I just can’t deal with these people anymore!!! I work my ass off waiting on table and some family of five comes in eats a $40-$50 meal and then leaves me a freaking $2 tip or some crap like that. Is everyone living in a tombstone of the 50’s or something??? Am I the only person out there that knows you are supposed to tip 15% nowadays and better for good service??? What is wrong with people??? Am I the only waiter that has these problems??? I think I am going to go postal and smuggle and AK into work tomorrow and take out the first person that gives a shitty tip!!!
I perform a service for people too. I design websites. Do I get a tip for a site well done? No I do not. Why not? because i get paid for my work, by my employer. This is how most jobs do it.
Tipping, coming from a non-tipping country as I do, has always struck me as a bizarre set up.
(sorry, this probably didn’t help the OP at all, but I just had to say my bit)
The problem is the people don’t care about you or what you do. You are just the person between them and their food. And it is quite likely that, if given a choice, they’d be rid of you altogether and shout their orders back to the kitchen themselves. If you’re trying to make a living from tips, I suggest going where the money is.
At more upscale restaurants people tend to be more conscious of their manners and what is expected of them as patrons. But for pure revenue, try being a drink server. Hook up with a nice pub or a popular local bar.
Look for one where people feel priveleged to go there. By that, I mean, if a person were to get thrown out of a Red Lobster and forbidden to return, it wouldn’t much cramp their style, because they could just drive another six blocks to the next one. But if they got 86ed from the coolest pub in town, they would be quite bummed out.
At my local watering hole, the beer servers make a good 6 or 8 dollars an hour from our table alone. And they usually take care of four or five tables at once. I know not all patrons are as generous as my friends and I. Beer is about $4 a pint, so we count on paying $5 per drink.
Beer here is expensive.
Well, it may be a bizzare set-up, but that’s how things work here. Maybe it would be better for waiters/etc to just be paid a full wage, but they’re not (I have no comment on whether being paid a full wage vs. minimal pay + tips is better).
It’s generally understood that they work for peanuts and are additionally compensated based on their performance, with 15% being considered average. If you don’t like the tip system, go to a restaurant where tips are forbidden (if such a beast exists).
Yeah, it’s pretty fucking tacky to leave a 2 dollar tip on a 40 dollar tab, unless of course the service was horrible. I routinely pay 15% for adequate service, 20% for above average, and as much as 30 for top-quality service. I’ve left my share of sub-10% tips in cases of exceptionally poor service.
I’ve never worked a tip-based job, but I appreciate the fact that the price I pay for the product is reduced due to the nature of the compensation. Again, I’m not sure which system I would prefer, but as long as the system is in place, I’ll compensate the person serving me accordingly.
The $2 tip assholes annoy me almost as much as the people getting stiffed.
Past thread:
I’m cool with tipping…if the service is decent.
In fact, I tip over 20% if served excellently. But the bad servers will all get stiffed, or scorned. That just the way it is.
-Sam
I’m with GaWd. But I’ll be more blunt.
Maybe you just suck as a waiter/waitress.
It’s only my WAG, but people tip according to what kind of service they received. I was always tipped handsomely.
Do you think it could be your attitude?
Loogies.
An amazing tipping incentive.
I am very generous if the service is good, meaning my coffee and water are filled often.
I am very punitive if the service is lousy. Pennies only, to show my displeasure.
However, if I’ve only got a couple of bucks left…
Just a thought.
I wonder what non-standard additives you haven’t found in your restaurant food after your second visit…
I used to work for tips. People who stiff are remembered.
-Your cynical bastard since 1969.
there ARE in fact, people who simply do NOT know how to tip, 'cause they don’t go out much/haven’t had a server in the family etc. I saw a table of 6 trying to figure out their tip (tab had to be about 24$ or so, it was after all, only an IHOP), they went to the cash register to get change so they could LEAVE a dollar.
PLUS, there are some math phobics out there who don’t know how to figure 15% or 20% of anything. I taught my son how to figure out tips when he was about 4. He thought it was funny that my brother didn’t have a clue. My brother, a traveling salesman, was really, really, really bad at it. He took me out to lunch one day and started to leave a meager less than 10% tip, I corrected it, then bought for him, a pocket tip counter that listed the appropriate tip amounts for various tabs. geez.
I, personally, unless the service was exceptionally bad (had one guy ask for his tip before the food got there 'cause his shift was done), leave, not only 20% but often too, some little weird plastic toy to play with…
I think part of the problem is that a LOT of people out there think that waitstaff makes minimum wage PLUS tips. One of my best friends has been a waiter for years (he likes it and has the mentality for it; more power to him, I couldn’t do it without killing someone), and he still makes about $3.00/hour before tips. I suppose the idea is that the incentive to get tips will make the waitstaff work harder, and in theory I can understand that.
The problem comes when yuppie assholes (not pointing fingers, just ranting a bit) who went to high school, went straight into college and were recruited directly into their desk jobs assume that A) waitstaff is composed of lesser beings, and B) waitstaff makes at least $6.25/hour on top of their tips, so tipping is sort of an optional thing you do, sort of patting your waiter on the head and saying, “GOOD boy, you didn’t spill anything on me!”
I don’t tip for SHITTY service, but if you get your food, and nothing that went wrong is the WAITSTAFF’S fault…please be a human being and leave a decent tip.
There are some people out there who just don’t seem to get it. We’ve been going out to eat a lot all summer, and there are two of us who end up coming down hard on the others to make sure that the tip is there. And it’s not something they do intentionally, they just don’t seem to think about it. So it’s not necessarily malicious intent, not that it makes it any better from the recieving end.
For the record, we generally tip 20%, unless service was terrible. And we’ve been known to tip quite a bit more, particularly if the tab was really small.
The best tippers I’ve known have been waiters and waitresses. They know what it’s like.
For whatever reason, tips are always considered to be part of the waitstaff’s pay. It’s not a good system, but it is indeed the way things are. If you don’t tip, it does make a difference. It’s not like tipping the plumber.
My parents leave incredibly tiny tips. It’s not meannness or because the service is bad, it’s just the way they do things. This is the cause of some friction when we go out together. I usually leave a 20% tip myself, although I am certainly not rich.
Tips.
I tend to tip very well. 20% is my norm, and I’ve tipped up to 50% for outstanding service. However, if the service is substandard, it goes down rapidly. Recently, I not only tipped NOTHING, but I went to the management of the establishment and complained. I mean, you don’t put someone’s receipt INSIDE their freaking sandwich!!!
Got a week of free meals out of that one 
Facts on Tips Which I Have Discovered . . . (generalization to follow):
Wealthy people tip like shit.
Working class people will tip you half their wages.
I’m coming at this from a Pizza Delivery angle. I delivered pizza to pad the income a little before moving out west. I would deliver an order totalling $29.35, for example, to the nice housing developments. Buffy and Tad would come to the door, accept their pizza, hand over a crisp ten and a brand new twenty, smile, and say, “Keep the change, Partner.”
Golly. 65 cents. Maybe I’ll go out and get half a candy-bar. Cheap bastard.
But, oh, the bikers were the best. You pull up to their little shanty, with an order for say $12. They give you a twenty, and whatever loose change they have in their pockets, and an occasional beer to boot.
God Bless the working class, and fuck the rich (unless I become rich, then screw those friggin’ ditch diggers).
I waited tables when in college, and had I worked at it full-time, I would have made more than I ever would being a band director. I loved the job too. Of course, I worked in Nashville, the friendliest town in America. Since I was a server, I know how it is when people don’t tip well, so, even though I don’t earn a lot of money, I tip in the 25% range.
pats self on back
I did this for a dozen years and always did realy well. When I added my tips to my hourly wage ($7.00/hr) I figured I was making between 15 and 20 dollars an hour depending on the number of customers we served.
TIP is an acronym that stands for “To insure promptness” and was originally given before the meal.
I do have a bone to pick with those who think that people who work in the service industry aren’t as good as others. I appreciate and will tip well for outstanding service.
I mentioned this before. But, the two professions that tip the least are Doctors and Lawyers. Waiters and Restuarant people tend to Tip the best, for obvious reasons. It’s true some people don’t know.
When I worked as a waiter, and European people came in, I would nicely remind them that they were supposed to tip. It’s usually included in bills in Europe, if I didn’t tell them, and they didn’t tip, I considered it my fault. In fact I considered it better to leave no tip than a lousy one. If you leave no tip, I just assume you didn’t know to tip. A lousy one, I considered you an asshole.
My tipping strategy. 15% for lousy service. I figure the server is having a bad day, maybe a tip will pick them up and they’ll be nicer to the next party. 20% for decent/good service. 25% for excellent service. Also if I’m eating at a really nice restuarant, I tend to tip a little less. I’m not going to tip 25% on a $300 bill no matter how great the service was.
The worst tip I ever saw, I didn’t get it, a waitress did. Someone left her a chick tract as a tip. They left a small note, here I think you might like this. NO FUCKING MONEY. What assholes.
What’s a chick tract?