Tipping (the Cheap Asses and the Too Generous)

So... this should serve as an interesting topic. What do you guys think about tipping? I know that there are some people who will tip $20 for a $45 meal, and there are some like Pink from Reservoir Dogs that don't believe in tipping, or tip $2 for a $100 plate.

I personally think that I'm a decent tipper (to my standards). Except for one time, were I was eating Applebees with my girlfriend at the time, the waiter was attending way too much to her instead of me, plus his eye contact with her didn't rub off too well with me. So I decided to give him a $2 tip for a $60 dinner, of course she thought that was mean to do in general, but I felt justified.

I'm generally a good tipper, because I know that the tips are what the person really lives on. Unless they can't do their job. If that's the case, they need to learn to do their job better, and maybe being financially punished will be the motivator for that.
But they have to be really horrible for me to not leave ANY tip.

I always tip at least 20% in a restaurant. I've worked in them for ten years. That said, I don't believe in tipping generally speaking. It helps set up a degrading master/servant relationship in the minds of some, and doesn't seem to be much related to actual quality of service in many cases. Just give servers a decent living wage and be done with it.

yes!

yeah, put the compensation into the price of the meal and pay your employees. Your bank teller, lawyer and traffic cop are not paid based on your satisfaction in their performance, if you plan on eating in a restaurant more than once, do you really want to piss off someone who's handling your food?

i always tip 20% at restaurants, unless the service was bad, then 15%. if the waiter is over-the-top rude for no reason (which has only happened twice), then i'll leave even less.

bars, $1 - $1.50 per drink.
cabs: 10% of fare

my pet peeve is pizza delivery, and the $2-$3 delivery fee that some places have added to their fees, so they can offer those low prices on pizza. i feel this probably hurts the drivers in the end. i'd rather that money go to the driver purely for tip, rather than spending $2-$3 toward delivery fee (which i heard the driver usually sees none of), then an extra $2-$3 for the driver. $6 in fees for a pizza?!?!?! i understand that it all equals out in the end to the consumer when the cost of the pizza is added in, but i don't know if most people get that. thus, it seems the pizza companies are really fucking over their drivers.

If you tipped 3% because you thought a waiter "might" be paying too much attention to your date, you're a dick.

Yeah, unless it's SUPER obvious that a waiter's hitting on my lady, I don't feel that's a valid reason to fuck him on the tip.

Now, if we get water half an hour after we sit down at our table, or the food is cold whenever it finally makes it to the table? Hell, you should feel lucky if we're still even there. Fuck your tip, and fuck you for being a shitty waiter. The lady and I will dine at Jack in the Box on our way to the opera this evening.

GOOD DAY, SIR.

This thread probably doesn't apply so much to where I am (in Australia, the servers have a salary/wage) however in a country such as the US where tipping is a server's income, I believe I would tip generously unless of course the service was intentionally poor.

Tipping is a big thing in America. Here, the only places you tip is at the American and heavily American frequented joints. If you tip a local at a Japanese restaurant? That's apparently an insult, both to the individual being tipped and to their job. I'm not sure why exactly, but that's what I've been told.

I believe it's along the lines of a pity/honor thing, i.e. "You look poor" or "You suck, here's some extra money for server lessons." Funny thing about people being adequately paid for their work, it actually makes some of them want to take a measure of pride in their job performance.

Some, maybe. I'm not sure it's any more than take pride in any job.

People usually take pride in their jobs because they like what they're doing, not because they're paid a certain amount. Some of the best compensated people in the world just about collapsed the entire financial industry.

Also, in general, people should know that at least half of all the fuck ups you experience in a restaurant are the fault of back-of-the-house staff, and won't feel your stingy 50 cent tip. The best protest is to tip your 15% and not return to a restaurant where you experienced bad service...if it was egregious/deliberate, complain to someone. Believe me, the vast majority of errors committed by waiters are just that--they aren't deliberate. I've fucked up in both salaried, hourly and tip-based jobs and only in one of them did I suffer financially for a mistake.

Isn't Applebees one of those companies that pays below minimum wage on an hourly basis, and the server has to make up the rest in tips? I've had some students who worked out there and they tried to explain the way it is set up, but I never quite got the hang of it.

Almost every restaurant pays waiters under minimum wage.

Well, not sure about the state you live in but when I both bartended and waited tables in CA, it was standard to get paid a lower restaurant wage (a couple of dollars less per hour than the standard state minimum wage) since it is assumed you make tips.

Now, I think I totally earned the tips when I was making and serving drinks. Carrying food to a table? Not really so much. Don't get me wrong - serving is a lot of work and you need the tips to counter the lack of salary. Anyway, it seemed weird that the cooks never saw any tips for making great food but I'd get extra money for transporting it from the kitchen to a table.

I sometimes wonder if the notion of putting waiters on an income supplemented by tipping was influenced by the restaurant owners to hustle and sell more or higher priced menu items (higher bill = higher tip based on percentage).

But, that being said: I typically will tip either 20% or 10% at restaurants and minimum of $1/drink at a bar - regardless of any specials (it takes just as much work for a bartender to make that drink when it was $5 as it does when it's discounted down to $1).

Cannot tell you how super motivated you get on "Dollar Drink Night" when some shitbag is hollering at you with a fucking dollar raised up.

Yeah, I think all the servers I know make like $2 something an hour. Sometimes the tipping works in their favor, but often they lose money by being at work on a slow day.
On slow days, I always tip big.

My only complaint with tipping is how it now seems to be expected everywhere in the food industry regardless of the job.

Being a waitress is one thing, as tips do make up a sizable percentage of pay. The same with being a delivery boy. But when I go to a sandwich shop, and there's a tip jar--or to get an ice cream or a coffee, and there's a tip jar--I honestly resent it. You're getting paid a wage to perform a task; why do you think that automatically entitles you to a tip? It makes me want to carry a jar around work with me and ask for a gratuity any time I perform my job properly.

It almost makes me feel like I'm being panhandled by a business.

-ReAct
"No, I can't spare a quarter."

I usually tend to "overtip." I think this habit comes from being treated well at most bars and restaurants, and from hearing stories about bad customers/bad tippers from people who work at bars/restaurants.

Occasionally, I received perks from over tipping. I ate at one local Mexican restaurant so much, and tipped decently enough that I noticed I started getting all my soft drinks for free. And there is at least 2 bars in Vegas, and one bar in NYC where I got free mixed drinks and/or was offered free shots.

There are times where I screwed people over though. A few examples:

There was someone who refused to refill my soft drink at a breakfast buffet. Probably because I was in my early 20s, the people I was with in my early 20s, and the waitress expected a small tip or no tip, so she was trying to get use to leave the buffet. So she got a small tip, but not because "young people don't tip."

I had another instance where I complained about the ice tea tasting "off." They told me "but you ordered it" as if that is a proper response to that complaint. They did take my drink away, but never brought me another, and they still charged me for it.

I had another time I grabbed a cab at the airport. First, the cab driver asked me if I "actually had money to pay the fare" because "usually people without luggage have no money." Um, I have a backpack, because I am only staying in town two or three days, dumbass, but yes, I have money. Then, they lied about traffic being heavy as an excuse to take a "backway." But there was little traffic on the main roads, which they foolishly commented on later, "Wow, this place is sure dead today." Still, I was going to give a decent tip. But then they claimed they couldn't give me change for a twenty. They probably thought this was going to get them a bigger tip, because I didn't have enough change to give them anything small. I ended giving them a couple bucks. They thanked my graciously, probably because they realized I caught on to their little game.

Ever visited Portland?

I usually tip at least 4-5 dollars at least, which becomes a 50% or more tip for most of my eating out; I usually just get an appetizer & drink and spend ~$10 on a meal at a restaurant.

It's only a few dollars difference to me and to the server, but I know that a higher than average tip is a huge mood boost for a server during a shitty day. I spent a few years serving at Steak N Shake.

Paying for a binge meal or a group I will tip 20-25% depending on how precise I am with math.

Yep. I get annoyed if someone I'm with tries to figure out exactly 15-20% on such a small tab. Minimum for food: $3. Minimum for drink: $1.