Discussing tipping habits with friends, I mentioned that I usually give at least 20% plus whatever coinage is leftover in my change. I was told by one friend, who used to wait tables, that leaving any change with a tip is the same as telling the waiter that he or she gave terrible service.
Funny, I just thought I was leaving them a little extra for coke money or something.
What’s the straight dope?
What kind of coke are these people buying with small change?
I guess it’s a matter of opinion. As a sometimes coat check girl, it depends on my mood. Sometimes I’m happy for someone to give anything, other times I want to pick up the pennies they let fall into my cup and whip them at the back of their heads. You see? Depending on the type of restaurant you’re frequenting, I’d stick with bills (and, if you’re Canadian, the big coins).
No, that is not true at all. Now leaving ONLY change as a tip is a terrible insult obviously. However, if you leave 20% plus the coinage, they will think that you are being either terribly exact in your calculations or realize your intent perfectly.
In nicer establishments, 20% is close to the standard and no waitperson would ever think ill of you for giving that in whatever form.
On the other hand, leaving an even dollor amount plus one penny (in cash, I don’t think this would apply for a credit card) is regarded as a very high compliment to the waiter.
If I pay in cash, I leave the coins and add bills for the tip. So, maybe I tip 22% instead of 20%. That extra 2% adds up if everyone follows similar guidelines. While it might only be 47 cents for me, 0.47 x 20 customers= almost $10. If I’m waiting tables, I’d have no problem with an extra $10 in coin.
I agree with Shagnasty. The classic non-verbal way to point out terrible service, while making it clear that one did not simply forget to tip, is to leave a very small amount–from a few pennies to a quarter or so.
For someone to interpret a tip of 20% plus change as an insult strikes me as rather stupid.
Minor hijack -
The standard tip used to be 10%, then 15%. Now I read here it is 20%.
When did it become 20%? I’m still working to the 15% rule, but I don’t work it out to the exact penny (it will usually be more).
To answer the OP, although I have never waited tables, I would have thought that just leaving a handful of change would look like you were just unburdening yourself of bulky coinage.
Still, even that would be better than nothing. I suppose a lot depends on the intention of the diner, which the waiter has no way of knowing…
I beg to differ here.
I think every good waitperson (nice term, btw, Shagnasty) can see & “feel” if a customer is satisfied or not. And, as Gary T. said, if the customer seems pleased and leaves a tip in the 10% to 20% range, nobody will mind whether it’s in bills or small change.
The biggest insult to a server is 1 penny. If you don’t leave a tip, they’ll just think that you’re a tight wad. But 1 penny means they did a poor job.
What part of the world are you in? I’ve worked for tips (and consequently tip well for good service and measure the tip for less than) and I’ve never heard anything remotely similar. It reminds me of another tipping canard I’ve run into in the past to the effect that waitfolk somehow dislike those who round to the nearest dollar when tipping on a credit card, whether tipped 10% or 20%.
I leave the coins in the breakfast diner I frequent because the waitress typically carries the “till” around with her in her apron. So I figure she probably will need the change in some other transaction. When paying by card, I will leave 10-20%. depending on service (almost always 20% 
, minimum of 10% because of tip allocation).
I used to work as a waiter, and I never took change in a tip to be an insult, but it also added nothing to my take home either, the change I recieve from a tip went into the apron and out again as change, it was just not enough to worry about while I had tables and too much of a hassle to keep track of.
Now, we’re insulting if we leave change? b,b,b,bl,blow me!
When did we let this happen? Now, everywhere we look some punk’s tip jar with the cute slogan “tips appreciated” on it is right there at the register.
Ay yay yay! You pay 2.50 for a cup of coffee(that you pour yourself) and Junior wants a tip? Next thing you know the garbage man is going to expect one.
I dare a wait person to say they don’t like the 17.543% tip they just got because it included the change. I dare them. :mad:
I don’t know of a garbageperson ( ) who works for less than minimum wage. Customer tips are considered to be part of the compensation package. Ask the IRS.
If the service is good I generally tip a minimum of two bucks, esp. at a place I go to often. There’s nothing like having the waitstaff look out for your interests. And they will.
Peace,
mangeorge
I went to eat lunch at a fast-foodish Chinese place once just because I was too cheap to pay a tip.
My bill was $5.05, and lo-and-behold, the only coin in the share-a-penny dish was a shiny nickel, which I pulled out and handed to the clerk, thereby avoiding $0.95 weighing down my pocket.
When I get to the table, I look up at the counter and see on the share-a-penny dish the word “TIPS”. I swiped the guy’s $0.05 tip from him while he was watching! OOPS.
I returned, apologized, and upped the amount 20X.
Im with Weeks…
While we are on the subject…
I’ve been told that it is bad form to leave pennies in a tip, because it makes it pretty obvious that you are simply trying to get rid of bothersome loose change and would rather give leave it for some poor waiter to deal with.
I believe to the point that I’ll snatch pennies off the table if my dining companions try to leave them in the tip.
Am I wrong?
Now this I don’t understand. Change that goes in just goes out as change? Huh?
Surely whether someone gives you a dollar in loose change or as a bill, you will still be a dollar up when you empty your apron?
Leaving pennies is a pretty good indication that you’re either trying to rid yourself of burdensome change or that you’re one of those extremely close-fisted people who figures the 15% down to the cent and leaves exactly that.
That said, anyone else start at 20% (or 15% at a diner kind of place) and round down for each inccident of poor service? My tipping standard is to take a percentage point off of the tip if:
[ul][li]My order is wrong - which means it was either taken incorrectly or entered incorrectly and it wasn’t checked before it was brought to me.[/li][li]If my food is cold - which to me means that it was plated up and waiting for (what I deem to be) an unacceptable amount of time.[/li][li]If it’s served by a sassy-mouthed, beehive-coiffed, gum-snapping waitress named Opal.[/li][li]If the server is rude or acts like my presence is a bother to them.[/li][li]If I have to ask for something more than once.[/li][li]If I’m not offered warmers on coffee or refills on cold beverages, even when my glass is totally empty. (I don’t think one should have to request a refill unless they guzzled the drink inordinately quickly.)[/li][li]If the check is brought while I’m barely midway through the meal, before anyone’s even thought about dessert, coffee or after-dinner drinks.[/li][li]If anything is slapped down on the table, period. Plates and glasses should be placed on the table, not tossed.[/ul] [/li]
Now this isn’t a hard and fast kind of thing, but I’m pretty stringent that if I’m offering a gratuity, I expect reasonably attentive and polite service. I worked my way through school waitressing as a second job, and I know how difficult it is and how sucky the base pay is, but I went into the job knowing that, and no one held a gun to my head to keep me there, and the same thing goes for servers today. The pay and difficulty don’t excuse doing a poor job, or treating your customers badly.
Am I just completely harsh about this? Should I just slap down my 15-20% gladly, without regard to server performance? If that’s the case, why not just raise the prices, raise the pay rate and eliminate tipping altogether, as they’ve done in Europe?
You’d have to be pretty damn precious and pathetic to get offended by “someone offloading their loose change” especially if they’ve already tipped 20% in notes as well. It’s all money for God’s sake, and it adds up. 20 customers offloading 50p is 10 quid at the end of the day, 50 quid a week, and two and half grand a year.