Aggressive tip requests
Dec 21, 2012 | 10:33 pm
#286
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jan 2010
Posts: 10,043
Helping to spread the tipping culture to areas where it is not currently practiced has an impact on every traveller to, or resident of, that area.
Dec 21, 2012 | 11:10 pm
#287
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: LAX
Programs: UA, Bonvoy, Amex Plat
Posts: 1,581
Sorry you feel compelled to make these sweeping judgments without getting to know me first. I don't think I need to go into detail other than to say I have been traveling and working abroad for 25 years and don't need to be lectured by anonymous message board participants with big anonymous cojones. You are free to engage in judgmental self indulgence and to make assumptions. Leaving one small tip in a non tipping country should not incite the kind of self righteous preaching that has resulted here. You are free to disagree. I will let this be my final word on the matter. I'm sure your intentions are good.
Dec 22, 2012 | 12:30 am
#288
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: District of Columbia
Programs: AA ExecPl, AF Gold, Hyatt Globalist,IHG Diamond, Hilton Diamond, Delta Gold
Posts: 2,670
That's an invitation for the server to add a "tip" himself. And if you try to challenge it, they show the validly signed and filled out charge slip.
Dec 22, 2012 | 1:12 am
#289
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: HH Diamond, Marriott, IHG, Hyatt something
Posts: 34,506
This week I was at an Asian hotel where they charge 10% service charge. They handed me a credit card slip with a tip line. I had a little chuckle, crossed it off, and totaled it and signed it.
Dec 22, 2012 | 1:46 am
#290
Join Date: Feb 2012
Posts: 595
Sorry you feel compelled to make these sweeping judgments without getting to know me first. I don't think I need to go into detail other than to say I have been traveling and working abroad for 25 years and don't need to be lectured by anonymous message board participants with big anonymous cojones. You are free to engage in judgmental self indulgence and to make assumptions. Leaving one small tip in a non tipping country should not incite the kind of self righteous preaching that has resulted here. You are free to disagree. I will let this be my final word on the matter. I'm sure your intentions are good.
No need for the DYKWIA attitude, you're not the only one here who has been traveling for 25 years, you know...
Dec 22, 2012 | 2:00 am
#291
Join Date: Mar 2007
Programs: QFF Gold, Flying Blue, Enrich
Posts: 5,369
Dec 22, 2012 | 5:29 am
#292
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: DFW
Programs: AAdvantage
Posts: 161
I was at a Resturant in Nashville, TN about 3 years ago. When I went to the bathroom they have one of those bathroom attendants or what ever there called (I can't stand them) hand me a paper towel. I told him thanks and he asked "Where's my tip. You know this isn't for free." Stupid me I gave him a buck and said thanks. My friends went to the bathroom later on and same thing. Yes they did give him a buck each. We should have complained to Management but we didn't feel like it. We just wanted to get out and continue touring downtown.
Dec 22, 2012 | 8:28 am
#293
Suspended
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: En Route
Programs: Many
Posts: 6,798
I wish the U.S. would institute a VAT so the price would be the price. I am tired of the entitlement addicted service industry. Wasn't 10% standard like 5-10 years ago? Now you're a war criminal if you don't tip every jerk waiter 20% for lousy service.
Dec 22, 2012 | 12:58 pm
#294
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2000
Location: in the vicinity of SFO
Programs: AA 2MM (LT-PLT, PPro for this year)
Posts: 19,784
As far as I can tell, 15% is still a perfectly acceptable tip.
Dec 22, 2012 | 1:01 pm
#295
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: HH Diamond, Marriott, IHG, Hyatt something
Posts: 34,506
Huh? I don't think VAT has anything to do with a tip or service charge.
Dec 22, 2012 | 1:05 pm
#296
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: トロント
Programs: IHG Platinum
Posts: 4,856
Sorry you feel compelled to make these sweeping judgments without getting to know me first. I don't think I need to go into detail other than to say I have been traveling and working abroad for 25 years and don't need to be lectured by anonymous message board participants with big anonymous cojones. You are free to engage in judgmental self indulgence and to make assumptions. Leaving one small tip in a non tipping country should not incite the kind of self righteous preaching that has resulted here. You are free to disagree. I will let this be my final word on the matter. I'm sure your intentions are good.
Never knew there was a rule that a poster on FT had to "get to know" someone before offering thoughts or criticisms.
My final word on the matter is "When in Rome..."
Dec 22, 2012 | 1:26 pm
#297
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2000
Location: in the vicinity of SFO
Programs: AA 2MM (LT-PLT, PPro for this year)
Posts: 19,784
(Don't need a VAT to fix it, as a minority of businesses that value quick transaction times over appearing to have lower prices, or which have captive customers, already post tax-inclusive prices...)
Dec 26, 2012 | 1:27 pm
#298
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: DEN
Programs: Double OWE (AA EXP, QF Plat), FI Gold
Posts: 1,886
This isn't really a situation of overly aggressive requests, but it's uncomfortable all the same. Here in Chile when you pay by CC there's no line for the tip - it has to be added in at the moment the card is processed, so every server, everywhere, will ask you directly if the tip should be included. Usually it's not a problem, but when you don't want to leave a tip, or less than 10%, it can be awkward. Having the option to fill in a line (or not) on the slip or leave some change (or not) once the server walks away is one thing, but having to say "no" to him/her directly takes some getting used to. Luckily (?) service here is uniformly crappy, so I got used to it quickly.
Dec 26, 2012 | 9:05 pm
#299
Original Poster
Moderator: Manufactured Spending
Join Date: Jul 2011
Posts: 6,707
This isn't really a situation of overly aggressive requests, but it's uncomfortable all the same. Here in Chile when you pay by CC there's no line for the tip - it has to be added in at the moment the card is processed, so every server, everywhere, will ask you directly if the tip should be included. Usually it's not a problem, but when you don't want to leave a tip, or less than 10%, it can be awkward. Having the option to fill in a line (or not) on the slip or leave some change (or not) once the server walks away is one thing, but having to say "no" to him/her directly takes some getting used to. Luckily (?) service here is uniformly crappy, so I got used to it quickly.
Dec 26, 2012 | 9:18 pm
#300
Suspended
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Atherton, CA
Programs: UA 1K, AA EXP; Owner, Green Bay Packers
Posts: 21,685
Always fill out the total line to make alterations easier to detect.