Originally Posted by homa2001

I hardly ever post here, but tipping culture in the US is just mind boggling to me so here is my rant.


Yes, I live in the US, yes, i travel to EU and Canada often enough to see the difference of pay at the table with a tip, pay at the table without the tip, etc etc. But the tipping culture enrages me by its whole concept.


1. Why is that I am responsible for determining the well being of my server based on how much he/she smiled to me today? This is at least subjective, thus forcing the waitstaff to "read you" only to guess what is that that your highness might find worthy of paying for wrt to service? Screw you! The job of a server is to provide reasonable service, which is in a timely fashion take your order, bring your order, check up on you shortly after bringing your order and bring you a check. A recent study done on Uber's tipping data showed that the amount of tip had very little to do with the service itself and mostly was dependent on who was tipping whom (i.e. women tipping men, etc). I am with HarryHolden68 in that just tell me the final price of the item so I can make an informed decision. Side question: ... do we tip the cabbies for? For not crashing into a wall? I assumed that was included in my fare already.


2. Individually tipping waitstaff suggests that somehow the customer is responsible for weeding out bad servers. So if I frequent an establishment, I have no guarantee that from visit to visit the service quality will be consistent because if one server goes above and beyond and thus presumably deserves extraordinary tip, the other server may chose to do the bare minimum and thus deserve what, 15%? 18%? Instead I believe that the establishment must strive to provide consistent service across the board so it's not a service casino every time you sit down.

I have seen this implemented properly in most places across EU where the service is provided by the whole team, not by just one server. One person may be taking your order, the other person brings your food, and yet another person might be roaming around checking up on customers. In those cases I had never had anything bad to say about the service, because as a team the waitstaff was on top of it.

And what about the cooks? If they cook ...... food, why do we punish the waitstaff? Have you ever tipped 20% on a ...... steak? I don't think so, yet the server did nothing wrong! But I'm sure you tipped at least 20% on spectacular food brought to you in a normal timely manner, i.e. just your average service level.

3. And then there is a whole concept of tip as a percentage. Why is that bringing a $50 steak at Domenico's or w/ever costs more than bringing pretty much the same steak but priced at $10 at Mom's diner. Is your diner waiter doing any less work than your fancy premium restaurant? I worked as a waiter in a cheapo Mexican restaurant with burritos priced at $6. I don't think I ever ever had a day when I made more than $80 a shift, while the waiters downtown serving very similar burritos just priced at $20 were making money hand over fist.


You supposed to favor the whole experience, not just parts of it. Are you going to go back to a place where the service was phenomenal but the food was ....? I don't think so? Are you going to go back to place where the food was magical, but the servers were .......s? I don't think so either. So why are we separating these two parts of the experience of going to a restaurant?


Those who advocate for the tipping culture either themselves never worked for tips or just don't grasp the concept of an equal pay for equal labor (adjusted for the local cost of living, of course).


And the 4% surcharge is the a scam charge. Same really goes for the service charge and tip. If the restaurant includes these charges in the cost of the dish what will happen is that you will see what used to be a $10 dish, become a $15 or even $20 dish, while the restaurant next door still prices this very same dish at just $10 while itemizing the service charges. So, of course, you will go to the place with the cheaper food. What are you? A sucker? Of course you are not. But then when the bill comes, you pay the same as you would have paid at that other place with the $20, except it just comes as surprise as it happens to many visitors to the US. Back in the time I had less money, I actually didn't know if the $20 my pocket would cover my meal or not because you cannot reliably tell if what the final bill would be in the US.


The sad part is this ...... concept of tipping is bleeding into Europe and other places. Pay your waitstaff a proper salary and demand they do a decent job like the rest of us do in non tipping industries. Why don't you tip me every day your Internet works well? I demand a 20% service fee on top of your Internet bill because it didn't suck today!

Originally Posted by MimiB22

I hate tipping, but of course do it. It was interesting in New Zealand, where locals practically begged us not to tip wait staff as it wasn't the custom and they didn't want it established.

The tip I leave is always predicated on the competency of the service. I appreciate professionalism and a good attitude and can forgive slip ups if they're willingly rectified. Last night for example, we ate at a popular sports pub, part of a locally owned chain famous for treating it's customers as valued. We had an impressive waiter, competent, willing and on top of things. One item wasn't quite as ordered [we wanted the barbecue sauce on the side, not ON the ribs, which they can do] The food is brought out by table runners, not the waiter, so when the waiter came over to see if all was well, we mentioned the sauce issue. He immediately took the blame and offered to make it right. It would take a few minutes so we opted to accept the ribs as served and wiped off extra sauce. The waiter noticed and immediately brought extra napkins without bidding. I was not inclined to penalize him for the mistake and added 18% for the tip.

No one is going to get a 25% tip from me, ever. That's just absurd. And as for adding mandatory "service charges" to the bill, that's the equivalent to bag checking charges... something that should be built into the bill and not tagged on. I think we all hate being nickel and dimed for every little thing.