Tipping nightmares and fairytales

By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics and access other forums reserved for members. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today by clicking here.

Posted: Thu Jun 20, 2013 2:04 pm

Only once in the USA last year, I didn't leave a tip, waiter forgot about us.

I seem to recall we had a debate once about tipping.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22969465

Baiting Guru Joined: 11 May 2004 Posts: 2163

Over here the waiters get paid enough to cover their own bills. So no tip is needed. I think the system where someone needs a tip to make enough money to live of is flawed.
What if you are an IT guy, and your boss tells you "hey I'm going to pay 5$ an hour, the customer will give you tip when the web app is finished" You would be pissed wouldn't you?

Posted: Fri Jun 21, 2013 7:54 am

Klaasvaak wrote:

Over here the waiters get paid enough to cover their own bills. So no tip is needed.

So it may seem. But speaking as one that formerly worked in that business, I can tell you that in reality, the tips are a most welcome addition to the minimum wages you'll get working as a waiter.

Formally, the tips are included in the price, though, so tips are voluntary and something you use as reward when you get that little extra service, or the mail/drinks/taxi ride has been a bit out of the ordinary.

I almost always tip, because I know how ungrateful a job it is to work as a waiter - been there. Almost always, I said, because I don't tip when the service sucks. I may have worked as a waiter, but I'm not an idiot, after all. Wink

Posted: Fri Jun 21, 2013 2:51 pm

I get very cross about tipping. While I like choosing to leave a tip, I don't like being expected to or made to, like in the USA. The fault is the system, not the workers who depend on them.

Restaurants, hotels etc charge proper prices, they should pay their staff proper wages.

Posted: Fri Jun 21, 2013 3:25 pm

Quote:

Restaurants, hotels etc charge proper prices, they should pay their staff proper wages

I agree, especially when the mark-up is as much as 70% on the actual cost involved (I used to run a kitchen in a travel-lodge and the hours were long and the pay was crap !)

Posted: Fri Jun 21, 2013 7:52 pm

A good bartender makes much more than the minimum wage they would make if people didn't tip here in the US.

It is just a different culture here in North America than over in Europe. Believe me it feels just as strange to me to not leaving a good tip after a great meal as it does to you to leave one.

Posted: Fri Jun 21, 2013 11:51 pm

^^Agreed. I always tip, even if just the minimum, and more if warranted. I've waited tables before, and know what it's like being paid lower than minimum wage and having to rely on tips to make up for it.

That said, I enjoyed it very much. A few friends were working at high-end hotel lounges, making pretty good tips at the bars. BORING. I worked in a family/saloon place, not a chain. Whenever a kid's birthday 'lunch' was booked, I was first to sign up. I loved the chaos and bravado and pomp, and treated our little fine diners like the gentlefolk they would someday be.

Afterwards, every parent would tip me separately and thank me for being so patient. You do the math. Wink

Posted: Fri Jun 21, 2013 11:57 pm

When I first arrived in Korea a waiter returned my tip. To some it is insulting. However, the practice is creeping into some restaurants in China.

Baiting Guru Joined: 19 Apr 2007 Posts: 3123

I will leave a tip where the service warrants it. I must say, 90% of the time I am satisfied enough to leave a tip - most servers do a grand job.

Although I have been known on occasion to leave a solitary penny, which, apparently, is even more insulting than no tip at all.

I'll also never forget a time in Toronto where the service was simply awful, and when the bill came, there was a large circle and some exclamation points after the line 'GRATUITY NOT INCLUDED' with a smiley face at the end. I certainly wasn't smiling, and to be 'reminded' in this fashion is tantamount to insult. The guy had the temerity to chases us down the street on leaving too, yelling about how things are done differently in their culture.

I also dislike the practices of cruise lines, which can be likened to the restaurant industry - they pay their workers rather poorly (by Western standards, one cabin steward from Columbia once explained his $8K salary was what a bank manager would make back home), and their wages are supplemented by the 'auto-gratuity' system of x dollars per person per day of the cruise which is usually settled at the end, or can be settled in advance for a discount. Again, the staff usually do a superb job but I'd rather the fare be inflated by x % and I'd never know the difference. Not sure how true it is, but apparently the tipping system is more tax efficient for cruise lines.

Posted: Sun Jun 23, 2013 6:07 pm

I've always been a good tipper.

My mom was a waitress for most of her life, and relied on tips. Funny thing is, though, she herself was a lousy tipper! Confused

After she retired from the business, she would sometimes meet us out for drinks at one of my local hangouts. She would NOT tip. To avoid embarrassment, I'd leave a tip for her when she wasn't looking.

I go to my local watering hole after work every night and have a couple of beers. Because I get there at happy hour, cans of Budweiser are only $2.00 a can. I just have two beers (four dollars), but I leave a two or three dollar tip for the bartender. I think that's pretty generous.

When I was stationed in Australia in the mid-80s, I found out that they find tipping as offensive. My first night there, I left a tip on the bar before I left, and the bartender ran after me and gave it back. Since I was an American, he figured I didn't know about tipping etiquette in Australia. He explained that tipping is a no-no.

I don't know if it's still like that, but I found it difficult to not tip.

Posted: Sun Jun 23, 2013 6:53 pm

My first wife was a bartender. She changed jobs to do Bar/Waitress work at a local hotel chain. It didn't sound like a good deal at the onset but she had the choice. She was paid minimum wage by the hour and was charged $20.00 each day that she worked as a tip offset fee. So she basically had to make $20.00 in tips each day that she worked just to make minimum wage. She worked there two weeks before she called here old boss and asked for her old job back.

Myself, I don't go out to eat much but stop at the local Pub for a couple beers on my way home at night. $5.00 for playing the lottery, $5.00 - $6.00 for two beers depending on whether or not it's happy hour. I always leave at least 3 dollar tip.

(The bartenders always call me by name when I walk in)

Posted: Sun Jun 23, 2013 8:38 pm

TheFae Wrote:

Quote:

being paid lower than minimum wage

Around these parts there is a different minimum wage for servers. Yup since there are tips involved the employer can pay them less than Minimum.

Personally I love tipping especially in Cultures where it isn't usually the norm. Over the years I've gotten some pretty strange looks too. My most recent favourite comes from New Year's Day in Reykjavík where at closing time I was handed a bill. Being a real Douche I argued with the Barman about the charges and finally threw money at him and said keep the Effing Change!!!! Actually I was just playing with the poor Lad (youngster not a Scammer) because my Bill for about eight hours of drinking was 500 Krone. His $100 tip made up for it I hope.

VERY NSFW Clip but it hits the nail on the head. Mr. Pink says so:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5ODhIFawfs

Master of Master Baiters Joined: 30 Mar 2012 Posts: 949

I don't mind tipping when service is good. I do mind being expected to tip even if the service is bad.

Posted: Mon Jun 24, 2013 12:27 am

Perhaps this might get things into perspective in different countries
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tip_(gratuity).

In the UK you normally get a service charge put onto the cost of a Restaurant meal (and it has to say so by law on the menu). If you get a good meal and good service then you add a tip (normally to round up the total spent) There is no compulsion to do this and it is up to the individual diner.

I find it amazing that in the US the barstaff expect a tip as normal (yes and I know the wages are piss poor as I did it back in the '70's')
The normal thing in the UK is to buy them a drink - or at least let them take the money for it.

25 years ago you'd look after (drinks wise) a busty barmaid in a pub and just before you left you'd put your head between her cleavage and go 'blubble,blubble,blubble'. Try that nowadays, even in the UK, and you'd probably get arrested by the Police. Awful.

Posted: Mon Jun 24, 2013 12:28 am

rattlesnake wrote:

I don't mind tipping when service is good. I do mind being expected to tip even if the service is bad.

This I totally understand. If the service is bad I have no problem leaving little to no tip. On the same account I have had servers go out of there way to make sure I had an enjoyable time and it feels good to leave these folks a great tip.

419Eater is my life Joined: 01 Oct 2008 Posts: 349

auto-5 wrote:

rattlesnake wrote:

I don't mind tipping when service is good. I do mind being expected to tip even if the service is bad.

This I totally understand. If the service is bad I have no problem leaving little to no tip. On the same account I have had servers go out of there way to make sure I had an enjoyable time and it feels good to leave these folks a great tip.

You know you're doing good when they ask you to initial the tip so they don't get fired... Smile

Posted: Tue Jul 02, 2013 8:52 am

My wife went to Washington with a colleague and had a couple of beers and a few games of pool one evening, the service was lousy but to avoid any nonsense they left a basic 10% for the beer. Then they got followed outside by the snarling bar staff who took offence that they hadn't tipped for the value of the pool table money. Is this usual, or was it just a shit bar?

Elite Baiter Joined: 19 Jun 2011 Posts: 1066

Ah, yes. The hospitality industry. I do not miss it one bit. Most days, I'd do fine but, if it was a particularly slow day and I only had a couple tables, I was screwed. I'm glad I got out of there and secured a stable job with a steady salary and room to move up. But my heart goes out to the people still in it. It's why I almost always overtip.

Baiting Guru Joined: 31 Jan 2007 Posts: 12237

oscarpiles wrote:

Personally I love tipping especially in Cultures where it isn't usually the norm.

I was at a small, family owned, Vietnamese restaurant the other day and had the best Pho I have ever had. I left a nice tip for the server, who seemed to be the owners daughter or grand daughter, and she looked at me like I had a hole in my head.

This was in an area where probably 98% of their customers are Vietnamese or Hmong (Frogtown area of St. Paul) so I suspect that tipping in Vietnam is a rarity.

Edit: Grammar

Posted: Sun Jul 07, 2013 12:28 pm

I don't fancy drinking wee-wee (on or off the bus), so tend to tip around 10% if I like the place and intend to go back again.

Posted: Mon Jul 08, 2013 8:59 am

In Wales, they even tip cows.

Posted: Mon Jul 08, 2013 6:11 pm

We arrived by taxi at a hotel overseas about midnight after 24 hours of travel with two small children. I mentioned to the desk clerk that we only had one more flight before grandma would get to see her grandkids. After checking in I requested a 5 A.M. wake-up call and a 6 A.M. taxi back to the airport for the first flight out. I asked if the dining room would be open for breakfast and was told no. At 5 I got a call asking me if an American style breakfast was OK with us and telling me that we could come down anytime. At 6 our taxi was waiting so I left enough money for breakfast and a nice tip. As we are pulling away from the curb the waitress stops the driver and attempts to return our money. It became a scene with both language and cultural issue components but the waitress was not fired.

Tipping nightmares and fairytales	View next topic View previous topic