Why Tip?

[mrvlknight21]

Back in the day, I worked at Olive Garden and this guy and his wife/girlfriend come in and order drinks and an appetizer and no dinner, apparently they werent that hungry. Well, the bill was only like $15. The guy gave me $35 and said "keep it."
I walked off and saw what he gave me and thought that he made a mistake, so I went back and said, sir, you gave me $35. He said "I know." I said ok, but the bill was just $15, he said "good service=good tip." He actually tipped me more than the bill.

At the same time, I have served a group of aholes who ordered drinks, appetizers, dinners, desserts, and more drinks. The bill was well over $100 and they gave me like $3 despite the fact that I busted my butt and gave very good service.

You just never know.

 

[Heretic]

Oh yeah...heres a story...

I went out to eat at a Red Lobster with some friends (I actually dont like that restaurant). Anyway, the family i went with ALL found problems with their food. "mine is too hot" Mine is too cold" "mine is too greasy". One of them even got drunk and then after a BUNCH of drinks accused the waitress of not putting the right amount of alcohol in it (even i tried telling him that as you drink more you taste the alcohol less). They ended up running up a bill of hundreds of dollars, refusing to pay for ANYTHING (including all of the drinks before they started getting "ripped off") and didnt leave a tip. I was furious and humiliated and the tipped the waitress very well, but really...its a very difficult job.

 

[Lord Valumart]

there's only one place i tip at and thats cause my mate tips there also, but appart from that i never tip. don't see why i should really...

 

[BizarroAids]

I try to be fair with tiping. If the service is good, then I'll give the usual 20%. But anymore it seems like people just think they deserve a tip no matter what.

I was at Applebees not too long ago, and had the worse service ever. The guy was always texting on his phone when we would try to get his attention. Then he would shut his phone and roll his eyes. Like it was SUCH an inconvinence for us to ask for a drink refill. So out of our $75 tab, he only got 5 bucks. That's one of those times when I won't give 20 percent.

Waiters need to work for that tip, not just to expect it since they bring me my food. If you're going to be horrible at it, you're not getting much from me.

 

[Rando]

I try to be fair with tiping. If the service is good, then I'll give the usual 20%. But anymore it seems like people just think they deserve a tip no matter what.

I was at Applebees not too long ago, and had the worse service ever. The guy was always texting on his phone when we would try to get his attention. Then he would shut his phone and roll his eyes. Like it was SUCH an inconvinence for us to ask for a drink refill. So out of our $75 tab, he only got 5 bucks. That's one of those times when I won't give 20 percent.

Waiters need to work for that tip, not just to expect it since they bring me my food. If you're going to be horrible at it, you're not getting much from me.

in this case, you could call it crap-elbees!

 

[terry78]

For anyone that works in the service industry we can all agree that people under 30 are the worst tippers overall. Even when I was under 30 I knew this. Anytime I saw a bunch of youngsters I knew someone wasn't getting a tip, especially if they had a big rowdy group.

 

[Tyrinus]

Oh yeah...heres a story...

I went out to eat at a Red Lobster with some friends (I actually dont like that restaurant). Anyway, the family i went with ALL found problems with their food. "mine is too hot" Mine is too cold" "mine is too greasy". One of them even got drunk and then after a BUNCH of drinks accused the waitress of not putting the right amount of alcohol in it (even i tried telling him that as you drink more you taste the alcohol less). They ended up running up a bill of hundreds of dollars, refusing to pay for ANYTHING (including all of the drinks before they started getting "ripped off") and didnt leave a tip. I was furious and humiliated and the tipped the waitress very well, but really...its a very difficult job.

You need a new group of friends that aren't *******s.

 

[Heretic]

I dont hanng with them anymore...it was actually an ex's family.

And yeah, waiting tables is their job...and essentially it is their customers who pay them. It should be obvious that a hard working, quality server will make more money (not always, as with rowdy young groups etc, but usually it holds true). If some idiot texts all day at his job at the mall, eventually he'll be fired...so a waiter texting all day also doesnt deserve a bonus, like a tip.

 

[Manic]

No, I just got excellent service from a waitress who told jokes with us and helped us have a great time...she was paid well for doing her job well, which is how it should be in any profession. In fact, the next time I was there, she remembered us and hung out, and comped us out a bunch of food (they were introducing new entrees and the cooks were fine tuning them, so she figured shed give me a free meal as opposed to throwing stuff away). That time my bill for two appetizers, meals, drinks and desserts was less than $10. I tipped her a hundred bucks or so.

You ain't gotta lie. That waitress met you out behind the restaurant and gave you some ass, didn't she?

 

[Untilteld]

I just ordered chinese and I tipped the guy at least three dollars. it's just common sense to tip.

 

[Heretic]

You ain't gotta lie. That waitress met you out behind the restaurant and gave you some ass, didn't she?

No, but granted she was my fav waitress Ive ever had...

PS: Just got back from the Olive Garden. My waitress forgot that she had our table and left us for dead for almost an hour. She got a couple bucks.

 

[terry78]

No, but granted she was my fav waitress Ive ever had...

PS: Just got back from the Olive Garden. My waitress forgot that she had our table and left us for dead for almost an hour. She got a couple bucks.

If you can tell they're kinda new, I would tip them anyway, so they feel a little better about themselves. Now if the chick is a veteran, then no.

 

[SoulManX]

Has anyone ever been harassed for not tipping?

I ask because last summer a couple of my friends and I took a trip down to Atlanta, and decided to stop at this small restaurant. The waiter came to the table took our drink orders and food food orders. Brought us our drinks and food and the same time and never refilled our drinks or checked on us again for our entire meal. The whole time we see him cozying up to a table of girls across the restaurant. All of that was cause enough to not get a tip, but wait there's more...When he finally notices we're done he brings refills on my tea because its in a pitcher but not on my friends fountain drinks. He brings us one check for all five of us and when we asked him to split the check he gets an attitude and slams the little black books they bring the check in on to our table. So we pay and he brings us our change and one of my friends has the bright idea to leave a single penny on the table as his "tip." So we walk outside and start to walk into another store in the complex and out of nowhere our waiter comes yelling in our faces asking do we "think that's funny and how hard it is to wait tables all day".

We ended up going back to the restaurant to complain and they ended up comping us some free shots but needless to say next time I'm in ATL I won't be going there again.

Wow just wow.

 

[Ahura Mazda]

I can say out of experience that in places you go often, tipping ensures very good service. I end up getting things promptly, I have had tables set up for me in restaurants without a reservation when others were waiting, etc.

 

[amazingfantasy15]

I'm really sick of seeing tip jars at fast food places, I never leave any money in them, they get normal hourly wages. I'll always tip if I'm at a restaurant or bar and someone is actively checking how I'm doing and I know a large percentage of their income comes from tips, but someone waiting on me for 30 sec. or so doesn't deserve a tip.

 

[fu manchu]

2 words:

reservoir dogs

I don't tip because society says I have to. All right, if someone deserves a tip, if they really put forth an effort, I'll give them something a little something extra. But this tipping automatically, it's for the birds. As far as I'm concerned, they're just doing their job.

 

[boydston_14]

You took the words right out of my mouth.

And mine as well.

 

[Zephyr Alexian]

I usually tip between 7 and 20 dollars depending on where I go and what I ordered.

 

[The Guard]

I have the RESERVOIR DOGS mindset. Well, one of them anyway. Not tipping strikes me as absurd.

I tend to give the standard 15%, even if the service is lousy, about 20% if the service is good, and 30-50% or more if the service is really good. One of my favorite things to do with my fiancee is "run out on the bill", that is, we use a large bill to pay and just walk out of the restaurant before we're cashed out. I figure the server will know we intend them to keep the change.

Servicewise I don't expect a server to care about me personally, nor do I expect them to run themselves ragged or to be "fake". I expect them to bring me my food and to refill my drink once or twice and maybe make small talk about something they actually care about if they are so inclined. One of the best waiters I ever had was an amateur comedian, and he spent the night insulting us and our food choices. I think I ended up leaving him $50 on a $25 meal.

Not tipping at all tends to be a dick move. It's socially unacceptable to do so, unless your service was just awful, and even then it's considered proper to leave something. Servers make something like $2.00 an hour in most places, so understandably, they depend on their tips. And yes, most people know that better service equals better tips, but it's not always that simple. Servers don't have an extremely hard job, but emotionally, they do not have an easy job, either. They put up with a lot of random "customer service" crap, and usually you can see them having to do it while you're there being served. Are some of them rude? Yes, but a very small percentage of them, in my experience.

I'm a theatre person, and it burns me up when my friends go out, spend $40 on their single meal, and then leave like 75 cents for the server.