Human Shield

[Jester]

The worst one was a $70 order paid with a card. The guy signs the CC slip (with a big ZERO in the tip line) and hands me back the slip. He then motions over his little 3 or 4 year old daughter who in turn hands me a single $1 bill.

Nothing like using a cute kid to be a complete and total dick. Gee, thanks for the dollar, buddy. Now my grandmother can get that operations she's needed. Ass.

Jeez. I don't think I've ever not tipped.

I have. On multiple occasions. Of course, on those occasions, I had smoke coming out of my ears due to the ridiculously bad service I'd received. It really, really sucked. Let me put it this way: I'm a bartender and a former waiter, and am friends with bartenders, waiters, and strippers. The majority of my friends live on tips, as have I for the majority of my adult life. If I'm not tipping you, you are clearly either completely incompetent at your job or a world class dick.

The manager wound up taking over the table, and I know from previously working at that same chain that managers aren't allowed to take tips.

Not just at that chain. It may vary from state to state, but everywhere I've ever worked, managers are not allowed to take tips at all, under state law. The exception to this is if they are managers and they are working as a tipped employee, such as both my retail manager and bar manager who both have scheduled shifts bartending. But if they are back behind the bar helping me or another bartender out, they can't take tips. They'll TAKE them, of course, but they end up in the tip bucket, which goes to the bartender(s) on duty.

But the kids can be fun.

One of the best tips I ever got in any job was from a kid. I was doing magic at the restaurant I used to do magic at, and I had completely blown away this kid and her family. They were on their way out, and the little girl, who was about six, stopped at the door, looked back, and suddenly ran back in the restaurant, right up to me, and wrapped my leg in a big ole bear hug.

I'm a cynic, but that about melted my heart, dark and frozen as it is. As I said....one of the best tips I ever had.

I don't know if I could ever work in a place where I would need to rely on tips more than my actual pay...I've seen the way some people tip and it baffles me that these waiters/waitresses aren't emaciated from starvation!

They are the exception, not the rule. I know this, because I've been in the food service industry for just about my entire working career, which has spanned 28 years. While there are some people who are dicks about tips, the vast majority of our guests take cafe of us with either adequate or good (or better!) tips.

[EricKei]

Not just at that chain. It may vary from state to state, but everywhere I've ever worked, managers are not allowed to take tips at all, under state law.

You are very correct, Sir ^_^ ...but it's Federal law (slightly-more layman's terms-ish version for laymen like myself here). The only thing employers and "non-tipped" employees can take out of the tip jar is a "tip credit" (the difference between waiter wage and minimum wage)

[drjonah]

Many many moons ago my dad used to own a video store. Usually once every couple months some chicken-sh!t with a rental 4 days late would send their kid into the store to return the videos. Irritating since you couldn't nail them with the late fees until later.

[HawaiianShirts]

My best tips were from the middle-class. Seriously - one fellow let me keep the change on a $32 order - he paid with a FIFTY!

Biggest tip I ever got was at a party. I never went past the front door. The owner of the house answered the door, acknowledged me, and ran off to get the cash for the pizza. His wife handed me $5 for tip. Some other party guest happened by, said, "Hey, it's the pizza guy," handed me another $5, and wandered off before I could say anything. And then another gave me a handful of change. And another. And another. And another. At least ten people (probably more) passed by while I waiting at the door and handed me some kind of tip. Finally the owner came back with a check (he couldn't find his wallet) and wrote it for $10 over the total to make up for my wait. I tried to tell him I'd been tipped already by his guests, but he was too interested in the food and in getting back to the party. I landed something close to $70 on that one run alone.

I split it with the kitchen crew when I got back.

[sms001]

If I'm not tipping you, you are clearly either completely incompetent at your job or a world class dick.

Ditto on the stiffing. Same background as yours and there are people who are just flat out bad but think you'll tip anyway. Sorry to disappoint, but no. I will let incompetence slide, if they are new and obviously not trained enough, or if it's someone who's just not going to make it as wait staff but hasn't gotten out yet. (Along with a heads up if I can manage it discretely and politely.) Plain old asshattery though: No soup for you!

Side note. I knew one of my former favorite places back in Chicago was in trouble staffing wise, which got confirmed when a footnote appeared on some new menus. It asked that rather than stiffing staff, patrons contact management about problems that would prompt it. No thanks. I've been around enough to know when something is out of my server's hands, and I don't take it out on them. Conversely, if they are purposely farking my dining, their whinging about no/low tips needs to be a big red flag for management to figure out.

ETA:

Racket. I know it's not much consolation, but btdt. Hopefully for you it's just a bad patch and your % will get back up to where it needs to be. (Couple of wins might help that, fingers crossed.) Up here, a lot of my lunch deliveries were to factories/hospitals. I routinely made to the lunchroom/conference room deliveries of 50 - 100+ dollar orders (Not just drop at the door.) Stiffed left and right. Worse, obviously nothing at ALL to do with the service or me, just flat out non-tippers. Worse-worse, they were often expense accounts where it wasn't coming out of the orderers pocket anyway.

[Jester]

Biggest tip I ever got was at a party.

I landed something close to $70 on that one run alone.

You don't want to know what the biggest tip I ever got was. Suffice it to say it was while I was doing magic, and the tipper ended hiring me to perform at his wife's surprise birthday party which was a week or two later. In Vegas. Let's just say that what he paid me for the party was even higher than what he tipped me in Key West.

Ditto on the stiffing. Same background as yours and there are people who are just flat out bad but think you'll tip anyway. Sorry to disappoint, but no. I will let incompetence slide, if they are new and obviously not trained enough, or if it's someone who's just not going to make it as wait staff but hasn't gotten out yet. (Along with a heads up if I can manage it discretely and politely.) Plain old asshattery though: No soup for you!

Agreed. To give you an idea of how bad someone has to be for me to stiff, a few years ago, my friends and I went to a local place for dinner. The server not only was incompetent, but was rude as well, at one point actually scolding me for something that was not scold-worthy. We still left that wench 12%, though we vowed to never let her be our server again. As I said, I've gotta have smoke coming out of my ears for me to stiff you. And sadly, it has happened. More than once. Happily, not in recent memory.

[Gilhelmi]

On tipping, I got to say I always felt bad for the restaurant/staff that we contracted with when we had lunch on Drill Weekend (Army Reserve). The Army contracted a buffet restaurant to feed the soldiers, but there were still waiters/waitresses helping, getting drinks, making sure everything was OK.

But we were soldier, poor (cashless) soldiers. I always tried to leave a couple dollar tip, and a couple others did as well, but most days it was $15-$20 on a $300+ order, between 30 soldiers (many of whom, I stress, are young and cashless. The Officers and Senior NCOs have to pay for their own meal, so they went someplace else to eat, so the ones who could afford to tip were not there). I always felt bad for the Staff.

I know some places stopped accepting contracts from the Army because of the lack of tips.

[ladyjaneinmd]

Exactly. I always tip the pizza guy well, and as a result, my pizza is often at my house in less than twenty minutes and sometimes they throw in extra goodies. It's a win, win situation.

Oh! It never dawned on me before, but is that why my chinese food is always fast, hot, and comes with extra egg rolls??

[Jester]

I'm pretty sure it's why the local Chinese place that myself and both roommates order from are always here ridiculously quickly.

[ADeMartino]

Oh! It never dawned on me before, but is that why my chinese food is always fast, hot, and comes with extra egg rolls??

I'd be willing to be 'yes'. People forget that pizza drivers are human beings and that we remember who tips well, and who doesn't. And I'll tell you for a fact that I'd bust my hump for the good tipper. The bad tipper.... gets his damned pizza when he gets his damned pizza.

Bear in mind that a 'small' tip is not necessarily a bad tip. I expected smaller tips from the 'poorer' side of the delivery zone. A $1 tip on a $25 order to a 'poor' neighborhood at least acknowledges my efforts. A $2 tip on a 'party' order to a $400K address is just a damned slap in the face.

ESPECIALLY during 'extreme' weather.

[sms001]

People forget that pizza drivers are human beings

"People" don't, SCs do.

[Seshat]

Bear in mind that a 'small' tip is not necessarily a bad tip. I expected smaller tips from the 'poorer' side of the delivery zone. A $1 tip on a $25 order to a 'poor' neighborhood at least acknowledges my efforts. A $2 tip on a 'party' order to a $400K address is just a damned slap in the face.

ESPECIALLY during 'extreme' weather.

Thank you - and others like you - for accepting/acknowledging that those of us who are poor sometimes just do the best we can. (Though this is part of why we rarely order delivery.)

Extreme weather we don't order delivery. If it's too bad for us to go out to get food, it's too bad for us to ask someone else to bring it to us.

[EricKei]

This might just be me, but -- when I was a waiter, I felt worse about getting a shitty tip than no tip at all. To me, "no tip" normally means "cheapskate," while an insultingly small tip means "I remembered to tip you, you just suck!" -- I tend to do the same when I go out, tho I have very, very seldom been in a situation where I would do the mini-tip.

[Racket_Man]

This might just be me, but -- when I was a waiter, I felt worse about getting a shitty tip than no tip at all. To me, "no tip" normally means "cheapskate," while an insultingly small tip means "I remembered to tip you, you just suck!" -- I tend to do the same when I go out, tho I have very, very seldom been in a situation where I would do the mini-tip.

In that vein I will agree. The order total is $`13.92 and I get $14 AND they have the audacity to declare "You can JUST KEEP THE CHANGE" OR the order total is $34.74 on a CC they total it out to $35.00. and yes I get these situations on a regular basis AND it really does not matter what the neighborhood is, IT happens all over the place.

[Kagato]

Out of curiosity, since I'm not from the states myself, does anyone know if the line "If the driver can be here within <not-asswipeish> minutes, I'll give them <insert generous tip here>" and actually KEEPING their word actually works? Sure, it's bribing to an extent, but it's an opportunity for the driver to earn a nice tip for a relatively short job. Win-win.

(for example if they ordered something like $30 in pizzas, needing them in a hurry and offered a $10 tip - effectively a 33% tip)