When I have the money, I take myself out for breakfast at a mom and pop place.
Good food and the waitstaff are very attentive. I’ve been going there a couple of times a month for years, they know me by name.
Today, I had the money and bought breakfast. My bill was 7 and change, so I handed a 10 and change over, then went back to the table to leave the 3 ones.
There was a couple behind me waiting to pay, and after I dropped the tip, they walked out with me. The female part of the couple touched my arm and gently told me that I had over tipped. She said that while people like me are generous and kind, we are also the reason that waitstaff now expect at least 15%.
I just kinda shrugged her off, said that it was my money and started my very noisy when I want it to be bike.
They now expect **at least **15%?? I wonder what that woman felt to be an appropriate tip? 10%?
I usually tip around 20% (more if the service is better, no more than 15% if the service isn’t that great). But…I never tip less than about $3. For a $7ish bill, a 15% tip is just over a dollar, which seems cheap, to me.
I have a regular bar. I’ve been going there roughly once a week for…jeez…15 years? I know all the wait staff…some of them have been there longer than me, some are new.
They treat us very well. Fast, prompt service. Usually a free round.
My favorite way to explain the service is from when I used to take late conference calls with China. I walked in with my cell phone in my hands one day, earpieces in my ears, and sat at a table in the back alone - away from my crowd. The waitress brought my usual beer over and waved Hello. When I finished that beer, she brought another one…while I was still on the call.
So…tipping…yeah. We tip over 20% consistently. The group I hang out with has plenty of disposable income, and the people working there are trying to pay for school, rent, etc.
Other than that…I tip based on service. Good, prompt, polite service gets 20% from me. I round up or tip heavier if the wait staff goes above and beyond. I round down if they screw up AND it’s their mistake AND it was easily avoidable.
*My sister was a waitress for a while…she taught me alot about that side of the table.
I do love that, though. “If you tip them well, eventually they start thinking they’re human beings just like us. We can’t have that, so do please stiff them.”
I would have tipped the same. At $7 and change for breakfast, it’s not like these people are making a killing. A few bucks is bare minimum tip, AFAIC; at least 20% in a place you like and where they know you and you know them and their prices are low anyway. Sheesh what a tight ass that woman is.
My feeling is that usually the servers work just as hard during breakfast and lunch as they do at dinner, and generally the bill is smaller. A dollar for a seven dollar ticket is just about spot on, if you’re tipping 15%.
If tipping a whole dollar is going to break you, then you shouldn’t be eating out at a real restaurant anyway. Go to McDonald’s.
I think she should have minded her business and she sounds like a tight wad.
However, I agree with her that no should expect a 15% tip. I’ll go further. Wait staff wouldn’t expect ANY tip. I’ve seen too many waitstaff (even in upscale places) treat customers like garbage and do a shitty job because they know a 10-15% is supposedly mandatory. While tipping is something I do 90% of the time, I have no problem leaving nothing for bad service. A tip isn’t mandatory unless you have a large party. I don’t see why bad service deserves 15% tip.
I’m assuming this is addressed to me. If you’re a waiter/ress, you know what you have to do to make end meet. Don’t do a crappy job and then blame me for not being paid minium wage. It’s not my fault you can’t get a better job.
Good waiters/ress deserve a tip (a good one), bad ones don’t. Some where in between deserve 15%.
They get taxed on what you’re supposed to tip. Don’t like it, either try and start a campaign to change the system, or just don’t go out to eat. Otherwise, you’re screwing people out of their salary.
I get what you say about shitty service, yes. But if a waiter or waitress serves you and does his or her job, then yes, they’ve earned their tip. That’s just how things work. Get the fuck over it.
If anything, percentage-based tipping is stiffing the women who work at really cheap places (yes, it’s always women). So given good service, as you said, you were quite right to kick over a little more than that.
For an actual meal that involves taking an order, ferrying a few dishes, keeping water glasses or coffee cups filled, and cleaning up? And this woman thinks you should be tipping less than 15%–something like one dollar?
If I am at an all-you-can-eat Friday night fish fry ($8.99 in Wisconsin and probably several other places) I will be having a great time with more fish! more cole slaw! extra lemon! more fries! and so forth through several iterations. The poor server is running back and forth all night and if I leave a generous 20% tip he or she gets $1.80.
If I am at a fine dining joint with my wife and our food + wine adds up to $100, a 15% tip is fifteen dollars, even if our server is inattentive, rude, or lazy, and in any event does less than a tenth of the work of the fish fry server.
Here is my rule: tip $3 minimum ($3 on a $10 dollar tab? That’s a buck fifty more than the usual tip you skinflint) and in general round up to the next five and divide by five. For example, a bill of $56.23 rounds up to $60 and divided by five is a tip of $12.
Add for heroic service. Subtract accordingly for bad service. Use this rule at a local haunt and you won’t get bad service. If you can’t afford to tip you can’t afford to eat out and should stay home.
It’s my money. If you’re going to abuse me, I’m not tipping. It’s something I rarely do, but if I feel justified enough to, I won’t. It’s not my fault the person doesn’t make minium wage. There’s a lot of people barely making it who do work hard and they don’t get tips.
I don’t agree with people who never tip, but as wait person your tip is a gurantee. You have to do an ok job.
I have never left nothing. They will think you are a slob. I have left only the coins in the change, they knew I thought about the tip and descided no.
Working at a hotel made me a better tipper. I got to know some of the wait staff. they work hard and a lot of them have three jobs to make ends meet, and none of the jobs have benifits.
I do noy like to leave less than $5 for good service. On a $7 bill I would have left all the change. Normally I start at 15% and go up or down. I have had wait staff make the evening so enjoyable that I have gone over 20% by a lot. I do not like the fixed 15% for a group because if I am taking a group out I expect good service and would tip accordilgly. Stopped at Denny’s once with all my extended family 25 I think. The staff was great all our wants were taken care of quickly. Our grandchildren were with us and they were wound. The staff never batted an eye and made us feel like we were no problem. There wasn’t the usal 15% Added to the bill and the dollar amount at 20% was too small so I “over tipped” and they earned it.
If they are giving shitty service then they are not doing their job and have not earned their tip. Sorry.
If I am in a retail store ant the clerk is giving me shitty service I can just walk out and make the buy else where. If I have ordered a dinner and the server then gives me shitty service I can not just get up and walk out. That is looked down on.
Nobody said you had to tip if you get shitty service – of course you shouldn’t. (Although I’d usually leave just one penny, just so they know it was on purpose, and not because I forgot.
At the same time, tipping is part of the price of eating out. What we’re talking about here is people who don’t tip AT ALL, or people who only give shitty tips. Duh.
In some countrys we pay the service staff a living wage, which means that they don’t have to annoy their customers with licensed begging.
Of course this means that we’re not subsidising tight fisted employers to get average service.
So they wouldn’t like that though the staff do.
And guess what ?
The service is still as good as that found in the U.S.
If the service is better then usual THEN they get a tip.
But in any country where your employer, of all people dictates whether or not you get medical treatment; let alone the standard of it, its not surprising that you have an institutionalsed begging culture amongst service staff.
If this happens, then you get up and find a manager and complain. Tell the manager that you want a different server, or you’re leaving. In my experience, the manager will send over another server, and comp part of your meal as well. Or just tell the manager that the service is so bad that you’re going elsewhere. Nobody will look down on you if you go somewhere else, except for the shitty server.
Curious Australian here: Are there any other professions where the customer not only decides how much is fair compensation for services rendered without consultation with the service provider, but can even choose $0 at a whim without committing an act of theft, fraud, breach of contract or something of that nature?
