
My best friend and I had dinner together one Friday night. The restaurant was very busy and the service was awful. I would ask for more tea and it would take five minutes or longer. We asked for the bill and it took forever. We quitely joked to ourselves about not tipping but when it came down to it we decided to leave the standard 15%
Being high school kids we had a lot of small bills (mostly crumpled ones and a couple of fives). The bill was $30 and we left $35. We waited at the table for about ten minutes for the waitress to to come and get the money and she wouldn’t even look towards us. Finally we just left with the money still on the table.
Before we even made it ten steps out of the place the waitress comes flying out of the door and runs in front of me screaming that we needed to pay the bill and that they were calling the cops. I said that we left the money on the table and she insisted that we didn’t leave enough. I said the bill was $30 and we left $35. She said that we left less then $30.
I followed her back to the restaurant where she took me to the table and began to loudly count the money we had left on the table. She counted the five dollar bills as one dollar. After pointing out her mistake I asked for my change back.
It still is the only time I have not left a tip on purpose. I can deal with bad service. I can’t cope with the public humiliation.
I have trouble tipping poorly because I’m always concerned that poor service may be the fault of a manager who is too much of a jerk to staff the resturaunt properly. I end up giving the server the benefit of the doubt.
I have been tracked down after leaving a restaurant and pushing through a very crowded bar. The waiter asked, very politely, if there had been anything wrong with the service. I said no - I had just had a brain fart and forgot to fill in the tip amount. I remedied this.
On the handful of occasions I have deliberately left no tip because of bad service, I have never been hassled. This is probably because if the sergvice is that bad, they will have (politely, but firmly) heard about it before the end of the evening anyway.
