BANNED FOR NOT TIPPING

I tend to tip on the high side.........except when I have received really lousy service. I will give a little extra to the server who refills my water glass before I have even asked, and will offer extra rolls when he sees the basket is empty.

I think that waiting on tables is a lousy job, and most of the people who work these jobs are either kids who are trying to save for something better, or those who are stuck as waiters for their whole lives.

Whether I care for the whole issue of tipping is entirely another issue. Tipping is what exists, and I attempt to make a waiter smile when they see what I wrote on the credit card slip. It's not much skin off my nose, and what the hell, if it is something that I can do to make someone's day, it makes me happy too!

So what I am getting from all this is I am supposed to tip NOT because of what I thought of the service (they go out of their way so I respond) but because:

1. The industry won’t pay a reasonable wage
2. The employee and business get to juggle the books and so pay less tax.
3. If I don’t I will get bad service in the future.
3. I need to be afraid my food will be adulterated in the future.
4. If I don’t I’ll be banned.

So
1. Exactly HOW is tipping then optional?
2. How did people become accustomed to this extortion?

How about something like this:

Hospital Admin: “I am so sorry your husband didn’t make it through the operation, but the last time he was here he didn’t tip the surgeon so I can understand why the surgeon wasn’t as committed to this surgery. Hey if you want good service don’t be cheap! Oh, by the way, your banned from this hospital form now on!”

If the surgery scenario is over the top for you replace it with a transmission mechanic.

How about I didn’t tip the butcher last time so this time he spits in my hamburger.

WHO would put up with any of that?

I know nothing is going to change but it IS strange to me!

I dislike the whole tipping thing. I think people should be paid a salary/hourly wage and then a tip should be a REAL TIP, for service above and beyond and for making a customer extra happy.

I tip the going rate of 20% for meals, cabs, etc., but it annoys me that I have to do it.

If I go to a restaurant, I would have no problem going into the kitchen myself and giving my order and then going back to pick it up when a bell goes off. The server is superflous to what I go there for - to get fed! I have no problem with that type of system if it were to exist.

If I take a cab from A to B then I pay the taxi fare (the going rate) for getting from A to B. If the cab driver wants a tip, what am I tipping him for? Driving the car? It is exactly what is expected of him. Otherwise I would rent a car and drive it myself.

When I receive a delivery, I have already paid a delivery charge so why do I have to tip the delivery guys for delivering it ????

See this is what I am talking about. When the service provided is the base minimum that is expected - driving a taxi, bringing my food from the kitchen, taking my order - these are expected services that must be provided in order for me to get the service I am paying for. I should not have to pay extra. I should only tip a service provider if I really believe they have made my experience more enjoyable or they provided exceptional or special attention - it is a tip, a reward, a monetary gift that is not supposed to be demanded.

Anyway, I am getting all aggitated now.

When I go home to Ireland I have to remember to stop tipping - it is not expected. I was in a bar and I automatically left my change on the bar for the bar-man. He came after me when I was leaving to give me my change back! It is so much easier. When I tip there I only tip when I have received exceptional service and the people are so pleased and flattered by it. Also, the tip would always be cash is not taxable.

I actually have been tipped for doing my job.

It was midnight on a Friday, and I wasn't the on-call guy that weekend, and it was still very nice to receive that gift card.

i was tipped a few times when i worked in a picture framing shop, people came in to pick up their finished pictures and were so happy they tipped me, didn't happen a lot, maybe four or five times in about 9 years

I've received 'appreciation gifts' as well for doing my job; but is it expected? Not really a similar situation.

Cycloptichorn

Here in British Columbia, the minimum wage is still $8.00 per hour (lowest in Canada, thanks to Mr. Campbell), and plenty of jobs at that level still.


I 100% agree!

Well, waiters have rather high wages in Germany, plus 15 % gratuity is already
included in the price of your meal, so naturally they don't expect another tip,
although most people round up the amount on their bill.

That was the system when I was in Vienna. Tipping was frowned upon, but customers were expected to round up the bill -- so, e.g., if the bill was 21.30 Euros, the customer would pay 22 or 23 Euros.

I'll also add that I've never seen a surlier bunch of malcontents than the collective wait staff of Vienna. There really is something to be said for leaving the amount of the gratuity to the discretion of the customer. In my experience, it has a genuine effect on the quality of the service.

Australians struggle with the whole tipping rigmarole! The US is a nightmare in that respect.

Wait staff here are paid a proper wage. Tipping is optional if service is good.

Compulsory tipping - we'd rather just pay for the meal, and not be served by near-beggars! Shish! What sort of standard of living do you folks have?

That's so true, Joe! Waiters in the United States are generally very friendly and accommodating, and that's all over the country, even in fast paced Manhattan.

A few years ago while being in a restaurant in my hometown, Munich, I had a really grumpy waitress who wasn't the fastest either. When I ordered another
glass of wine, she disappeared for good 15 minutes. When she finally emerged
from the kitchen, she seemed to be searching for me and although I raised
my hand she deliberately looked the other way. She finally sat down at an empty chair and drank the glass wine herself. This made me actually laugh and I never asked for another glass wine.

This can be craziness. We soon caught on to the servizio thing in italy and left x smallish amount of lire past that. More interesting was my last trip when I was a lone woman (bring in the shark music). People tended to be confused about me until I spoke, and then it got worse. At Sant'Andrea del Quirinale (bernini jewel like church) the guy with the cards took me as Portuguese. I was probably trying out my italian, which is plain rotten, but I wasn't tourist clothed. Italians asked me questions in Rome and were nonplussed when I replied usefully but in miserable italian.

Some of my more fun times on that last trip were with talking with waiters (about screenplay writing in one place) and hotel clerks (watching tennis). I gave money past the servicio, but not vastly, probably as do many individual visitors.
The clerk guy I watched tennis with in a Lucca hotel with made fun of tour groups..

Some here talk about waiters making a living wage, and eliminating the tipping. I've seen the number of $8 & $9 dollars an hour mentioned for Cananda.

My sister is a waitress, and her tips alone averages over $20 an hour. I know this because I just called her and asked her. And no, she doesn't work at a fancy restaurant.

How hard is it for her to serve $100 to $150 worth of food and beverages an hour to get that?
At 20%, that's just 5 tables in an hour running up a $20 bill, or 4 tables spending $25.
The lunch crowd is super busy and the turnover of tables is fast. Then, there's an hour or two and either end where she and the other wait staff do other duties.

Do you think she would do that job for $8, 9 or 10 bucks an hour?
No way.

Even in the seventies, theater students I knew waited and waitressed for fair money, in a big city in a popular district. This isn't true, income wise, across the land.

As it should be, I agree!


There was a time when McDonald's in Calgary, Alberta was paying wages of around $12 per hour? Why? Because at that time, the economy was good, and it was tough to get staff. Supply and demand.

Unfortunately, with the job situation not be all that great right now, jobs paying $8 and $9 per hour are still being snapped up, because folks are desperate. Does that mean that all jobs paying that level of pay should be subsidized by tipping?

Sorry, but I'm having a tough enough time, and I don't feel I'm my brother's keeper. I pay my fair share of taxes like everybody else.

That system does exist, it's called a cafeteria.

If that's where you are eating, you leave a dollar or two for the person who has to come behind you and clean up your mess.

I go to cafeteria's, buffets, salad bars when I just want to eat (and can spare an extra dollar or two )

If I go to a sit down restaurant, that means I'm not in the mood to be cooking, preparing or otherwise getting my own food.

I honestly don't understand what the big deal is, and why it bothers some people so much.
It's not that complicated, it's not, as Robert put it, a ritual. Ya'll make it sound like it some sort of process that involves so much thought, concentration and soul searching.

It seems that the custom of tipping began in the 16th century, so it's not as if this is some radical new idea.

Eat, pay your bill, and leave something extra. That's all there is to it.

Heavens to Betsy.

Agreed...I find the whole thing ridiculous and demeaning to the service folk and just plain wrong to expect that people have to tout for a living wage.

I am happy to live in a country where tipping is NOT expected, and service people are paid a decent wage.

One MAY tip. I do it for really good service, But there is no expectation.

When I worked as a waiter, I sometimes felt like throwing tips back at the customers, because they would be arseholes in their behaviour, and then do a big tip. Yecccchhhh!

I found it a major pain being in the US, because

a. It was so easy to forget the expected tip, especially where service sucked.

b. I can do arithmetic in my head pretty well, but I'm not trained to do percentages that fast!!!

c. It can lead to awful embarrassment, like the night I had to rush to the loo while I was in the middle of working out the bill!! I left the money out, with my friend supposedly watching it, and the waiter snaffled it ALL up!!! The "tip" would have been more than the cost of the entire meal, and we were short of money, so I had to go and get it back. You can imagine the contempt. I thought my wimp friend should have done it, as the waiter should have been stopped before he got away, but so it goes.

d. I think it outrageous that such a rich damn country won't pay decent goddam wages. Shame!

that is before tipping. 15 - 25% tips are the norm in restaurants here.

$8 - $9/hour is not considered a living wage here.

So...you guys don't pay living wages to service people either?

Did I get that right?

That surprises me if so.