To Tip or not to Tip

[Arm73]

Of course it's a cultural thing.

I believe in France tipping for food isn't customary, but tipping for alchohol is.

And I should point out what ARM73 said about American's paying tax on estimated tip income as it's true. We have to pay tax on our tips as well.

For once france and italians agree......

I was born in Italy

 

[the_joeba]

I tip as much as I can if I get good service but nothing or a penny (so they know I didn't forget) if the waiter is a real jerk (I mean extreme). If you go to a place a lot and they know you tip well, you get faster service, larger portions, free extras, and just a plain better experience. Maybe not everywhere but my favorite places love me.

I hate going out to eat with psychos that have the attitude "I pay for it, I should get it my way". Order what is on the menu, if you wanted taco's would you go to a Chinese restaurant? No, you order what is available. I'm not saying holding onions is bad, but more than 2 "special requests" is ridiculous (unless they know you tip well).

I feel awful when my grandma takes me out and her policy is 10% rounded down, I usually add a few bucks just for peace of mind.

I guess the moral of the story is "You get what you pay for" and if you are cheap, you get spit in your food.

 

[jumpman17]

Tipping is the evil of America. Companies are to cheap to actually pay their employees (my friend works as a waitress and she only makes $2.15 an hour from the restaurant) and the rest of their pay is dependent on tips from customers. Considering that's less then half of minimum wage, I personally think this system should be illegal.

 

[mthrnite]

Totally agree with jumpman, it should be illegal to pay so low below minimum wage.
I know education will get you a better job, but right now I'm considering waiting tables myself while I get an education.
For a lot of people, it's the only job they can get, for others, well, some people LIKE to wait tables, no really!
Until this stupid system is fixed, give at least as good as you get people!

 

[Veho]

I can't understand understand why waiters get tips, but store clerks don't. They both have to put up with the same whiny bastards, assholes, morons, and serve them with a smile.

So waiters get paid the minimum wage and have to smile their ass off for tips.

Store clerks get paid little more than minimum wage at best. And they are forced to smile and nod, no matter what the customer is like, because the "store policy" is "service with a smile" (even though the glassy-eyed looks and waxy smiles on some clerks I've seen still haunt my nightmares... I prefer "service with a sneer" nowadays...), and if someone complains to the store manager, they get fired...

So they both have to smile and nod and take crap from customers. Same job, basically. Why the ones get tips, while the others don't is beyond me. What if a store clerk was extremely helpful, informative, polite? But they are not allowed to accept tips.

I think that's because restaurants, as a source of food, are a sort of ritualistic, emotional place (because the way to a man's heart leads through the stomach, and "not", as some may think, between the 12th and 13th rib), while stores are... cold heartless business. That's why we get the warm and fuzzy urge to reward the person who brought us food, and we despise the filthy merchant who would charge us and overprice the air we breathe, let alone the product we are buying.

(Now I'm hungry...)

 

[Arm73]

Tipping is the evil of America. Companies are to cheap to actually pay their employees (my friend works as a waitress and she only makes $2.15 an hour from the restaurant) and the rest of their pay is dependent on tips from customers. Considering that's less then half of minimum wage, I personally think this system should be illegal.

yeha and the $2.15 an hour that she is supposed to get she'll never see it either because it's gone toward tax withholdings.
That , and part of the tip she is supposed to get for her work...
I'm telling ya....
But it's not so bad actually.
When I was working in Europe I had a decent salary, but thinking about it, I hated to work more and more for basically the same money, and I could get pissed off if the restaurant was getting so busy out of control.
Furthermore the owners in order to save money(because one employee costs a lot more there ) still put just one person to do a job where 2 or three would be more adequate to give a good service.
Here there is an army of waiters and busboys, and the service in nothing short of exellent all the time, and the more we work, the more we feel motivated because at the end of the day we get a cash reward, being basically a certain percentage of the restaurant sales.
But sometimes the buissness does not go well, fewer people in town, special holydays etc..and the few people we get are international turist who don't know how to tip, and all your motivation flyes out of the window.....

 

[HelloKitty]

Hmm... In the U.S. its just the norm to tip.
In asia, people don't tip though.
Just depends I guess.
I know some waiters that make alot of money here in the US... 20% on a bill of 70-80 dollars adds up quite nicely a night.

 

[ucablca]

i tipped 20% at olive garden yesterday. neverending salad and breadsticks, yaaa!

 

[Mike83]

I don't really tip, if I am paying with money and the change would be just a few pounds, I tell them they can keep it, (our Pizza man always gets 50p from the change)

We do tip our milk women and the window cleaner at christmas, £10 each, but thats because they come every week

 

[Qpido]

I chose to get this job, sounded like fun and it is.
The only downside is the whiny people, but in return you also get great people sometimes who are really nice.

I'm only doing this job so it looks good on my resumé, work experience looks good.
I'm doing a pretty hard college and that's gonna make me a pretty rich person later.

And when I'm millionaire I'll just do what I've always wanted to do, be a bartender.

Laugh all you want. But that's my dream.

Q~

 

[mthrnite]

And when I'm millionaire I'll just do what I've always wanted to do, be a bartender.
Q~

Martini, a real one (put that vodka bottle down, son.) Not too dry tonight, I've got a sweet tooth. Stirred gently... and no olives within a 3 foot radius.
Thanks buddy... so how's by you?

 

[Qpido]

"Just had a kidney transplant, I'm holding up though.
You seem to have had a rough week, 6th day in a row you've been here. What's the problem? Cat's leave you?"

Q~

 

[Hanafuda]

You guys are a bunch of morons and the most stupid bunch of retarded assholes.
I can't speak for UK's people, because things are different over there, you get a tip if you are EXTREMELY NICE not just because you're doing your job professionally.
In other words you have to kiss asses to get a few cents more out of your cheap salary.
But whoever leaves in the States should very well know that every job that relyes on tip get EXTREMELY LOW wedges, furthermore waiters pay taxes on the extimated amount of tip too, because the IRS knows that you get at least 15% tip out of a bill , so they figure it out how much is your income based on the restaurant sales and taxes you automatically!
So when some asshole comes over with the philosophy of " why should I give you a tip, you get paid already " and then I HAVE TO LOOSE MONEY after being really nice and professional I feel like shooting the bastard.
For the record, out of my salary I get $0.00 net pay and every two weeks a shortfall of about $250-$300(for federal and state and city taxes) that sums up and I have to pay at the end of the year in one big shot of $5000 to $8000 USD.
Our ONLY PAY is the TIP, which I say it again is taken into account at the end of the year.
Basically, if you don't leave the TIP I work for FREE, GRATIS, FOR NADA you got it ?
Now how could I ever be nice to you ?
Would you be nice if you were working for FREE in a stressfull enviroment costantly under pressure ?
I don't think so.
By the way , I am a professional head waiter in a successfull NYC restaurant, and fortunally most people do know what they are doing over here, but the occasional cheap asshole turist always happens to come along and ruin my day, even though everybody knows how does it go in this country.
The TIP here is a good thing because basically Wii work on a % of the total income of the restaurant.
The more Wii work, the more money Wii make and the more Wii smile, even though this job can be very, very stressfull.
Now if you leave somwhere else, do what is costume in your country, but when you come to the States, LEAVE THE DAMN TIP, PLEASE.

EDIT:
Sorry, after reading a couple of comments earlier in this topic I felt kind of enraged, and I used some strong words to expess my feelings.
Now that I cooled off I'd like to apologize for that, I didn't want to offend anybody in particular.

sorry, i disagree. if everyone would stop tipping, your employer would be faced with either paying you better, or going out of business. which do you think your boss would choose? i do still tip in most cases, but it isn't doing either of us a favor in the long term.

 

[Arm73]

You guys are a bunch of morons and the most stupid bunch of retarded assholes.
I can't speak for UK's people, because things are different over there, you get a tip if you are EXTREMELY NICE not just because you're doing your job professionally.
In other words you have to kiss asses to get a few cents more out of your cheap salary.
But whoever leaves in the States should very well know that every job that relyes on tip get EXTREMELY LOW wedges, furthermore waiters pay taxes on the extimated amount of tip too, because the IRS knows that you get at least 15% tip out of a bill  , so they figure it out how much is your income based on the restaurant sales and taxes you automatically!
So when some asshole comes over with the philosophy of " why should I give you a tip, you get paid already " and then I HAVE TO LOOSE MONEY after being really nice and professional I feel like shooting the bastard.
For the record, out of my salary I get $0.00 net pay and every two weeks a shortfall of about $250-$300(for federal and state and city taxes) that sums up and I have to pay at the end of the year in one big shot of $5000 to $8000 USD.
Our ONLY PAY is the TIP, which I say it again is taken into account at the end of the year.
Basically, if you don't leave the TIP I work for FREE, GRATIS, FOR NADA you got it ?
Now how could I ever be nice to you ?
Would you be nice if you were working for FREE in a stressfull enviroment costantly under pressure ?
I don't think so.
By the way , I am a professional head waiter in a successfull NYC restaurant, and fortunally most people do know what they are doing over here, but the occasional cheap asshole turist always happens to come along and ruin my day, even though everybody knows how does it go in this country.
The TIP here is a good thing because basically Wii work on a % of the total income of the restaurant.
The more Wii work, the more money Wii make and the more Wii smile, even though this job can be very, very stressfull.
Now if you leave somwhere else, do what is costume in your country, but when you come to the States, LEAVE THE DAMN TIP, PLEASE.

EDIT:
Sorry, after reading a couple of comments earlier in this topic I felt kind of enraged, and I used some strong words to expess my feelings.
Now that I cooled off I'd like to apologize for that, I didn't want to offend anybody in particular.



sorry, i disagree. if everyone would stop tipping, your employer would be faced with either paying you better, or going out of business. which do you think your boss would choose? i do still tip in most cases, but it isn't doing either of us a favor in the long term.

SORRY , I have to disagree.
If people would stop tipping, my employer COULD NEVER afford to pay all the necessary people to get the job done right, he would GO OUT OF BUISINESS and a lot of people (kitchen stuff/accounters/dining stuff/loundrys/garmage truck drivers/linen delivery/bakerys..etc...) WILL LOSE THEIR JOB.
That's the way it is.
I was about to open my own business a few years back,and I've been restaurant manager in a couple of occasions, and I can tell you that expecially here in the City, there are a lot of bills and expences to take care of, never the less a HUGE over priced rent to face at the end of the month.
There is work for everybody here, and nobody's complaining, maybe just restaurant owners who are forced to go out of business because of the ever increasing rent.
At least they don't have to worry so much for employees, actually the guest himself pays for the service, in a way I work for the people, not for my boss, and when he doesn't do much money he doesn't come around to bother us because he knows that we aren't happy either because we're not making any money as well.
I say the system works well,don't change it.
And by the way, when I go out I leave at least 20% tip for the service on food, but probably much more when it comes to cool drinks and pretty bartenders in the night time

 

[Hanafuda]

No, ARM
Restaurants make an acceptable profit the world over without the tip system. I would rather open a menu and see what the meal really costs me instead of having to do math when I'm done.

 

[HugeCock]

I travel a LOT and have a good life I won't lie...tipping has become ....regular to me...tipping the door man, tipping the coat girl, tipping valet....all these people I see on a regular basis and it like cost me 5 bucks for some chick to watch my coat.....doesn't really make sense to me yet 5 bucks guarantees I don't get a snot rocket in my pocket. Valet is a scary thing cause your letting some punk kid (no offense to you punk kids) drive my car...it's the few places I tip FIRST in hopes that a 20 dollar tip won't eager the kid to drive my car HARD the block he needs to take it to park it. And of course we come to food...food is the only place where I rate my tip based off of service. I don't give a shit if you got 3 kids and a dog or whatever your story is...do your goddamn job and I have been known to tip as graciously as 50%...of course that is a very rare occasion but I look at a few things like how often my drink is refilled, how often he checks back to see if everything is okay, personality goes a LONG way for me...gimme a funny waiter and it's like instant 20%. The biggest misconception is that if your food sucks you should be mad at your waiter/waitress which is wrong. Your server does not control your food so if it is under cooked, over cooked you can't take it out on your server. (and for the love of god never send it back but that is a whole nother topic) But I have gone to restaurants where I am sitting for 15 minutes before I get drinks or even meet my waiter, then I am greeted to a cut dry waiter who would be much rather doing something else, comes back with my food but still hasn't brought me another Guiness....I have been waiting 15 more minutes now for that...I have to flag him down to get my beer, which means he hasn't been checking on me which looses brownie points. He is lucky to get 5% cause he really has ruined my meal.

Now again go back to the waiter who shows up quickly with drinks, has some personality, checks in time to time to see how things are going, gets my order right, doesn't forget anything and I leave dinner happy and going "man that's a nice kid" And he definatly gets the tip.

Of course you have the bartenders who hook you up with Freebies....you always tip them more...here it becomes somewhat of a business once your a regular. First night you usually tip him very heavy to compensate for the freebies which guarantees you will get hooked up again and then there after for every beer (Americans charge like 4 dollars average per Guinness) you tip him a dollar or two...which saves you two bucks per beer. I know guys who get like 7 freebies and leave a 5 dollar tip...which leaves me to cover their slack...assholes.

 

[lolsjoel]

I'm a pizza delivery guy, and trust me, tips are absolutely necessary. Our delivery area is about a 10 mile radius (my car gets about 20-25 mpg while delivering in town) and I get compensated 5.3% of my net sales for gas. So what's that amount to? An average delivery is $14, so that means I get 74 cents to take a pizza. Which is just under 1/3 the cost of a gallon of gas. If I have to take that pizza out a long distance, I could EASILY use more gas that I get compensated for.
I had a 25 mile round trip delivery once for a $11.79 pizza that took about 45 minutes and I got no tip. So, not only did it cost me money to take that woman her pizza, it also took a great deal of time in which I couldn't deliver to people that actually care about taking care of their drivers.
And to quote the owner of my store about the idea to raise minimum wage "Whoever thought of that shit should be hung up by the balls and shot in the head." Thanks, asshole. I guess I won't be getting a raise.

 

[HugeCock]

See that's a tough one....

Waiters who say "I should get a tip cause I don't get paid enough....well do your f'in job and you will get paid but I aint a charity"

I actually just ordered a pizza and here is my dilemma the restaurant charges 3.50 extra for delivery....so IMO that comes out of the kids tip. It seems to me that its not terrible a bad move cause the kid guarantees never to get stiffed however gets less cash because they are automatically charging me. There are some restaurant out there that sneak shit like that. They automatically add a 15% gratuity to the bill and don't tell the customer and BAM the customer also leaves a tip and bang a big fat tip. Now back to the pizza kid .... 3.50 immediately plus the store is like a block away so right off the bat on a 17 dollar pizza they get their 15% and plus the 5 bucks I gave em. Seems like they are doing okay imo

 

[halljames]

Well this topic has certainly got some people a little angry.

I still think tipping should be stopped. People should "NICE" and "HELPFUL" no matter what they do. They shoud not get tipped for being kind, respectful and nice to felow human beings. People should always be nice, unless someone is not nice too you, then you should slap them in the face (not literally of course).

I am sorry if some of the comments that have been posted on this thread cause offense to anyone. It is one of those dodgy topics.

 

[lolsjoel]

I actually just ordered a pizza and here is my dilemma the restaurant charges 3.50 extra for delivery....so IMO that comes out of the kids tip. It seems to me that its not terrible a bad move cause the kid guarantees never to get stiffed however gets less cash because they are automatically charging me. There are some restaurant out there that sneak shit like that. They automatically add a 15% gratuity to the bill and don't tell the customer and BAM the customer also leaves a tip and bang a big fat tip. Now back to the pizza kid .... 3.50 immediately plus the store is like a block away so right off the bat on a 17 dollar pizza they get their 15% and plus the 5 bucks I gave em. Seems like they are doing okay imo

Actually, you really ought to ask who gets that money before you assume it goes right to the kid delivering. I've worked at two Papa John's stores. One charged $1.25 for delivery and gave $1.15 to the driver. The one I'm working for now charges $1.10 for delivery, but gives 5.3% of the net sales to the driver - meaning he gets about 6 cents of that $1.10 and Papa John's takes the rest.

So when I go out on a $10 delivery to get stiffed, I literally only get 5 cents for my time and gas - which will never cover the cost of gas to get there and back, no matter how short the trip.