tipping your waiter/waitress

[bma1983]

20% minimum no matter how the service was. Increase from there if you think they did exceptionally well.

You've got to be kidding me. There ain't no way in hell I'm leaving a tip for bad service. No way in the world. I refuse to give my hard earned money to someone who doesn't deserve it.

If my waiter was nice and gave me good service I generally leave $5 for a tip or I'll use the tip calculator on my phone. If they were working a lot of tables and they weren't as attentive as they should be, then I would let it slide. But if the service was poor and the waiter was horrible they would get not one red cent. Though, I do like the idea of leaving a penny.

 

[Ryuukie]

What a civilized thread. I've been at JUB a long time and I've seen a few of these tipping threads go balastic.

At any rate, I would have given her a good tip since she was pleasant and trying. It may be just the encouragement she needs to stick it out.

I waited on tables when I was in my twenties. T'was the best job I ever had. Lots of fun. Lots of nice customers. Very good tips.

 

[Willie Boy]

What a civilized thread. I've been at JUB a long time and I've seen a few of these tipping threads go balastic.

At any rate, I would have given her a good tip since she was pleasant and trying. It may be just the encouragement she needs to stick it out.

I waited on tables when I was in my twenties. T'was the best job I ever had. Lots of fun. Lots of nice customers. Very good tips.

Would you give a mechanic extra money for smiling and trying to fix your car, even if he failed to do so? The idea of giving someone extra money for trying to do the basics of their job just seems ridiculous.

 

[Willie Boy]

20% minimum no matter how the service was. Increase from there if you think they did exceptionally well.

Actually 20% is the guideline for excellent service. The guideline minimum is 10%. But if the server is not providing even basic service, the guideline goes out the window (and the tip with it).

 

[TickTockMan]

I tip based on service and nothing more. I have been known to tip nothing to quite a bit depending on how well they did.



The only time I don’t tip based on service is when they are being abused by their employers. The place I usually go has a thing for making new people do it all on their own without any training. They also have a thing for making someone work in the private party room, plus a regular section. The private party room is the size of two sections by itself when filled and all of the other sections are nowhere near the private party room. Also the drink station is nowhere near either as well. Because of this no one really gets served well, but it has nothing to do with the wait staff. It has to do with the owners being asses and not having more people working to help out.

 

[operafan]

25%? Wow! I'd like to have you as a customer. I don't think I've ever tipped more than 20%.

 

[justsimon]

20% minimum no matter how the service was. Increase from there if you think they did exceptionally well.

This. Also, I leave larger tips for friends, of course.

 

[LilBit]

Would you give a mechanic extra money for smiling and trying to fix your car, even if he failed to do so? The idea of giving someone extra money for trying to do the basics of their job just seems ridiculous.

First off, she did her job; she just didn't do it WELL. She still deserves to be paid.

Second, a tip is not "extra." Tips ARE servers' salaries. Most servers get nothing on their paychecks, so if you don't tip them, they don't get paid at all. If they do their job, they deserve to get paid. If they do an excellent job, they deserve to be paid extra, and by that I mean a larger tip.

 

[Willie Boy]

First off, she did her job; she just didn't do it WELL. She still deserves to be paid.

That would be the paycheck she gets from the employer. It is not the responsibility of the patron/customer to pay the employees directly, that is the employer's responsibility.

Second, a tip is not "extra." Tips ARE servers' salaries. Most servers get nothing on their paychecks, so if you don't tip them, they don't get paid at all.

Except their pay. If the employer refuses to give them a paycheck they need to take up with the employer. Again, it is not the responsibility of the customer to directly pay the salary of the employee, otherwise they would be the employer.

If they do their job, they deserve to get paid.

That would be the paycheck they get from their employer

If they do an excellent job, they deserve to be paid extra, and by that I mean a larger tip.

The tip is a "gratuity", a gift of appreciation for exceptional service, not part of their salary. The server should never "expect" the tip. That attitude comes across like a slap in the face to the customer, and many of us tend to either limit our tips at that point, or just not leave one.

 

[boxerdudeuk]

20% minimum no matter how the service was. Increase from there if you think they did exceptionally well.

I'm pretty much with ya except if it's really friggin brutal i won't do 20%. But i start at 20% probably 99% of the time.

 

[Latimer]

Give her a break: 20%. Besides, she's probably sharing the tip with others who make even less than she does.

 

[Latimer]

Also: these posts only confirm waitstaff lore: gay men give the best tips.

 

[strokes630]

Oh geeze. You can tell who has been a server and who hasn't in this thread. EVERYONE should wait tables once in their life to know how it really works. I say only tip less than 20 percent if the server is outright rude to you. If you have to wait for something or have to flag them down it might have to deal with something else (they are busy with other tables, dealing with a slow kitchen / bartender / computer system, etc)

 

[strokes630]

I tip as well as I can afford to.

If you can't afford to tip at a restaurant, then you can't afford to eat at that restaurant. There is no tipping at McDonald's. Go there.

 

[TickTockMan]

Oh geeze. You can tell who has been a server and who hasn't in this thread.

I doubt it.

If you can't afford to tip at a restaurant, then you can't afford to eat at that restaurant. There is no tipping at McDonald's. Go there.

McDonald's is a restaurant.

 

[seven2go]

The server should never "expect" the tip. That attitude comes across like a slap in the face to the customer, and many of us tend to either limit our tips at that point, or just not leave one.

I hope you get LOTS of food in your lap......very VERY hot food.......

A customer like you is a slap in the face to the SERVER.

 

[hotb0d]

^^uh oh is this where the thread will go bad?

I agree with Willie Boy. Tipping is not mandatory (unless there is a law that I don't know about), it is something that you do as customer as a way to compliment the server for his/her good service. I don't agree on people who don't tip just because they are stingy but if you got a bad service, you should have the right to not leave a tip.

Just because servers get paid minimum wages doesn't mean they can demand tip. Hell, if they don't get tip on regular basis maybe they should take that as a hint that they suck at their job.

 

[Dobson73]

so, recently i was eating at a resturant, and it was not the nicest of places. so, i was not expecting amazing service or anything, but my waitress really really sucked, like no drink refills, no asking us how we were doing during the meal.

however, i could tell she was new, and she was trying very hard, like really hard. one could easily tell she didn't have it "under control," and she seemed almost over worked in a section that was only half full, and she was quite pleasent when we could flag her down and ask her for napkins and silverware.

so, should i have tipped based on how hard shes trying, or tip based on her performance, and if i should have tipped her based on performance what % is that? noting, almost everything we wanted required me to flag her down in some way.

zinger, if you left her, say, $4.00, would you have explained that it was because she was trying hard as opposed to $4.00 for good service? Don't $1 bills look the same, whether they're left for service or attitude?

Maybe you left her a note saying "now, this tip is because we can see you're trying really hard and not because you're giving good service". I think the distinction would have been lost on her?

 

[fetaby]

The average hourly wage of a waiter/waitress is $2.13

The average rent of a one bedroom apartment in Oklahoma ( the state with the lowest cost of living) is $550.

Without tips, a waiter would have to work 9 hour shifts EVERYDAY just to cover rent. That's no days off, and no utilities, vehicle, and no food.

 

[electricflame]

What a lot of people don't realize is that if you don't tip, the server is PAYING SOMEBODY ELSE to SERVE YOU.

At the place I worked at, our tipout rate was high...5% to the kitchen+bartender combined. What did that mean?

That 5% of ALL SALES were owed to the kitchen/bar staff at the end of the night. So if your table was $200.00 worth of food, and you didn't tip me, that's $10.00 *** OUT OF MY POCKET *** that i had to pay BECAUSE YOU CHOSE TO EAT IN MY SECTION OF THE RESTAURANT.

If you tipped a standard 15% ($30.00 of the $200), then I'd at least pay the kitchen/bar $10.00 and keep 20 bucks for myself.

It's upsetting when I, or someone else in my restaurant, gets a party so large it takes up their whole section for their entire shift, give great service because it's the only party I/they might have,and their bill comes to six hundred dollars, and they leave a two dollar tip. The server earned minimum wage for a couple hours, earned 2 dollars on top of that, and had to *PAY THE KITCHEN* ***$30.00*** out of their pocket. That means they didn't earn a penny going to work...they walked into work, and walked out with LESS money.

THAT is what baffles me.