Christmas Eve crappy tippers

[Bank Lady]

I have to agree with Jester. Although 14% isn't fantastic, it's not the worst tip ever. I waitressed for 5 years at a family-owned restaurant. The owners were very "customer-friendly" so there was never a standard gratuity added to the bill, no matter how big the party. I remember numerous times of waiting on parties of eight (or more) and getting completely stiffed.

Our dining room wasn't huge, so if I had the big party I usually wasn't given any other tables (maybe just one couple) for about an hour and a half. That makes for a sucky night.

It usually seemed to be the big family reunion type gathering that did it too. One guy would volunteer to pick up the check, but he apparantly hadn't factored in the tip when making that decision (or he assumed someone else would pony up some cash for poor little me).

[PepperElf]

I don't tip here - but I'm in Japan where it's not expected. I know someone who left 10 yen behind (less than a dime) and they chased him down to give it back.

but in the states.... i consider 15% is what you give when the service sucks. For good service it should be at least 18%. And if you're in a large group, even sucky service should get that.

and if it's christmas, well that's even better reason to be generous.


and... if was good service and someone else is giving the waitress a hard time - another customer or worker - that's when you tell the manager how much you liked the service and how wonderful the waitress was.



My family had that issue once. We went to our favorite Chinese restaurant and two waitresses were handling our table: one was the waitress and the other was in charge I think. The one in charge kept trying to rush us through and out while the other let us take our time and relax. After our meal, Mom made a specific point of telling the manager how wonderful our service was and named the waitress who let us take our time.

She figured the other one might try to complain...but if the manager has good feedback from a customer it would outweigh the other one ranting.

[Jester]

Quoth Greenday

Do you think college kids would still drink Keystone or Natty Light if it wasn't so ridiculously cheap compared to any decent beer?

Oh, I know why people drink cheap beer. It isn't the taste. But this guy wasn't talking about the TASTE of the beer, he was saying it didn't sit well in his stomach. I.e., it caused him gastrointestinal distress. Even college kids I've known aren't going to drink a crappy beer if it makes their tummy hurt. This guy was, in so many ways, a complete and total tool.

[Ayleah]

Quoth PepperElf

in the states.... i consider 15% is what you give when the service sucks. For good service it should be at least 18%. And if you're in a large group, even sucky service should get that.

Okay, I am about to make my self TERRIBLY unpopular, but I thoroughly have to disagree with you here. Isn't a tip supposed to be a reward for good service? How on earth did we get away from that? (Yes, I know that for whatever bizzarro reason, it's now pretty much the norm for a business to pay it's employees jack, and expect them to grovel the rest of their wage from customers. If a restaurant considers serving food to tables part of it's business model, it should treat servers as regular employees. And if you know you have terrible people skills, and are incapable of being a good server, then perhaps another line of employment would better suit you).

If I get decent service (no complaints, but nothing notable), I'll leave 15%. I consider this doing your job. If you want more, go out of your way a little.

If I get great service (which means that no matter what went wrong, the waitstaff genuinely apologetic and tried their best), I am very generous, usually beginning at 25-30%.

And when the waitstaff can't even muster so much as a "Gee, I'm sorry it took half an hour for me to drag myself away from the pile of cute college students over there to come get your drink order, and oops, I screwed up all the dishes because I was busy fluffing my cleavage and checking out the bartender the whole time you were ordering because I have the attention span of a gnat's peter"; then they get crap.

I am sorry that the restaurant won't pay them a real wage, but you can't be a crappy waitperson, and then get mad that your customers didn't tip.

And NO, I'm not saying the OP was crappy, she sounded lovely. I'm referring to the quote above.

[Broomjockey]

I'd like to remind people that tipping threads have a long history of going down in flames and being locked on this board, so bring it back to the SCs quick, and leave opinions about tipping out of it.