Tipping at restaurants.

[Anonymous]

PP here- as a note- at places like diners where the total is so low and most are old timers working there- I do go to 20 or more %- it's not the same as a steakhouse dinner where the waiter may have been decent but not warranted that much more.

[Anonymous]

I tip 15% and round up. Up to 20 or even 25 (especially at cheap/diner type places) if the service was really good. The service has to be appallingly bad for me to tip under 15%... I think I did that once in my life.

I think the pre-tax thing is funny... I mean, I see the logic behind it, but 15-20% of 5-10% of the tab is still only like $1-2 on a $100 tab.

So maybe that's part of my "rounding up" philosophy... I calculate post-tax.

[Anonymous]

I live in DC where the tax is 10% - I double the tax and that's my tip. That makes me a 20% pre-tax tipper.

In places that we frequent, I tip somewhat more. I don't tip the barista at the coffee house where I buy my coffee. I've never really understood the tip jar.

I can count on one hand the times I thought that service was bad enough to merit cutting the tip.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I tip 15% for good service (pre-tax). I tip less if the server was not up to par. I tip 20% if the server was outstanding. Tipping sucks - I wish it was a flat rate. Why should the person ordering the $15 pasta have to pay less of a tip than the person who ordered the $30 steak? The effort on the server is the same to take the order and bring the plate to you.

i think the whole tipping system is great in theory but in actuality doesn't work out well for either side. in theory, it's an incentive for good service. but bad tippers lead to jaded servers who end up profiling customers or just overall expect crappy tipping. bad servers lead to vengeful tippers, and the cycle feeds upon itself. it would be a whole lot easier if it was less arbitrary and clear cut from the start.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We tip 10% on total (before tax). If the service is good we tip 15%, and if it is exceptional, 20%.

I promise you that your friends die of embarrassment when dining with you and throw extra cash on the table as they leave the restaurant. or, maybe people have stopped going ot restaurants with you. THIS IS WHY.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We tip 10% on total (before tax). If the service is good we tip 15%, and if it is exceptional, 20%.

I promise you that your friends die of embarrassment when dining with you and throw extra cash on the table as they leave the restaurant. or, maybe people have stopped going ot restaurants with you. THIS IS WHY.

OR

if you are a regular 10% tipper at any place, you definitely get bodily fluids in the food.

[Anonymous]

10 years of waiting tables, and I never once saw anyone, waitstaff or kitchen staff, doing anything truly objectionable to the food. One time, a gal licked someone's fork, but the incident stands out in my mind because it's the only one.

No, lousy tipping will get you dirty looks, and much slower service if you ever come back.

(If you're former waitstaff who has done awful stuff to the food, PLEASE don't tell us! )

[Anonymous]

"if you are a regular 10% tipper at any place, you definitely get bodily fluids in the food"

Does this really happen? You also hear about how waitstaff do these things but it sounds quite unbelievable. Are waiters really that vengeful they would do something that could harm someone?

[Anonymous]

I tip 20% on the total unless the service was bad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We tip 10% on total (before tax). If the service is good we tip 15%, and if it is exceptional, 20%.

I promise you that your friends die of embarrassment when dining with you and throw extra cash on the table as they leave the restaurant. or, maybe people have stopped going ot restaurants with you. THIS IS WHY.

Oh yeah, my FIL is a HORRIBLE tipper. He just doesn't realize it. Of course, he never picks up the check any more either, so it's all on us--because you can't just say, we'll pay, you leave the tip, because he'll leave $10 on a $100 meal after being a pain in the ass the whole meal. Or if he pays for his meal we still have to cover his portion of the tip.

[Anonymous]

But how many of you have actually tipped WAY less than 15% when the service was not good? I seem to feel 15 is the rock bottom, unless the person was deliberately rude to me or something.

Has anyone left like 5% or 7%? (I'm not talking about the 0%, which I assume occasionally happens when the waiter is positively rude to you or does something so upsetting you refuse to leave them even a dime). How many have left seriously bad tips when the waiter is just incompetent?

[Anonymous]

Almost always 20% and from time to time 100%, it makes me feel good to leave someone $50 on a $50 check. I know it makes their day, they work hard, and hopefully it helps restore their faith in humanity. I was a waitress a long time ago and I would say 1/2 of the public you deal with are miserable awful people. There are also certain polulations of the American public that tip horrible, I will not elaborate on this.

And yes, I have witnessed wait staff do bad things to food to obnoxious or notoriously cheap people. This includes spitting in drinks, pulling out dirty forks/glasses/plates instead of clean ones when refilling the drink or something of that sort, and something else I won't even mention, because its so disgusting. I saw it happen and shrugged my shoulders b/c I know how awful "customers" can behave and assumed they deserved what they had comming. I myself have had such a-holes that I have forfeited my tip and gone completely out of my way to make their experience as horrible as possible in the hopes that they follow up on their threat of "never returning" when they complain to the manager.

[Anonymous]

20 per cent pre-tax. less if service was bad.
I hate tipping. Hate it.

[Anonymous]

A woman I knew would leave a nickel or penny tip if she didn't like the service. She said she did that instead of not leaving anything to make sure the server knew she didn't think much of the service rather than think she just forgot to tip.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A woman I knew would leave a nickel or penny tip if she didn't like the service. She said she did that instead of not leaving anything to make sure the server knew she didn't think much of the service rather than think she just forgot to tip.

A PP here, that woman DEFINITLY gets bodily fluids. No doubt, unless she never returns.