http://shine.yahoo.com/work-money/what-kind-of-person-tips-10-dollars-for-85-pizzas--173851199.html I get confused with the tipping part all the time. When and how much? I usually sign the receipt and let my wife fill in the number. Sometimes, the service is so bad that you wanna get up and walk out the door; not leaving a penny. Luckily, my wife always does it for me so it never occur. For me personally, I believe tip as a reward for good service/job; not an obligation. I know that a lot of these people get minimum wages and usually earn more from tips; then they should do a better job. However, I find that isn't the case these days. Service workers provide bad services and expect tips regardless which added to the check. WTF .. since when is tip an entitlement? You hit them Chinese restaurants and those waiters would treat Asians like trash while the whites so much better .. faster food, bigger plate, and faster services .. deem Asians as cheapskates.
So this past summer, in my work place, I didn't know this, and only found out when the restaurant Manager (in the hotel I worked at) wanted to ban me cause my friends and I under tipped. This was because 1) we got 30% off our meal. We tipped based on the discounted price, not the original. We were actually supposed to tip based on the original price- prior to the discount. Yeah, it didn't matter if our server gave us good service or not (usually not, cause we were even told to prioritize actual guests rather than employees eating there. Even employees from another hotel (but under the same company). I thought this was major bullshit, but whatever. Yes, that's exactly how I feel also! I feel the waiters are incredibly greedy. With many, their service is terrible, yet they expect the full 15% tip. Fuck off. I've worked service, so as much as I can sympathize with them, I also nit pick. If they aren't up to my standards, they are not getting a full tip. I know in Japan, if you tip them, they become incredibly offended.
10 % = Dissatisfied, yet still being courteous, regardless of how turd like the service was. I'd prefer still give them something just because. 15%+ = Impeccable service. There's 5% of leniency, depending on one's satisfaction. I don't see how it's difficult to tip, unless Person's situation arises lol.
I tip based on the service, type of restaurant and the meal. Good service - I usually tip 10 - 13% during lunch and 15 - 20% for dinner. Bad service - good luck trying to get 5% out of me; most of the time, I give flat $1.00 for bad service. I see tip as my appreciation for the waiter / waitresses' attentiveness; why should I tip if you don't even bother making sure my drinks are full and my meal condiments are met.
Over the years, I've noticed that food establishments fall into two kinds; the first being the honest eatery, where good food with stellar service is all they want to give their customers. The other is the sucker puncher, who hits a customer with a host of often creative but nonetheless exorbitant charges in an effort to milk the most financial return of an encounter. Waiters are only one facet of that commercial intercourse, which at times, their behavior can make the transaction resemble the dealings between pimp (the restaurant), prostitute (the waiter), and john (the customer). For example, some restaurants will charge nearly 20% more if you're in a large party (say, greater than 6; easily avoidable if you split your group into non-offending separate check, fours or fives), while others may invoke a special seating area charge (eg. next to a window or closer to the kitchen, whatever). Hotel watering holes and restaurants have this down to a science; even their bathrooms have someone standing there with a hand out as one does their grimy business. Waiters that work for establishments like the latter often sense the prevailing monetary Raison d'être of a place, and thus conduct themselves accordingly. These are the places where waiters feel empowered and entitled to spit into your glass unless you fork over the 'de rigueur' acceptable minimums, and some have even chased forgetful customers down the street as if in state authorized pursuit of a bank robbery suspect. They are exactly a product of the tone set by their environment. Thus, the idea that tips are excess reward funds customarily used to thank good service is moot; in many places now, the gratuity is just another 'swallow' surcharge that a prostitute invokes. The feeling here is, "I laid a plate on your table, you OWE me 18% and so help me, I'll fuck you up if you don't give it to me." This may not be right, but in a money tight economy unfortunately, it has become common. Like the contraction 'you're'; when so many don't follow the correct rule, then the grammatically incorrect 'your' becomes, for all intents, the new rule. In this regard, I try to only eat in places that don't require tipping, or if they do, to observe simple gratuity customs, without a menu of other surcharges or add ons. I know that sometimes, one cannot avoid those high end places (which are the worst offenders); but I nonetheless recognize that I'm being ripped off. Insofar as the OP's story, the ten buck tip on delivery for what would be an almost $1500 order is an eye brow raiser. Even a cheapskate could have done a bit better, say, fifty bucks or so...
do you tip the UPS guy if you bought books from Amazon. Why such a big fuss over delivering food as opposed to books an other non food products. If you order pre-prepared meals from weight watchers, do you tip the delivery guy??
I do the Chinese thing (grab the package and slam the door, LOL...); joking of course. Seriously, if the item is big (bulky or super heavy) I give the guy a few bucks. Otherwise, I skip it.
One has to remember that one is dealing with just a simple delivery. Suppose you were to buy a $1000 flat screen television, and upon delivery, the UPS man says you owe him an additional $200 for bringing it to you; that, in essence, is the standard "tip" that you're alluding to. Now, if he provided service like a waiter does; that is, set the TV up, cabled the thing and programmed your remote (analogous to serving the food, refilling your glasses, taking your order, finding out how you want your steak or dessert) then it would be a different story. In this case, the UPS guy's function is more like a bus boy; who people NEVER tip. Thus, in this case as offered by the OP, tipping someone based on an idea of a 'standard' 20% (or $300 to deliver $1500 worth of pizza) is, IMHO, rather ridiculous. I'm sure that the delivery guy wouldn't have minded one bit and there are some who do so; but, I'm certainly not one to.
IMO calculation of tip should depend on the situation. The way you calculate tip should be based on the service you receive. If you're at a sit down restaurant and you're actively being served, you would generally tip more than say a pizza delivery service. For a sit down restaurant, I think it's best to either do a % based calculation or a flat rate depending on which is more (taking service into consideration). In this case where it's a simple pizza delivery, a flat rate is totally fine. Though $10 is a bit on the low side, 10% tip for a $1400 pizza delivery is ludicrous when all they really do is drive to your house and walk the pizza to the door. I'd rather drive to the pizza shop and pick it up myself and save $140.
I don't tip the UPS and/or mail man. How do you tip at buffet? You get your own drinks and food; then dump the dirty dishes in the bucket yourself. The servers only wipe the table after you leave for the next customers. Nevertheless, the tip is automatically added to the check for party of 4 or more. All in all, tipping should be reserved for those who deserve it as a reward from excellent services; not an obligation. The American's way of tipping is getting way out of hand. Seriously, why would you want to give your hard earned money to some stupid bitch who took wrong order and showed you attitude when asked for more water? In fact, I was at a Chinese dimsum restaurant one time and this waiter was yelling loudly at a customer with profanity because he requested the food to be done certain way. The manager just sat there and didn't even do anything about it. The customer obviously stood up and left yet the waiter had the audacity to run out the door and told the old guy to tip him. Totally made a scene. I don't know the ending but if I was the old man, I'd call the police immediately. Believe it or not, the guy still works there.
Of course you gotta tip in Asia BUT it depends on where you eat. At least in Asia, you have the final say; not added to the check like here in the US. Frankly, the tipping thing is more of an American thing. Unfortunately, this is catching up every where largely thanks to us Americans.
The 15 & 20 percent is just for eating out at a restaurant. I should have specified. Taxis, doormen, and hairdressers I all tip differently. Pizza delivery I'd also tip differently (with perhaps slight adjustments accounting for how much I order/how much of their services I use).
Serving big parties of over six takes a lot more effort than a table of two. Getting the orders right, making sure they come out nearly the same time (when the kitchen staff isn't always helpful in this respect), keeping up with drinks, and clearing tables can be a lot more work than you'd think, especially when you are waiting on several other tables simultaneously. Part of the issue is timing. To simplify it, say you have a table with six people versus two tables of three people. The two tables would likely not be on the same exact schedule, so you have much more leniency there. Sometimes your job is easier and there are bussers that help you out, but you still have to manage a hell of a bunch of stuff on top of some picky customers that may come in already hungry and irritable. It can be a difficult job already, so to me it makes sense that waiters and waitresses serving larger parties should be tipped well. Those bathrooms also tend to be a lot cleaner because the person standing there is constantly cleaning up and making sure everything looks nice and is stocked up. It really depends on where you are eating out. In a lot of Scandanavian countries service people are paid better wages. In the USA, many waiters and waitresses get about 2-3 dollars/hour with the assumption that they make their money in tips. ["The federal subminimum cash wage for food servers in the U.S. is $2.13 per hour. States with lower sub minimum wages than the federal ($2.13) include Oklahoma ($2.00), Virginia, and New Jersey." *from http://wiserwaitress.com/the-menu/wage/ ] Additionally, waitors and waitresses get a percentage of their tip, not the whole thing. People who make it a habit not to tip in the US (or only to tip when the service is truly exceptional-like what did they do? Shine your boots?) come off as cheapskates (atleast to me). If you seriously can't afford to tip people for serving you your food, then maybe you shouldn't be eating out at a restaurant in the first place? I didn't mean to come off so ranting in this post, but I feel like service people often deserve more respect than they are given. The whole "why should I give you money for filling my water attitude?" just irks me.
@Cailini - First off, minimum wage is a lot hell more than that stated in the article you cited above. Secondly, there's no easy job. Even the mail man can get bitten by dogs, harassed by people, and sick/trip/fall from pouring rain/snow/storm while delivering the mail to your doorstep.. you name it. Do you tip your mail man? Bottom line is that this is a job. You either take it or not; that's your choice. Tipping is and should always be customers' decision; not a mandatory thing.
IMHO, I really don't believe that to be a waiter 'compensation' issue per se, as the restaurant is the one that makes an additional profit for what amounts to very little work difference. The one who actually does the work (moving tables together, getting orders right, etc), ie. the wait staff, never see an additional dime. The restaurant in essence, sells the same product for an additional 20% mark up. Suppose Amazon.com did the same thing? If one ordered 6 books together instead of a lesser number, they hit the customer with a surcharge of 20%? Sounds ridiculous? It certainly does to me. I could see your argument being valid if the additional surcharge was given to the waiters because they had to work extra hard, but it's usually the restaurant that pockets the extra money. Additionally, suppose we take that idea to the rest of the world's service industry; say, grocery shopping; a check out clerk will charge you 20% more simply because he has to count more cans and bag more groceries; that is, work a bit harder? Does that sound right to you? Or suppose a nurse in a hospital pads your bill because you're sicker and require more frequent blood pressure checks? Does that sound right too? My point is, that the food industry in the US has evolved into a well oiled money sucking monster, with a costly "rules" mentality (like those that only a wall street broker would love). Every individual little lift of a finger is an itemized 'service' that requires an additional surcharge when it fact, the whole dining experience collectively used to be clearly recognized as the service. What next? Having to pay rent for the time one actually sits in one of the eatery's chairs, or else have to eat standing up? Debatable. I've seen some places where only the clean thing in the washroom was the tip plate, LOL... I agree with you that wait staff generally don't get treated right in terms of work conditions and compensation. This is because traditionally, the restaurant industry has told their help, "you should be thankful I employ you because now you can legally beg from my customers." That, in a nutshell, is how waiters are treated. The fruits of their labor is entirely dependent on the generosity of the restaurant's customers. This is something that most patrons don't even think about, but is the de facto state of affairs. That's why some waiters feel entitled to chase customers down the street in order to badger them for a tip. But like Neg stated, this is legally considered robbery. The customer is under no legal obligation to leave a tip, and by pursuing a former customer (who owes nothing to the establishment), down the street and demanding money? That's a pretty classical definition of robbery. Again, the psychology that money is "owed" by the customer to the wait staff, is one that is frankly encouraged by the restaurant industry, as it is the mechanism which allows them to pay people less than legal minimum wage. Thus, you shouldn't be irked that people ask, "why should I give you money for filling my water...?" But rather, you should be asking yourself, "why is my boss paying me so little to fill that customer's water?" in the first place. Having said that, good waiters, who give their customers a perfect dining experience, should be rewarded, not just for their regular work (which IMHO, is a part of the regular dining bill), but for the extra attention to detail, their anticipation of a customers possible needs, deportment, ability to communicate effectively and general graciousness. I recall once going to a Red Lobster, which has both good and bad waiters, and encountering a waiter that was so perfect, that I gladly gave him even more than what was 'standard'. I told him that he was being wasted at the table; he should have been in their corporate headquarters training others how to do it; he was that good. So yes, I agree that service above and beyond general expectations should be rewarded with above and beyond remuneration. However, don't expect or, increasingly so these days, demand extra payment for mediocre, or worse, abysmal service under a guise that it is an entitlement for a waiter simply being there. But here's something that perhaps, you can appreciate: Spoiler: Waiter Who Outed Romney The Lesson of Mitt Romney’s 47-Percent Video: Be Nice to the Wait Staff? By Chris Good Mar 14, 2013 12:28am Mitt Romney may have lost the presidency because he offended a bartender. In his public debut on MSNBC’s “The Ed Show,” bartender Scott Prouty revealed that he filmed the famous “47 percent” video of Mitt Romney at a closed-door fundraiser in May 2012 and leaked it to Mother Jones magazine’s David Corn, who posted it in September. It was a move, Prouty said, intended to capture the most attention possible. Until now, Prouty’s identity has been hidden. It’s been known that president Jimmy Carter’s grandson, James, facilitated the story, putting the unidentified, surreptitious filmer in contact with Corn. It’s now know that Prouty contacted Carter after seeing Carter’s contributing byline on a Corn story about GlobalTech, the Chinese appliance manufacturer Romney mentioned at the fundraiser. Prouty explained why he leaked the video. “The people that were there [at the fundraiser], they paid $50,000 per person for dinner,” Prouty told MSNBC’s Ed Schultz in an exclusive interview. “You know, I grew up in a blue-collar area in Boston, and nobody I know can afford to pay $50,000 for dinner,” Prouty said. “I just don’t know anybody that can do that and, in a way, I just felt like, if you’re a Republican or a Democrat, there’s a lot of people that can’t afford to pay $50,000 for one night, one dinner, and I felt an obligation for all the people who can’t afford to be there.” Prouty, who worked on the catering staff at the Romney fundraiser, said he didn’t originally intend to leak the video when he began recording it. “I had brought the camera, and a lot of other people brought cameras thinking that people would take pictures, like he did in the past, coming back with the staff and taking pictures,” Prouty said. “I was interested to hear what he had to say, but I didn’t go there with a grudge against Romney.” But when Romney made his now-infamous “47 percent” remark, Prouty said, that’s when he made sure his camera was capturing it because he wanted everyone to hear Romney’s words, unvarnished. Romney told donors that 47 percent of voters would chose Obama “no matter what” because they are people “who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That that’s an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what. … These are people who pay no income tax. “My job is not to worry about those people,” Romney said. “I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.” Prouty, who described himself as a bartender who lives a comfortable life but struggles like everyone else, said the decision to leak the recording was daunting. “Why am I gonna do this, why am I gonna risk everything? Should I risk everything, should I put myself in jeopardy, should I put myself in legal jeopardy?” Prouty said he asked himself before handing the video over to Corn. But he wanted voters – particularly middle-class voters like himself – to hear Romney’s private words and judge for themselves, Prouty told Schultz. “Everybody needed to hear that,” he said. Prouty also related one anecdote that suggested maybe, just maybe, Romney’s presidential downfall was brought on by a joke about table service. Just about anyone who’s ever waited tables believes – strongly – that people who are rude to servers deserve their comeuppance. Especially rich people. Schultz played a clip of Romney joking, apparently in good nature, about how he wasn’t kidding that the food should be brought out quickly. “I guess everybody here is a dignitary, and I appreciate your help. And, by the way, I am serious about the food. Bring that – no, no,” Romney says, momentarily inaudible on Prouty’s recording. “Clear the places. But Hillary has to eat her beets.” Prouty, it seems, didn’t like that one bit. “He’d only been in the room for maybe a minute or two,” Prouty said. “I think it was telling for me. He basically had just walked into a dinner party, he was the guest of honor, and he demanded that the service be sped up. He had literally just walked in the door. “I thought that was remarkable. Anybody who walked into a dinner party – it doesn’t matter who you are – I can’t imagine demanding to be fed faster, to be served faster,” Prouty said. “It wasn’t like we were behind schedule, and I just think that says a lot about who he is, to walk into any person’s house and to demand, ‘Speed it up, speed it up. Bring it, bring it,’” Prouty said. In the clip, it was not clear that Romney was demanding service as rudely as Prouty described. Nevertheless, Prouty’s comments suggested Romney’s seemingly affable wait staff badgering may have set Prouty off even before any of those fateful comments about tax liability and “victims.” Perhaps candidates should be more careful about what they say around servers, because sometimes the 47 percent is bringing out the food. Source: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politic...s-47-percent-video-be-nice-to-the-wait-staff/ And who can forget this?: [video=youtube;yTCRwi71_ns]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTCRwi71_ns[/video]
