Waitresses don’t even make minimum wage and you are of course free to couch cheap behavior in any spin-dress you choose.
I tip very well when the experience is good....and very poorly when the experience is bad. But in my area, most experiences are good.
Maybe you should eat at home more.
What incentive for good or even great service would there be if there was no tipping?
Wait staff is usually underpaid and overworked. IMO.
I don’t consider a tip an entitlement...but earned pay. If I get poor service, they’ve earned less of a tip. If I get good service, they’ve earned a larger tip.
If the food is bad...I do not blame the server. BUT how they handle my commenting on bad food...also will be reflected on the salary they’ve earned from me.
I have my share of tipping horror stories. Like the waiter who waited for me outside the ladies room and demanded to know why his tip was below 20%, forgetting that he got half our orders wrong, wrote nothing down, charged us regular price for happy hour drinks, and we had to hunt him down when we needed him. There was the waitress who believed that because I paid in cash she could help herself to my change.
That waiter should have already known he wouldn’t get a tip and why. Don’t be afraid to speak up if there’s a problem.
As for the waitress, I’m sure most assume the change is their tip. All of my waitresses have brought me my change and expressed “delighted surprise” when I told them to keep it.
If the service is acceptable, they get a minimal tip. If it’s good service, they get more. If I can’t afford to tip, I stay at home and prepare/serve my own meal.
Yeah, it’s real hard to understand tipping. That’s why I recommend people like you stick to the drive-thru.
I have no idea when the current “system” started, I too grew up thinking tip/tip amounts were based on service received and my mother’s family had a restaurant. My mother and aunt were the family tip experts, from their restaurant experience and both were adamant that tips were earned. If your server went out of their way, or you had messy children or other issues they had to deal with you over-tipped. If someone was a complete fail as a server you could/should stiff them, the idea then was slackers would not be able to make a living as a server and could be replace by someone who was willing to hustle.
At some point restaurant owners decided tips were part of wages (some blame the IRS) and started a system where tips are considered part of wages, in many places shared and not given to the “earning” employee individually. It doesn’t make sense to me- if I get crummy service I would like to know I can give that message in no tip/lower tip. If I do that then other workers that do work hard and go the extra mile will also be punished for the slacker.
At this point tips have no meaning- so should be done away with. Restaurants should raise wages accordingly and it would be a more honest system.
Well the little hispanic waitresses Wed AM in a FL. hotel were so giddy over their Obama win that I rewarded them with a scribbled educational note and left their tip amount as ‘ZERO’.
If the service is terrible I don't tip.
If the service is adequate I leave between a 5% to 10% tip.
If the service is great they get a 20% tip.
If they challenge me on it, they get no tip.
It's my money, for now, and I'll redistribute it how I see fit.
The regular wait staff know what my group's wants are and as we're walking to the table a simple nod of the head gets things moving. They are also pleasant to all - extra cherries for the little one, etc, etc.
It's Hell breaking in a newbie - but the others clue them in real fast.
First, it is clear you have never waited tables. So you may not know that wait staff get paid very little and are expected to make it up in tips. Some do, some don't. And sad for them, the waiter or waitress gets the blame for everything, even those things that are out of their control.
Second, maybe you should eat at better restaurants. The kind of environment you describe is not one that is conducive to service that should justify a good tip, but then it is also one in which the wait-staff is overworked, underpaid and obviously undertipped.
Seriously, tip well for good service and not so well for bad service. Otherwise someone might get the impression that you have a sense of entitlement yourself—that you are entitled to have people work for you for free.
Sheeeech .... what a grouch.
How about the restaurants that sneak a 20% gratuity into your bill and THEN add a line for additional tip?
No.. You don’t have to go out to eat at a restaurant.
LOL! Some of the responses are classic. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear I’m on DU.
I tip often and reasonablably well, even generously, especially to people I'll see again and again like the mechanic that works on my car.
When I give him a generous but discreet tip he remembers and goes out of his way to help me. I return and ask for him and praise him to the service manager.
I'm not a wealthy person but when I go to my favorite restaurant the waitress's remember my effusive praise and generous tips and elbow each other out of way to serve me.
So don't tip if you don't want to but I like being treated with extra care and treat others that way.
Tells a lot about you, as does your uniformed rant against waiters/waitresses.
BULLETIN: They get WAY below minimum wage. Lucky to get half. Their tips ARE their ‘wage.”
You are the who sounds “entitled.” Entitled to go out to eat and get served as though your entitled to free service at the expense of those who work hard for their living.