Poll: Tipping For Service

[StriderShinryu]

This topic came up in another thread (one on DRM and piracy of all things) but rather than rant in that topic, I figured it deserved one of it's own as it's an entirely separate issue.

If the post is too long, the poll pretty much sums it up.

When leaving a restaurant (or partaking in another service like having food delivered, picking up your dry cleaning, etc.) do you leave a tip? If you leave a tip, do you do it because you really want to or do you just do it because you feel it's expected of you? If you don't leave a tip, is it because you don't feel any extra payment is required for the service done or maybe is it because the service was as expected but not exceptional?

Personally, I don't mind the idea of tipping as a concept but I hate the fact that it is in many cases now considered mandatory. If someone serving me goes above and beyond then I have no issue with giving them a tip. If, however, someone is just doing their job I don't see why I should be expected to pay them beyond what they are already receiving in wages. Perhaps they feel they are being underpaid, but that is an issue beyond their current job. Many people would argue that they are underpaid and yet never even have the chance to receive tips. A tip, should you be in a profession where one can be received, should be something you actually have to earn not something you should receive "just because."

 

[APLovecraft]

i don't tip wasters who don't deserve it, they have to work for it.........

....sexual favours work fine too

 

[SnootyEnglishman]

I give tips based on the amount of service i receive from the waiter/waitress. If they give very good service and are friendly a good tip from me. If they'd rather sit in the corner and pick their nose or smoke, NO TIP FOR YOU!!!

 

[DoctorNick]

Well, around here servers make less than minimum wage so if you don't tip them you're effectively shafting them out of a good part of their wage.

So while I do almost always tip (I give nothing if the person pissed me off) I do dial it up and down depending on how much they pleased me.

Pro-Tip here guys:
I saw a thread on here before about tipping and it seemed like a lot of folks from overseas (It seemed like Australia and the UK in particular) found the whole idea of semi-mandatory tipping silly. While that's all well and good while on your home-turf I'll warn you right off if you come to visit the US you will loose friends among the wait-staff VERY quickly if you go to restaurants and consistently leave the staff nothing.

 

[wordsmith]

Speaking as someone who works in retail, it does annoy me a little when someone doesn't seem to realise where the line between "doing my job" and "A & B the C of D" is.

I'll tip if I'm feeling generous, or if I wouldn't be happy to be in their position. You're serving bacon sandwiches at 7.30 on a monday morning? Have a tip. You're selling coffee on a friday afternoon when there's no-one around? You get paid for the coffee, no more.

Meals I'll tip for if they're really good or if the delivery driver beats the expected time, but otherwise you're just doing your job.

 

[PHOENIXRIDER57]

Alot of people say that you have to tip waiters because that is most of their pay. I tip nearly every service person, but only based on how the service was. Once gave a 3 penny tip because the waiter sucked so bad. Otherwise its usually around 2 or 3 dollars for average service.

 

[Tasachan]

I tip, especially for restaurants/delivery because I've worked in restaurants, so I know the kind of crap those people put up with sometimes. At my one job, they were paid under minimum wage because they were expected to get tips. They always looked so put out after working a 4 or 5 hour shift and making like $5 in tips.

Actually, I tipped the delivery man that brought my chinese food last night and he looked confused. ... though he might have been the cook filling in, since he was wearing an apron.


The only time I haven't tipped was for my wedding. The caterers tried to overcharge me by several hundred dollars, and did not even send me a bill estimate until a week before the wedding. Considering I paid them a couple thousand, I figure they made enough as it is.

 

[x0ny]

I tip if I feel generous, afterall, the people who bring you food are doing only that, what about the people who cook the food? Plus, who tips the workers at McDonalds? Quite frankly, it's their fault they didn't do better in school.

 

[MattZero]

If I get really good service I will give huge tips and come back during their shifts and request their section and recommend that friends of mine do both of those things as well. Waiters and Waitresses who give good service to me usually end up getting good business and tips from everyone I know.

I tip delivery guys and if the weather is bad I'll tip them equal to the cost of the meal. I have huge respect for delivery guys. If the visibility and/or road conditions are bad they're basically risking their lives to bring me something I'm to lazy to interrupt whatever I'm doing to go get.

 

[AvsJoe]

I'm getting tired of these tipping threads.

I tip the tax if the service was great, I tip more if the service was excellent or better, and I won't tip if the service was good or worse. I give small tips to paper carriers and bartenders. I also don't tip cab drivers, restaurant workers, or most other professions that live on tips. Call me a jackass but I've always been this way.

 

[molester jester]

I don't tip because society says I gotta. I tip when somebody deserves a tip. When somebody really puts forth an effort, they deserve a little something extra. But this tipping automatically, that shit's for the birds. As far as I'm concerned, they're just doin their job.

A shiny penny for the person that can name this quote.

 

[SmartIdiot]

Interesting that... I work in a bar, I rarely get tipped. Only time it happens is if there are American or Canadian customers in, who tend to tip with every round. I discovered this last year and was pleasantly surprised when I managed to make an extra £15 at the end of the night (that's a lot to me). Much of the time I try to tip when I can... sometimes I forget and then feel like a total arsehole afterwards when I remember. I think it's a nice perk for the person working, particularly as the kind of jobs where you tip people are 'in-between-work' occupations.

 

[Insanum]

There was a recent law passed in the uk (<6 months) where emplyers couldnt use tips to boost staff earnings UPTO the minimum wage.

Thats right, The employers were paying people very little, and letting tips, Which in theory are supposed to be bonuses.

---

OT: I tip if the service was good, being in the UK, Tips arent madatory, and if i was ever in the states & someone did that whole "Stand there till you tip them", i'd give them a nice Boot shaped tip. Im british, We invented politeness, And we know when that line is crossed.

 

[Jamash]

Pro-Tip here guys:
I saw a thread on here before about tipping and it seemed like a lot of folks from overseas (It seemed like Australia and the UK in particular) found the whole idea of semi-mandatory tipping silly. While that's all well and good while on your home-turf I'll warn you right off if you come to visit the US you will loose friends among the wait-staff VERY quickly if you go to restaurants and consistently leave the staff nothing.

Who goes on holiday to make friends with waiting staff?

I'd even go as far to say that the notion that people working in restaurants are your friends just because they expect extra money from you to be extremely false and superficial.

Be my friend because you like me and value my friendship, don't prostitute false friendship just to coerce me into giving you money, it's practically psychological or emotional blackmail.

I tip anyway, usually a percentage of the total bill or the change from a note, but I do it because I recognise that those people aren't earning a lot of money and have provided a service, not because they're my new best friend.

Actually if they were my friend I wouldn't tip them at all, since petty things like money shouldn't factor into friendship (and if they got upset with me because I didn't patronise them with small change for doing their job, then they're not really a very good friend in the first place).
Also I'm unemployed, so a true friend with a job shouldn't expect money from me, and should just be happy that I chose to spend money to visit and support them at their place of work.

Also, if I were to arbitrarily give people money based on their friendliness, then I'd also have to withhold money from people who weren't so friendly, which would be discriminatory against people I didn't like, or people with ugly faces or who were having a bad day. I'm firm but fair.

The notion of semi-mandatory tipping is silly. I'm a generous person and tip a percentage or what I can afford because I want to, it's what I believe, but I won't be manipulated by false smiles and that fake "Have a nice day" bullshit.

 

[Cinnonym]

I give tips based on the amount of service i receive from the waiter/waitress. If they give very good service and are friendly a good tip from me. If they'd rather sit in the corner and pick their nose or smoke, NO TIP FOR YOU!!!

Basically this. Though giving tips to flirty waiters makes me feel like a high roller.

 

[commasplice]

I tip because my momma taught me to. I'm kind of lazy when it comes to doing math in my head, though, so I'm probably a terrible tipper...or a really good one. Not quite sure.

Fun fact: your poll is actually designed in a way that could skew the results and make it seem like more people would say "no" on account of there only being one "no" option. Think about it. If it was split 50/50 between "yes" and "no," even if it was 48/1/1 between the three "yes" choices, it'd still look like more people chose "no" than "yes." They do this kind of thing all the time on the news 'n stuff. Here's an example of it backfiring. Badly. Though I think it's fair to say that most of those people chose that one answer because that's how they felt, whoever created the poll actually did them a favor by lumping them all together. Statistics are fun, yeah?

 

[Lullabye]

I give tips based on the amount of service i receive from the waiter/waitress. If they give very good service and are friendly a good tip from me. If they'd rather sit in the corner and pick their nose or smoke, NO TIP FOR YOU!!!

Basically this. Though giving tips to flirty waiters makes me feel like a high roller.

Really? It just reminds me of how out of my league most women are.....now I feel bad.

 

[Trivun]

Well, as i stnds, i've never been to a place by myself where tips are customray. I've been to such places with family and friends, but in those cases I haven't had to pay the bill, so I haven't been responsible for the tip.

That said, when I do eventually end up having to pay for my own meal in a place where tips are customary, then I will do, but only if the service is good. If I get crappy service then there's no way the waiter/waitress is getting my money. I'll just pay the bill and nothing more. But if the service is at least satisfactory, then I'll pay a tip, and the better the service the better the tip. Funny story though, some months ago when I was clubbing with some friends, I was completely off my face, and ended up tipping the guy behind the bar and telling him to get a drink for himself. Note that this was near the end of the night so there were very few people at the bar anyway, and I was extremely drunk.

Not to mention back when I was in the Boy's Brigade (kind of like a watered down, more Christian, Scouts, but only in the UK), we did a special dinner at the small Baptist church where meetings were held. I was probably about 12 or 13 then, and this dinner was a special thing for regular churchgoers, the families of Boy's Brigade members, and the reverend and his friends and family. All of us who were in the Brigade had to attend on waiting duties, and we weren't paid or anything, though we were allowed to take whatever leftovers there were. Suffice to say that after that one night, I was about £25 richer thanks solely to service charges, which seemed quite a lot to a 12-year-old like I was then

 

[commasplice]

Who goes on holiday to make friends with waiting staff?

Ever seen Waiting? I always make friends with the waiting staff.