<p>Today, my hair stylist handed me his iphone to pay my bill, using Squareup app. New technology for this low tech mom…o.k., I can deal with it. But…there is no option to put a dollar amount of MY choice for a tip. These were my options: No tip. 20%. 35%. 50%.
Hit one with the stylus, and your total automatically appears and then you sign. (Yes, I know I could have given cash…but didn’t have enough in wallet.)</p>
<p>Hmmm. I can see why he likes it–and apparently, his credit card fees are so much lower than the traditional way. But I’m still kind of unsettled by this. </p>
<p>Some of my thoughts were: what if I want to give an 18% or 25% tip? And, seriously, you think I’d give a 50% tip??? Ha!</p>
<p>I’d be tempted to just not tip if those were the only choices I were given, just because it annoys me on principle.</p>
<p>My hair stylist recently stopped letting you put a tip on the card when you ply with credit. I haven’t forgotten to bring cash yet, but as I NEVER use cash and doing so requires a special trip to the ATM, sooner or later she’ll probably be out a tip and I’ll be sure to point out why. It annoys me when people make generosity inconvenient.</p>
<p>Wow, that is bad. We had to use little machines to pay for meals with credit cards in Quebec City a couple of weeks ago. Apparently, they’ve passed a law that you have to pay that way, to avoid possible credit card fraud. It had options, though - you could punch in the amount, or the percentage.</p>
<p>It was kind of confusing to figure out, and if you weren’t fast enough the transaction would be canceled and the waiter would have to enter everything again. The waiter would look disgusted each time this happened! We told them that we weren’t used to this in the US.</p>
<p>I have seen those calculators at restaurants (I think Legal Seafood uses it around here) and there definitely is an option for adding your own amount for the tip (rather than the recommended percentages)…</p>
<p>I just noticed, though, that you mentioned the Square app…not sure if that is what they were using…</p>
<p>Edit: I just looked up the website online; there are different options for tips; your hair person must have tailored these…</p>
<p>I would just make sure I brought cash in the future to avoid it…</p>
<p>Our hair salon has never allowed the tip to go on, since the accountant doesn’t want to keep track of the tips for individual stylists. I normally tip 15-20% for stylists, but that is not common for our area. 10% seems to be the norm for hairdressers with larger gifts during the holidays.</p>
<p>This sounds very easy - just always hit the ‘no tip’ option. You can then either tip in cash if you feel like it or you can tell him you would have tipped with the other method but you don’t like this new method so you’ll always select ‘no tip’. If enough people do this maybe he’ll stop using this.</p>
<p>rodney, maybe it’s just Maine that’s behind the times! Since we moved up here, I noticed that it often takes longer for things to arrive. For example, we were surprised that there were no furniture rental places when we came in 1986. It took about five years after that for them to appear.</p>
<p>I much prefer Europe where the meal price on the menu is the price you pay at the end. It includes tax and tip. </p>
<p>I don’t agree with tipping barbers and hair stylists in general (depends on the place). My barber owns his own shop. He can set his haircut rates at whatever he chooses. So, he does not deserve a tip because if he wanted more he would charge more. (I tip him, I just don’t think it is appropriate).</p>
<p>It’s a different story if the shop is owned by someone other than the person performing the services.</p>
<p>engineer- I thought the rule was NOT to tip the proprietor! That’s what I was always taught!</p>
<p>I understand why they do it- the credit card companies really take a big chunk and I know this saves the provider/store some money. It’s just going to take some re-training of the customers (including me). I tip around 15% usually.</p>
<p>I had this in a local new restaurant, Mom and Pop type place. I find it a little awkward choosing my tip while the server is holding out his Ipad for me. Definitely feels pressured. and his service was really not great, so I might have tipped 15% but felt uncomfortable not selecting more. social pressure…</p>
<p>These are portable readers for chip cards. There’s no law! It just means that they bring the machine to your table rather than take your card and do it at the front cash, etc. These are not commonly used, even here. We eat out probably once or twice a week and I think I’ve only ever seen one of these in use once in the past couple of years.</p>
<p>I haven’t seen the I-Phone/I-Pad payment option yet, and to be honest, I wouldn’t be comfortable paying that way. Do you get a receipt? What protection does that App have for your CC info? </p>
<p>I always give my stylist her tip in cash. I don’t even know if the salon allows for tips on CCs because I never do in that way.</p>
<p>I actually tip my hair cutter 50%, but then again I’ve gone since high school. I know his price is higher but he always charges me $10 dollars, which is the same price from high school about 16 years ago. I’m pretty sure he charges other people more. So leaving a $5 makes me feel like a big tipper, but I think I’m just giving whats fair. Its very situational and depends on what kind of relationship you have with your barber.</p>
<p>Like MOWC, I usually don’t have cash. I’ll be carrying cash in future. This was first time I’d run into this. I’d be happy to tip him 50%–if his bill was in the $10 range. But when the bill is >$200…there’s just no way. I guess I just thought it was so presumptuous…</p>
<p>I’ve seen cab drivers with those and right, it starts at 20%.</p>
<p>The one place where I way-over tip is when I get a pedicure…it’s $22 and I always tip $10. It’s ridiculous, but jeez, the lady is washing my feet!</p>
It just means that they bring the machine to your table rather than take your card and do it at the front cash, etc. These are not commonly used, even here. We eat out probably once or twice a week and I think I’ve only ever seen one of these in use once in the past couple of years.</p>