To Tip or Not to Tip the Nutty Waiter?

@Bobby: this happened in America I doubt their wages are less than 3 bucks… that’s below minimum wage, how can that be?

@Mr. Article: they do work pretty hard most days probably but that day we didn’t really see them around so we had no way of knowing if they were working or not

@AutoCad: now that’s exemplary, your waitress still keeping the norms that you established..

@FatherOfAsh: hmm, firing would be pretty drastic I believe, but a bit of talk to him by the manager would do for me

@TRCoach: there could be miriad reasons I agree but still, as customers, we sure freaked out and I don’t think their behavior was based on our behavior!

@faculty jobs: glad to have you here, thanks

@psychic: hmm, many days I feel like whacking all my spammers for a change too

@Sueblimely: exactly, I have a hard time agreeing with this practice of including tips in the bill - specially as they don’t tell you if you somehow missed it and paid the tip on top of the tip!

I was a server for over two years and then went to work as a barista for another year. In some states restaurants are not required to pay their employees min wage (it’s usually 1/2 min wage), in those states it’s accepting to feel a bit of an obligation because they’re not being paid fully by their employer. However, I live in a state where min wage plus tips is being paid. Taking this into consideration, I would always tell my complaining co-workers that they should always be greatful for anything they receive because people working in retail (trust me, that’s a far worse job than waiting tables) ONLY make min wage with very small 10 cent raises every 6 months usually maxing out around $10 an hour. I never feel bad leaving a poorly served table with little or no tip, but do feel great to leave a well served table with a great tip. I think that it’s completely assinine to assume that a tip is a requirement (unless for a large group). A tip is just that, a tip. If the restaurants want their staff to receive more money they should raise the prices of the food and pay them more.

As Aurelius says, tipping is not expected as much as in US (or the UK)although it is still commonly done in restaurants. Minimum wage rate laws mean that you will not see $2.95 pay rates - I doubt even if it were cash in hand and the person was illegally collecting the dole too.

I will tip in a restaurant only if the service warrants it and definately not if it were already included in the bill.

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I am a fan of the minimum tip of 15%. Maybe the bad service you got was on a really bad day. I do reward good service with a better tip though.

Sometimes service is poor but it is not the server’s fault. Even when it is the server, often there are mitigating circumstances. The person is new,has far too many people too serve, or maybe just having a bad day - as long as they are trying then I can forgive and leave a tip. More often than not, I get good service because I’m friendly and fair.
Thanks, Tom

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Oh, heck no. To be brutally honest, that waiter is lucky to have pulled this on you, not me. My response to that sort of behavior is to stride straight back into a restaurant and demand to see a manager and explain what just happened and why that stunt means I won’t be setting foot in that establishment again.

A guy like that not only deserves to go without a tip, but really should be fired on the spot.

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I think this is something that can be left to the instincts.

You can whack him if you like too.

That sounds pretty alarming and rude… But anyway, i usually will always tip the waiter no matter the service, it’s just something i’ve always done without thinking, they work pretty hard and probably get fed up doing it so i like to make sure they can live… or at least do my part.

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Haha! I would freak out if they stopped me in the parking lot for money! In America, most waiters and waitresses make $2.13 per hour, so if they don’t get tipped, they don’t make enough money to live. I am a good tipper, but only if I get good service. I let them slide if they are obviously overworked and tip them even if I get bad service

@betshopboy: I think there shouldn’t be a mandatory service charge above and beyond regular salary, in any country… well, may be in some countries there should be, I don’t know.. ‘coz at some places may be servers HAVE TO work harder than here in US but like you said, what’s the incentive then?

@MorganLighter: As bizarre as it was, I think someone from the restaurant might have seen him talking to us in the parking lot, so their service was much better last over the weekend.. who knows! we decided to stay away from them for some time and not push our luck though

I usually tip between 10 - 20% (and even more if they were really good) depending on the service. If the service is real bad I will be real stingy! A tip is supposed to be for good service - should not be expected. We opened and ran a small cafe for a year - we taught our wait staff about good service and a welcoming personality. The cafe is still doing well four years later (our waitress bought it from us) and still gives great service.

What nerve the “un-waiter” exhibited. I would have, after being accosted by this idiot, returned to the restaurant and had a talk with the manager/owner. Had the manager/owner responded with indifference - then he would have lost my business and I would tell ‘the world’ about the outlandish behavior which I had experienced.

Regarding the amount to tip - poor service - 0%, fair service - 10%, great service - 20%.

We do not have a tipping culture here in Singapore because there’s a mandatory service charge of 10% levied on customer by service providers.

It is no wonder that service standards here are on a decline as such mandatory service charge does not provide any incentive for service providers to go out of their way to provide good service.

In short, even if the service was poor or there’s minimum service like in your case reported in this post, a 10% service charge will still be added to the final bill.

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@Anti Scams: I never said the food was not good, it was spicy and hot and we needed someone to give us water so even after asking for it a few times, no one cared to bring it to us

@Dee: exactly.. that’s what irked us too

@Aruni: I’m all for not leaving any tips for buffets too.. I may consider this for future

@Bean Jones: I agree.. we should have complained but shied away for some reason.. also, it was lunch time and we all needed to get back to work

@John Real Estate: I admit we were harsh and now it doesn’t seem to be as big of a deal but at the time, we really felt the spicy food got to us oh well..

@Computer Guy: thanks! they shouldn’t automatically get the tips.. tips are the reward for being good I agree..

@Neolight: agree.. he lost because of his attitude and if he had not come out of the restaurant to chase us, may be we would’ve forgotten the next time around but now we’ll remember

@banquet manager: welcome! thanks for stopping by

@RennyBA: hehe, we paid them the price of lunch

@Clyde: it’s funny that we went to the same restaurant last night and there were a couple of servers hovering around us from time to time.. service was extra-ordinary and I started feeling uneasy and thought someone might have found out I blogged about them not that I mentioned any names, may be I felt a bit guilty lol

thanks guys for all the comments, I really appreciate it. Sorry for late replies..I’ll do better I promise … Please visit again!

This is a subject that is somewhat near and dear to my heart having spent a considerable amount of my life working in the food service industry.

It was always my understanding that a tip was extra for ‘Extra Effort’ given. The servers regular wage is what they’re entitled to for showing up and staying at work on any particular day. However this has changed dramatically as restaurants have somehow managed to become legally able to pay servers less than half of the already ridiculous minimum wage.

While I do certainly feel for the server I’m not real big on ‘entitlement’ and so feel no obligation to provide any payment above and beyond the stated prices on the menu. That said I am absolutely willing and do in fact ‘Tip’ very well those who put forth the effort to earn it.

For those restaurants that insist that I reward poor service by automatically including a gratuity on my check even when the service was clearly sub-par I make it a point to make my point with the acting PIC and vote with my dollars. As in take them elsewhere next time.

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Pearl, thanks for the response.
So You Want To Be a Banquet Manager

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Well in Norway the prices are considerable high and the tips are most often included. It depends on the restaurant and the service, but I often add 10% anyway. Other kinds of services is not that common and always included - I mean in one way or the other, you pay for it: there is no such as a free lunch you know
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Funny— I have about the same scale in my head as you do, it sounds like: 15% is his/hers to lose, and I will go to 20% if they make an effort, as is often the case in the US (side contention: I think that the US has waitstaff whose friendliness/competence rivals anywhere in the world, that I’ve seen, but that’s another post).
In this case, I’m sorry, it sounds like he’s on the way out anyway, and I’d give him nothing at all, not even another thought.

I believe it’s called a tip for a reason, it really bothers me when they automatically add in the gratuity. That being said I think the service would need to be absolutely horrible to even consider leaving less than 15%.

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I agree with the above posters. I probably would have asked the server to let us all go in and talk to the manager. I almost guarantee you that the waiter would have backed off. I was a restaurant manager for years before getting into computers. I would have definitely fired the server immediately for harrassing the customer. It’s up to the server to deserve the tip.

In this case, if you never saw the waiter again, I guess they didn’t deserve the tip. Nothing worse than being thirsty and a stack of dirty dishes on the table.

That was really outrageous on the part of the waiter. I might have called the restaurant manager afterward to report it.

I’m big on customer service so if I receive exceptionally good service, I’ve left up to a 25-30% tip. But if it’s just so-so service I’ll leave 10-15%.

If it’s truly atrocious service I won’t leave anything at all, and depending how awful the service is, I’ll probably even have a chat with the manager.

I know it might seem harsh but I believe that by not complaining we’re actually saying that it’s “ok” to receive bad service.

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Hi Pearl - I usually leave tip of about 20% but will reduce it if the service is bad or non-existent. I don’t usually leave a tip at a buffet place because as you said they mainly serve water and the busboy/girl cleans up the dishes. If they are nice or it’s a place I frequent often then even if it’s a buffet I’ll throw in a small tip but usually not 15% or more because the service level and requirement is so different in a buffet place vs. a sit down full service place.

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I’m surprised that he took notice of you leaving the restaurant in the first place. Obviously, he knew about his rights. Yet very little about customers rights. Lucky him. Thanks to you, he won’t have to chase customers down to the parking lot any longer.

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I would give 12%-22% depending on the level of service. IMO the quality of food should not affect the tip (the waiter doesn’t make the food, right ? ).

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@banquet manager: service charge added to private events makes a lot of sense than at a restaurant because at a private event, as a customer, I am the one getting ALL of their time and attention

@Anthony: agree with you completely that the servers should definitely be rewarded for their hard work BUT people who don’t leave the tips aren’t necessarily uneducated IMHO.. and my post is definitely not directed towards ALL the servers, and we did not go back in to complain but if he had continued chasing us further up to our cars, we’d definitely have gone back in.. coz that would be harassment…:(

@Joshua: I have a soft corner for anyone working hard for their money but I strongly feelthat a little courtesy towards customers can benefit them a lot

@ITGBlog: I agree we might have been harsh with him, but still, running after us in the parking lot while calling us out loud was freaky

@Adam: Applebees has let us down a bit too many times lately on the take outs but I never complained… just recently though one of my friends called them from his home after realizing that the Orange Chicken didn’t have any sauce and it was completely dry .. so their manager said they’d send him a complementary gift certificate for the same amount

@rummuser: right, there should be some training for the servers if they are right out of high school or some young teenagers but this guy was older and should have known better

@Mjuboy: sounds good and I bet they are too proud to ask for a tip

@HighGrace: thanks for the stumble

@Aurelius: I thought the same up until I started reading more on this after making this post.. that the tips were just the bonus and that someone nice(r) would make more in this job than someone who doesn’t care!

@Krix cpec: I hadn’t heard that in US they chase customers all the way to get more tips I am in US and this is the first time I’ve come across such behavior.. and it all depends on which restaurant you work for, not all are minimum wages..but tips do make a great bonus of course

@Everyone: thank you all for stopping by and contributing your opinions.. this waiter was definitely a bit out of line .. I do start at 15% also and then it depends if the service is better than average, I’ll even increase it up to 20%.. just yesterday gave my hairdresser almost 22% so no, I’m not stingy but none of us knew about leaving a quarter to get the message across… should have done that I suppose..