Celebrities (mostly liberal) who are terrible tippers

Bitter Waitress ^ | 8/23/03 | ILMH

[I_Love_My_Husband]

*Natalie Portman - (loc.)Boston (#in party)2 (amt/tip)$27.00/$3.00 (tip %)11%

*Tom green (loc.)Los Angeles (#in party)5 (amt/tip)$175.00 /$15.00 (tip %)8%

*Serena and Venus Williams (loc.)Boston (#in party)12 (amt/tip)$280.00 /$20.00 (tip %)7% *********

*Madonna (loc.)New York (#in party)4 (amt/tip)$120.00 /$10.00 (tip %)8%

*Natalie Merchant (loc.)New York (#in party)2 (amt/tip)$108.00 / $8.00 (tip %)7% ******

*Allen Iverson (loc.)Detroit (#in party)5 (amt/tip)$495.00 / $50.00 (tip %)10%

*********Tipper's Name: Serena and Venus Williams Restaurant: Italian Where it happened: Boston Total bill / Tip amount / Percentage: $280.00 / $20.00 / 7% What happened: They came in with coaches managers and groupies....ordered things that were not on the menu only drank a strict 40% water 60% cranberry juice mixture and very rudely snapped their fingers for water refills (they had played that afternoon). The manager payed one bill and tipped well the groupies payed the other and left only 20 bucks. They were awful, and when they got the bill had us split it 12 ways and denied ever ordering half the things their fat asses just ate! Never again if these two walk in will i jump to serve them and their group of 12- 14 aunts uncles cousins neighbors and any or all other groupies that walk around kissing their asses!

******Tipper's Name: Natalie Merchant Restaurant: Campagna Where it happened: New York Total bill / Tip amount / Percentage: $108.00 / $8.00 / 7% What happened: Not to mention all the shit she got for free that night from the evil owner of this now defunct B-list celeb shit hole

[Fraulein]

The [S.F.] Mayor, Willie Brown likes to frequent the restaurant often but he demands the best of service, but only leaves a 10% tip, while wearing his designer suits. He works the servers to the bone & treats them like dirt under his feet

[undeniable logic]

It's a free market. The idea that a 15% tip is a minimum would be like a 15% tax on food. People are free to not tip at all. No one ever criticizes the restaurants that pay 3.00 an hour and expect consumers to share their payroll expense.

If 2 people have a $300 dinner, the idea that a waiter should get +45 for 15 minutes of actual work is ridiculous.

I don't think you are looking at this in the correct way. You are correct it is a free market, and the free market has decided that an appropriate compensation structure should be stuctured so that the quality of service factors into the compensation of servers. If everyone decided that a 5% tip would be appropriate, rather than a 15% tip - the restaurant would have to up the prices by 10% to fairly compensate their servers. The amount paid by customers would not change, nor would the amound paid to servers - the only difference is that compensation would be less dependent on quality of service and thus it is reasonable to expect a lower quality of service.

In a similar manner, one expects that a more expensive meal would include a higher quality of service - it is for this reason that a percentage of cost of a meal is an appropriate mechanism for determining servers salaries. Do you expect to pay the same for service at Ruths Chris as you would at Waffle House? I doubt you expect to get the same quality of service. Also, in casual dining, the server tends to get the entire tip, while in high end restaurants, it is split between servers, bartenders, busboys, etc.

It is hypocritical, for those with left-leaning political ideals to consistantly tip low, when they know that the current compensation structure for a server is designed around tipping. It is in a sense, trying to get a meal without paying for service and it is the servers, not the businesses that suffer.

With this being said, I do not believe that 15% is the minimum tip. I look at 15% as the tip for average service. If a server goes out of their way to please me, I will tip 20% or more. If a server does not provide an adequate level of service and is rude, I have no problem leaving 5% or less. If we always tipped exactly 15%, than we are defeating the entire purpose of having this type of compensation structure.

[Fraulein]

True story: I went to lunch with a professor who, much to my later surprise, left only a $1.00 tip! As we were getting into the car, the waitress appeared in the parking lot, waving the dollar and yelling, "This is not enough!" I have never been so embarrassed. He, on the other hand, literally didn't understand what the problem was. I knew he was a cheapskate but sheesh...

But here's the real rub: This professor is a Marxist liberal who has written 3 books on Marxist critical theory! No joke.

[non-anonymous]

Some folks just choose not to adapt

It is cultural. I grew up in a small rural town where we left small change on the table, no matter what the cost of the meal. And when the local pizza place said "free delivery", why would you pay the delivery guy extra for doing his job?

In any case, it took some "cultured" friends to explain the rules to me once I arrived in Boston. I've adapted, but every time I tip at the going rate, I feel like I'm giving into a sham.

[Hildy]

Is Penn the short or the fat one?

[CaptSkip]

I can't believe some on this thread.

How can there be people in 2003, and on FR, that have no concept of TIPS?

15% was the minimum in 1975!!!

Cheap!!!!!!!!

[dixiechick2000]

While I admit I haven't read the entire thread, has it been mentioned that, in many states, servers make less than minimun wage?

Tips ARE their livlihood.

[novacation]

I tip according to the service I get.If it is good I'll leave up to 25%. If it is bad I will leave nothing. A tip is earned, it is not a constitutional right.

[undeniable logic]

Here's my general experience. Blacks are terrible tippers. Indians are worse - in fact, I have noticed that most Indian restaurants make a 15 percent tip mandatory. Yuppies are great tippers. Men on dates are typically great tippers. Women who eat alone or with their women friends are usually bad tippers (its as if guys are always buying their meals, so they don't understand tipping). The elderly are a total crapshoot, but they tend to look at 15 percent as the maximum. Previous waiters are the absolute best customers!

I was waiter during high-school and college...

I also sold cars. Blacks are the most profitable. Married couples tend to do a lot of research and yield little profit. I don't know how any Indians have cars, because they are completely unreasonable. They will offer 10k for a brand new car worth 30k. They think they are being generous when they up their offer to 11k and won't leave when you ask them to (because they completely waste your time).

[Fraulein]

Anthony Keedis -- from the Red Hot Chili Peppers...was reasonably friendly, but I couldn't believe how cheap he was. I gave him the best service I could and didn't even mention his fame or lead on that I knew who he was, and he only tipped 54 cents...

Lauryn Hill demanded that she be served by a black waitress, because she didn't want the white waitress that tried to serve her...

Mariah Carey tied up my co-worker's table for four hours on St. Patricks day, with a bodyguard and an old couple...Then they all just wandered off without paying the check. We had to chase her down the street where she was shocked at being asked to pay...

[Hildy]

Repeat that thing about Lauryn Hill...Is anyone aware that's against the law?

[Tall_Texan]

Athletes, I am told, are often poor tippers. When I was growing up, 10% was the norm. Then it became 15%. Now, it's 20%. Won't surprise me if it becomes 25% soon. I eat out often and usually tip in the 15-20% range - a little nicer for good service - sometimes nothing for very rude service.

An ex-girlfriend and former waitress told me that if it's a place you hope to frequent, tip well. There are some places that know me well enough that they can recite what I'm going to order before I order it. You gotta like that sort of attention.

One time I visited my brother in South Florida. We had brunch at a diner that was more suited for the locals than the tourists. When it was time for the check, I decided that a 20% tip made an even $20 so I pulled out a twenty and told the waitress the rest was for her. For the rest of our time there, she acted like I had just given her $50.

After we left, I asked my brother why she reacted like I had just made her day and he said, "Most of the folks who live here are either Jews or French Canadians and both are crummy tippers."

I've never had quite that reaction anywhere else.

[CaptSkip]

Indeed.

When I waited tables in the 70's, my hourly wage was a dollar or so. We didn't have to report our tips(as is now required and reported by most establishments to the IRS, but our income was totally dependent on tips.

The mind F***s people play with themselves to screw a good server, to this day, amaze me.

[Hildy]

Let's see...from reading this thread I have summised the following are poor tippers: Blacks, Jews, Indians, French Canadians, Asians, Europeans, athletes, Movie stars, rock stars, single women and Senior citizens. Well, I guess we've finally come up with something that young white men are still the best at!

[longfellow]

But, what do you expect from someone who claims her husbands used underwear as an IRS deduction.---
This was actually a plot to get rid of DNA evidence!

[jwh_Denver]

People are free to not tip at all.

If I owned a restaurant and if a customer did not leave a tip on the 2nd time I'd tell them we don't want their cheapskate business. You reap what you sew cheapskate. Would you go to a restaurant where you knew the service charges were in the bill for $15/hr? Bet you wouldn't.

How about delivery drivers? A lot of people don't even think that a driver has to spend his/her money to get somebody's order to them. Unless tipped they paid to get your food to you.

[Fraulein]

if it's a place you hope to frequent, tip well

I couldn't agree more. Great rule of thumb.

[Rate_Determining_Step]

But here's the real rub: This professor is a Marxist liberal who has written 3 books on Marxist critical theory! No joke.

Ya, really connected with the proleteriat, huh? Just gotta love those sanctimonious pointedy-headed parasites.

[Sloth]

20% minimum. If you can't handle it, don't eat out.

Why? Who died and made you God?

[backhoe]

Just my 2 cents?

If you want a real "window into the soul" of a person- an indicator of what they are really like down deep inside when nobody else is looking-

-observe the way they treat people they believe to be powerless before them.

In 54 years of living I have never known this to fail.