Posted on 11/10/2004 12:29:27 PM PST by billorites
My bar is in a poor area, I knew tips here would be bad so I pay way over scale 6/7 where scale is 2.25. That kinda makes up for slow tips. I did that cause I wanted a good staff, not teenagers or losers looking for a little cash before splitting. I have the best staff around, my girls stay for years (if we like them). I just hate cheap SOB that never tip. The thing I don't understand is how the girls put up with it, they will complaint to me and when I offer to throw his sorry butt out they will say "Oh no don't do that, it's alright". But sometimes I do get pissed and toss them. Particularly if the coustomer is a regular that the bar or girls have helped with a loan or a tab from time to time. Then I get pissed.
"Reservoir Dogs"...excellent movie - I think this thread is sounding verbatim to that very scene!
My husband is known for tipping our servers well. One time our service was so exceptionally lousy that he gave the tip to the busser who was really helpful, and gave nothing to the waitress.
So you toss people out for not doing something that they are in no way legally required to do?
That's a lawsuit waiting to happen.
Agreed. But in my experience/observations the most demanding customers are often the worst tippers. These people seem to think that going to a restaurant entitles them to a personal assistant who must not only devote 100% of their time to the customer, but accept verbal abuse from the customer with a smile on their face. I'm talking about the kind of customers who snap their fingers for attention or yell "hey miss" when the waitress is in the middle of taking an order from another table, and when the waitress can't respond immediately to the finger snapping, they flag down the next waiter/waitress who walks by even if he or she has other tables to care for. These are also the customers who expect special orders, that is, they demand that the chef make something up that isn't on the menu and then bitch at the waitress when the chef's creation doesn't taste like what the customer's mommy used to make. They complain about the wine when they wouldn't know the difference between a bottle of good wine and a bottle of vineagar, and they are offended when you ask them not to use their cell phones at the table or to control their children who are screaming and running amok in what is obviously and adult restaurant. And then after all that, they leave a $10 tip on a $100 bill before taxes.
Your first mistake was in getting your hackles up over my comment over extortion, therefore assuming that I wasn't a tipper.
I, JoJo Gunn, a champion of the Free Market System, is always more than pleased to help along clueless and fledgling business owners.
The root word for "gratuity" is gratitude! In other words, it's by my grace that I reach into my pocket and give any more of my hard earned cash beyond the total price of my order.
I'm more than happy to tip those who are reasonable and responsible and bless me with their presence more than just to lay the tab on the table. But servers that usually practice human interaction in the forms of incoherent grunts and vacant stares reminiscent of Patricia Ireland do not, and I repeat do NOT get more than they deserve.
Hahaha! At the restaurant I used to work at, we used to joke that it ought to be a requirement to graduate from High School to have one semester of service industry (restaurant) work before being released out into the "real world"! : )
Wow, you are so impressive. Next time at least clip from my post, so I know exactly what you're critiquing. Boy, this really has people in a dither.
BTW, welcome to the FR.
Like I said, my bar pays way over scale so we can keep an excellent staff. In some ways I think that is mistake, particularly for younger girls. They get paid well so tips and sales are not as important and sometimes it shows. But the older more experienced proffesional bartenders are great. They learn the coustomer habits and provide great service, never a complaint. They pride themselves or sales and service. The younger staff sometimes requires a kick in the butt. I'll drop in and see them talking to a friend instead of checking the bar, if they don't notice me at the bar, they would have missed a new customer at the bar, or an empty glass/bottle at the bar, butt kicking time.
Over the last 15 years I've spent 8+ hours a day stuck in a small box doing bizzare mental gymnastics so you can: receive insurance payments, bring your computer back from the dead, get complex milled metal machinery, do word processing, have a computer built to order, discover you have glaucoma before you notice anything, make collect & 3rd-party phone calls, watch computer-generated movies, get better-looking photographs, print photos faster, get long-term medical injections easier, be warned of fires more efficiently, and more easily install home security.
Where's my tip?
Don't want to tip? Don't use computers.
In the Bahamas, there is no tipping. They add it right on to the bill....a minimum of 15%. And the service usually is slow and sucky. But in Nassau...who's in a hurry?
I've always been confused by the restaurant industry. Why don't restaurants pay wait staff a decent salary to begin with, so that tipping is a bonus?
If you're going to require tipping, then add it to the cost of doing business as reflected in the menu and get rid of the charade all together.
PS - if I order 'to go' food from a restaurant, is a tip expected? I mean, no one waited on me.
Bump
The mandatory tip is usually smaller than the tip I leave for decent service. Don't leave my glass get empty for too long, and get me the check in a reasonable amount of time and you get 20% and round off; mandatory tip is usually 18%...
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