Should I still tip 15%?

[MetroStyles]

Originally Posted by username79

Tip is 20% on the bill not 15% or less regardless of quality of service. If service was bad, speak to the manager. If you had a nasty waiter, and you refuse tip or tip less percentage, you're probably punishing several other innocent individuals who are working off the same pot.

I disagree. Tip is 15-20%. I tip 20% but that is my choice. A tip of 15% is not being "cheap".

 

[jet]

I normally tip 15 for good service which I expect, 20 for excellent and 10 or less for crappy service.

 

[JayJay]

Originally Posted by username79

Some of you are really cheap. I love the not tipping on alcohol or tax bullshit. Invented by cheap people to justify their cheap ways. Tip is 20% on the bill not 15% or less regardless of quality of service. If service was bad, speak to the manager. If you had a nasty waiter, and you refuse tip or tip less percentage, you're probably punishing several other innocent individuals who are working off the same pot. The way to recognize a rude waiter is to discreetly report his or her behavior so it can be handled by whoever is managing/training the staff. Of thousands of restaurant meals I've had maybe three or four where poor service could actually be attributed to a completely disinterested/pissed off/asshole server. This is on a $20 meal or a $200 meal. If you can't afford $240, you shouldn't have consumed $200 worth of food/alcohol. Like buying a car then complaining that you can't afford gas.
I feel that servers should earn tips. If the server treats my table very poorly and doesn't deserve a tip, then I don't. In most cases of poor service however, I'll tip 15% rather than 20%.

 

[MetroStyles]

Originally Posted by JayJay

I feel that servers should earn tips. If the server treats my table very poorly and doesn't deserve a tip, then I don't. In most cases of poor service however, I'll tip 15% rather than 20%.

Bingo. The only rationalization of the tipping system at all is that it creates a large variable income as opposed to a purely fixed income (e.g. salaried workers). This is positive motivator for employees to act nicely towards patrons and to bring in continued business to the establishment. I think this makes sense as a compensation scheme. Similarly, non-service industry workers are often given discretionary performance bonuses by management to motivate better work via a variable income component.

Saying that a server deserves 15% regardless of service quality defeats the purpose of the variable compensation mechanism. It is like saying that financial services workers should get large bonuses regardless of performance. Sound familiar? That has caused an uproar politically, but it is a very parallel concept to tipping at restaurants.

The bottom line is that a server should be tipped in accordance to their performance. A baseline or average performance deserves 15-20%. Better or worse deserves more and less, respectively.

 

[jet]

Exactly, I once wrote zero in the tip line for a bartender that made my girl and I wait for 10-15minutes on an empty tuesday night while he continued to dodge eye contact as we were right in front of him during that entire time. Why should he be rewarded?

They want their tip? They do their job pure and simple. I think the problem with this thread is that the ballers here are failing to recognize that not everyone goes to 3 michelin star restaurants for lunch where poor service is unfathomable hence their appall at anything less than 20.

 

[Davidko19]

what do you do when its not the servers fault?

For instance, I was at this cheap little mexican restaurant for tacos with a chick and the waiteress said there was a "mistake in the kitchen". Im pretty sure she just forgot to enter the order - regardless, we were there for like 30 minutes waiting. She DID give each of us a free bud light draft to make up for it.

I think we only tipped like 10% and darted out of there cause we felt like asses, so what then when they try to make the mistake up to you?

 

[JayJay]

Originally Posted by Davidko19

what do you do when its not the servers fault?

For instance, I was at this cheap little mexican restaurant for tacos with a chick and the waiteress said there was a "mistake in the kitchen". Im pretty sure she just forgot to enter the order - regardless, we were there for like 30 minutes waiting. She DID give each of us a free bud light draft to make up for it.

I think we only tipped like 10% and darted out of there cause we felt like asses, so what then when they try to make the mistake up to you?
I've had restaurants comp my table or part of the meal due to errors. In such cases, especially when the server is not a fault, I then leave a tip based on what the total would have been, not based on the cost minus the amount comped.

 

[Zabel]

Originally Posted by MetroStyles

I'd say that it is generally expected that you tip X% regardless of check heft. Unless of course you are in Japan, where tipping is considered rude. Sigh, God bless Japan.

Try Singapore. Last time I went there, tipping was against the law. (Though it was early 90s).

 

[oneeightyseven]

I don't tip; I sleep with all of my waitresses.

 

[Davidko19]

Originally Posted by JayJay

I've had restaurants comp my table or part of the meal due to errors. In such cases, especially when the server is not a fault, I then leave a tip based on what the total would have been, not based on the cost minus the amount comped.

well yea, BUT if the service was just bad and nothing was comped, ok, the beers were given to us (not what were drinking, btw), whats up? just wanna get some affirmation...

 

[seanchai]

Originally Posted by jet

Exactly, I once wrote zero in the tip line for a bartender that made my girl and I wait for 10-15minutes on an empty tuesday night while he continued to dodge eye contact as we were right in front of him during that entire time. Why should he be rewarded?

They want their tip? They do their job pure and simple. I think the problem with this thread is that the ballers here are failing to recognize that not everyone goes to 3 michelin star restaurants for lunch where poor service is unfathomable hence their appall at anything less than 20.

Not all; I'm a poverty-stricken grad student who also works as a barista and I tip 20% standard. Based on the number of other service industry workers who have come in and dumped an absurd amount of money in my tip jar out of solidarity, I feel cheap if I do any less. I have left without tipping once or twice, though.

 

[kevinbrownshakedown]

I'll gladly retract my statement about not having to tip on alcohol at a restaurant. I never order wine or the like with dinner, so it's not something I practice. It's just what I had heard from waiter friends.

 

[Doctor]

Originally Posted by MetroStyles

Unless of course you are in Japan, where tipping is considered rude. Sigh, God bless Japan.

Or you could come to Australia. Tipping is practically unheard of.

 

[mgoose]

Originally Posted by seanchai

Not all; I'm a poverty-stricken grad student who also works as a barista and I tip 20% standard. Based on the number of other service industry workers who have come in and dumped an absurd amount of money in my tip jar out of solidarity, I feel cheap if I do any less. I have left without tipping once or twice, though.

This.

I'm back in school and serving, on the rare occasions I do go out and tend to tip a high %, as fellow industry people are by far the best tippers when I serve them. Usually this is at a bar, and when I know the bartender is charging me 20 bucks for a round that would normally cost 40, I'll leave a 10 dollar tip. And because they know I'll do this they keep giving me a good deal, so it's a cycle that perpetuates itself.

The absolute worst is cutting people deals where you can and then them tipping 10% or less, but that happens very rarely as I usually only try and do that for people I know pretty well.

 

[milosz]

Originally Posted by jet

They want their tip? They do their job pure and simple. I think the problem with this thread is that the ballers here are failing to recognize that not everyone goes to 3 michelin star restaurants for lunch where poor service is unfathomable hence their appall at anything less than 20.
I'm seeing the opposite here - it's the ballers (or wannabes) who are okay shorting the barstaff or waitstaff. This is pretty much a universal phenomenon in the service industry: the worst table to get (leaving aside racial prejudices, of which there are many in the restaurant industry), the worst table to get is a bunch of middle-aged women who never had to work a day in their lives (or jumped straight into an Executive Editor position courtesy of daddy's friends). They'll run you ragged, split their checks 20 ways, pull out magnifying glasses to inspect their food - and cut your tip if you're not constantly standing at their right shoulder, water pitcher at the ready. The best tables to get are people of some means (poorforum folk can barely afford to eat out, much less tip), but who worked in a service capacity (in college, or whatever) - they're understanding, they're good tippers, they aren't ridiculously demanding.