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  #1  
Old 10-26-2018, 03:20 PM
1neeto 1neeto is offline
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Default What are your thoughts about tipping?

Tipping as in gratuity, not tipping cows lol! I’m typing this as I eat at a place that gave me absolutely zero service, not even a glass of water. I think it started because I paid before I was served and on the receipt I didn’t leave a tip because I did it want to tip until after I was served. Well I guess I was labeled as a non tipper and was ignored.

This should be interesting because we have people here from across the pond where tipping is pretty much discouraged, yet you get great service. I think tipping is a sham, it’s a way for employers avoid paying their employees a decent wage, and pass on the payroll cost to the customer. Why is it my responsibility for that server to be able to pay his/her rent that month? I rather pay 15-20% more for the food, if that price raise is passed to the employees.

Don’t get me wrong, I tip, and tip well if the service was good. If the service was ok, I still tip at least 15%. If I don’t leave tip, is because that server was absolutely rude. What’s everyone’s take on this?
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Old 10-26-2018, 03:28 PM
Nyghthawk Nyghthawk is offline
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I tip because I have had friends and significant others that worked as waiters/waitresses/bartenders. I tip well. I never stiff anyone. I sometimes complain to management if things get out of hand but folks have got to eat. $2.00 an hour before tips is what some people get paid.

P.S. I am fond of Blue Bell ice cream but I never thought about tipping the cow!
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Old 10-26-2018, 04:06 PM
muscmp muscmp is offline
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i believe you may be presumptuous but it is your call.

like nygthawk i tip but if something isn't right with the order or service, i'll call it to the attention of the person waiting on my table.

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Old 10-26-2018, 04:21 PM
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Having waited tables for a few years when I was younger, and my wife having done so as well, we tend to be really good tippers. If the service is poor we can usually tell whether it's the waiter's fault or the kitchen'x. If it's the kitchen's fault and the waiter or waitress is still friendly and reasonably attentive, we still tend to tip well. If the waiter or waitress is just doing a lousy job or if they're really rude, then I'll tip very little. It would have to be really bad for me to stiff someone, but it's happened once or twice over the years, usually leaving before being served, and not having a bill to pay to begin with. It takes a LOT for us to do that, but it has happened.

I think there would be better ways to pay wait-staff but the reality is the reality. Almost all waiters are paid the bare minimum and rely on tips and so we tip well...

-Ray
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Old 10-26-2018, 04:31 PM
1neeto 1neeto is offline
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Originally Posted by muscmp View Post
i believe you may be presumptuous but it is your call.



like nygthawk i tip but if something isn't right with the order or service, i'll call it to the attention of the person waiting on my table.



play music!


Not trying to be presumptuous, my rant is about the tipping system, not the service employee. It shouldn’t be my responsibility as a customer to make sure that employee has a livable wage.
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Old 10-26-2018, 04:37 PM
1neeto 1neeto is offline
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Originally Posted by raysachs View Post
Having waited tables for a few years when I was younger, and my wife having done so as well, we tend to be really good tippers. If the service is poor we can usually tell whether it's the waiter's fault or the kitchen'x. If it's the kitchen's fault and the waiter or waitress is still friendly and reasonably attentive, we still tend to tip well. If the waiter or waitress is just doing a lousy job or if they're really rude, then I'll tip very little. It would have to be really bad for me to stiff someone, but it's happened once or twice over the years, usually leaving before being served, and not having a bill to pay to begin with. It takes a LOT for us to do that, but it has happened.



I think there would be better ways to pay wait-staff but the reality is the reality. Almost all waiters are paid the bare minimum and rely on tips and so we tip well...



-Ray


It’s a reality only in the USA. Go to Japan, where tipping is considered rude, and you’ll still get top notch service, and reasonable prices. Getting away with paying employees 25% of the federal minimum wage just because they’re hired as “tipped employees” is absolutely criminal in my book. People are waking up, there’s some employers (USA) that have brought it upon themselves to pay their staff a livable wage and banned tipping in their restaurants. That’s how it should be.
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Old 10-26-2018, 04:58 PM
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Bob Womack Bob Womack is offline
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I happily tip for good service. I actually tip well if there's a good reason the service wasn't as good. Nasty folks don't get tipped as well.

However, being expected to tip before service is rendered is ridiculous. It's a little like the odd business I've encountered at a doctor's office where I check in and expected to pay up front before I see the doc. Surely they don't get that many walkouts without paying. In this society it has typically been practice to render services before payment.

And then to the business of waiting being a "living wage." I've been to some restaurants in New York where waiting is clearly considered a job at a level commensurate with a living wage. There are a couple of restaurants locally that swim in that lofty pond. But, my wise younger brother is a wildly successful restaurateur in the tier above fast food. As he put it when consulted by the White House, "Waiting in our part of the industry has traditionally been considered either a first job, a last resort, or a second chance. I am glad to offer jobs to those types of individuals and deal with the risks involved. However, waiting at this level of enterprise has never been considered a job capable of sustaining a prosperous lifestyle. If you attempt to forcefully make it such you will simply deprive thousands of people who do correspond to the above categories of jobs because the industry lives on fine enough profit margins that it simple can't offer compensation of that kind without going under."

Bob
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Old 10-26-2018, 05:20 PM
LouieAtienza LouieAtienza is offline
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Originally Posted by 1neeto View Post
It’s a reality only in the USA. Go to Japan, where tipping is considered rude, and you’ll still get top notch service, and reasonable prices. Getting away with paying employees 25% of the federal minimum wage just because they’re hired as “tipped employees” is absolutely criminal in my book. People are waking up, there’s some employers (USA) that have brought it upon themselves to pay their staff a livable wage and banned tipping in their restaurants. That’s how it should be.
And there have been restaurants where that had been tried, and the restaurant ended up belly-up because it couldn't be sustained. Or the establishment finds that kiosks are a cheaper alternative. I prefer to give my order to a human being, and I believe that those who give good service should be rewarded - it provides an incentive.

Basically it comes down to the particular market. In a posh restaurant, salary based waiters may work out. At a mom-and-pop diner, maybe not. Paying the help a living salary does not necessarily guarantee they will give good service; it sometimes breeds complacency as their pay is guaranteed regardless of service provided.
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Old 10-26-2018, 06:35 PM
1neeto 1neeto is offline
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Originally Posted by LouieAtienza View Post
And there have been restaurants where that had been tried, and the restaurant ended up belly-up because it couldn't be sustained. Or the establishment finds that kiosks are a cheaper alternative. I prefer to give my order to a human being, and I believe that those who give good service should be rewarded - it provides an incentive.



Basically it comes down to the particular market. In a posh restaurant, salary based waiters may work out. At a mom-and-pop diner, maybe not. Paying the help a living salary does not necessarily guarantee they will give good service; it sometimes breeds complacency as their pay is guaranteed regardless of service provided.


It’s been found that in general the whole “good service good tip” incentive is pretty much a myth. The average person either tips well, or tips bad or doesn’t tip at all regardless of the service rendered. Because most people see the job just like any other job, and tipping as optional. Like I said earlier, in many countries tipping is either discouraged, or outright banned, yet restaurants don’t go under, and their service employees are fairly compensated.

To add to Bob’s post, not only being a server is exactly that, a low skill job, but you also agree to being paid lower than minimum wage and depend on tips. You don’t get enough tips to be able to pay the rent? Well who’s fault is that?
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Old 10-26-2018, 06:55 PM
frankmcr frankmcr is offline
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Originally Posted by 1neeto View Post
Not trying to be presumptuous, my rant is about the tipping system, not the service employee. It shouldn’t be my responsibility as a customer to make sure that employee has a livable wage.
Whose pockets do you think that livable wage would come from? The restaurant owner's? Or the customers'? If tipping goes away, only way to make that wage happen is to increase the cost of the food.
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Old 10-26-2018, 06:58 PM
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Whose pockets do you think that livable wage would come from? The restaurant owner's? Or the customers'? No tipping = higher prices across the board.
Which is what you pay anyway due to tipping...
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Old 10-26-2018, 07:04 PM
frankmcr frankmcr is offline
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Which is what you pay anyway due to tipping...
Up to you the customer though, based on the standard of service. You still have some say in how much you pay.
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Old 10-26-2018, 07:07 PM
1neeto 1neeto is offline
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Default What are your thoughts about tipping?

Quote:
Originally Posted by frankmcr View Post
Whose pockets do you think that livable wage would come from? The restaurant owner's? Or the customers'? If tipping goes away, only way to make that wage happen is to increase the cost of the food.


I addressed that in my previous posts. But in short, yes, it should be the restaurant’s owner responsibility to compensate their service staff adequately, not the customer.
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Old 10-26-2018, 07:12 PM
jdto jdto is offline
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Originally Posted by frankmcr View Post
Up to you the customer though, based on the standard of service. You still have some say in how much you pay.
It’s funny that tipping is an old world aristocratic practice that survived and thrived in the republic where all people were supposedly equal.

Satisfied, well-paid employees give good service. I suppose having someone be nice to you and fawn over you because they depend on you for their living is one way to ensure good service.

Last edited by Basalt Beach; 10-26-2018 at 07:26 PM. Reason: edit content
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Old 10-26-2018, 07:16 PM
6L6 6L6 is offline
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I usually overtip.

In my earlier life I waited on tables and I have empathy for anyone doing the same.
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