Fuck you non-tippers! Fuck you a lot!

The BBQ Pit
101

Considering how poor their math skills are, I’m betting THEIR teachers had higher hopes for them, too.

Slight hijack, because I DO know the above post was tongue-in-cheek (at least, it better have been…) There is a perception, although I do not really know how widespread it is, that service people are serving because they’re not qualified to do anything else. While that is certainly true of some servers - and believe me, I’ve worked with more than a few dim bulbs - I do not believe it is true of the majority. Decent service requires excellent organizational and communication skills and at least high school level math, and increasingly, computer ability. It also helps to have an inkling about human psychology and the ability to adapt rapidly to a new situation. In the restaurants where I’ve worked, being bilingual helps, too! In short, it is not a profession for the feeble-minded.

102

I rarely minded a table that came near closing. Servers have a ton of stuff they have to do before they can leave for the night.

They are assigned a “side work.” In my old restaurant, this varied from something easy like wiping down the highchairs/booster seats, to something very time consuming like filling up all the salad dressings in the reach-in cooler in the bus station (very messy job). We also had to “roll silverware” for the next shift, 50 pieces for a single shift, 100 pieces if you worked a double (lunch/dinner).

You had to clean your entire section, wiping down each table, pulling the booths apart to clean in the crack between the seat and the back of the booth, fill up the salt/pepper shakers, empty the sugar/sweet and low container, wipe it down, fill it back up again. This also included cleaning the table tents (with the specials/advertisements), making sure exactly 5 clean comment cards were on the table and carpet sweeping your section.

Since I had so much to do, it was okay to have a table still hanging around, at least you would get SOME money besides the pathetic 2.13 an hour.

Now, a table that came late, made you stay late and then DIDN’T tip, that would piss me off.

As far as the tipping by customer type goes, in my experience it was the Indian families who were the worst tippers. They would always come late (now that I’m a little more worldly I understand that they just eat later in other parts of the world), have a ton of very complicated vegetarian special orders (which I understand now but used to annoy the heck out of me then), their kids would run wild and they would always pay with a gold/platinum American Express card and leave 2-3 bucks on a 100 dollar check.

Oh, and yeah, servers remember good tippers and bad tippers. If you are a repeat bad tipper at a restaurant and you wonder why it always takes so long for someone to come greet your table it’s because the server stopped at the hostess desk to yell at her out for putting you in his/her section. Chances are, you also have a nickname that the servers call you. As in, “ohmygod, I have endless-pepsi-refill-family at my table!!”

Good tippers are also remembered, servers see them on the wait list and beg the hostess to seat them in their section.

As I said earlier, there is no way I would have waited tables for minimum wage, it’s incredibly hard work. If I could afford to live on only minimum wage, there are 50 easier jobs I could get. This actually came up while I was waiting tables. I had a semi-regular, who asked me to come work for her in her catering business. It was flattering, but when she told me the pay was 6.00 an hour (more than minimum wage back then) I politely refused.

103

This is true–but in the last place I worked, a lot of the side work was in the main dining room–cleaning and such–and often couldn’t be done until all the customers had left. It was a fairly fancy place, and management didn’t want the atmosphere ruined–rightly, IMHO, but it did occasionally make late-sitters inconvenient. Still, you’re right that there’s usually plenty to do before close, and late-stays aren’t a huge deal if you can get that done while they drink and talk.

This is so true.

In fact, the poster above who mentioned that regular customers, good, bad, or indifferent, are remembered was absolutely correct. That same place I mentioned above didn’t allow tips–they paid a slight bit above regular minimum, though of course they still charged a 15% “gratuity” on every check that the waiters never saw. In any event, we weren’t working for tips, and we still worked our butts off, and still had favorite customers, and least favorite. Tipping isn’t everything–a nice customer, even if they’re not dropping wads of cash in your path, can really make your day. When we would see one of those come in, it just made the day nicer for all of us.

104

This makes me chuckle. I am qualified to teach school Kindergarden through grade 12, yet I am waiting tables, because I am trying to do something different with my life. I have been a waitress through undergrad, and will continue through grad school. I would venture to say that I am more educated than most people that I wait on. I think that your attitude towards those who wait on you speaks volumes about your character. As I tell all customers who deride my current profession–the way you treat those you consider below you defines you.

105

My least favorite set of customers are this big giant fat guy and his little wife who he doesn’t let talk to the staff. They sat in my section every Sunday for better than a month. They always tipped acceptably and had a very particular order. I always got it right. All the other servers liked him as did the management. Then one day he asks to sit with anyone else but me. This got me a talking to and a write-up from the manager. That fucker did try to have me fired. Said that I made an “off color” comment to his wife. Lying dirty ass weasle!

Our worst tippers are always black folks. I don’t know why. I don’t change my service, if anything I work harder for them and yet they just won’t tip. It’s not just cause I’m a white guy either. Our black servers encounter the same thing. I’ve asked them if they tipped before the became waiters and they say no. All of them. They also claim that they just didn’t know that they were supposed to. I don’t get it. They come from the same place that I do…no one ever told me how much I’m supposed to tip. I just assumed that they are working for tips. Am I wrong here? Is it a cultural trait?

106

I do think it is a cultural trait. I never change my service based on the skin color of a customer, however, almost always with a black customer the tip is minimal at best. It has spawned a whole group of names that are applied to darker skinned tables in the business, however I digress.

107

It pains me to even say it out loud, because it sounds so shitty, but black people, as a group, are categorically the worst tippers. I can count on my fingers and toes the number of times that I’ve been tipped well by them, in eight years of working for tips. And because I hate even thinking it, I always give my best service to them just so it won’t be my fault. I’d much rather blame my customers than myself for bad tips, so any time I’m afraid I won’t get tipped, I go out of my way to make sure that if it happens, it won’t be because I didn’t give top-notch service.

It may be a tie, though, with teachers. I have many theories as to why they don’t tip, but no concrete answers. The only teachers I’ve met who tip well are ones who have been in the industry at some point.

The rest of ‘em? Let’s just say we had a teacher’s convention here in San Antonio last year, and by the end of it, everybody in the restaurant wanted to quit. Seriously. I don’t know what the fuck the problem is, but teachers don’t freakin’ tip. Ever. And if they do, it’s very poorly. And they can’t split a check to save their lives! How hard should it be for a teacher to add and subtract?

Everybody else will surprise you, for good and bad; I’ve had plenty of “iffy-looking” customers who tipped really well, and plenty of people who “looked like money” who tipped like shit. So while I make predictions in my head as to what the tip will be, nobody would ever know by watching me what my predictions are. Like I said, I never want to blame myself for a bad tip, so I make damn sure I get to blame the customer. :smiley:

And oh yeah, I’ve got a memory like an elephant for customers, both good and bad.

108

Ain’t that the truth!

Back when I was waiting tables at a little barbecue joint at home, I had two elderly ladies who used to walk over from the assisted-living apartment building down the street every Friday at lunchtime. Their orders never varied: chopped pork sandwich with pickle and extra onion for one, chopped mutton with pickle for the other, and a cup of coffee and piece of lemon icebox pie apiece. They’d each leave me $.50 on a $6 check. They were, far and away, my favorite customers. Going out for lunch on a Friday was their big treat for the week, and they were always great to wait on.

As a class, though, the worst tippers (and generally the shittiest customers overall) were the church folks. Mean as snakes, demanding, completely unforgiving, inclined to take things like the wait to be seated out on you, and cheap with a capital chee. Sundays were pure, unadulterated hell because of these people. The absolute worst, though, was when you thought for a second you’d finally run across the exception to the rule and gotten a good tip, only to discover that you tip consisted solely of a tract printed to look like a folded $10 bill. I’d like to have ten minutes alone with the fucker who thought that one up, let me tell you.

109

You need to realise that tipping is optional, and you have no right to upset when the customer does not tip.

That’s a problem with your restaurant, not with the customers.

Was that the only table you waited on? I don’t think so.

I assume that your salary comes from the customers’ bills, not the owner(s)'s pockets. I could be wrong, though.

The restaurant closes at 10pm? What kind of a big city is this?

110

[sub]And lo, another five pages were spawned…go Urban Ranger![/sub]

111

You’re not a teacher by any chance, Urban Ranger?

112

I remember one night at Denny’s, around midnight, one of the waiters was talking to us – a nice girl who was trying to go to college (she was in her 20s) – talking to us. At this point she had already been our waiter a handful of times. Somehow it accidently got mentioned that her shift ended a bit ago, and my roommate and I were mortified because we never get told such things. She said it was OK, she had another table anyway, but I couldn’t believe if someone walks in 5 minutes before your shift ends, you stay until they are gone! We tipped her probably 7 or more dollars on a $16 bill and hurried (we were near the end anyway by then,) and ever since then I ask her when we walk in when her shift ends. She’s a sweet person, and is one of those who knows us well to have all our desires met without asking anymore.

hands Urban Ranger tickets to Dr. Phil

/Shadez

113

I just want to take a second to apologize to Arden Ranger, who has always been just lovely to me on the boards. Because I thought at first that post was hers, above, and for just a second I thought, “HEY! She knows better than that!” and planned all kinds of imaginary havoc on her person.

On to Urban Ranger, now: Get a grip. Tipping is not an act of charity. Tipping is indeed optional, but it is also customary in these United States. In fact, it is SO customary that is not only expected by the servers, but also expected by the restaurant (who pays below standard, knowing a server usually CAN make up the difference in tips) and by the government, who assumes the server has collected tips, and taxes accordingly.

114

Urban Ranger:

I have no right to be upset if they choose not to tip me? Are you really suggesting that you think that? Tipping is a customer’s judgement of a server. If some one comes into your place of business and decides not to pay you and walks out. Is that ok? Nope. Add to that the fact that they spit in your face and told you that you sucked at your job and that it wasn’t worth a penny. Furthermore, you should now pay them for the horrors that you have visited on them.

That’s what it equates to when you don’t tip a server. Exactly. If you don’t agree, then fuck you.

I invite you to go into a restraunt in the US and tell your server that tipping is optional and that you don’t really feel like tipping that day. See if you don’t get the absolute worst service possible.

As for it being the only table that I waited on, yes it was. Learn to read. Last table of the night. Only table in the place. I took good care of them for an hour and got nothing. Nothing.

I also live in Dallas. That’s a pretty big city. You may have heard of it. You should look into Hooked on Phonics if it’s still around it may help you on that reading disorder that you seem to have.

“I assume that your salary comes from the customers’ bills, not the owner(s)'s pockets. I could be wrong, though.”

-I don’t even know what this means exactly. My money comes from the customer’s pockets. The owners pay us $2.13 an hour. How many hours would that take to pay the rent? More than I would like to count. So I get paid (or not) by the customer.

115

It’s simple, really. In American culture, if you can’t afford to tip, you can’t afford to eat at a restaurant. Or drink at a bar. Live it, learn it, love it.

Or stop going out.

If you can’t get your cheap ass to part with 15% of the total of your check, you can’t afford to eat out. Period. All the "I don’t HAVE to"s in the world don’t absolve you of the fact that not tipping is functionally, if not legally, equivalent to shorting the check.

“Then the servers have a problem with the restaurant, not me.” Yeah, that might work if the restaurant where you stiffed the server were the only one in the country that pays them $2.00 and change per hour. But it’s not. It’s part of the business culture of the US that servers get at least half their pay in tips. Whether you like it or not, that’s the way it is. So quit whining about being thought of as a cheap-ass stiffer. If you don’t tip, you are.

116

Tipping is not legally required.

However, not tipping when one has received good service is a shitty thing to do. No one should have to pay to serve your ass. Either tip (for good service) or stay home.

117

Hear Hear!

Preach it!

118

My husband and I are currently having a small argument over tipping practices.

I say that the little waitress at the mexican restaurant doesn’t deserve a tip (or a good one) because she always, and I mean always gets my order wrong. We go maybe twice or three time a month and I always order a dry burrito. Every other waitress gets my order right, and yet, when she waits on us,my burrito is dripping with nasty sauce.

I say we shouldn’t continue to reward her for getting my order wrong every fucking time, even after I’ve sent it back! Husband, on the other hand, says “No, no, she won’t know what she’s doing wrong, and it’ll just piss her off and we can’t afford to piss her off…”

i don’t like being blackmailed into accepting food I don’t want.

119

pepperlandgirl, I suggest finding out her name and specifically asking to not be seated in her section the next time you go there (if she gets it wrong EVERY time). My friends and I go to a resturant regularly and there’s one waitress there that SUCKS. We’ve had her a few times and have never once gotten out of there in under 2 hours. So now we just ask (discreetly) if we can not be sat in her section. So far, it’s worked.

And UrbanRanger, you’re late! The cheapasses usually bust into these threads on the first page!

Preach it, jayjay.

120

The problem with your suggestion lezlers is that this restaurant is so small, it only has one section. There’s usually one girl working as a waitress, one girl who brings us chips, and that’s it. Basically, the only way to avoid her is to stop eating there, and despite the nasty sauce,it’s the best Mexican place we’ve found around here.