Wait-persons and former wait-persons: I went to breakfast this morning. The bill was $7.50. I left $1.50 tip, 10 cents of it in pennies. The man next to me told me that was considered to be rude. I personally thought that 20%, no matter what coins made it up, was a good tip. But I don’t want to piss people off and if that is the case, next time I’ll leave a 1.40.
What do the dopers think?
I never cared how I got my tips, I just change them at the register for bills later. I think you’re fine as long as the whole $1.50 isn’t in pennies.
I hated pennies as part of the tip, but only because I have an irrational hatred of pennies as part of anything. I wouldn’t have found your tip rude in the least, though.
When I was waiting tables, I never minded people having part of the tip in change. I put some of the quarters in my purse for vending machines and such and put the other coins in a big jar on my desk. Eventually I’d get it counted and changed out for folding cash. That jar provided most of my spending money for a trip to Vegas and the bulk of my Christmas money that year.
Most folks would much prefer to have $1.40 plus ten pennies than just the $1.40. Ten cents is ten cents, after all. Of course, if you’ve got a dime instead of ten pennies, most servers would prefer the dime–they don’t want to haul around the extra bulk and weight of the pennies any more than you do.
I think the main offense is when people just throw a bunch of random change from their pockets, leaving whatever amonth there happens to be.
I think part of it is the utter and complete insult of getting a single penny as a tip. No tip you can right off as the customer forgot, but one penny is a sign of extremely bad service.
(No, I never got a penny as a tip, although I have been stiffed before, once by a 15-top.)
No, I don’t hate them. Of course, I would rather you round up to $2 than leave $1.50 because change is heavier and harder to deal with. But if it is $1.40 versus $1.50 then I’d rather have the $1.50 even if it is just pennies.
I usually round my tip up to the next whole dollar. It’s not out of any desire to be generous to servers–I just hate taking the time to count out change. (I know, it takes 10 seconds max. It’s just one of my things). Plus, other than quarters for the vending machine at work, I just don’t like to carry around change.
When the servers bring back change that includes pennies, I usually just leave them there. The tip is kind of on top of that. Again, I just don’t like to carry around change and deal with it.
When I waited tables (17 years ago), I didn’t mind getting change, even pennies. I had to make change out of my own bank, so it was good to have it on hand.
I only had a 1, a 10 and some 20s in my wallet. I lay the 10 down when I sat down. If she had taken the 10 and cashed me out, she would have gotten 2 dollars. But since I had to cash myself out and I didn’t feel like walking back, she got a 1.50.
And that (the one-penny insult) is as it should be – because that sort of feedback ought to be important to someone depending on tips for good service as part of their income, that they totally fucked up with this customer.
Isn’t there some sort of “code,” though, regarding pennies – I remember something to the effect that leaving a substantial tip – $5 or $6 on a $20 meal, or $10 on a $35 meal, for example – plus two pennies, means something special about the service – the two pennies “saying” something?
>I think the main offense is when people just throw a bunch of random change from their pockets, leaving whatever amonth there happens to be.
For a $20 bill, I’d leave $4.00 plus watever coins I happen to have. So are you saying I should reduce this to just the $4.00? Or are you just saying it’s better to leave $4.00 than to leave just the random coinage? FWIW I’m not about to start leaving the coins only.
Background: I am a student in the UK. Like most students in the UK, I’m not exactly flush, but thanks to loans/overdrafts etc. it’s not like I can’t spare a bit of change to appreciate good service. I figure that if I can afford to go out to eat in a restaurant, I can afford a tip of 15% (this is, I believe, considered fairly generous over here - 20% would be well above board unless you’re really loaded).
Anyway, I occasionally go out for a meal with friends, some of whom are students in a very similar situation to myself, and others of whom have a full-time job but still live at home (and hence have more cash than they need). They don’t seem to care nearly so much about the size of the tip - it’s more of a case that if their meal cost £9, they seem to think “generously” chucking in a tenner is good enough, when in fact it’s a relatively small tip. Plus, of course, when splitting the bill it never works out right - if I have added my 15% to my share, the total cash on the table will inevitably come to the total charge not including service. On occasion this makes me guilty enough to put in even more myself. Once, when I suggested everyone else should chip in a bit more, a few of them just dumped a few small coins down. I feel that this is insulting if it comes to less than 15%, since to me it suggests everyone couldn’t be bothered to appreciate the service and simply emptied their change.
However, in the OP’s case, I think that’s fine, because the total tip was 20% so it looks generous regardless of what in came in, whereas in the above situation it looks mean-spirited.
So, to sum up this ramble, it depends on the size of the tip.