Wow. Based on response #1, you must have loads of relationship success, and based on response #3, you're clearly not in the service industry.

Deleted.

maybe we have to get to the root of peoples opinions. the group that thinks its "unexcusable" and the other who thinks its not. Who has worked in the service industry ie waitperson, busser, bartender etc.?

just curious.

I have.

Actually, I've been married 26 years.

And as to #3, 95% of your problems come from 5% of of your customers. Lose them and you've eliminated most of your problems. The customer is not always right. The three dollar tippers are taking up valuable space.

well, if you have that attitude..stick to McDonalds!! Waiting tables is very hard work especially when you have to deal with cheap people

Part of operating a business, such as a restaurant, is being prepared to make change. Restaurateurs make frequent trips to the bank, and they should be making it a point to request a sufficient number of small bills from the bank each visit.

Otherwise, when I've got a $20 and three $1s and the bill is $10, they'll have the option of getting $3 or making change for the $20. Not suprisingly, whenever it comes down to this the business in question magically comes up with the change for the $20, despite any protests about not being able to break the $20 that they may have given me before.

Despite what some think, I'm the customer, not the restaurant. Services exist to service customers - not the other way around.

To a point I agree with you, however, I repeat: Restaurants aren't banks . There are plenty of reasons why the restaurant might not have change. Some restaurants actually receive little or no cash. Credit and debit cards make up a large portion of the receipts.

As far as service, try getting on a bus with a twenty dollar bill. Or go to McDonalds with a $100. I suppose if the US Govt started re-issuing $500 and $1,000 bills, you'd argue that the restaurants should have adequate change to handle those situations too.

I worked in a restaurant for a while when I was in college ages ago.

Never assume the waiter can't make proper change. Restaurants and businesses often are short $1's and $5's when they make change, so at times, they are going to attempt to not give the smaller bills out.

Don't blame the waiter. And, don't blame the management either. Who can predict when there is a run on $1's and $5's? The drawer has only so much working funds.

EXACTLY

If a server wants a better tip, he/she will give me the appropriate change with which to make it. If you don't want $3, then give me other choices.

Your attitude helps to explain the difficulty in getting proper service today. So many workers have a sense of entitlement and don't want to make the effort to help themselves.

That's the problem with the world, not enough beatings.

Although, a simple, "Sorry I need you to break this twenty" would quickly get to the root of the issue; there's just no excuse to be cheap

There are many reasons for poor service, however, everybody has their own idea of what constitutes proper service. I am a regular at several restaurants and they roll out the red carpet when I come. Naturally, I tip well and they remember that. I would never be so anal as to confuse the meal service with an expectation of receiving precisely the denomiation of change that I think I deserve. Talk about entitlement, why burden a restaurant with large bills? The easiest way to get poor service is to be a cheap tipper, or question pricing, or
portion size. Lose the arrogance and lighten up!

Yet another stellar example of how to use the word "loose" here on FT. :rolleyes:

If a restaurant feels "burdened" by my $100, I can assure you that there are many other dining establishments that would be happy to provide the "proper" change for my "large bill". Again, I don't think you're seeing the point here - I'm the customer. If the restaurant wants to stay in business, it will do whatever it can to appease its customers, not its waitstaff.

That is certainly not my problem, is it. I tip quite handsomely when I get good service. When I get subpar service, the tip reflects that too. It works both ways with me.

there are a bunch of people who are thinking the same way you are. if all of you came into the same restaurant on the same day. and all paid with big bills. do you think they would have enough change? and also add the countless others who dont post on here that do the same. now do you think the restaurant "plans" for this? can you efficiently plan for this?

Absolutely. I have never had the experience in which I was told that there was no change. I have rarely had a waiter so stupid that he didn't give me change in various denominations so I could give him a good tip.

That said, the restaurants are business to serve customers. If the customers aren't happy, they won't return. Without customers, the businesses will fail.....like in any business. This really isn't rocket science.

This should be the easiest task a restaurant has to perform. They make bank runs on a regular basis (certainly daily) and should NEVER have insufficient levels of cash in a wide variety of denominations to make change. This is a fundamental part of operating a restaurant (or any retail business for that matter). Any restaurant that doesn't have a banking relationship to sufficiently mitigate this risk has big problems. "Efficiently planning" for this is simple.

Wow. You wouldn't go back to eat at a restaurant because the waiter brought you two 20s instead of a 20, 10 and two 5s?? :confused:

You are one tough cookie.



On a separate note, admins please retitle this thread "Much Ado About Nothing."

wow im astonished. im not going to "flame" or get into an argument. but wow, thats all i can say and ill leave it at that. ill let everyone else hash this out. im done posting to this thread. i guess i have the minority position on this.

I was never intending on getting into some kind of flame war; if that is your perception of me, I offer my apologies. I dine out often and as such, I have never had a waiter not give me change in tens, fives and ones. I should say, give my husband such change because when I pay, I always use my credit card. :D

If anything, I'm seeing an attack on restaurant patrons. I am astonished that there are waiters who see that the customer's need for change as something negative and inconvenient. If it weren't for customers, they wouldn't have a job. If I decided that my customers' needs were beneath me, my company would lose customers quickly to my competition who would delight in satisfying my client base.

Well said.

no apology needed, i sent you a pm. just two different opinions.

Restaurants typically send someone to the bank every day. It's easy to plan to be prepared.

I have a lot of family in the restaurant business, and my parents used to be concert promoters. Before a concert, where they knew they'd have thousands of people and need to be able to make a huge amount of change, they'd just call ahead to the bank and place an order for enough currency in small denominations.

That's your opinion, and it probably applies to some restaurants. Certainly not all.

If some restaurants look down on catering to their customers requests, their competition will do it for them. It's all about pleasing the customer; that's how all businesses stay in business. It's that simple.

OK, then how do you explain International Soup Kitchen (NY) (A/K/A The Soup Nazi) assuming you've see Seinfeld. Realize it's a portrayal.....


It is High. It is Far. It is.., No it was Caught!

I've been there a few times. It's a Seinfeld portrayal. Yet the soup, while good, is not worth the price. But that's just me. Besides, some New Yorkers plus the tourists will take a lot of abuse to get food they really like or be at "name" locations which have the cache but not the service....unless your name is Trump.

Obviously that's an extreme, as is "the customer is always right" philosophy; and that is my point.

What's your point? I'm lost. The customer IS typically always right. With the exception of abusive customers (and they exist is all industries too), businesses need to cater to those who give them business. If you don't, someone else will.

Most restaurants aren't so well known that they can get away with horrid service.

Show me a restaurant to which this doesn't apply, and I'll show you a restaurant just waiting to go out of business. They might have the happiest waitstaff in history, but if no diners pass through their doors, those servers will be looking for work elsewhere. I'll even expand this to "any retail establishment". I can't think of a successful retailer founded on the idea of annoying customers but pleasing its staff.

American problem
 

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The depth of this discussion about tipping amazes me... not knowing other circumstances I'd say the waiter didn't return one $20 two $10 and three $1 because this may have implicitly suggested he's out for a $10 tip which would be a couple % over the customary 15%.... If this is the case the waiter showed an excellent education and sense of serenity unlike the patron who didn't ask him kindly if he might be able to break up a $20 ....

How much easier is it in countries where a legally mandatory flat 15% service charge is added to all bills (i.e. several European countries). No discussion needed, no humiliating evaluation huge egos, easy expense reports, happy waiters, happy IRS.... :)

Have a pleasant day

Dieter

I missed where this has anything to do with pleasing the waitstaff??? To answer your other point, take a look at Pasta Nostra in South Norwalk. (noticed you're from White Plains).
The owner is probably the most obnoxious, abusive individual you will ever find. He makes the Soup Nazi seem like Mother Theresa. He might throw you out of the restaurant if you suggest a different sauce than listed on the menu. No exaggeration! The restaurant is open when he feels like it and he does it his way. If the customer doesn't agree, tough s***. He once threw a customer out for asking for butter instead of Olive Oil with his bread. Guess what, the restaurant is always full and customers swear by the food.

Someone wrote a letter criticising him. He had it enlarged to poster size and plastered it all over the store front. He's been there 20+ years and he'll be there 20 more. He charges double what any similar restaurant would charge and it's a hole in the wall. When you're not McDonald's you don't have to worry about pissing off a few (thousand) people. If the food's good people come back.

Pepe's Pizza in New Haven, most ornery waitstaff I've ever seen. There's a line sometimes 2 hours long to get in. People standing in the rain (or snow) down the sidewalk waiting for great Pizza (not as good as it used to be). If you have a complaint, talk to the wall.

I eat out 7 days per week, I've seen it all; most of the kiss a** restaurants do so because they've become proficient at having to apologize. If your product sucks you better be nice to the customers.

I guess we've gotten off track somewhat.

1) This started out as disagreeing with the thought of a reduced tip because the change differed from the expected denomination.

2) A disagreement that the change amounted to poor service to the point of justifying the reduced tip.

3) A suggestion that restaurants should adhere to the adage, "the customer is always right". I disagree

4) The statement that not following the dictum of #3 above spells doom for the restaurant. I disagree

This thread is a perfect example of why I often 'roll my eyes' when reading FlyerTalk.

There are so many people on here who make ridiculous amounts of money yet toss around dimes as if they were manhole covers. And then there's the unintended hilarity of the poster who complained about service workers' "sense of entitlement" -- oh, that's rich!

To answer the original question: No, you're not obligated to tip more than $3. In fact, you're not obligated to leave anything at all if you don't feel like it.

But if the service was otherwise friendly and adequate, IMO using a last-minute oversight as an excuse to leave a 5-percent tip for someone who probably makes three bucks an hour... well, let's just say it doesn't reflect all that well on you.

Of course, on this board, I'm sure you'll have plenty of folks cheering you on for keeping the "help" in their place.

We call it 'Strategic Change'
 

If the bill is $57, make sure there's a 5, a 10, and at least a few smaller ones... so that the customer can leave what he/she feels is appropriate... because everyone tips different.

In a situation where they don't have the right change handy, most will leave less, not more...

This is the poster's main point... and it just shows how different waiters put emphasis on only part of thier job (either that or he just didn't have it that day).

It's not uncommon for me to have to bring $200-400 of my own money, to make change for my customers... most people wouldn't bring money from home like a waiter is expected to... just info people may not think about.

***********

As for the saying 'The customer's always right'. To us it really means 'The waiter's always wrong'
You'd be amazed at the stories that are made up.

All I can say it WOW! One heck of a 1st post!

Congrats! and WELCOME to FlyerTalk!

Gotta love it when people give thier undiluted opinions... You'll do just fine here. :cool:

i have never worked in a "high class" restaurant for this exact reason. waitering is not my life only to help supplement my travel habit. i think some of the posters here dine in all different types of restaurants. we are all thinking of our own dining preferences. some spend more than others, expect more etc. tipping is a art for some others its just a last thought. i will agree with the way your tip reflects upon the person giving it the same way a tip is a reflection on the person receiving it. like analise and i have talked about. ny restaurants are completly different from green bay restaurants. and because of this we have different views which is good. just remember this, making three bucks an hour and counting on your tips is hard work.

I applaud your thinking. I hope that your efforts are being rewarded.

To refresh your memory, the comments about pleasing the waitstaff started with post #53 (mine) and your response in post #64.

It is doom for most other businesses. I've been to Pepe's in New Haven and found the service to be fine. I guess I was lucky? ;) The customer IS always right unless the customer is abusive.