Thoughts on tipping?
 

I'll tip generously when service is adequate but when the waiter/waitress is completely absent then I'll leave nothing. Don't get me wrong, I realize that most servers income is from tipping but I believe one should earn it. :slap:

I agree they should earn it and if the service is really bad I never leave nothing, they might think I just forgot. Instead I leave a nice note on the receipt letting them know why they didn't get a tip or sometimes just tell them they need to find another job.
Also really bad service can also land you a free meal if you complain to the manager after you are done eating.
But if I get outstanding service they will get a nice tip and I will be sure and let the manager know what a good job they did. I know managers usually only hear complaints and it's really good to hear positives once in awhile.

My opinion on tipping:


I tip based on service as well. I do believe as a customer you are not required to tip. However, should you choose to dine like this you are required to disclose this to your server at the beginning of your meal. That way there is no false incentive for your server to provide any additional service outside of the bare minimum. Should you choose to simply dine in expecting excellent service fully knowing you're not going to tip then you are just a cheap ass.

I waited tables for a bit in college. It's no picnic and I know how much a good tip is appreciated. If the service is lousy I tip the standard, maybe a little less but I follow up with a polite discussion with the shift manager or maybe even the wait person if it feels appropriate.

People that know me also know I'm a pretty gregarious person in public. I'm extra generous if, on top of decent service, the wait(er/ress) isn't afraid to dish it back to me. I just love good sharp banter.

You are kidding right?
I would never do that.
Unless you WANT a little "something special" in your meal. :slap:

My policy is to never complain or ask for anything to be fixed until AFTER I have all of my food. I will typically just live with something wrong unless it is just not edible.

And even then, I rarely ever accept anything that has been 'remedied'.

I just got back (literally) from Outback where I ordered the steak and crab cake.
The picture on the menu, had huge chunks of crab falling out of a beautifully cooked crab cake.
What we got looked more like a mushy lump of mashed potatoes with nothing whatsoever that looked like crab in it.

I just told the waiter that was unacceptable, showed him the picture in the menu, and asked that it be taken off the tab.
I did not want any other food to compensate.

I hate the idea of tipping. That being said I always do it.

I just think it is absolutly ridiculous to expect me to tip more than I make in an hour for 2-5min of there time... especially if it isn't good service.

Where I live servers make half of the minimum wage per hour, and all of their hourly money is taken by taxes. They literally get 1 cent on their pay checks, (because legally they have to receive something) and therefore are totally dependent on the tips they receive to pay bills, get gas, eat, etc. if you are the type of person that doesn't like to tip, don't go out. You will not make any difference in the tipping culture of the USA, and you're likely just screwing somebody out of the money they need. I agree that tipping is a strange concept, but it's the culture of this country and servers depend on it to survive. Acceptable tip is %15, anything lower is literally insulting unless you received terrible service. A good tip is %20, and you should consider that before you go out. If you can't afford to tip or are just stubbornly refusing (like mr. Pink in reservoir dogs) you should learn how to cook for yourself, or go to mcdonalds.

I dont give tipps because need money for car parts, unless the waitress gave me her number

I served for 8 years. It was my main income through the later years of high school & college. I tend to only serve at non-corporate restaurants like Cheesecake factory, Applebees, etc.

I do tip well, especially, if my dining experience was more than just receiving my food. The minimum tip is for someone who I see not even busy, but just lazy is when I will give 10%.

A server that is extremely busy, hustling, running around and doing their best.... still give 15-20%.... they must me working for the amount of 2 people because someone called off and rather loose $50 a shift than go through hell again.

It is not my fault that those people work at places that the employer sucks the living life outta you. If you feel like you are not getting compensated enough. Feel free to find another job.

I top between 8 and upwards of 25%. All depends on the level of service provided. If my waitstaff is bad, I leave a bad tip, simple as that. I shouldn't need to remind them that they should do a better job.

Though, whenever I give them my order, and they don't write it down, I remember that. If ANYTHING in that order is wrong, I'm automatically tipping less, regardless of how the service is. If you can't get orders right because you don't feel like writing them down, you're obviously bad at your job and a low tip should be a reminder that you shouldn't do things off memory.

I only tip because it's a social norm and I don't want my food spat in. I'd rather pay more for the food/service itself and know they're compensated fairly.

I also have an inverted tipping scale with females. The hotter she is, the less she gets. I do this because every other schmuck out there does the opposite. I don't get the reasoning behind tipping a hot waitress anyways. It's not like she's going to corner you on your way out and say "hey baby, thanks for the extra $4, what are you doing later?".

I work in retail, I like @Ultramaroon know that shit really does just happen sometimes, so unless they are verbally abusive, they will get the 20% standard no matter what. Slow to deliver food is not always the waitstaff's fault, so I tend to blame the restaraunt, not my server for that.

I'm a line cook. Servers should get paid proper wages, instead of having to rely on tips.

I also think tipping is bullshit because line cooks generally work their asses off, more so than some of the servers I see, and typically don't make half of what a server makes in terms of tipout or overall pay. I overhear some servers walking out with 200 bucks a night, I'm lucky to get anywhere near 100 in a WEEK. This varies from restaurant to restaurant obviously. But what stays the same is the bullshit idea of tipping. Pay people properly and you won't have an issue.

Question for the waiters/servers: Does level of service provided depend on who you're serving? Specifically appearance. Better service to the guy in buttoned up shirt vs cargo shorts and flip flops?

I end up eating in restaurants alone a lot because I'm traveling for business on an expense account. If I'm by myself, I usually tip 20%-30% because I know I'm taking up a table that would bring more if it went to a couple or family. If I'm with other people, I start at 15% and subtract for bad service and add for good service.

I have a few simple rules for tipping. First and foremost is that you had better keep my drink filled, especially if you're serving me something spicy. If there's an issue with the food, I try to figure out whether it's the server's fault or a problem in the kitchen. For example, is it cold because the server didn't bring it out immediately? Is the food bad because the cook just doesn't know what the hell he's doing? I don't penalize the server for shitty food.

Timeliness of service also depends on how busy they are. Was the place half empty, but the server disappeared for fifteen minutes? Smaller tip. Was the place slammed and understaffed? I have tipped 50% to a waitress who was busting her ass and then complained to the manager that they obviously didn't have enough people and were killing their good servers.

At buffets I tip $2. Sorry, if your only job is to keep my drink refilled, that's not worth 15%.

It's not that they "don't feel like writing them down." At most high end restaurants, servers are not allowed to write anything down. It's considered gauche. At less fancy places, servers will sometimes forego the order pad either because they are trying to train their memory to be able to get a job at a higher end restaurant, or because they are trying to give you a higher end experience. I don't mind if they get something wrong in that situation (because everybody has to start somewhere), as long as they make it right.

Then buy some decent clothes and get out there on the floor and wait tables. Jobs are not paid by how hard you work. They're paid by their economic value. If you don't like what you're being paid, get a job with an economic value that makes you happier.

I'm not a server but I see servers and hear them talk about how they don't usually like tables with kids (12-18) or sometimes of certain races for this reason. They'll spend more time with the adults or the people who will give them more money.

Same for lots of other professions too, have two people walk into a diamond store, one in jeans and one in a suit, guess who employees will flock to.

So for the most part yes.

This sounds like the American Dream. You know, that thing that doesn't exist.

I eat out for 90% of my meals March to November. I've seen good service and bad. I honestly couldn't give a fuck if a server is trying to train their memory or if they work at a place so fancy I have to wear a suit to go to.

Bottom line is, if you fuck my order up, your tip will reflect that. I have zero sympathy for wait staff. Like you said, they should go and get some fancy clothes and apply at a bank if they're not happy with a low tip when they screw up.

Mind you, I never pay for my meals since I eat a free continental breakfast at the hotel, then spend well below my per diem on meals. If a server messes up and I end up tipping less, that's just more money in my pocket that I'm not being taxed for. Why should I excuse a wait(er/ess) for making a mistake because they're trying to train their memory, or because their employer doesn't allow them to write something down? By that logic, when I mess up on a survey I'm doing for a client and I'm new to that type of survey, they should still be paying my company for me to go out there and do it again, instead of my company eating the cost and sending me out to do it again.

Not sure if this is sarcasm.

My first job in television news, I made $18,000. I didn't like that salary. So I busted my ass for two years and got my next job for $25K. Then the next one six months later for $33K. Overall I tripled my salary in ten years in the business, but I realized that I would soon cap out and not go much higher no matter how hard I worked, because that's how much the job was worth on the market.

So I went back to school, sat for the CPA exam and reset my upper limit. I traded work that was physically demanding for a job that was much more lucrative. I worked "harder" in television but was actually making the same salary in my first accounting job as in my last television job.

When I returned to school, I didn't go to an Ivy League college. I went to an urban state school. Around 30% to 40% of my classmates were from predominantly poor, African-American areas of town. One guy I knew went to one of the worst, most violent high schools in my city, but he had a job with Deloitte waiting for him when he graduated. If he's still there five years later, he's making at least $70K per year even if he's struggling along as a low performer.

So don't tell me the American dream doesn't exist. If you don't like your circumstances, change them. It's not easy. But life isn't "fair" either, and complaining about how much other people make doesn't raise your own value in the marketplace in the slightest.

Clearly you've never worked in a restaurant. Once you're in the Back of House, getting to the Front of House is near impossible. I've been in it for 5 years and the only reason I stay is because I'm in my final year of university, and once I'm done I will start a career.

But I shouldn't have to justify my current job to some rando who thinks it's easy to just pick up and go without knowing one's life.

I also don't think calling out the restaurant industry for unequal tipouts requires one to justify themselves.

Calling out the restaurant industry for unequal tipouts just demonstrates a lack of understanding of economics.

Like any product or service, labor is worth what other people (employers) are willing to pay for it based on the supply of labor and the demand for it. If you're not making as much as waiters, it's because there is enough of a supply of line cooks to fill the demand at that price. If you want to make more money, you either have to reduce supply by killing off other line cooks, increase demand by somehow causing more restaurants to open, or move to another job that is in higher demand or shorter supply. The equilibrium price (where supply = demand) is higher for waiters than it is for line cooks, so you will make less money.

If you think you can remedy the situation by enforcing tip sharing with the wait staff and kitchen staff, you're wrong. If you reduce the waiters' compensation, the best of them will go elsewhere, and the restaurant will experience more difficulty in filling the empty positions. The remaining waiters will have to work harder. The overall level of service will go down, which will result in a decline in customers and a decline in tip amount by the customers who continue to show up. Meanwhile, because of the decline in customers, the restaurant will have to look for places to cut costs. Since you're now making tips, they can cut your base salary just like the waiters. So you'll end up making no more money than before, and possibly less because you'll be even more at the mercy of market forces than when the employer was having to guess at your value.

As for moving from the kitchen to the front, it's no more difficult than any other career change. The biggest impediments are the excuses people make for not doing it.

I worked in retail for three years; shit happens all the damn time. 10% for bad service, 20% for more than acceptable service. We live in an area with a lot of places to go, so a pattern of bad or barely acceptable service just means we'll stop eating there. Restaurants should stop this crap and grow up.

I've seen too many assholes put money under an upside down glass of water, or rip a $10 in half and leave one half (WTF?!?!).

Generally, we don't eat at corporate places; there are plenty of awesome small-business restaurants where the staff are usually paid really well. We don't worry about bad service there.

If you go to applebees or denny's you're getting someone who is treated like shit all day and expecting them to grin, bear it, and act like you aren't ordering a frozen steak.

People don't show up, people fuck each other ("Is this without onions?!? - Yeah, it's without onions!?!?!", "What the fuck is my waitress doing, I said no onions!").

Tipping will always be a problem, and even more at lower end places. As mentioned by others, consider it part of the cost or stay home. The american dream isn't dead, but there is a fast pass. Try to tip fairly and be cool to other people. Some of the angry posts here about "get another job if you don't like it"; that is fucked up.

How often are people even remotely nice to their waiters/cashiers/etc. It's not a big deal to say good morning, thanks, have a great day, etc.

Yep, nothing to see here just someone who has never worked in a restaurant pretending to be Tai Lopez with advice...

The ignorance is unbearable. And then he brought up economics and I died of laughter even harder than I already am.

You are the bearer of all knowledge, Sir, don't let anyone crush your dreams or tell you otherwise. Have a good night!

Here's my guide, rate:

coffee shop $2.00 coffee - .25 cent tip

taco, burrito, sandwhich place = $.50-$1.00 tip

waffle house, bar, or hipster pub - $2-4

nice restaurant w/ drinks - at least $5-10 for myself

pizza delivery - $4-5

Wait, I don't understand. I've worked in both sides of the restaurant, retail, service, etc. I can go back and read again but @extrashaky pretty much makes sense. With what, specifically, do you disagree?

You're in college and confirmed his point exactly, that once you graduate you'll embark on your career. You've chosen a profession that pays better.

If it's tough getting from the back of the house to the front, take a position at the front of a different house. That's just how it works.

If it a cheap price meal like $10then I tip around 15-20% because the server end up with 1.50-2 dollar. But I think it ridiculous when it like $50 plus a head I top 10 percent, because after a certain point the server get paid to much for their services. Let say you go to dinner with your ssignificant other and the bill $150, should the waiter get 22-30 dollar similar services if the meal was $25... I think after a certain price point those rules don't apply. I used to be a waiter and I was taking home 180 dollar with my wages for 5 hours of work.

I was saying "right on!" for the most part but respectfully disagree with the part I emboldened. I don't think it's angry as much as brutally honest. I've been up, down, fortunately steadily up for many years now, but through it all, never a victim. It's a cruel world. All we can do is do our best to, how does it go? "Be the change we want to see." ...something like that.

This post is based on my understanding of tipping in U.S. restaurants. Possibly my understanding is incorrect. I have read that for visitors to the U.S. tipping can be a mine field.

Scenario: I go to an restaurant. Not Michelin 3 stars but a little up-market. I order a the steak and a $50 dollar bottle of wine. The service is good. I tip 20% of the bill. My tip is appreciated by the waiter.
A week later I dine at the same restaurant and order the same steak and a $200 bottle of wine but only tip the same as my previous visit. Today's tip is deemed to be insufficient even though the service is exactly the same as last week. How can one open a bottle any better?

This is all conjecture on my part. I have no idea of the reality. Maybe someone could fill me in on this example.

The reality is pretty absurd but, yeah, that's about it. How does it work in Australia?

edit: actually, if you think of the tip as a margin for handling, it's not really absurd at all.

I've always thought of this but never asked.
It seems pretty ridiculous to me.

It may be frowned upon by some people, but I never tip based on how much my meal may have cost. Sometimes I eat alone and eat something cheap but the server was always attentive, filling up my drink/whatever so I leave them a much higher tip than what my meal would suggest.
Sometimes I order something expensive and the server basically brings my drink and meal and isn't seen again until it's time to pay.
Am I going to leave a better tip to this guy than the other server that I only ordered a sandwich with in my previous example because this meal had a higher ticket?
In most situations there is no direct correlation between the level of service you receive and how much your total bill is.

Tipping is only a recent develop in Aus. It is not expected that you will tip but it has become increasingly common for tip jars for loose change to be next to the cash register in cafes and there is often a space on your credit card slip to pay a tip in restaurants.

Nothing angry about it. On the contrary, other people are getting angry at the science. Whining that it's not fair that someone else makes more money without considering the reasons why is like dropping your ice cream and getting mad at the planet for complying with the laws of gravity. "Stupid Earth! I hate you for ruining my ice cream!"

Where is the science in that?

Interesting. Is the hourly wage adjusted lower for wait staff? If not, it just sounds like a scam gaining popularity.

No, tips are on top of their hourly wage.

Anyone remember that scene in Reservoir Dogs in the beginning of the movie where they discuss tipping? Pretty interesting debate.

Bwahahaha

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/16/01...fc9ebc33ea.jpg

Oh, this explains a lot. Getting your understanding of economics from Wikipedia. Gotcha!