Related to the tipping extortion thread, I’ve noticed two different situations related to tipping and have a different reaction to each. What are your feelings about each of these situations:
1). I go to the local IHOP about once a week for breakfast or lunch. I almost never carry much cash, so I pay the bill on my credit card. I do, most times, have the three or four dollars to leave a tip on the table. Recently, the cashier has begun asking if I would like to include the tip on my credit card. Now, it seems to me that most credit card users know that the tip can be included on the card, the cashier has no idea if I left cash at the table, and therefore makes me feel cheap if I say no. It also seems like a way to remind patrons to tip, kind of like at McDonalds when the cashier asks if you would like fries with that. So I don’t approve of this practice and may go somewhere else where tips are not part of suggestive selling. Would that be an overreaction?
2). At the Commissary on post, when I use my debit card to pay, the cashier asks if I would like cash back in ones. If you have never been to a Commissary, the baggers fill you cart and load it into your car. These people earn a tip, so I don’t mind the cashier reminding that I have to have small bills.
So what’s the consensus, are these both similar situations, or am I right in seeing them differently?
I think they’re somewhat similar situations. It’s typical for restaurants to give you a space on the card where you can add a tip, for those of us who don’t leave cash. The cashier might have started asking because they’ve had a rash of people stiffing their servers–but I don’t see it as too big a deal.
Smart restaurants will always do something to make giving a tip easier. At one of my favorite places, the bill is usually just under $10. If I pay with a $20, I get my change back as a $5 and some $1s instead of a $10. A subtle aid to me leaving something for the hired help.
I noticed this also at the last couple restaurants we went to. I really don’t think it’s anything more than a friendly reminder, nothing sinister. I bet there are alot of people that forget and will just go ahead and add the extra $$ on their CC…makes for a happier wait staff in the long run.
My pet peeve about tipping is when the server says “Do you need change?” rather than “I’ll be back with your change”. “Do you need change” is also a reminder about leaving a tip, but I find it more crass than friendly.
The Commissary baggers get tips??? I would never think to tip the grocery bagger…
WHile they’d rather get something than nothing, when I’ve known waitstaff they prefer the cash tips because with no paper trail they can under-report them. Not saying all waitstaff would do that of course.
The reason they ask about the tip on the card is that they can run the card just once if they know about the tip up front. Otherwise, the normal case as you point out, they run the card with your bill amount plus an estimate (15-20%) for what you might tip. This is logged with your bank as “pending”, which means unavailable until the final total is made. Then after you sign and add the tip they have to run it again, usually at the end of the shift, which backs out the pending and replaces it with the real tip.
Not only does the way your IHOP does it save time, it also removes that pesky pending problem if you coast near your card limit, which I always do.
I see you are a Sgt and thus used to others toting stuff for you. I tote my own stuff and resent the implication that I can’t. I also resent paying for things I can easily do myself. I’ve pushed that cart down every aisle of the store, I guess I can manage the last 100 feet to the car.
One of the things I like about Denny’s and a few other retaurants is that they have a place on the bill(check) they give you at the table for the tip & a total.
That way, when you go to pay, only one transaction is needed. Saves time and eliminates any need for the first question in your post.
Point taken on the first point. I didn’t know about the payment pending, but it still feels like soliciting for a tip. And that is my usual response, samm.
As far as the used to having people tote things for me, when I go to the civilian groceries, I do tote my bags to the car. When I go to the Commissary, there are usually signs near the exits that tell you the baggers work for tips. Then you also have to tell the bagger as you get to the checkout line that you will be bagging your own groceries or else you get an evil look from the bagger because they will have worked for you, a non-tipper, when there were other tippers that they could have been helping.
Back when my husband was in the Air Force, the commissary baggers received ONLY tips for their work. I tried bagging for a while, but if I got a run of officers and their wives (notoriously poor tippers), I couldn’t make enough to pay for child care.
Former restaurant cashier here. Iris Rings is right. No matter what billing system they use, the cashier wants to have an idea of what steps the transaction will take so they can prepare for it. Should I start reaching for my pen or should I start pressing the “run transaction” button.
They get tipped by the waitstaff so they don’t really care what any particular individual tips. It’s rather common (and polite) for people to leave a cash tip on the table, so they arn’t looking askance at you or anything.
If you have to tell the cashier verbally whether or not the tip goes on the card, it is logical for them to verify it with you before running the transaction. Most of the time, though, when I use a CC for restaurant bills, the receipt I sign comes with a line to add the tip, so there’s no reason for them to ask me about it.
WRT the commissary, if you already requested cash back, that implies that you are short on cash. If the bagger is doing their job, and everybody knows they work only for tips, it’s logical to assume you’re also short on cash for the tip, so asking about ones is fine. If you never mentioned getting cash back, I’d feel a bit odd about the cashier suggesting you get some small bills for a tip.
My pet peeve about tipping is when the server says “Do you need change?” rather than “I’ll be back with your change”. “Do you need change” is also a reminder about leaving a tip, but I find it more crass than friendly.
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It really irks me too. When I was a server I alway brought the change back to the table and would never ask someone if they needed change - meaning:can I have it? Really lacks class.
I wish I could find the link to the article, but one of our local reporters discovered that some area restaraunts wern’t giving the server their whole tip if it was added to the credit card. She advised everyone to always leave the tip in cash if you want to make sure management isn’t keeping part of it for themselves. She also uncovered a situation where the tip jar by a coat check was never given to the person running the coat check, but handed over to management that claimed they were saving it all up for an employee party at the end of the holiday season. A party no one working there had ever attended or heard of. Since then I have made sure to leave the tip in cash…the coat check thing is moot for me because I never check my coat anywhere.
I got the “Do you need change?” question for a $7 dollar meal and a $20 bill. I told the waitress, “Yes. You were nice, but you weren’t THAT nice.” So I had my wife pissed at me all night, to boot.
Two of us had dinner at a pretty plain restaurant at a shopping mall and paid with a credit card. They added a 21.5% tip, and then had a space on the slip for “Added Gratuity”. This ticked me off enough to rewrite it for the dinner without tip, and sign it. They processed it for the dinner + tip amount, anyway.
My friend from Scotland saw me tipping 20% here in the US, and was amazed - then nervously asked whether that was typical in the US, and I told him it was. He said he’d been tipping 5%, maybe 8% for excellent service. Cultural differences between different cultures.
Definitely. I say that about the payment for the meal, as well. Then, I run like crazy! Tee-hee!
In re the OP, however, I think that this is less a reminder to tip than it is a helpful action. I often don’t have the change to leave on the table, and I may be halfway out to the car before I remember that I have to go trudging back in through the crowds, etc…, and go lurking about a table where everybody think that there are piles of cash lying and make my move. Much better to do it without the additional effort. Also, it cuts down on my having to do the additional brain work.
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