Posted on 01/07/2010 9:51:07 AM PST by big black dog
Thank you!
No, I do not. In both cases I am a customer who simply wants to exchange money for goods and services.
The English don't seem (to me) to like paper at all, although the have it and use it. They seem more comfortable with a stack of pound or two-pound coins than the equivalent in notes ... if the amount is too much for that, they seem to me to prefer a credit card.
South Korea seemed very American in this sense ... 1000 Won note = 1USDollar note, etc. Except that they didn't seem to like credit cards as much as we do.
Is everyone on FR wealthy or just consumed with an attitude of noblese oblige? I tip because I have to, but it doesn’t mean I approve. Most people work hard in their jobs without tips, and still strive to do their best.
Tipping is out of control. Everyone now has their hand out. Don’t people realize that bartenders make very good money for what is demanded from them? Do they go to college? Did they study and learn the job for years? No, all it takes is effort and a pleasant personality. Consider how much a bartender makes in a night if he gets a dollar for every $3 beer. Not only is that better than 30%, it’s for half-a-minute of work! The result is that by the end of the night he has earned a lot more than many of his customers -tax free.
It used to be that the service industry was for those who lacked opportunities and were uneducated. In this topsy-turvy world of today, 21 year old service people often have more money than white collar workers with years of experience. Oh, and they are usually the first to appear at the emergency room with no insurance. We poor customers not only have to tip generously, but then subsidize their healthcare because THEY are too cheap and irresponsible to care for themselves!
One final rant: even the owners now expect to get in on the gravy. It used to be considered gauche to tip the owner. After all, the owner earns money on every purchase due to the markup.
>>I bet this cheap turd doesn’t even leave a buck on the night table for the hard-working woman who cleans his hotel room each day.<<
Whoah there! I spend a LOT of time in hotel rooms. I have never, EVER tipped. Where did this come from?
What the server did was obviously wrong, and against the law, but customers like this are reviled, and rightfully so.
When I worked in a bar, there was a regular who started coming in and never left a tip. That lasted for about 3 visits before I completely ignored her and refused to serve her. She left, and I kept more of my money because of it.
If I was on the floor working, and I knew the customer had previously stiffed me, or had left $1 on a $50-100 ticket, I would not be breaking my neck to give them outstanding service. I would never be rude, but they weren’t going to receive top notch service.
Regarding new customers, or a customers I did not recognize, they always got top notch service. And those who took care of us always received extras for being great customers. (And no, this was not stealing. We would have the blessing of the GM before anything was given to the customer.)
Then go get take out.
Don't got to a "nice" sit-down restaurant that offers a level of service where the wait staff expects to receive a tip.
It's simply a fact of life, and servers accept employment assuming a good portion of what it takes to feed their families will come from gratuities (and most, I presume, provide good service as part of that assumption).
If a bar/restaurant patron (particularly a regular) doesn't realize and appreciate that, they have no reason to expect decent service, or, in this case, to even be welcomed at the establishment...occupying a chair that might otherwise be inhabited by someone a little more appreciative of the service received and the circumstances under which it is provided.
>>The owners of the restaurant have Property Rights and among those rights is to ban you from their property.<<
Well, it sorta depends on your race. ;)
Why not, if I like their food and/or want to "sit down"?
So that translates to tips paid by credit card being reported, tips paid in cash not. And I don't have a problem with that. One good thing to come out of the infamous "contract with America" is IRS has to prove willful tax evasion, and they don't have enough people to spook on all the restaurant workers.
That said, if they are hogging cash income and pulling in EIC and other redistributive credits then I have a problem (thanks to five Republican Presidents, one Democrat - for allowing the creation and expansion of this communist program).
But at the front end I expect reasonably good service and I know those giving it expect to be tipped in return. It is almost perfectly capitalistic - and why a Free-Stater wouldn't understand that is beyond me.
The homeless, right?
You can get good service or bad service. Which do you want?
>>You get to decide the percent based on the experience, but service is NOT part of the price of a meal at a restaurant.<<
I assume you are joking. I have been in restaurants where I can see my meal sitting under a heat lamp for five minutes or more, waiting for the wait person to bring it to me. I’ve actually considered going up and getting it myself.
I believe it would be frowned upon.
Service IS part of the price of a meal at a restaurant where a waitress takes your order at your table and brings the order there.
You must be thinking of buffets...
I think that is reasonable, although one might decide that a 10% tip is just part of the cost of the meal, with the other 10% being dependent on service.
It helps if you tell them when they first interact that you only tip for good service. And if you do tip well when you get good service, and you frequent the same restaurant (the waitresses talk to each other about good tippers, once they know who they are).
LOL.... I love it!!! I owe you one if you ever hit the ATL!!!
We met friends for dinner last Sunday night at a restaurant that we frequent. The lady half of this duo can really be abusive to wait staff, and she chose to be that night. She accused the waitress of messing up her order. I had heard the order, and the waitress may not have heard the word “broccoli”, but the lady in question made a big deal of it (after she had already eaten her whole plate of pasta except the olives).
Then she confronted the waitress to demand if it had been her mistake, or the cook in the kitchen, who had left the broccoli off and had put too many olives in her sauce. She said all these mean things in the vein of “this is a lesson to you if someone else made the mistake and you’ll get bigger tips in the future”. She carried on and on to this lovely girl until the girl (college student) went back into the kitchen to talk to the manager.
THe waitress came back and “comped” the meals (which had been perfectly fine for the rest of the table) for the entire table. My husband caught the waitress on the side and slipped her a nice tip for our part. The next day he called the male half of the duo and told him how miserable this scene had made us. The man said that he’d already spoken to his wife and that she’d apologized to the waitress.
But, I’ve seen this woman do this before — ream out an employee about some small slight and then approach them with a big grin and tell them to not take it personally. I don’t know what my husband gave her (probably $20), but twice as much would have been too little for what that poor girl went through. I don’t think that we’ll be going out to dinner with them again any time soon, and I’m embarassed to go back to that particular restaurant.
>>And when you tip with cash and it is (or was) 8% of the total bill to be reported as income. If you tip 15~20% then the wait made out okay.<<
Great information! Thanks!
Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe there are waiters, waitresses, bartenders and such out there living in mansions, driving BMWs and taking exotic vacations. I doubt it.
More than likely though, people who don't want to tip are just selfish.
Cash is less common here than it once was: most purchases will be by direct debit or EFTPOS rather than by cash. It’s a convenience thing more that anything else.
Our reason for $2 and $1 coins, and for doing away with anything 5 cents and under, was purely economic.
A $1 coin lasts much longer than a $1 bill, and it costs more than 5 cents to make a 5 cent piece — and much more than 5 cents for a business to handle and account for each 5 cent piece. So it’s pragmatism and economics at work.
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