<p>I go to a lot of restaurants where the servers (people who bring out the food) are not necessary the waiter. It is more efficient.</p>
<p>I am wondering how many people actually take the time to evaluate the service before computing the tip? I think it has become an automatic reflex to give your customary !5-20% no matter what.</p>
<p>During a conference last week, had lunch at a midpriced franchised restaurant. Group of 8. The stingy tipper was the evangelical atheist. Religion isn’t really the issue here–this is someone who has trouble understanding professional ethics. </p>
<p>I tip automatically most of the time just as you say, Harvestmoon. It’s what I figure I’m going to pay the wait staff if I go out to eat. Can’t afford the tip and meal at a place, I ratchet the $ level of restaurant I choose, to what I can. So, yes, it’s pretty much reflex for me…unless, something unusual catches my attention and I feel that a larger, smaller or no tip is in order. That happens very rarely. Maybe twice in the 15 years I’ve been here, and maybe once where I lived before, maybe a half dozen times in my entire life. Even when I didn’t have much money to spare, if I ate out, I tipped the waiter the customary 15-20%. </p>
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Oye…there was a restaurant that I went to that had the totals listed incorporating varying tipping amounts and our server starred the highest one…Wishful thinking on her part because that is NOT what she got.</p>
<p>Some places in NYC are now auto tipping at 18% for parties of 6 or more. Sometimes even 5. So suggested tip levels even when pointed out by the server still leave the control to the diner, unlike the mandatory scale.</p>
<p>Also at a lot of restaurants, your waiter only gets a small piece of your tip, as the many tips are pooled. So it’s important if you have a terrible waiter, that you let the manager know why you are leaving a small or no tip. Not much skin off the waiter’s nose, otherwise. If you want to tip over and beyond for a specific waiter, one should leave a credit card tip and then give the waiter a direct in hand case tip for that over and beyond. Or better yet, let the manager know and ask if a direct over and beyond tip is permitted after the general tip. So in many of those restaurants, if the whole experience is bad, poorly run, and the waiter is ok, as far as I’m concerned, it particularly should be reflected in the tip, because the waiter is only literally going to get a tip of that tip anyways. This way you are truly hitting the whole system. </p>
<p>Since I like having the availability of places to dine, and the control the diner has in paying the restaurant in this aspect, yes, I tip automatically. I drop to the lower end of 15% if the service is barely adequate to adequate. And range upward to 20% when it’s good. Great is rare, and not tipping is even rarer, for me. It does have to be pretty danged terrible for me to stiff a place, and I certainly do let management know when that happenes.</p>
<p>Has anyone else noticed that in many “take-out” restaurants, if you pay by credit card, you don’t just get the usual receipt anymore. They hand you the paperwork you would get at a “sit-down” restaurant with a space for the tip. I just put a line through that space and carry the total down. Just can’t wrap my brain around tipping for take-out unless it is brought to my home. I usually over tip delivery staff because I think they have a tough job.</p>
<p>Yes, I have noticed take-out. To me, it’s the equivalent of asking for a tip at a fast food restaurant. (Or…at least that’s the closest comparison I can think of…)</p>
<p>If I get bad service, I don’t even bother to tell the manager, I just leave a review on Yelp.</p>
<p>Businesses can pay to have negative reviews removed.</p>
<p>Really? All of reviews are still there, good or bad.</p>
<p>We have allergies in our family, so often our order has a special request. Often, and I do mean often, restaurants get it wrong. Something as simple as no tomatoes is missed, and I know they think “just take it off” but with allergies you need to know none, even the juice, remains. I know by their responses they think we are being difficult, but hives and possible shock are not worth the chance. I often wonder is it the waitress, or does the kitchen just not care.</p>
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<p>Oy. This is just far too complicated for me. When I go out to eat I want to have a pleasant, easy time, not have to devote a lot of thought to gaming the tipping system.</p>
<p>Frankly, I never stiff waiters, I am not a difficult customer, and I am sick of reading articles in which waiters ■■■■■ and moan about customers. Do they think they are the only ones who deal with the public? I would venture to guess that MOST of those who have to put up with the public make a lot less than they do and many of them are treated far worse. Try working retail. Try working for the Census Bureau. Above, someone said that they made $15/hr as a waiter–and you know that those at upscale places make a LOT more than that. Someone else said that their kid made $500 per shift. A field supervisor for the Census Bureau makes $15/hour with no benefits and takes endless abuse from the public. Field representatives make less.</p>
<p>I’d love to do away with tipping altogether. I think it is demeaning. I prefer the European model.</p>
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Mmph, yes! </p>
<p>I’ve had my fair share of retail experience and it’s not all rainbows and butterflies.</p>
<p>(I, too, was thinking of the European model of tipping while reading this thread…)</p>
<p>Well, tipping gives you a direct way to reward the place. If it’s not good, you don’t tip and you don’t come back. Great service, great place, you control the rewards. The sales clerks at stores tend to get paid regardless of the quality of the service. Some on commisions, I know, but really very few. The restaraunt is about the last bastion of consumerism where you can actually directly show how much you think the service was worth. You have the guideline on what the norms are, and you go high and low between them and you can go out of parameter if the experience so dictates. </p>
<p>My one brother eats out A LOT. That’s his big enjoyment in life. He knows all the great and adequate restaurants as well as where not to go. The managers, staff some owners and chef know him and he does get treated well. He also tips generously though not over the top as he believes those like him keep the system going at current satisfactoy status with the choices of venues and good service. </p>
<p>I take my elderly mother to a little Japanese restaurant twice a month or so for their lunch special or lunch selections. $10 a plate, and for me to make any of those dishes would be very difficult with the variety of ingredients and the skill to prepare. ANd the service is excellent. $3 tip seems to me to be far too little support for this experience and infrastructure we so enjoy and are so privileged to be able to enjoy. So in such cases, even a 30% tip is still very little in my eyes. I do agree that some of the more expensive venues where the service is not there, the food is not terrific or worth the price in one’s opinion, and the experience is not good, I would feel loathe to tip much or at all. I think of some of the less expensive places that give me much more. But i select my restaraunts carefully, and don’t often get terrible disappointments. </p>
<p>I leave few reviews, but I’ve had a negative review removed on one site after which I looked for supporting information.</p>
<p><a href=“http://seattletimes.com/html/opinion/2022688527_terrythomgasopedyelp17xml.html”>http://seattletimes.com/html/opinion/2022688527_terrythomgasopedyelp17xml.html</a></p>
<p>( interesting. The times link does not work, but when I do a search for it on google it still pops up. The author is a small business owner who also teaches ethics courses at local universities. His column related his experience of positive reviews being removed after he declined a yelp salesman pitch of buying ads for $8,400 a yr)</p>
<p><a href=“Yelp and the Business of Extortion 2.0 | East Bay Express | Oakland, Berkeley & Alameda”>Yelp and the Business of Extortion 2.0 | East Bay Express | Oakland, Berkeley & Alameda;
Some businesses may feel yelp reviews don’t impact their business &/or they can’t afford to pay them off.</p>
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I’ve never worked in the food industry but I appreciate good service.</p>
<p>Nothing I have read on here convinces me that I’m in the wrong for tipping a general 15% - being generous in the sense of rounding up or throwing in an extra dollar or two if it makes the figure come out to a nice round number - and reserving 20% for exceptional service. </p>
<p>“Nothing I have read on here convinces me that I’m in the wrong for tipping a general 15% - being generous in the sense of rounding up or throwing in an extra dollar or two if it makes the figure come out to a nice round number - and reserving 20% for exceptional service.”</p>
<p>That collective groan you just heard is from those who have to wait on you.</p>
<p>Old fort
I never said I didn’t tip the waiter. Where do you get this stuff? That is your choice. We try to teach our kids how to live in the world with allergies rather than hide from it. How nice of you to judge.</p>
<p>Shiloh77 - this thread is about tipping waitstaff. You brought up the issue of sometimes the waitstaff could be careless about your special request, so I just assumed it could be the reason why you wouldn’t tip as much when they mess up your order. If it’s not what you are saying then I do apologize, but I am not sure why you bothered to post it. </p>