US and Europe,Tipping...when and how much?

[Maggie Green]

I can understand cultural difference in the way tipping is done in US and how their employees are paid, but this sounds much more like you would be threatening your customers. Tip or we will pee in your dinner next time you come. Whoops, what a big fail? What happened to the saying "customer is always right", when did the pee go so high in the heads that people think that they are so important that they can go and disrespect their customers and even threaten them? I don't go do restaurant to lick their asses because they think they are the best, restaurant is the one who has to prove me they are the best by licking my ass, not other way around.

I'll thell you something silly... If I even hear a rummor of some restaurant that there is even a chance of an angry waitress peeing in my dinner, because earlier customer didn't tip enough. I don't give a shit whatever I'd normally tip $0, $20 or $200, but you can be sure that I will never step my foot inside that restaurant and I will avoid such a place like a fucking plague. If I was a owner of such a place, I would fire such a waitress instantly and I would sue whole restaurant as a customer. All this will cost money and time for the restaurant... Do not make a mistake, I'm not losing anything by not going to restaurant, in matter of fact, I'm saving money by not going. Waitress might make more money if someone who tips more takes my place instead, but this is overal a loss for the restaurant, lost customers. I'm not a gourmet food expert either, I do not give a shit how many master cook who cares -stars restaurant has to use as an excuse to make higher prices. Most likely if I bought potatoes from 10 different restaurants, chances are that I wouldn't be able to even tell the difference. Smart person doesn't milk his cow to the dead at first day, he will keep his cows alive, so he can milk them as long as possible.

There is another example of very basic and very common customer behaviour. It's much harder to get back lost and angry customers than keep current and happy customers. Negative information spreads much faster and further than positive information. When you lose one customer, chances are that you are not only losing one customer, but many customers. When person eats dinner dipped in pee, he is going to tell each of his friends and likely their friends too, how that restaurant sucks ass, their service is shitty, their food is pissy, they will even exaggerate to make that restaurant look like a full shit hole. Now when his friends think about going to a restaurant and they will talk past that pissy place, they will remember; "Ah!, it's that shitty place where people pee in your drink." and chances that they will pass that place are much higher. They do not want to test how piss tastes, they are people who demand quality and respect. Then again when people have positive experiences, they don't spread that around as easily. This usually requires certain conditions to be met and when that happens, person might tell to maybe couple of his friends that this specific restaurant had a good service and food. Next time his friends walk past that restaurant, they will remember; "Ah! it's that good place our dear friend recommended. Let's try it out?" and you can guess the rest of the story... Prince will kiss princess and they will live happily everafter etc...

Wow dude, you really took this literal and to heart!

 

[Maggie Green]

yeah,Tipping seems to have a very different definition in US.i'm not tipping someone because i liked his service but because it is my responsibility to make his kids through college.
when i looked up your article the first country i looked for was japan.they are known for their pride and self-respect and they didnt disappoint me,whatever the actual reason is.

i dont know if it is the fear of waiter spitting in your food if you dont tip or Americans get brainwashed by Waiter and bartender division of NSA into thinking that tipping is cool.worse thing is they have accepted that if you dont tip then dont expect a good service and most probably server will mess up with your food.

i respect their opinions but as i already said as an outsider this doesn't feel right,at all and i am glad some of you guys agree(not sure if you guys are from US or europe)...if you have minimum wage problem then form a union and protest against government or employers but not this.at least dont expect it from travelers...if i have to tip then i would start from my own country first ,as saying goes,charity begins at home...if i am not tipping someone in my country who is having a hard time in to earn 3 time meals every day then how will it make sense for me to go and tip in some other country?

You tip in another country because you want to respect their customs and not be rude. That's why. When I travel, I make it a point to research things like tipping so I don't do anything rude or disrespectful in that country.

And you just started this thread to get people riled up. I smell a troll.

 

[Mayhem]

Some of the responses make me despair for the species.

New Orleans is one of the only places left in the country, and apparently the world where being a waiter/waitress is considered an honorable profession. Not a job, a career. There seems to be a consensus everywhere (including here) that it's just a job for nosepickers and dropouts. As I alluded earlier in the poker/gaming industry, if that's how you treat them, don't complain when that's what you get. But what's wrong with someone who chooses it to be their career?

I agree with the line of thought that if you get shitty service, either tip nothing, or tip a nickel to make your point. But if the service is what's to be expected for the establishment you're in, I don't understand the reticence to paying a price that isn't spelled out for you. Quite the contrary. I don't want 15% automatically added. Where's the incentive to do your job properly? If the service is bad, why should I be forced to pay that added charge?

Back to my own industry, the poker dealers at Foxwoods are forced to share their tips with the table games dealers. I've heard of this system nowhere else. And everyone agrees that the poker games suffer because of it. I can tell you, if I ever allowed myself to be subject to such ridiculousness, you wouldn't see the poker dealer I am now. Not even close.

 

[Maggie Green]

Another thing...Mariah was totally correct when she said that most places require servers to tip out..at several places that I worked we had to tip 10% to the kitchen, 10% to the busboy who may or may not have cleaned my tables depending on how busy he got, and then another 10% to the bar and if you wanted to get on their good side, you tipped 15%. So there's 30%-35% right off of the top. And if anyone ever questioned if you were tipping out correctly, the manager would check your sales to make sure you weren't stiffing anybody. So if you got stiffed or a very crappy tip on a nice high bill ( which was not uncommon when dealing with foreign tourists), then too bad, it was still a part of your nightly sales and you had to tip off of it. Did I like this policy? No but too bad, every place in the area did the same thing.

 

[bobjustbob]

We've got to separate the food from the service. Your food won't be peed into for a legitimate gripe as long as you don't act like a dick. Most servers will offer some kind of correction when brought to their attention. Reheat it for undercooking, remake the dish, pick something else off the menu. Toss in a free desert at the end. They want satisfied customers. Don't wait till you clean your plate and expect to walk out without paying as noted above. That's being a douche and happens often enough.

Maggie, I can see the cut for the busboy but the kitchen? Tip for what, making the food? The bar gets a cut of my tip even though I didn't order anything from the bar?

 

[HappyHapyJoyJoy]

Another thing...Mariah was totally correct when she said that most places require servers to tip out..at several places that I worked we had to tip 10% to the kitchen, 10% to the busboy who may or may not have cleaned my tables depending on how busy he got, and then another 10% to the bar and if you wanted to get on their good side, you tipped 15%.

The kitchen staff technically can't be a tip pool. That's actually illegal. Cooks have to be paid the standard minimum wage and excluded. Tip pools can only include staff that could receive tips. Busboys can (though rarely do), bar staff can, cooks...? No. They're out. Every establishment that does this is actually breaking the law.

 

[Maggie Green]

I had no problem tipping the bar. They were always slammed with bar customers and had to make all of our drinks for the tables. So yeah, after bar tending and being on the flip side of that, I saw how tough it was to be slammed at the bar and then have a large order of margarita or blended drinks come from the server with the 12 top. Every waitress/cock tail serving job I had involved tipping out the bar. I think that's pretty standard. This was well over 8 years ago so perhaps things are different, don't know.

The kitchen.. Who the fuck knows. I never got that one. All I know is that it's a tough gig. And I'm happy to tip well even if it just means that my tip might help make up for the last person who didn't tip or tipped poorly.

 

[GodsEmbryo]

No need to tip here (Belgium). But if you want to, go ahead, no one will mind some extra cash.

 

[lurkingdirk]

Including the kitchen staff in tips is a good thing to do. It motivates the line cooks to make sure things are done correctly to order, and make the plates attractive.

That said, it is never a situation where the tips are distributed evenly. It's a small percentage of the tips that go back to the cooks and such. That is as it should be, because while it is dependent on the kitchen to get food right and out quickly, they don't have to deal with the customers. A reduced tip percentage is worth not dealing with the customers. Someone mentioned it earlier, but people think that as soon as they sit in the chair at a restaurant, they've turned into some 18th century manor lord, and they are entitled to being waited on hand and foot. You're not. You've every right to expect the waitstaff to do their jobs competently and politely, but if you are a fucker to them, expect the quality of service to go down.

And if you don't tip at LEAST 15% for good service in North America, you're a fuck face. It's part of the cost of going out. You don't want to tip for someone to bring you food? Go eat at your mother's house.

 

[Maggie Green]

"You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to lurkingdirk again."