"non" tippers are a zero sum in society

a reply to: Abysha

Well, in Schuylers defense, I tip everyone based upon their level of customer service - this includes all interactions ranging from food through to the taxi driver and every encounter inbetween - 20% minimum.

I'm acutely aware of the hospitality industry as I spend the lions share of my time eating and drinking in pubs and restaurants, plus my wife is a restaurant/bar manager so I know, intimately, what sh!t she has to put up with, and it's the same everywhere in that industry so they get the big tips.

a reply to: schuyler

I'm being told in this thread that tipping jobs like a server are paid deliberately below minimum wage because they arfe exempt. I'm also being told that the IRS assume taxes from tips.
Now is that correct or not do you know?
I can say in Britain all servers get at least national minimum wage, and any tips they get are unknown to HM Revenue & Customs, who do not assume tips as taxable income.
It's why we pay our bill by cards here but tips are always hard cash in the hand...that's between us and the server, not the govt.

a reply to: Sublimecraft
I just round up to the nearest £5 note in a taxi, they are expensive as # here, unless you do a deal with the meter off on a long trip.

I've tipped way more than that on occassion though, especially when they've allowed me to drink booze and smoke whatever on a long trip.

Fair enough, I've tipped tailors and seamstresses. That's a skill IMO and one I could never be bothered to learn.
I guess if I really think about it I've tipped a lot of professions for service although never a book dealer, yet.
Interesting, I had to be towed a couple of months ago and wound up tipping the tow driver 10 bucks. The ATM only gave 20s, the tow bill was 50 so I said 'keep the change'.

a reply to: TNMockingbird
I always round up to the nearest note in any transaction with another human. Stores, no, I want my change, or say put it in a charity box, but fellow human offering service to me, I'll round up to the nearest fiver if they were only margionally good at what they did.
Never tipped in a bookstore though, my day will come hopefully lol

originally posted by: TinySickTears
a reply to: Abysha

i just want to chime and and say if thats you in your avatar you remind me of the deadliest woman in the world with a dodgeball.
not in the movie but the the lay who plays her

missi pyle

not a knock. its awesome

I had to look her up because, yeah, that was a bit insulting at first, lol. But Missi Pyle is a cutie! I'll take it, thank you.

a reply to: tadaman

i pay tips when i go to a sit down restaurant but do not agree with the concept as i see it we the customers are paying for our food and then pay your employees too. this is not the norm in other parts of world.

a tip should be for extra special service as a reward .
it is not supposed to be a wage.
wages are supposed to be paid by employers.

another thing that rubs me wrong is plays that auto adds tip to bill. i went a big chain restaurant and got a steak and two kids meals with sodas my bill should have been 40 dollars. the service sucked but i still put 8 dollars on table when bill came i put my card on folder and she brought back receipt she saw the money on table . when i got home and looked at my spending for day i saw she had added 20 dollars onto my bill as a gratuity my bill was 62 dollars i was pissed

a reply to: proteus33
Lol, I only tip in cash and only pay bills in cash, aside from utilities and the like.
I get paid in cash and pay only what I need to in my account ready for whatever direct debit.
Cash is king, you can't get a shady extra charge when you count it out in front of them.
It's real, and so long as cash is legal I'll continue using it as my primary transaction while drawing comedy moustaches on the queen.

Did you seriously just make a post trying to make non tippers feel guilty? LMFAO

Look, the way I see it is, if you do your job, then your normal salary should suffice. If you go above and beyond then maybe, just maybe I might tip. Just keep in mind you and others KNEW what they were getting in to. WE as customers should not have to cover your wage with our money because your employer is cheap.

If a waiter keeps my water full, good, you earned your hourly for doing your job. Now if a waiter goes out of their way to accommodate for something that isn't their normal task then that person might receive a tip.

Sorry but it isn't my responsibility to pay for or make up the difference of your low wage and to give you extra money for doing something you were hired to do. Blame the owners of the business for not paying a high enough wage to survive. I'm also not going to be pittied into feeling like I should give my hard earned money to someone who is just doing the job they were hired to do.

Your rant comes off as if WE HAVE TO tip or we are either poor or scum bag elitists.

TIPS ARE OPTIONAL - YOU AGREED TO TAKE YOUR JOB KNOWING IT RELIED ON TIPS.

Sounds like you had a bad day and did your job and expected a tip and didn't get any, so you decided to cry about it here.

If tips were removed, and the practice was for employers to just pay their employees more, then their food prices would go up. You'll still pay.. one way or another. Tipping does have one benefit - it gives the person giving service an incentive to provide excellent service.

Also for those getting tips, with experience and an exceptional level of customer service, you can make a considerable of money off of tips. Also people who say things like.. "get a real job," you disgust me.

originally posted by: fleabit
If tips were removed, and the practice was for employers to just pay their employees more, then their food prices would go up. You'll still pay.. one way or another. Tipping does have one benefit - it gives the person giving service an incentive to provide excellent service.

Also for those getting tips, with experience and an exceptional level of customer service, you can make a considerable of money off of tips. Also people who say things like.. "get a real job," you disgust me.

Goddamn, you are on point here. People just say "employers should pay more" but you are 100% correct: if they did, the prices would go up.

Not to mention what would happen if employers didn't and nobody tipped. People simply wouldn't do the job. Serving in a busy place is freaking hard. Harder than any job I've ever had (I've done things from drywall to cooking). You work your ass off and deserve every penny when you are doing that job.

originally posted by: fleabit
If tips were removed, and the practice was for employers to just pay their employees more, then their food prices would go up. You'll still pay.. one way or another. Tipping does have one benefit - it gives the person giving service an incentive to provide excellent service.

Also for those getting tips, with experience and an exceptional level of customer service, you can make a considerable of money off of tips. Also people who say things like.. "get a real job," you disgust me.

Really? The people saying get a real job disgusts you? But you are ok with employers paying people LESS THAN MIN WAGE because it's a "tipping position"?

See how badly brainwashed our culture is when it comes to tipping? It has gotten to the point that people demand it, expect it and will give you bad service if they don't foresee a tip in their future. That isn't a benefit at all. And if that is the one benefit tipping provides then that is even worse. You would think people wanting to keep their job would be an incentive to provide good service. IT IS THEIR JOB TO PROVIDE SERVICE. It is not an obligation by a customer to have to tip anyone. The only exception is BIG PARTIES. But if someone is serving 1 - 2 people, how much work are they actually doing for you? Write an order down, give it to the kitchen to prepare, then walk it out to you. WOOOOOOOPIE DOOO. I rather tip the chef for preparing my meal correctly than a server writing a couple words down and bringing me a plate.

BTW there are countries out there that have service industries just like us, they pay their employees more and it is not customary for them to tip because it is seen as an insult and portrays the assumption that they think you are telling them they don't get paid enough. So by saying it would be worse if companies paid more and eliminated tips all together is FALSE. Restaurants do not pay their servers less money to keep food cost down, they pay them less because the law allows them to pay less than min wage if they receive tips. It's a huge scam. So much so that recently they had to make it into law that supervisors and Owners can no longer take tips from workers, it must only go to workers. This was made into a law for a reason, because owners and supervisors were being so greedy as to not only pay their workers below min wage but to ALSO take tips from them.

Now I do know servers do more than wait on tables, they do a lot of little tedious stuff like clean up and refill condiments etc etc but as a customer, i'm sorry but i'm not obligated to pay for you to do all of that work which your employer should be responsible for. As a customer I am responsible to pay for my bill and tip "AS I SEE FIT". Again, stop expecting the customer to make up for your employers being cheap and paying low.

originally posted by: Sublimecraft
a reply to: Abysha

Well, in Schuylers defense, I tip everyone based upon their level of customer service - this includes all interactions ranging from food through to the taxi driver and every encounter inbetween - 20% minimum.

I'm acutely aware of the hospitality industry as I spend the lions share of my time eating and drinking in pubs and restaurants, plus my wife is a restaurant/bar manager so I know, intimately, what sh!t she has to put up with, and it's the same everywhere in that industry so they get the big tips.

Ah ok so you admit that you tip out of pity most of the time, but not because someone did more than their job entailed.

Gotcha.

a reply to: SuicideKing33

In a crowded bar, everyone waiting, when the bartender gets to me I order 2 beers, bottles/cans....$12 or whatever....I throw a $20 down say thank you sir and get out... When I'm back for round 2 guess who gets their drinks right away...yup...me. Lol. Everyone else with their credit cards waiting to sign receipts.

What you are essentially saying is staff can play favorites for better tips, at the expense of quality service to others. Something doesn’t sit right with that .

On a side note ..I’ve never understood a business and how they should efficiently operate , having to wait to take the customer’s money. When I see lineups of people waiting to spend money, and it isn’t happening fast enough, something is wrong in the service set up, and management needs to improve the flow of product. I’m talking bars here.

I’ve also had really bad service , simply because a server has decided to take a disliking to me. Their own personal prejudices cost them a tip.

a reply to: tadamanAw c'mon...First I'll say that I tip 20% and above...My daughter is a server...She shames me into it...You can't call them waitresses any more...Demeaning, undignified...

It's normal for her to pull in over 200 bucks on a five hour shift...That's nuts...For unskilled labor??? And these are not high end places she works at...

We go to a restaurant, order a meal and then have to pay someone to walk it over to us...Crazy...The buffet bus-boys and girls now expect a tip for taking your empty dishes away...

originally posted by: Iscool
It's normal for her to pull in over 200 bucks on a five hour shift...That's nuts...For unskilled labor??? And these are not high end places she works at...

It's not unskilled. You are one of maybe 50 people she's dealing with at the time over a period of several hours and she has to balance, memorize, charm, and do somewhat complicated on-the-fly math (split checks, etc).

I'd challenge anybody who says that is "unskilled" to work in a medium-to-high-end place (or just a low-end rough place, lol) for a week and still be able to say that.

Yes, there are small greasy spoons that you don't see the point of there even being a wait staff. But the job scales. There are places where servers make 80k/year and there are others where the servers have to shower in the dish pit. Saying it is "unskilled" is like saying an artist has an "unskilled" job. Sure, the guy painting peace signs on an alley wall isn't really all that skilled but then you also have Banksy.

originally posted by: Abysha

originally posted by: Talorc

originally posted by: BELIEVERpriest
a reply to: tadaman

I've played the customer service game before, so I try to find a reason to give a baseline tip, but on rare occasion, I can't justify giving a tip. Personally, I try to avoid going to restaurants and such, as I feel completely humiliated being served by strangers. I guess its just something that you learn from personal experience in retail.

Yeah it's weird, I have this feeling to. After working in restaurants and other service jobs, it just somehow feels degrading to be served food by other people. I just get really uncomfortable about it.

It pays to really stick with the mom&pop/dive joints (or even some independent fancy places). I make a rule to not go to any place where the staff has to wear a uniform and look miserable. I like places where the staff is wearing interesting clothes and look like they're having fun. Nothing degrading about being served by somebody genuinely happy to be there.

I find that the mom & pop places have much happier employees,...people who are actually happy to serve. I don't mind those places from time to time. That's when you have the time to actually strike up good conversations with the owners and workers.

a reply to: tadaman

So, I tip because I care and all, but..

How much is 2 minutes of a waitresses time worth?

A majority of waitresses working at low scale restaurants meant to be value and family, just don't give a snip. They slam your food down, ignore requests for extra sauces and garnishes, forget your straws and don't refill your drink for 20 minutes...

I realize this is a broad generalization as well, and many only have a few of these issues... and I still tip over 15 percent all the time just to be nice..

But really, they don't deserve it based on customer service and fulfilling what I wanted - they only deserve it because laws won't bring the serving wage up to par with all wages.

originally posted by: jidnum

originally posted by: Sublimecraft
a reply to: Abysha

Well, in Schuylers defense, I tip everyone based upon their level of customer service - this includes all interactions ranging from food through to the taxi driver and every encounter inbetween - 20% minimum.

I'm acutely aware of the hospitality industry as I spend the lions share of my time eating and drinking in pubs and restaurants, plus my wife is a restaurant/bar manager so I know, intimately, what sh!t she has to put up with, and it's the same everywhere in that industry so they get the big tips.

Ah ok so you admit that you tip out of pity most of the time, but not because someone did more than their job entailed.

Gotcha.

Pull ya head in dickhead - your presumptions versus my conduct are at polar opposites.

Really? The people saying get a real job disgusts you? But you are ok with employers paying people LESS THAN MIN WAGE because it's a "tipping position"?

See how badly brainwashed our culture is when it comes to tipping? It has gotten to the point that people demand it, expect it and will give you bad service if they don't foresee a tip in their future.

Are you seriously suggesting that in the time someone starts to provide customer service (i.e. waiting a table), until say.. halfway through your meal, they can determine if they will or will not get an appropriate tip, and then provide service based on that? That is absolutely ridiculous. You are inventing implausible arguments that make no sense.

Also if you are that enraged about tipping in the U.S. for meals - don't eat out.

Most of Europe, Africa and the Middle East also typically tip. Asian cultures do not as often or do not tip. So acting as if the U.S. is some kind of mutant as far as tipping goes is silly. It's common more often than not, world-wide.