This comment made me chuckle. I have traveled to most parts of the world. People will always take free money.

I once had a monk at Wat Phra Kaew "take back" his special "Millennium Blessing" because I wouldn't tip him.

This is a nice scenario you've outlined, but hardly one with a concept of a waiter's reality. It's quite common for service staff to receive 10%. Even zero tips are a regular occurance. A good server doesn't let the actions of one customer affect their mood through the rest of the shift (lest it ruins the remaining day). I'd hardly expect a server to be insulted over a 10% tip.

A good server makes a great percentage on sales as a whole, despite any low percentage tips. Low and zero tips are part of the job.

Well said and I couldn't agree more. Hell, I wish someone would give me a tip at my job for a "job well done". Is that not the expected standard? I tip 10-15% for just doing you job well - as expected. And only tip higher for truly great (and this is subjective) service.

I'm pleased to have added a little levity to your day.

Your experiences are yours, and I wouldn't presume to doubt or deny them.

Whilst I have no personal experience of people having denied or being offended by the offer of tips, because I haven't presumed to offer them in places where I know tipping is generally discouraged or considered discourteous (Singapore and Japan come to mind, allowing that you may have successfully tipped someone in either or both), I have certainly read on multiple occasions of people refusing, and being offended by the offer of tips.

I think the main point is that in this sort of thread the thrust tends to be, "you're in the US, respect our customs" (and it's a fair point), but little consideration is given to the reverse situation.

In many parts of the world, people won't always take free money.

I Japan, they will chase you out the door to give you your money back.

An employee of a fast-food restaurant in Beijing literally did the same thing. We had just arrived on our very first trip to Asia and walked across the street from our large tourist hotel to this establishment. She was very kind, helpful and friendly as we pointed at the items we wanted, and we left some small amount on the table with the total as a thank-you.

She literally ran out the door after us and pressed the money into our hands, almost as if she would have been in trouble for accepting it.

We felt bad that our tip had the reverse effect of what we'd intended but we parted with smiles and our mangled version of xie xie.

Simple job of serving food huh? I bet you've never been a server.

On the big scale of things, serving food is pretty simple. You are polite, you smile, you answer questions customers have about the food, you take an order, pass it to the kitchen (on paper or electronically, noting any additional requests or deletions) when prepared you check it is prepared as requested (for example, that the burger has its side salad instead of fries) add necessary or optional condiments, and deliver the food to the table. You ask if anything else is required. You check back after a short amount of time to ensure everything is satisfactory, and respond to any issues. You clear plates when they have finished, perhaps offering to box any leftovers. You offer dessert etc. and follow similar procedure. When the customer is ready, asks or otherwise indicates, you deliver the bill, process payment, and say goodbye. Drinks are a similar process, but as the comment was about food, I left that out.

There is a reason many teenagers do waiter / waitressing as their first job, because it is pretty simple to get right.

As the process is so simple, as described by Emma69 who is from the USA, above, it seems there is no need to give tips at all!

As Emma 69, from the United Kingdom, thinks it is pretty simple, she agrees, wages should be fair, and tips not expected for normal service (as is pretty common in the UK) but left, at a percentage of the customer's choosing (far closer 5-10% than higher) for above and beyond service.

We have 'peace in our time', hopefully not followed by several years of war over reclining seats!

The simple way to end it is to go to a service charge, instead of a tip. Of course a service charge is a lot harder to dispute than a tip, but I digress. My bigget server pet peeve is probably the stereotypical server who chats it up with hisher coworkers, doesn't attend to her tables and then gets into a hissy fit for the lower than typical tip. As a person who dines solo a fair bit as well as dining during off hours, it's not uncommon for me to see a 1:1 (or greater) server to table ratio. I tend to avoid peak hours unless I make a reservation, so I'd hope that I could possibly get slightly more attentive/aware service.

To quote myself, I just had this happen to me again last night! The place is called "Lair" - some bar in the Lower East Side. My husband closed his tab and disappeared with his friends while I sat at the counter and studied the tab. Sure enough, there was the mandatory gratuity, the total check amount, and the "additional gratuity" line right under it. It appears the staff helped themselves to 18% in this case, but given all the inebriated customers all around me, I'm sure they went home with much much more.

Disgraceful. I'm beginning to think you might want to have a chat with your husband about his choice of watering holes though, once you catch up to him.