Tipping

I will always have the intention of at least 10% in UK/EU countries, but if they do not live up to standard, I'll not tip. I'd have to have pretty crap food or service or something though. If I had a long wait, miserable unhelpful staff or poor food etc.
 
krooton said:
A VERY fetching she actually (yes, that helped), who was the perfect balance of attentive whilst not hovering, had a great sense of humour and gauged how to interact with our table perfectly, made some brilliant recommendations for each course, took anything out of the ordinary requests smoothly in her stride, basically she gave a service well above anything I have experienced before or since.

Did I mention that she was VERY fetching?
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The tip, thusly, has my approval.

"Just the tip".
 
For me it's down to the service I receive, If it's good they get a tip if it's not then they don't, Rocket sciences it's not.
 
jwest said:
I have seen this topic come up few times on here, but after going out for dinner with my parents last night I have been thinking about it and I can't understand why tipping is still a custom here.

So can anyone tell me, if you tip in restaurants do you also tip the staff in McDonalds? After all they are doing the same job for just as little money. Not to mention any other profession on minimum wage that you don’t customarily tip.

Are you aware that it is up to the restaurant what they do with tips, it does not necessarily all go to the person that served you?

What are you actually tipping for, because the food was good? in which case why are you leaving it for the waitress/waiter. Is it because the staff that served you was polite? Surely that should just be a prerequisite of the job. Or because they were a nice person? Which would be ridiculous, imagine having a chat with someone in the street and then giving them a couple quid because you liked them...?

Although this topic is most applicable to restaurant staff, obviously we tip many professions. Frankly I think it is almost degrading, by tipping you are creating a strong, almost Dickensian divide between you and the worker as if you have control over them, or that your of a higher social status.

So what I really want to know is why you tip, how can you justify it?

FYI I am only referring to tipping in the UK, obviously in the US for example it is a different case as tips are used to make up their salary.
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What high fallutin' ideas you have. Sounds like a mixture of disdain for the less fortunate and inverse snobbery by calling out the very things you are disdainful of.

You don't think waitresses etc don't take tips as at least part of their salary? You honestly think they get anything more than the bare minimum wage, if that? Good restaurants share it with their staff or they won't keep them very long.

Other than waiters/waitresses and taxis I can't think of anyone that expects a tip here, and even taxi's are optional (I don't bother tipping taxis myself)

The US is endemic for tipping, I couldn't believe it when I was there everyone and his dog expects, nay, demands, a tip. If they fail to get one they'll frequently become rude if not downright aggressive, especially taxi's. Scary.
 
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A few days ago I had lunch with a friend at a fairly local chain restaurant. As it was my treat, I paid but didn't leave a tip as I felt the service was just 'doing their job' and nothing out of the ordinary.

The conversation in the car home was one of "Josh, you really should have left a tip, even just a few pounds" and his rationale was that they spend all day serving people and probably get very little thanks. I disagreed, and explained that by me paying my bill, treating them with respect and thanking them for their service that was sufficient thanks. Frankly any half-decent restaurant expects their staff to be courteous, polite and have a basic understanding of the food they are serving. I feel it's daft to tip for any of the above because it is just what is expected.

If, for example they had truly gone out of their way to do something for me, then sure I would consider leaving a little extra. But in this case, quite frankly all they did was their job and I was pretty annoyed my mate was trying to make out I had done something wrong.

Rant over.
 
I think tipping harks back to pre-minimum wage, where tips made up a larger part of a waiter/waitress total remuneration. Now the higher cost of wages is priced in more.

I still give a tip, generally about 10%.

I went to States earlier this year and the menus say 20% tip is considered decent. It doesn't say whether that is Meal+Tax+20% or Meal+20%+Tax. Quite confusing really what so hard about things being the price it says on the menu.
 
I'm going to start asking for a 10-15% tipping fee from my clients. I'm sure that will end up well.

Don't understand why we have to tip people who are doing their job, it's not even like working in a restaurant is hard, if anything I would tip Bin men, firemen , policemen, ambulance drivers, ER nurses, heck, those people deserve tips, not some bloody kid waiting tables for beer money.
 
Used to tip, went to india- realised how much better the service staff are there and simply cant bring myself to tip back home unless the service is bend over backwards (which is the norm out there!)
 
Incidentally I went for a meal today for lunch, and 1 member of staff was absolutely fantastic, the rest were, frankly not bothered, would rather chat for 2-3 minutes about the football on the TV rather than get up to serve us drinks. I asked about tipping when the excelent member of staff came to serve our food, and it was a "community tip" jar, so I appologised to him that I couldn't leave a tip on the basis that his co-workers were doing jack all, which he took well.

Anyway, on the way out, and out of view I shook his hand for the excelent service and snuck him a sneaky folded up fiver, which he quickly pocketed :)
 
My eldest daughter has always said she was going to write an anonymous blog about how some customers treat staff like poo.
She said the worst one was 3 weeks ago when she took the meals to a table, thanked them for the order and hoped they enjoyed it then walked to the next table where 3 blokes were sitting. The original man called her back and said 'What is this ****?' and then pushed his fork into her belly making her scream & cry. The 3 blokes immediately jumped up and took him to the ground while his wife threw a tantrum. My daughter said she didn't want anything to happen and they just threw him out.

Incidentally my daughters reckon the best customers & tippers are Gypsies.
When Gypsies walk in the staff argue over who is going to serve them.
 
tip for
good staff
good meal
good ambience
...
I thought that was to attract customers not an optional extra

People in the catering industry more often than not work long and unsociable hours, mostly on minimum wage to provide a service, just like a taxi does too. A waiter / waitress can make or break your evening with their service. When they apply for that job, it is often advertised at set wage (minimum usually) + gratuities, a bonus or incentive to do their job better, i don't think it's a bad thing, sales people get bonuses for hitting targets, bankers get bonuses, etc. Why shouldn't we in the catering industry be given an incentive to do our job that little bit better, to make your meal the best it can be?
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so we should tip , train drivers , bin men , postmen , checkout staff and every other crap job as well?
 
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jwest said:
So can anyone tell me, if you tip in restaurants do you also tip the staff in McDonalds? After all they are doing the same job for just as little money.
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What? You go to the wrong restaurants if you have to go up to a counter and wait for your food.
 
In america I tip as I'm aware that they are exempt from minimum wage and get paid peanuts!
Over here I do not tip, otherwise I would need to start tipping everyone that provides me with a service to keep it fair and consistent!! Unfortunately I cannot afford that.
If I won the lottery I would tip everyone that was nice :-)
 
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