jimbo99

If you're uncomfortable, subcontract this to me. I'll rattle it for you. Then you can tip me if I give you a nice smile. (Plus your customers can tip me too... because I don't earn much and have a hard life.)

ojala

We have a tip jar at home for friends and visitors. If they visit us, we provide them a service. Why should we entertain them for free?

As people are using less and less hard currency, we're planning to install a credit card machine that would charge a random amount between 5 and 10 euros. That way the visitor doesn't have to think what would be the appropriate amount.

I'm waiting for the new near-distance readable credit cards so that I could charge everyone who is nearby. It's a service to them that they don't have to be alone in the world.

OttoMH

Maybe it's because I am from England, but I think that tipping is a repulsive idea.

If your employees aren't capable of giving good service they should be retrained to do so.

Good service is free, it should be standard practice. The idea that I should pay extra for good service annoys me - I am paying for the product/service already and expect that to be good. How about I ask for my money back when the product or service is just mediocre?

Jenbel

You know, that's what is always said isn't it? But in my experience, Americans can't bring themselves not to tip, even when confronted with bad service. A group of us had bad service in a restaurant in Dublin (it culminated in waiting 45 minutes for a cup of coffee, when one of the cups was left sitting on the counter for 10 minutes - and we couldn't even complain to get a new one, since we didn't want to wait another 45 mins The British were adamant that no tip should be left, the Americans in the party couldn't bring themselves not to leave any tip at all - they kept arguing that even though the service was bad, we couldn't leave no money whatsoever What's the point of tipping if you have to tip even bad service?

Redhead

I was born and raised in the US but I agree with you.

You're right, there are a lot of Americans out there who tip 15% no matter what. I'm unusual that I will tip less if service is mediocre. If poor, I won't tip and I'll tell them why I won't be tipping. But that means that I am making a deliberate decision that I won't be patronising that establishment again. Sadly, if you tip poorly or not at all in the US, you can't really go back since servers can hold a grudge or otherwise remember you and set you up for on-going poor service. Dumb attitude but that's the mentality for many in the US. I'm not defending it and I hate it but that's the way it is here.