Why Tip?

Off Topic
61

[quote]alownage wrote:
If you don’t tip, the SERVER’s service better have been AWFUL. Otherwise, you have no class, and in the instance of those working 2 jobs to support their kids (single mothers, etc…there are lots of them), you’re being a huge asshole. I bet a lot of you guys wouldn’t ever stiff a server if you had worked as one.

Again, this is from my perspective, because where I’m from (Illinois) servers get paid 3.90$/hour. [/quote]

True, but isn’t it kind of lame that the customers are expected to pay the waiters via tips instead of the employers paying a proper wage?

Mike

62

[quote]nephorm wrote:
OneEye wrote:
More often than not, I’m required to claim more than I actually take home because the computer system won’t let you claim less than your total credit card tips.

If you don’t make up the difference in cash, I’m sure you could list the expense of tipping out in your tax return, if you were so inclined.[/quote]

Beauty, Clark.

63

Don’t wait on French Canadians or black people…

64

[quote]cap’nsalty wrote:

I wasn’t saying you were wrong, I was just saying that what you got paid 6 years ago isn’t equivalent to what people get paid today. Secondly, where were you working that you had people under 18 working as cooks? Is that even legal?

I know there are other people who don’t live in Illinois; which is why it’s somewhat complicated. But then again, people living in places where the cost of living is lower probably aren’t making 12 dollars an hour waiting either.[/quote]

Yeah, you’re right about the inflation, but the waitstaff where I worked netted about $11-12 after taxes while I started at $5.50. It seemed like a big difference to me especially considering that I had 7 years experience and they were hiring girls with no experience. This was in Carbondale, Ill. where the cost of living is pretty cheap.

As far as being a cook under 18, if that’s illegal, McDonald’s is in one hell of a lot of trouble.
The restaurant I worked at in Illinois had guys in the kitchen under 18, but they couldn’t run the meat slicer.

65

[quote]apayne wrote:
Don’t wait on French Canadians or black people…[/quote]

Or Europeans.

66

[quote]alownage wrote:
If you don’t tip, the SERVER’s service better have been AWFUL. Otherwise, you have no class, and in the instance of those working 2 jobs to support their kids (single mothers, etc…there are lots of them), you’re being a huge asshole. I bet a lot of you guys wouldn’t ever stiff a server if you had worked as one.

Again, this is from my perspective, because where I’m from (Illinois) servers get paid 3.90$/hour. [/quote]

There are a lot of people scrubbing shit toilets and countless other jobs trying to support a family on nothing. I have never understood why waiting tables deserve twice what these guys get.
That job is a risk/reward job and it seems there are a lot of servers that want all of the reward(20%+) and none of the risk(minimum wage at the least).
A laborer busting his ass on a shovel for 12 hours in 100 degrees has no opportunity for some drunk showoff to drop a c-note on him. It’s just $6/hr every hour and kids to feed.

Now I tip real good, but I don’t think that a server should demand a lot of extra money as their right, it should be a bonus and a blessing. When I drop a guy $25 bucks for a tip on a dinner and I can see he has 3-4 other tables, I think he’s doing pretty good. He’s making more money than any other entry level job can provide. Is there risk associated with that reward? Yes.

What about all of the people who wish they could get that job waiting tables in the air-conditioning for $10 instead of $7 in the cake mix factory. Instead they hear servers bitch about the minority of people who don’t tip. I guess it would piss me off too, but that’s the job.
Do you tip cashiers at the grocery store? They deal with customers for a low wage.

67

I worked at Toys R Us during Christmas during the Power Ranger and Pound Puppy craze and I would have to spend hours looking for a certain Power Ranger or a certain puppy of a certain color with short or long ears. Let’s not talk about Cabbage Patch Kids. I didn’t get tipped.

I do tip, but not at Starbucks. I tip because I do know waitstaff is taxed based on my meal. Otherwise, I really wish I didn’t have to tip. I would rather pay more for my meal and have waitstaff make an hourly wage then me having to rate and tip.

68

[quote]OctoberGirl wrote:
I worked at Toys R Us during Christmas during the Power Ranger and Pound Puppy craze and I would have to spend hours looking for a certain Power Ranger or a certain puppy of a certain color with short or long ears. Let’s not talk about Cabbage Patch Kids. I didn’t get tipped.

I do tip, but not at Starbucks. I tip because I do know waitstaff is taxed based on my meal. Otherwise, I really wish I didn’t have to tip. I would rather pay more for my meal and have waitstaff make an hourly wage then me having to rate and tip.[/quote]

Ditto, ditto. I, too was a Toys R Us kid in high school close to Christmas in the late 80’s. I think I took maybe a month of that bullshit and I was outta there.

Anyway, regarding Starbucks and tip jars; if I am standing up at a counter, I am tipping no one. Pizza guys I give a standard $2 to, maybe slightly more regardless of order size; delivering is not the same as serving and % rules don’t apply. If the pizza place charges me for delivery, they get zip, as I can only assume they are making more per hour due to their restaurant charging me directly for their service.

69

[quote]OneEye wrote:
I like the idea of tipping out a percentage of your tips rather than a percentage of sales.[/quote]

Where the heck do you work, dude? I’ve worked in a couple restaurants (in TX) and tip out came from your tips, not your sales. That sucks.

I tip 18%-20% on the total bill, after tax. My husband tips about the same before tax. I have seldom had poor service, but when that happens it’s 15%. If service is really outstanding, tip is better AND I send a letter to the company or speak to the manager.

If it’s unusually bad, I also send a letter and/or speak to the manager. That has happened all of once and the GM’s response was just as sucky as the Shift managers attitude. I never went back. That sucked, too, because they had a killer salad bar! I noticed about 2 yrs after that happened the place went out of business. Guess I wasn’t the only unhappy customer.

The other day at Olive Garden a friend asked for extra salad dressing on the side. My 6 yr old had some dressing by his plate. The waiter picked it up to hand to my friend, who declined. Seeing this, I explained to the waiter that my son had been double dipping. He brought out new dressing.

Had it been me, I would have said, “Sure! Let me get you some more.”

Now, ok, the waiter likely didn’t know that my kid double dips, but he still should have just brought out extra dressing, right? It just seems like common sense. And it’s not like my friend didn’t see my son’s dressing - they sat across from each other.

Seriously, I didn’t think it was so hard to get extra dressing. It’s not like it was prime time. We got there about 20 min after it opened and the waiter had 1 other table. And he had another server helping him w/ our table - an 8 top, 4 kids, 4 adults.

That said, I still thought his service was fair. The other guy was definitely better, but his was fair. I don’t know what our friends tipped him, but I think they were kind of hard on the guy. Neither of them has ever worked in a restaurant, either.

I find that ppl who have bene in the industry have a more critical eye but are more generous. at least that’s how I am. I notice everything but if I can overlook it, I do.

70

[quote]ThatGirl77 wrote:
OneEye wrote:
I like the idea of tipping out a percentage of your tips rather than a percentage of sales.

Where the heck do you work, dude? I’ve worked in a couple restaurants (in TX) and tip out came from your tips, not your sales. That sucks.[/quote]

Every place I’ve worked has had tip outs based on sales. Tips are hard for the management to keep track of when there’s cash involved, so they look at your total sales. It works out more fairly for the bussers and bartenders because there’s no chance of dishonesty, but makes it hard if you happen to have a lousy tip night (precentage-wise).

71

[quote]swivel wrote:
damn dude out here bussers get 10%, runnners 10%, bar 5% and host 2%. that’s 27%. but whatever, it’s the cost of doing business. personally i used to tip out even more than the required amount and more often than not i’d see my section sat, drinks made, food run, and tables turned before anyone else’s. turn your tables before anyone and you’ve made your money/first in line to get cut. take 30% of the extra tips from the extra covers you did and pay someone to do your sidework and your outta there even earlier. hell the bussers i had used to fight each other to do my sidework ![/quote]

That’s a great point on paying the bussers a little extra to get your tables turned faster. Add that to being a damn good server and you can make out like a bandit at the end of your shift.

72

As a member of the service industry I can say that it pretty much works itself out 100% of the time. There are certain tables you will get 10% off of no matter what, and some tables will give you 20 - 25% just becuase. It always works itself out.

I almost always tip out the bussers and support staff a little extra, mainly because I know I’m gonna walk with two or two times as much as them and they worked every bit as hard as I did…But I’m still looking out for numero uno.

The only option you have as a server is to try and blow every table away and make them leave thinking “Damn, that was actually really good service. I’m going to come back here and ask for him again.”

73

[quote]Digital Chainsaw wrote:
If the pizza place charges me for delivery, they get zip, as I can only assume they are making more per hour due to their restaurant charging me directly for their service.
[/quote]

Most pizza delivery companies do charge extra for delivery, but it usually only 50 cents to a dollar. And that usually goes to the driver as compensation for using their own vehicle – gas, insurance, wear and tear, etc.

74

[quote]apayne wrote:
Don’t wait on French Canadians or black people…[/quote]

WHAT THE FUCK! 90% of white people that i know are cheap asses, and tip under 10%. it’s so bad i dont go eat with them anymore because it just sad. where as all my black friends and i tip very well (i personally tip about 40-50) and i dont live in a low income area, these people live in 500,000-850,000$ homes and drive BMW’s, so get outta here with that bullshit.

75

who gets paid more, sales/customer service, or laborers.

sales/customer service of course. why? because not everyone can work with people. i’ve done both, and working with people is infinitely harder than doing hard physical labor.

it’s all supply and demand. any server can cook, but only a small minority of cooks could serve. therefore, servers make more money, pure and simple.

76

Listen, I’m paying money to recieve food at a restaurant. I associate the price on the menu with the overall charge of being in the establishment. Don’t expect me to know or care what your salary arrangements are. You accepted that salary when you took your job, and I accepted the prices listed on the menu when I decided to eat at your restaurant.

Tips? Only if they’ll prevent some bloke from spitting in your food.

77

I tip 10%. Why should it have gone up to 15-20%? Bullshit.

The only time I tip more is when the server went out of their way, particularly to meet my special request. Very rare.

And I tip less if they fuck up my order. Also very rare, thankfully.

I’ll never tip 15-20% standard. Has something changed in the restaurant business, system-wide? I doubt that, with so many restaurateurs and so many restaurants. Mind you, I don’t make a habit of eating in the puke corporate chains.

Local makes more of their own food, and probably takes better care of their staff.

And if the servers have lost a part of their cut, due to their bosses taking more for themselves (by underpaying other staff), then they can all bend over for me too… Get a new job, whiner!

78

[quote]human743 wrote:

There are also about 284,000,000 people that don’t live in Illinois [/quote]

yah think? ;>

79

[quote]Kailash wrote:
Local makes more of their own food, and probably takes better care of their staff.[/quote]

If you mean by being friendly and nicer to their staff, then yes. If you mean by offering a larger wage and better benefits, then not a chance.

80

I really can’t believe some of the cheap fuckers around here. On a $60 bill a 20% tip is only $12. Is that too much? Maybe you shouldn’t eat out then.

Why wouldn’t you want to take care of the people that serve you food. I can’t imagine how much mucus and crap and shit off the floor you cheap people eat. It works both ways, you treat the server like shit, you eat shit.