Hahaha, yep me too! Lol! It tends to arrive within 30 mins, so it's kinda like playing for priority service!
Im British and Dont understand tipping
- Thread starter Efour
- Start date
Hahaha, yep me too! Lol! It tends to arrive within 30 mins, so it's kinda like playing for priority service!
Soldato
- Joined
- 5 Aug 2006
- Posts
- 11,503
- Location
- Derbyshire
The American way is far better than ours.
In the USA my food is hot and the order is correct. The staff care and the experience is enjoyable.
In the UK my food is cold or not what I ordered. The staff do not care and generally bone idle.
In the USA my food is hot and the order is correct. The staff care and the experience is enjoyable.
In the UK my food is cold or not what I ordered. The staff do not care and generally bone idle.
I do that sometimes but only because I prefer to pay for a takeaway with cash as an extra incentive for them to find my bloody house and I don't worry about it not turning up or me refusing a cold pizza.
when you pay via card I'm sure they take liberties as they have the money anyway so where is the incentive to rush and make sure the customer is happy? same **** can be said for when the TIP is already added on to your bill.
the server knows the tip is added on they know holiday makers won't kick up a fuss and go all stink eye no matter how bad the service is because they have managed to brain wash tourists into thinking tipping is customary when it is not! it's a reward for outstanding service!
as the tripadvisor survey says only 60% of Americans ALWAYS TIP! if service is crap or a meal is bad don't tip.
you might think it's not the servers fault the meal is bad but it bloody well is! he is like your minion taking care of you and making sure you are good if the food is not good then it's his fault he brought it to you! how disrespectful !
taxi driver here,
have to say its never expected but you do get some huge variety in tips.
its mainly contract airport transfer work we cover so in the most part tourists and business travelers.IME the most generous tippers are Canadians. to the point where its actually embarrassing. i honestly don't know what sort of service they get back home but almost always if the clients are Canadian then the tips are excessive in relation to the journey. (example £20 hire- £20 tip) business travelers are another story altogether but that tends to work on the premise that a £30 fare gets put on the company credit card at £60 and they get a tenner cash back.
i would probably estimate that a good quarter of my take home comes from tips but without being funny about it i think i provide a much better service than most others in my sector. That said the standards in this country are shocking. just looking at the taxi trade for example. drivers seem to think its acceptable to turn up with obviously poorly maintained dirty vehicles more often than not that smell funny then you get the drivers themselves bad attitudes, unhelpful to the point of rudeness and generally moaning about what a rotten time of things they are having.
maybe i set my standards higher than most but i fully expect what i do to be the minimum standard.
my personal standards
a well presented vehicle that obviously in good mechanical condition no obvious repairs of bodges on show
well presented driver, clean well groomed ideally in uniform not some slob turning up in their tracksuit bottoms and tshirt.
be on time don't be early, don't be late. arrive at your destination early and park round the corner or up the road out of site. pull up to the door on or just before booking time. ideally having text or called the client an hour before to let them know your on route.
be polite and don't be overly familiar. its always difficult to explain this to people but don't force a conversation and avoid any emotive topics.
offer as much assistance as necessary always irks me when you see customers lugging their own cases in and out the boot of a taxi
have to say its never expected but you do get some huge variety in tips.
its mainly contract airport transfer work we cover so in the most part tourists and business travelers.IME the most generous tippers are Canadians. to the point where its actually embarrassing. i honestly don't know what sort of service they get back home but almost always if the clients are Canadian then the tips are excessive in relation to the journey. (example £20 hire- £20 tip) business travelers are another story altogether but that tends to work on the premise that a £30 fare gets put on the company credit card at £60 and they get a tenner cash back.
i would probably estimate that a good quarter of my take home comes from tips but without being funny about it i think i provide a much better service than most others in my sector. That said the standards in this country are shocking. just looking at the taxi trade for example. drivers seem to think its acceptable to turn up with obviously poorly maintained dirty vehicles more often than not that smell funny then you get the drivers themselves bad attitudes, unhelpful to the point of rudeness and generally moaning about what a rotten time of things they are having.
maybe i set my standards higher than most but i fully expect what i do to be the minimum standard.
my personal standards
a well presented vehicle that obviously in good mechanical condition no obvious repairs of bodges on show
well presented driver, clean well groomed ideally in uniform not some slob turning up in their tracksuit bottoms and tshirt.
be on time don't be early, don't be late. arrive at your destination early and park round the corner or up the road out of site. pull up to the door on or just before booking time. ideally having text or called the client an hour before to let them know your on route.
be polite and don't be overly familiar. its always difficult to explain this to people but don't force a conversation and avoid any emotive topics.
offer as much assistance as necessary always irks me when you see customers lugging their own cases in and out the boot of a taxi
Had one woman the other week must have been late thirties or early forties.
Kept trying to make conversation even though we obviously weren't interested.
Kept trying to join in with the conversation me and my friend were having about her son to the point we just stopped talking
We had like 12 bags of shopping and she didn't even get out of the car to even open the boot on pick up or drop off.
Didn't understand where she was going even though we live next to the bloody city centre on one of the main routes into town :S
Said do I turn right here? there was no right turn she seemed to confuse her right/left.
never had such an incompetent taxi driver before.
It's best when they greet you, offer to open the boot maybe even ask if you need help with the bags.
then ask where you are going and be quiet unless the customer actively makes conversation with you..
there's nothing worse than forced conversation with a taxi driver
Another day, another fire in my desire to discuss crap 
You got it. Perhaps my literary abilities are that bad that I simply cannot convey exactly what I'm thinking (AM FICK INNIT?) I thought it was clear here though...
...which is what I implied from the start. Glaucus is missing the key point, the idea of "good service" is absolutely subjective. If I feel that good service is leaving me well alone to enjoy my evening with my colleauges, then so be it. I want nothing more of a waitress than to bring me my food and drink, and of course see to any errors should there be any. If good service, to you, means waiting on you like royalty, then so be it. It's not a matter of looking down like some almighty cultured socialite who claims to "know what good service is, darling!!!". **** me I've dined in the most pompous of venues and starred restaurants. Big whoop, I'm not going for the service, I'm going for the food, the event and the time with people I want to share my time with.
If your food is coming out like that you need to dine in different establishments.
You got it. Perhaps my literary abilities are that bad that I simply cannot convey exactly what I'm thinking (AM FICK INNIT?) I thought it was clear here though...
...which is what I implied from the start. Glaucus is missing the key point, the idea of "good service" is absolutely subjective. If I feel that good service is leaving me well alone to enjoy my evening with my colleauges, then so be it. I want nothing more of a waitress than to bring me my food and drink, and of course see to any errors should there be any. If good service, to you, means waiting on you like royalty, then so be it. It's not a matter of looking down like some almighty cultured socialite who claims to "know what good service is, darling!!!". **** me I've dined in the most pompous of venues and starred restaurants. Big whoop, I'm not going for the service, I'm going for the food, the event and the time with people I want to share my time with.
If your food is coming out like that you need to dine in different establishments.
You are though, for starred restaurants the food, ambience and service is the event.
I can't remember where it was now but I recall going to a restaurant that when the bill came, they charged for the food, a linen charge and a service charge. I was disgusted and wanted the service charge taken off but the wife didn't want to make a scene so it stayed on.
I understand and maybe other people in my party will be. I won't. I absolutely have no desire to go out for a meal to experience the service. I can see how it may be a draw for a customer, but I really don't desire eating out to sample the service. For me, it's about the food and the company, nothing else. Hence the tipping discussion in this thread is pretty much null and void to me.
The whole service-with-a-smile fallicious charade is just a waste of time IMO.
Last edited:
I don't think anyone goes out for a meal to experience the service to be fair, that would be quite ridiculous. You go out for the food first and foremost, the service is just part of the experience. A bit like Wong Kei's a well known Chinese restaurant where the staff are rude to you, it's just part of the experience just at the other end of the scale.
If you don't care about that part of the experience then that is fair dos, I know people that aren't interested in food in the slightest and see it as something they have to do to stay alive and that's it. It's just personal preference.
Last edited:
![[TW]Fox](/data/man-of-honor/2009.png){kind=avatar}
Soldato
- Joined
- 29 Jul 2004
- Posts
- 7,175
I can't stand the way you kinda feel guilty for not leaving a tip in resturants. No one tips me in my line of work, why is it expected in the service industry? I would rather tip the Chef (since this is 100% of the reason you are there in the first place) than the service staff who are nine out of ten times miserable and rude.