Honestly - If you’ve eaten out at restaurants presumably your whole life, who the fuck FORGETS TO TIP???
It’s just so ingrained. I haven’t even lived in the US my entire life, and I never forget to leave a friggin tip!
(barring an isolated incident when you’re dining out with others, and you presume someone else is paying, etc.)
I didn’t.
As Kal has pointed out, you are misinformed. I’ve flown in and out of the states a large number of times and have never received such an item.
I side with BlackKnight on this one - but I was born and raised in countries where you only tip for decent service,and I prefer that system. Someone who is good gets rewarded, shitty service gets unrewarded. This strikes me as fair.
I firmly believe that I should be able to eat out at the price stated on the menu, with a tip only being required if I think the service was good. This also strikes me as fair.
What strikes me as unfair though is when people should have salaries so poor it relies on the largesse of others to make up the deficit. If I was looking for a candidate for a cheap fuck, it would be the employers of such people.
Your mileage on these points probably varies with country of upbringing, but I just don’t see what is desirable about a system where mediocre service should be rewarded and employers can skimp on wages.
My theory has always been this: if someone serves you with a job/duty you would otherwise do on your own (cook, laundry, fill your gas tank, clean your house, make your bed), you should tip.
I’ve gotten confused looks from friends before because my pretty expansive tipping. I tip my servers, carpet cleaners (heh–carpet cleaners!), hair stylists, etc. To me, it’s a way of saying “Thanks for doing something I’d rather not do, even though I’m fully capable of doing it.”
My two cents. 
Hehe! What fun! The only other pitting I recall recieving was one I gave myself. I can finally consider myself to have truly made a difference at the Straight Dope. Cigars for everyone, it’s celebration time! (Don’t worry, they’re bubblegum.)
For the record, imthjckaz is absolutely correct. I am indeed a student currently attending that college.
Ok, let me get something off my chest right away. Lola, hon, it’s one thing to get angry and pit someone, but it’s quite another to get so rip-snortin’ mad that you make several typing errors and require several follow-up posts to fully expound on your irritation.
Especially when it’s about something relatively mundane. Yes, mundane. I haven’t killed anyone, raped anyone, kidnapped anyone; nor do I drive an SUV. ( 
) So, I guess what I’m saying is, in the best interests of your own mental health, chill.
There’s a lot of material I could address, but I think I’ll start here:
For most of my life, I only rarely got to eat in sit-down restaurants. Pretty much only when it was my birthday or the birthday of someone else in my family. When this was the case, I did not pay for the meal.
A little later in life, when I actually had a little money of my own to spend and therefore purchase meals of my own, I ate almost exclusively at fast food restaurants where tipping is not expected.
I cannot afford to eat at sit-down restaurants on a regular basis. I wish I could. When I do, it is often someone else who is paying. Add that fact to the fact that I’m quite absent-minded in general, and it’s an easy recipe for forgetting to tip.
That said, even when I remember I don’t always do it. I sometimes have barely enough money to pay for the meal itself. Sometimes the service isn’t that good. Even if I were a millionaire, I wouldn’t leave a tip for bad service.
Now this baffles me. I can’t think of many things that I couldn’t do myself, if time allowed. When I get my car serviced should I tip - I’m an ok mechanic and could do that myself. I just got my bike fixed up in the shop, but could have done that myself. Oh, and I’ve got an electrician and a plumber coming round to do some work on my house, all of which I could have done myself if time allowed.
So which of the above should I tip, and why are those that I shouldn’t tip less worthy?
Gary, I phrased that awkwardly. That rule is the rule I follow on tipping. I’m not saying anyone else should. By no means do I think it’s a golden rule or anything of the sort.
As for mechanics and plumbers and the like? Yes, I tip them, but that’s what I personally feel comfortable with. And it’s also depends on what type of work they’re doing for me. If I call someone in to, say, wire my entire house, no. No tip. If I call a plumber, OTOH, to fix my clogged sink/toilet/shower, yes, I tip. If I’m having my motor rebuilt–no tip. A flat changed? Yeah, tip.
I don’t tip at the obvious places, you know what I’m saying? Cashiers–obviously not. Bag boys–yes. Salespeople–no. Doormen–yes.
Again, no golden rule. Only my personal comfort thing.
I’m now more confused than ever on this tipping rule.
Oh, sorry! Kinda forgot to address this. For me, (and this sound odd, I know), the more mundane the task, the more likely I am to tip. Obviously, I’m not going to tip a doctor or dentist. A maid, waitress, doorman–yes. I don’t know really how to explain it. Then again, I have always had an enormous issue with people who disrespect those who serve them. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying you or anyone else here does, but you know the type. They go into department stores and glibly fling things on the wrong shelves, drop clothes on the floor, and their excuse is “They pay people to do that.” That’s always been a huge temper trigger for me. So I guess I tip out of respect and appreciation for the people who, for lack of a better word, “pick up after me”.
Does that make any sense whatsoever?
Doh! I’m going to shut up now! I’m obviously making no sense. Trust me, it makes sense in my head. Er, not like that’s saying much.
Yes it does. I don’t agree with it entirely, but I see where you’re coming from.
Thank god! I was afraid I had fucked you up to where you’d start tipping random prostitutes and not tipping a waitress.
Good to know that I can still somewhat form a coherent thought.
Well, by your original rule:
“if someone serves you with a job/duty you would otherwise do on your own…you should tip.”
Kal, Gary Kumquat,
Psssst, that customs booklet, I think LolaCocaCola was joking.
Gary, if I were to ever be serviced by a, uh, lady of the evening, if you will…I would tip.
I was saying random prostitutes. That makes all the difference.
That reminds me:
What did the leper say to the hooker?
Keep the tip.
Anyhoo, I’m of the mind that excellent service gets a tip, good and mediocre doesn’t, and bad service means I probably wont return to the restaurant. There’s hundreds of different restaurants in this city, why should I eat twice at a place that would hire an asshole when I could be experiencing something new?
Course I’m in a country where I can do this… I leave what I’d do in the US till if I ever go there.
Many people who haven’t done the job don’t realize that for many servers, tips are pretty much their entire income. They are required to pay taxes on the appropriate tip for every meal- whether or not that diner left the appropriate tip. Once the taxes are taken out of the paycheck, which was about $2.50 an hour when I last did it (probably up a little since then, as time has gone by), there’s practically nothing in the paycheck. When I was waiting tables, it was for about $30 a week. If you don’t tip, I don’t get paid. Period. Yes, the system sucks.
Oh, and BlackKnight? If you don’t have enough money to tip for good service, you don’t have enough money to eat out that night. Go to Taco Bell if you can’t afford the tip.
This thread wasn’t about whether or not you should leave a tip for bad service. BlackKnight stated that he only tips if he remembers or if he has enough cash left over regardless of how the service was, apparently.
And since he is obviously from the States, we can leave the pleading ignorance part out of the equation.
Well, the SDMB is about fighting ignorance, and I’ll bet BlackKnight won’t be forgetting to tip now!
People who don’t tip, or “forget” to tip, are never allowed to complain about service.
And the people who usually don’t tip, or tip poorly, are always the ones bitching the most about service, or lack thereof.
It’s Karma. Don’t fuck with it.
This is what I see as the problem with the system. You agree the system sucks, but you (and servers in general) seem to always take it out on the non-tipping customers, instead of your EMPLOYER who is legally responsible for your check.
It seems to me that in any other business, if someone’s living wage depended on the whim of their customers and wasn’t even legally required to be paid, and moreover, they’d be paid crap wages if the customer didn’t pony up, you’d see some massive striking. Yet, I’ve never heard of a waitpersons’ strike. Why do you suppose that is…?