Me either, but why take the chance.
Posted on 09/13/2006 8:06:21 AM PDT by LurkedLongEnough
After finishing dinner at a Connecticut restaurant, two diners got more than a butter mint when a waiter, apparently miffed by a $2 to $3 tip left on a $50 check, attacked them with a knife. They only suffered minor injuries, but no doubt tipped much better after that.
While violent cases of waiter rage are rare, the 1989 incident points to waiters' sticky reliance on tips for income. In some states, restaurants are only legally required to pay as little as $2 or $3 an hour. So if a server earns $30 in tips on a bad night, he could feasibly walk out having earned less than minimum wage after tipping out the bartender and busboys (a common practice in most restaurants).
To level the playing field, waiters are taking action. Some are resorting to guerrilla tactics -- it's not uncommon for waiters to personally confront stingy tippers, or to blog about them on sites such as WaiterRant.Net.
One former waiter, Yakup Ulutas, is proposing restaurants change the system. Ulutas, a 36 year-old restaurant manager in Atlanta, founded a nonprofit organization, Fairtip.org, to persuade restaurants to implement an automatic 20 percent service fee on every check. He estimates 2,500 waiters have joined.
You'd be hard-pressed to find a server who wouldn't love to see his or her employer slap an automatic tip on to every check. But wouldn't it make more sense for restaurants to hike prices by 20 percent and raise workers' salaries?
--snip--
While public humiliation may be a low blow, it's still preferable to stabbing stingy tippers.
(Excerpt) Read more at wtnh.com ...
Pardon me?
I always tip very well for good service, but I leave no tip for bad service. If the bad waiters stop getting tips, they will move on to an occupation that they are better suited for and will enjoy more.
Brilliant! That's a perfect way to kill all sorts of restaurants. Forced tipping...classic. Must be from the same people that brought CA $8 an hour for min. wage.
I tip according to services, not the value of the meal alone.
20 percent? You better be hustling your butt off or have very nice cleavage to get a 20% tip from me. You don't get that for just showing up.
If this were implemented, how soon would we be expected to add an extra 15% additional tip to get good service?
Being a waiter isn't a career, it's a way to make money to get you through college.
I tip according to the service and the meal. The better those two are the more freeer I am with my money.
The database is down now,however.Probably got sued by Mr Ketchup himself.
15-20% for good service......
....a sliding scale less for crappy service...
IOW, they're democrats who want a guaranteed income.
Ulutas, a 36 year-old restaurant manager in Atlanta, founded a nonprofit organization, Fairtip.org, to persuade restaurants to implement an automatic 20 percent service fee on every check.
Then there'll be no incentive to provide good service. The lousy waiters will be protected from the consequences of their poor performance, while good waiters won't have the incentive they now do to provide the best service possible.
Tell that to the waiters at Burns Steak House. They make more money than most college grads could imagine.
"a waiter, apparently miffed by a $2 to $3 tip left on a $50 check, attacked them with a knife."
Sounds like just a great waiter. I'm sure he was very attentive and respectful of his customers, too..../sarc
Had such a waiter attacked me with a knife over a low tip, I do believe I would have disarmed him and buried the knife somewhere in his midsection. Ridiculous. Unless he was an experienced knife-fighter, which I doubt, he'd only cut me once.
Dear dfwgator,
"Being a waiter isn't a career, it's a way to make money to get you through college."
For folks who wait tables at mid-range to somewhat more upscale restaurants, annual compensation for full-time work can easily amount to $40,000, and go well beyond that.
sitetets
You can always send the meal back; usually that's the fault of the cook. Poor attention (or too much) is the fault of the waiter. I automatically know that if I come alone into a restaurant that I will receive less attention than a pair or group of people. There is a preconception that a lone woman will be a poor tipper. I always tip 20% if service is adequate, and find that the waiters treat me with more consideration on my next visit.
In the past several years down here in South Florida, a number of restaurants have been going the service compris route of French restaurants and including on the bill anywhere up to a 15% tip. You have to catch that when you get the initial bill (at least if paying by credit card), because when the total check/credit slip comes back for you to sign, there is no indication that a tip has already been included -- but there is usually a line for "tip." An additional tip, of course, but they should at least make that clear. And I don't give an additional tip if the tip is included.
As do I.
I doubt if I would patronize a restaurant which added the tip automatically to my bill. Talk about the surest path to surly service at best, horrible service at worst!
My tipping goes as follows:
Bad service -- no tip.
Adequate service -- 15%
Superior service -- 20% - 33%
Eliminate my prerogative, and you eliminate my business.
Yes, it's that simple.
I remember one waitress who managed to dump an order of french fries in my friend's lap, and didn't even have enough courtesy to apologize. He was supposed to tip her? What am I missing?
Other side of the argument: for every justified bad tip, there are probably 10 unjustified bad tips...e.g. the b****y middle-aged woman who refuses to tip because she wasn't first priority in the restaurant, the old man who doesn't tip more than a few nickles "because he grew up during the depression", the inconsiderate teenagers, etc etc.
These unjustifiably bad tippers probably cause all of us to pay more for our food, because, in order to get and keep servers, the restaurant needs to make up in wages for the lost income to the servers.
I always start my visit to an establishment with an idea of a 15% tip and go from there, very good service the percentage goes up, very bad service and the percentage goes down. Been as high as over 100% when the bill was very low and the service was exceptional, down to 2% as an intentional message. I would love to be confronted by one of the 2%'ers because there is always a list of obvious reasons for that tip that I would just love to recite to them and would happily invite the manager to attend the recitation. If I were to see an automatic percentage on my bill, I would probably pay it and never return.
Dont bring a steak knife to a gun fight, Mr. Waiter....especially in right to carry states...
There.
I fixed it.
When I went to the Bahamas the hotel added 15% gratuity to my meals. It was, without a doubt, the worst service I ever had, but I got the last laugh on them. After checking out, I went to the roof top cafe and pushed a cart of dishes over the edge onto the roof below, turned around and walked out. To this day, I still think the Bahamas suck, and would never go back there on a bet.
You can help him move along from your favorite eatery by talking to the manager, though. They don't want to keep troublemakers.
I tip based upon service received. I have left zero, or even a penny, for rude or non existent service, and up to 30% for exceptional service. If ya don't like my tip, take a look in the mirror, and you will see why..........
How about the Restaurant pays its employees, and leaves me out of it?
Most servers work hard for low pay, so I don't mind, I consider it part of going out to eat at a place where someone serves me.
People who don't like to tip can always go to fast food joints.
"They only suffered minor injuries, but no doubt tipped much better after that."
Perhaps perhaps not.
Tips are earned.
Provide me with average service, you get an average tip (average tip is 15%). Provide me with superior service, you get a superior tip. Provide me with abbysmal service, that earns you 2 cents under an upside down waterglass filled with water (just to make the point).
What folks need to realize it there are a lot of people that receive GREAT service and leave nothing, either because they are clueless or just Scrooges and they can.
I rather ready to stiff the waiter after that (and I had had a minor disagreement with him earlier) but I was voted down. I don't remember what we finally left.
Me either, but why take the chance.
"Five dollars. Now I can go to the movies. By myself."
by the way, many more places are automatically adding tips and not just for big parties.
But should we tip the car hop at Sonic?
Once at a Restaurant in Disney World our salad was never served to us ..... so the Restaurant Manager informed us that our meal would be FREE......the service otherwise was great.....our waitress got a great tip!
A forced 20% tip? Regular tipping is 15% and 10% at buffets from what I understand. Restaurants should pay at least minimum wage instead of expecting the customers to support their help after paying for the meal in the first place.
Also, the tip is supposed to be for the quality of the service. What's going to happen if the it is guaranteed regardless?
I know one thing, any restaurant that tries pulling that is NOT going to get my business. There's plenty of places to eat out there.
My biggest pet peave are those "tip jars" at cafes. You know -- the cafe where you wait in line for 15 minutes while the people behind the counter act like you are interrupting their discussion of the show they attended the night before. There is no table service and the employees are rude, yet the implication is that a tip is expected.
My wife and I paid $18 for two drinks last night at chain restaurant last night. Of course, it's BAD etiquette to ask how much cocktails cost, but WTF? And then the server/bartender/whoever wants to know why their tip sucks?
Soft drinks are $2.75. For a flipping glass of Coke. So people order water with lemon these days and the servers think they're cheapskates.
Adequate service gets you 15%. Good service 20%. Crappy service 10% (anyone can have a bad day - I've never totally stiffed a server).
When 25-cents worth of iceberg lettuce and two tablespoons of dressing run $4.00, these people need to thank their lucky stars idiots like me are too lazy to make dinner at home seven nights a week. They'll get their tip and like it.
Here we go again...the communist idea gets in that they're owed something - indeed, "MORE" - for doing less.
I'll tip what I damn well want to tip. Good people get good tips. Garbage gets less (although I've never - yet - intentionally done less than 15%; but don't think I won't do it if it's warranted).
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