FTR in my experience I am happy to say, dopers are not cheapskates. At the very first dopefest I ever attended the bill for the group was something like $350 (with a 15% tip already included) after the hat was passed around we had close to $500. I made a sugestion, and every agreed, so we left that waitress one great tip. 
That was great tip, maybe too good. I might have suggested that we leave the waitperson a $75 tip and then put the balance on a bar tab so you guys could catch a few more drinks after dinner.
I second lezlers, in saying that no, it is not. That you wrote down what card gets charged what makes me extra happy. Set amounts are also better than ‘1/6th on this card, 2/6th on this card, and 1/2 on this card.’ The way my computer system is set up, I can divide the check into 3 different parts but I can’t do 2/3rds and 1/3. I have to divide it up myself and since I’m slightly dyslexic with numbers and the rest of my coworkers are bad at math, it will take a bit longer for you to get your check back.
And, for everyone, if you MUST do 10 cards or more, please understand that it takes a while for all those cards to go through the machine.
Reasons I don’t pay with exact or nearly exact change:
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I never pay cash if I can help it. Part of this is paranoia- my purse got stolen when I was in grad school. I lost nothing from my credit or ATM cards being stolen, but the cash that was in there was just gone, with no way for me to get it back. Cash also requires that I look in my wallet to see how much I have before going shopping. I’m almost never near my credit card limit, so I don’t have to worry about that if I’m using the credit card.
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If I did want to pay cash, it would almost certainly be in the form of 20s. This is because I almost never pay cash for anything, so the only cash I normally have is 20s if I’ve been to the ATM. (Will banks give you bills other than 20s? I haven’t gotten cash from the bank except from the ATM since 2001, so I wouldn’t know)
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I don’t have a coin purse, so counting out coins takes a long time, and I always feel like the people behind me in line are looking daggers at me if I do it.
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If I did have a coin purse, I wouldn’t want to put the coins in it when I got change, for the same reason as above. And I know I wouldn’t put the coins in later.
Oh, and I forgot the other reason why I don’t pay exact change. I have (among others) a math degree, and like many other mathematicians, I can’t do arithmetic, especially not in my head. And California sales tax is some ungodly non-whole-number percentage that I can’t even remember (I think it’s 7.something or 8.something). So I couldn’t figure out how much I owe, anyway.
Banks will give you any denomination in any combination generally. Mine does at least. They will give dollar coins and two dollar bills if you ask nicely.
She means ATMs, I think. Some will still give you 10s, but they’re getting rarer by the day.
And rereading proved I am completely wrong. Sorry about that, chief.
I seem to recall that a previous thread on this topic suggested that separating checks was another issue that vaguely split along North/South lines, in that separate checks are much more common and accepted in the South than up North.
It seems that every time I go out in a group, they ask us either up front or when the bill is due how we’d like the check split. If they don’t, everyone throws in for roughly what they ate and drank, plus tip, and it comes out fine. I think that if any of my friends made a three-ring circus out of this, I’d probably just avoid eating out with them in the future.
Some ATMs even give out fives. I am so glad I no longer have to monitor the ATMs every fifth Saturday.
I think you were right the first time. :dubious:
I like separate checks. It means I don’t end up fighting with my wife about how much to put in. For some reason, she forgets tax and tip when putting into a big pile o cash. Part of the issue is that she pays cash, and I don’t. I don’t even carry cash.
Though one oddity I ran across recently was a place that added 18% to groups of 6 or 8, and would split the checks, and the tip, but left no place on the card receipt for me to add tip. No biggie, but I don’t carry cash, and I thought the waitress had been run ragged by our group and wanted to show my appreciation for her skill and good humor.
You have a good point. There’s a restaurant where I used to live that doesn’t take credit cards or checks. Cash only. Conventional wisdom says you can’t do that, yet they’re packed to the gills with business people at lunchtime.
Similarly, there’s a restaurant near here that won’t take reservations. I hate waiting over an hour for a table, so I won’t go, but people regularly wait upwards of two hours to get in.
I figure there’s no reason to alienate any of your customers, especially for something as trivial as a waitress having to run two cards instead of one.
That’s not really the question though; it’s not just “two cards instead of one.” It’s twelve people with a handful of $20 bills and credit cards. Or fifteen people. Or twenty. It’s not your scenario. It’s the worst case scenario; it’s the logical conclusion. Let’s just ignore the waiter’s massive headache; let’s talk about the time it takes to make all that happen.
Unless the party is pretty big (over 15 people) every waiter has more than one table. Probably more like four/six. In a “turn and burn” restaurant he/she could have as many as 10.
The time it takes to break down that many checks, whether with cash or with credit cards, is prohibitive. It steals time from that waiter’s other tables, who are justifiably wondering where the hell their waiter is and why they can’t get any more iced tea to save their lives. Trust me, I’ve done it, and it’s cost me a lot of money.
So while I see that in your mind, it looks pretty simple, you can’t have a policy that says “no more than two/three split checks per table.” It’s either/or. Everybody gets split checks or nobody does.
And for the good of the restaurant and its patrons as a whole, it makes sense to avoid split checks. Not everybody is thoughtful and not everybody cares; you have to make policy for the lowest common denominator, which is that group of assholes in the corner who have twenty credit cards or twenty $20 bills and ‘THEY’RE IN A HURRY!’
That isn’t you, but that’s them. Which is why some restaurants do avoid split checks. It’s just not time and cost effective. From a personal perspective, I cannot stand split checks, but if I owned a restaurant I wouldn’t really care; if it made the restaurant money that’s the policy.
But split checks can often take more time and effort and money than they’re worth, which is why I understand and support restaurants that don’t offer them.
I agree that twelve or fifteen people who don’t bother to do their own math are a pain in the neck. They’re just being rude. That was never the issue.
You said no split checks at all. If we go out to dinner with the neighbors and neither family is carrying cash, you expect us to sit at separate tables. An absolutist policy like you’re proposing is like zero tolerance policies in the schools. Don’t think. Don’t try to work with people. Just develop a way to deal with the problem folks that punishes everyone else. Bah.
Is it servitor or serviton? I’ve seen the word ‘servitor’ meaning generally a kind of servant, but without implying the ongoing condition of being someone’s regular servant, like a maid or butler. Hence it seems quite appropriate for people who serve food in restaurants.
I’ve heard and seen it as serviton, usually in an ironic tone or context that draws upon the dehumanization of working for some corporate flair-requiring food-shoveling operation.
I think the terms “waiter” and “waitress” work just fine (and I’m all in favor of adding “beer wench” and “plate captain” to the vernacular, political correctness be damned) but in the industry press and corporate training literature they’ve been replaced with “waitron” and “serviton” and so forth, in an effort to eradicate any sense of human kindness or compassion one meat puppets might display for another or indicate in any way that their profits are built upon the backs, knees, and strained Achilles tendons of grossly underpaid human capital resources.
Don’t even get me started on how they treat and cognominate cooks.
Stranger