I don’t go out that often, but I tip well when I do (waitstaff, bartenders, valet, coat check, etc.), and I don’t begrudge it at all. And I know that regular good customers get recognized and get preferential treatment. That is (in my opinion) as it should be.
I had a friend once who gave up a good paying job in an office to take a better paying job (certainly better paying than mine) as a bartender in a restaurant (nice trendy place, people would stop by after work for drinks). I stopped by to see him once at work. He was a good bartender, attentive to his customers, and they were definitely appreciative. And he didn’t slack at all in his duties, stayed on his feet behind the bar the whole time. But, at the end of the night he definitely walked away with a lot more in tips than the waitresses who were just as busy.
I suspect a lot of is that a lot of folks don’t run tabs, so they tip a bit more for each drink than if they had tipped on the grand total.
Anyway, food service is an overworked and underpaid line of work. Thank goodness most of the young ones are really writers and actors, and are going to clean up in those lucrative professions.
[Moderator Underoos on]You say that that you wish that this was the BBQ Pit so that you could say what you think, and yet you feel free to use terms like “sorry ass”, “belching flanhole” and even worse here in IMHO. I strongly suggest that you try a lot harder to adjust to our system and observe our protocol.[/Moderator Underoos on]
heh… I’ve been here quite long enough to know the protocol. I simply figured it wouldn’t bother him in the least, as he hasn’t particularly listened to or cared about anything else that’s been said. still probably should have restrained myself; apologies to all offended.
You know, I don’t mind if you don’t tip me exactly 15% (although it’s normally expected and 20% makes me VERY happy) as long as you’re polite and you’re nice to me. A sincere please and thank you go a long way. As long as you help me out by clearing the table of your personal items for your hot plates of food and drink and don’t get in the way when I’m refilling your water, say your pleases and thank yous and we don’t have a problem.
But if you’re a regular you better tip at least 15% because you would understand how hard it is working a 60 hr waitressing job to earn money for tuition and rent. Of course my regulars tip 30-50% normally so I give them good service.
I also agree with the others about how what goes around comes around. Today a couple one of the other waiter’s regulars came in and the other waiter was ending his shift as they were coming in. He told me to take care of them because they were some of his nicest regulars as well as some of his biggest tippers. I charged them the lunch price for a dinner plate and they STILL paid $15 on a $10.80 bill. So what did I do? Give them free drinks to go since you never know when you’ll get thirsty. Be nice to me and give me good tips and you’ll get your reward in due time.
If you don’t tip me and expect me to be nice to you, tough. I don’t have time to pretend to be nice while I’m paying out of my ass for YOUR meal (getting taxed for cheapasses sucks).
Can I just, as a Brit, distance myself and my countrymen from Future days’s meanness and wilful stupidity? Over here 10% tipping is the custom, and I daresay that would have been my first instinct were I visiting the States, but now it’s been explained about how the whole system of waitron recompense is tied to the expectation of 15 - 20%, I certainly wouldn’t give less.
Adding non-optional tax to the quoted figure, though, is just plain annoying, a bit like when car dealers used to insist on quoting the price exclusive of delivery and PDI…
Restaurant workers have the resources to conduct a propaganda campaign?!
How in the hell would this happen. It is more likeley a campaign by the restaurant industry to get you to subsidize the already crappy wages they pay to those workers.
You receive a bill by the server totalling 80.00 plus 6.80 tax…the total bill is now 86.40…If you are a 20% tipper, do you pay 16.00 for a tip? or 17.36 for a tip?
I’ve been told by many that they just pay 15 or 20% of the entire bill.
How many of you tip on the entire bill or just on the charges not including tax?
I generally leave from 15% to 20% depending on the service and my wallet. If the service is really poor I’ll leave less, even nothing if it’s really bad, but then I figure I’m never going back to that place anyway so they’re losing more of my money than just one tip.
