Was she sucky?

[Becks]

Quoth Bieshmahaw

I always leave a tip, even if the waiter/tress was deplorable. I remember one time, a group of friends and I went to Bennigan's, only to be completely ignored after she took the orders. She was sitting chatting with her friends that came in to eat (who were seated just below us, so we could see them). Another server had to bring us our food after about an hour of just sitting there. She didn't bother to check on us until we were just about to leave. We left her a penny tip and handed the other server his tip. I know it wasn't nice, but that was the worst dining experience I've ever had.

Actually, I think you very well. Perfectly, in fact.

[Delphae]

Where I work, some of the members will run tabs and not tip. These are also the guys who want special services like leaving the caps on the nipper bottles. However, we can add tips to our tabs if they run big enough.

[jaya9581]

My husband and I recently left no tip on a trip to IHOP. There's a server there that for whatever reason doesn't seem to like us much, we always get subpar service from her. On this particular day, it was around 2 PM and there were only 2 other tables being served in the whole restaurant, 1 of which was right beside us. She took their order then ours, brought their food the ours, then returned to bring them more drinks and never looked at us again - never refilled our drinks, asked if the food was okay, nothing (and yes, she did so for the other table). After we finished we sat there chatting and then realized we'd been finished eating for over 15 minutes and she still hadn't come back. I flagged down the manager, who was pretty mad when I told him how our meal had gone - he said she left for the day, without ever telling anyone that she still had a table, and also told us she does that frequently. He gave us a discount and we left no tip. The following trip we had the same waitress, she was only slightly more helpful and she "forgot" (I think she did it on purpose!) several things and charged us for them, though she did take the charges off with no fuss. Next time we go, I am going to ask to be served by someone else!

[elysia]

She probably didnt mean to sound rude... if she was awesome up until that moment it may have just sounded wrong. Or maybe she had been getting stiffed all night and expected the same from you, or angry dude gave her a hard time. I was a Dennys waitress for 3 years, half that time I worked graveyard. I'm still suprised that I - as well as a countless variety of SCs- made it through that job of mine alive. It makes you want to murder people.

[Fungus]

The penny tip is a way to let the server know the service was deplorable. Not leaving a tip at all, is a way to get your point across, but the server might also take it as "they must have forgot" or "they don't tip".

Only two times have I not left a tip. Once at a place I used to go to a lot. My wife was working and a friend of mine and my son went to eat, and we were seated. The waitress took our drink order and I ordered wings and tried to order the rest of the meal too, but she said "I'll put the order in" and left.

Ok-no problem, but she never came back, and we waited and waited......
Finally the Wings came. I was not happy, and she said "Was there anything else?"

I said "Yes, our dinner order!!!"

She thought that was all we wanted. By now, my son is upset because he wants to eat, he was so little then, I always ordered for him right away so he could get his food as quick as possible, we eventually got our food, but she never checked on us, we had to ask someone else for refills AND for the bill. Sorry, no tip for her.

The other time, My wife laid down the law.

Went to a pizza place, ordered a pizza with breadsticks. Breadsticks never came, we got the pizza and I politely asked what happened with the breadsticks. She just told me we didn't order them. I said, Yes, I was sure we did. She apologized and said she must not have heard, I said no problem, but my wife was mad because I guess the waitress had told me "I'll be right back with your sticks". Hell, I had forgotten too, that I heard that! Anyways, no tip for her either. I felt bad, but Mom is the boss!