Tipping and card machines.

[Kit-Ginevra]

Not sure where to throw this one,please pick it up and move it if it's in the wrong place.

We went out for our house Christmas meal last night and at the end went to add a tip onto the amount-only the card machine won't allow this. Apparently the girl at the till can't add it on because she wasn't our server.

I'm not sure if this is just this particular chain(The smiley jugs carvery)or in general,but surely it is not beyond the wit of man to come up with something that you can add the tip amount,it will see what table you were at and allocate it to that server?

That would avoid the annoying effort to either rustle round for cash or having to leave that unfortunate server without a tip.

We also had a situation where we had more than one server during the night. Surely someone could design a programme so that after the bill is paid,you could then have type in: tip amount x for server x...tip amount y for server y?

[Buzzard]

Oh, the program could be made, but would cost just a bit more, and only benefit the minions.

Broken down even simpler: It costs more (pennies, really) and doesn't benefit management. NOPE! Rejected.
Adding in a feature that the (manager/owner) customer didn't order/pay for... doesn't pay any more, so most software houses aren't going to add it (or have to deal with a customer flipping about over a feature that got "imposed" on him)

[EricKei]

I've even been to bakeries that let you add a tip to your card receipt. Makes me wonder how far behind this shop's card machines are.


(standard mod warning about "no debating the need to tip" Play nice, y'all)

[Mental_Mouse]

Yeah, most places I've been to have a blank for you to write your tip on the bill, with a new total line below that.

[Javarod]

I've even been to bakeries that let you add a tip to your card receipt. Makes me wonder how far behind this shop's card machines are.


(standard mod warning about "no debating the need to tip" Play nice, y'all)

Not about how behind, but what type. Restaurant systems pre-auth, but have to be closed which is why you're able to add the tip, whereas retail systems run the charge real time. Someone I guess thought they'd save money.

[csquared]

That would be my guess. They went with a retail system and not a restaurant system.

As for splitting the tips, every friend I have that has served, the places they worked at all had stated methods on splitting tips. Few were "fair".

[Jetfire]

Most restaurants and other places with Debit machines will have an "Enter Tip amount" stage as you're tapping your cards. They'll often offer preset tip percentages too if you want ( 10, 15, 20% are the normal, along with "Enter Amount").

Then again, Canada has been using debit cards for decades now and we seem to be in the leading pack as far as debit services go.

[EricKei]

As an aside, I'm fairly certain that there are still places in 'Murrica that cannot accept Chip cards. They're STILL not the de facto standard for card issuers, either x.x

[RealUnimportant]

As an aside, I'm fairly certain that there are still places in 'Murrica that cannot accept Chip cards. They're STILL not the de facto standard for card issuers, either x.x

I find this so weird because when I first visited the US 20 years ago (wow, that long already?!), that was when I got introduced to chip & pin cards. I was able to go out shopping for the family I was staying with, taking one of their debit cards and just boop-boop-boop all done - and this wasn't in a big metro area or anything, this was BFE, Idaho, population<1000.

[EricKei]

Aye, the tech existed back then, but it was not in widespread acceptance in the US (I could have SWORN it was a law a decade ago that you had to have it) until, I'd say, five years ago? After chip & PIN was already old hat in Europe. Voldemart, for example, just got them within that time, and yet chip cards are apparently not yet available for their pre-paid reusable card offering o_O

[Rosco the Iroc]

Most places have a tip line on the receipt and they do it later. But my barber's system is different and I tell them to add XX on top when they run the card.

[KuariKaydrith]

Sit down restaurants here usually have the option for a tip on the card reader when you pay, ditto for taxi drivers and hair salons. I've also seen tip options for a few fast food and food court places, but never retail stores. Thank goodness we've got chip and pin options as well as tap though because there are days when I don't brain so well :P

[Jetfire]

In my experience, most places in Canada have Chip support now; I don't think I've had to swipe in a few years now. And maybe about 50% of places have tap support now; though they need to keep chip support due to tap limits. (A bit annoying when my purchase is like 105$ and I can't tap because of the 100$ limit; but it is what it is. )

And yeah, I've seen tip options on fast food places now when paying with debit. Rarely on fast-fast food places like DQ or McDs or food court places; but go even a step above those places and they'll often have a tip prompt now. (I think Subways may have a tip prompt now that I think of it)

[Naaman]

We went out for our house Christmas meal last night and at the end went to add a tip onto the amount-only the card machine won't allow this. Apparently the girl at the till can't add it on because she wasn't our server.

I'm not sure if this is just this particular chain(The smiley jugs carvery)or in general,but surely it is not beyond the wit of man to come up with something that you can add the tip amount,it will see what table you were at and allocate it to that server?

It sounds like corporate put a system in place after something bad happened. Can't think particularly what but I've amazed at the inginuety and stupidy of people trying to scam cash.
And that chain uses little RFID keytags to log onto the system, so it's probably not hard to bake it in that only the server (and manager presumably) can add anything to the bill.
If you'd asked six months ago I could have found out, our gaming group used to meet at our local one and I was one who always got on with the manager

[CyberLurch]

Personally, I'm leery of tipping using a credit card. The reason is, I'm tipping the server or pizza driver or whomever, and I want to make sure that person gets the FULL amount I give as a tip. Not his/her boss, the store, or the corporate office. And whenever there's a computer involved in a monetary transaction, there is the potential for someone 'up the ladder' to filch a little (or a lot!) for themselves. And where there's potential, where there's temptation, and where there are means, it WILL happen.