I was thrown off by that also.
I think he kind of sided with us, but summed it up at “It is what it is.”
I tend to agree with somebody who agrees with me. :lol
Yes I would say so. At first I took his argument a different way, thinking he was trying to say something else. Now that I see what he is saying, I cant argue with a well founded opinion. He is right in a way and has some good points. I am right in some ways also. It is just a double edged sword.
Sorry for my inability to see what you were saying from the get go Shawn. :hug
No problem. Miscommunications occurs all the time especially over this medium.
Also, I got the impression that some thought I was against tipping. I am not sure how you could think that but ok. The purpose of this thread is to question what would have to occur to cause that.
Like my posts/opinions, it is what it is. I have given $0 1-2 times because the person was just completely rude to me and my guests. On the flip side, I have also tipped 30-5X% because I got treated like a King and have personally went up to their manager to compliment them. Give credit where it is due but I am surely not going to leave a penny if the person is a prick to me regardless of 15% rule.
I’m going to have to agree with Vlad and Shawn on this one, in fact I was just talking about this with the GF the other day.
I will start my statements off with this, I would gladly take a 15% hike on every food item in the place rather than have to tip. I tip and I usually tip well when someone deserves it. But damnit why should I go to friendlies and get waited on by some high school drop out and have to give her 15% of my bill when she can’t even remember that I wanted cheese on my burger? I would much rather pay more right off the bat and in turn leave a tip when I feel someone went ABOVE THE DUTIES OF THERE JOB. Think about almost any other situation you tip in other than the food industry, you tip because someone provided an extra service that you weren’t expecting or that wasn’t required by the job they do. Or at least thats the basis I use for determining when to throw someone a couple of bucks.
I feel the same way.
On that notion, we have a lot of minorities down here. A lot don’t speak English but man, they just make it happen. You order pizza/chinese/wash your car/etc…, it’s perfect.
Go to the local Friendlies and you are lucky if the order is correct.
I always tip 15-20%, except this one time. This “waiter” in Myrtle Beach messed up 6 drinks for 4 people then gave 2 of us the completely wrong meal (wasn’t even ordered), and didn’t even give one girl her meal. When we asked him to fix all of his mistakes, he was really snotty about it and talked down to us because we were younger than him. He got $2 on a $120 bill.
Which brings me to my next point.
Why is the size of the tip determined on the price tag of the bill, when the price is not necessarily correlated to the amount of work done.
I made this reference earlier in this thread when I compred $100 a head at Peter Luger with $20 a head at TGIF. Take it a step further and what about the places, Outback for one, where the person who receives the tip doesn’t actually bring the food. Someone from the back does?
In places like the outback they have people to run the food for the server. They do not got tipped per table, but the server at the end of the night has to tip out the bar for bar drinks, walkers for running food and the bussers for cleaning the table. On an average night I tip out a total of about 30 -40 dollars to the help that I get from anyone.
i always tip regardless of the service. i go out to eat often and just about every weekend. i usually stick with the same places and i always tip nicely. no, its not to impress the girl that im out with whomever it may be :naughty but because i know how stressful working in a fast paced environment can be. contrary to what most ppl think, a waiters job isnt just bringing you your food then roaming around. on a busy night on the weekend they serve a shitload of tables all at the same time. they have to make sure that they bring the correct order to the proper table as well as make sure that the person cooking the food didnt screw something up before they bring it to the table (if they are not slacking and actually doing their job correctly) those who say “well i’m paying for my meal, why do i need to pay extra?” its because your paying for the service. if you’re going out to dinner then you are clearly too goddamn lazy to prepare your own food and would rather somebody else to pick up that labor. also, if the service isnt that great, who knows, the waiter or waitress could’ve had a bad day and even tho it’s not your problem, if you give them a tip worth picking up, you still make them feel better. if the service is great and you tip very well, most likely the next time you are they, they will remember you and the service will be just as great if not better. i’ve gone out to eat a couple times and seen punk ass kids either bail on the check or not tip and no lie, i actually paid they 2 fag’s bill for them cuz they bailed (it was like $27 and my paycheck was more than i had expected…significantly) and even left an $8 tip since some restaurants around here take the bill out of the waiter/waitress’s pay for not paying attention to their customers. i saw that the waitress saw them dash out the door and seeing the look on her face made me want to tip her $100. she was waiting on me as well and i tipped her nicely for my order as well.
it’s not that im trying to show off or impress anyone or be a “baller” its just that i have a conscience and i know that if i was in her shoes, i would be highly aggrivated. even if the service sucks, tip a couple dollars b/c who knows, it may not be the waiter/waitress’s fault that the cooks are dicking around or that its extremely busy which is delaying you getting your food. have some patience, eat your food when it gets there, pay the price for being a lazy fuck and not cooking your own food and have a good night.
///////rant lol
cliffs: always tip no matter what
I generally tip 25+% … Shawn, your a cheap bastard. You should get an estimate before you go out to eat btw ! :haha
well 99.9% of the time it does, for instance say you and a large group of people go to a restaurant, who ever the waitor or waitress is they will only get that table or get fewer tables depending on the size of the group they are serving, so you should feel somewhat obligated (unless servise is terrible)to give them a larger tip,
or its at a nicer restaurant where food is generally more expensive, this generally correlates with better service and in cases of great service you should also give a larger tip
usually 20%, but i generally round up to a bill…say it’s a $33 check, give em $40…etc etc.
Old man didn’t read the thread. 
Why are people associating a server with a NASA Engineer too?
That’s a damn good point, I was at a business meeting a number of years ago and the 5 of us had a $15k bill, the bulk of the bill was calvados, we each had a drink from a bottle from the 1850’s. Granted I wasn’t footing the bill, but it was still shocking to see a lunch meeting cost $3k/head and require no more service then any other party of 5.
My GF who is a very generous tipper was covering the tab at a comedy club in the Westside Village with a close friend/client and his wife.
The cost of entry was like $20 X 4 people = $80 and we each bought 2 drinks each. They were brought from the bar which was 5 feet away to our table at about $8 a pop for a total of $32. She tipped him $14 I believe. In front of my client, the server called her out on it and had the % down to the hundredth. I didn’t catch it at first but he wanted tip on the entry to the actual place too. My GF was completely embarressed and livid altered the tip and brought it up to $30 or so.
I made a phone call the next day to the club manager and that guy is looking for a new job. If I see him again, I’ll probably beat the ever living shit out of him for that. I don’t care if GWB or Jesus is watching either. That’s just wrong.
It’s also an interesting persepective when eating customers have a lower income then the actual servers.
The system is flawed there is no way around it, I’m not sure about it’s history but it’s simply stupid. There are no set rules and it goes in a way of play by play. It’s unfair in many perspectives and makes the customer’s quality of service put on the customer. If you want a horrible service, don’t tip. You want great service, give a 20 upfront. Which further rewards the people that are well off financially.
I don’t care if they don’t have enough money or they are struggling. They shouldn’t have come to a resturant where the dinner is worth half of the welfare check. If you want mediocre service and want to pay a shitty tip. Go to Friendly’s or some other shit hole.
In general you should just tip the delivery guy…being a delivery driver in the past makes you wonder what happens when you don’t tip…such as if your house is up first and you know they wont tip you, your order is last on the round of deliverys…the better tippers = better and faster service to your door. And if you think that the managers would care that you do that, think again…most mangers are drivers (such as wings) and tell you to do that…so theres no point in calling and saying your foods late :lol