Tipping for customer service

You might actually find it funny (let alone ridiculous), but I find this topic pretty interesting.

Edited by Dayvenkirq - November 03 2012 at 00:46

Edited by Dayvenkirq - November 03 2012 at 00:59

^ ... as I usually think about it. No, ... wait ... . Actually it throws me back to the time when I saw this scene from The Reservoir Dogs:

Edited by Dayvenkirq - November 03 2012 at 01:18

Tipping should be stopped - it's a stupid, outrageous and demeaning ritual that lost it's true meaning eons ago. It is no longer a gratuity or reward - now it's a wage payment for just doing your job. It is far from discretionary even when it is not mandatory because in terms of salary and taxation it is considered to be a part of the waiting staff's wages and that's wrong. Owners and managers should pay their staff properly and charge their customers accordingly, expecting the customer to "make-up" the staff wages to a living-wage is archaic and insulting - tipping should be a payment over and above wages, not an expected part of them.

You all do know that people who depend on tips get a miniscule hourly wage right?

Dean is spot on!
But how can the system be changed?  Certainly one cannot justify not tipping until such time as the servers (etc.) get actual living wages.

Things being as they are, though, I'm a very generous tipper.  Usually at least 25%.  If the service is bad, 8 times out of 10 it's not really the server's fault anyway (e.g. the food takes a long time to arrive).  I guess if they're rude (which is rare), I'll probably tip the minimum of 15-20%, but I'm easy to please and don't demand a lot from such people.

Edited by HolyMoly - November 03 2012 at 12:01

20% on an average two-person dinner bill.  25% if the server is awesome. 

But I agree with Dean, it's a stupid, unnecessary practice.  Pay your people what you need to keep them, charge the customer what it takes to cover costs. 

Dayvenkirq wrote: ^ OK, but say we took the tipping system from under their feet. The restaurant chains would be forced to pay more to the workers. The prices on the food would go up, right?

As long as the final payment (current bill+tip) remained pretty much the same, so what?

Dean wrote: Tipping should be stopped - it's a stupid, outrageous and demeaning ritual that lost it's true meaning eons ago. It is no longer a gratuity or reward - now it's a wage payment for just doing your job. It is far from discretionary even when it is not mandatory because in terms of salary and taxation it is considered to be a part of the waiting staff's wages and that's wrong. Owners and managers should pay their staff properly and charge their customers accordingly, expecting the customer to "make-up" the staff wages to a living-wage is archaic and insulting - tipping should be a payment over and above wages, not an expected part of them.   Also the practice of percentage-tipping is just dumb - whether I order the cheapest thing off the menu or the most expensive the "cost" of delivering that should be the same so the dollar-amount of the tip should be the same.   Even if a tip was a reward for good service (which it isn't when it is considered to be compulsory) it would still be an asinine practice - it is an after the event bribe to do your job.   Why is it that people working in hotels, resturants, taxis and hairdressers expect tips for doing their paid job? You don't get this in any other service industry and you certainly don't get it in any non-service industry - you wouldn't pay Microsoft or Apple an extra 20% for delivering a working piece of tech, or tip an accountant for auditting your accounts "adequately", so why are we expected to tip someone for serving food?   If a tronc system is in practice then I want to know about it up-front - because if I want to tip someone in a resturant then I want to tip the guy that cooked it, not the table staff who managed to write down my order with it screwing it up and then managed to carry it the 20 feet from kitchen to table without dropping it or putting their thumb in the mashed potato.   I also want to know whether the staff get 100% of the gratuity I include on a credit card payment and that deductions are not made for breakages, till shortages or customer walk-outs. Is the widly believed notion that in some establishments staff only get a small fraction of the credit card paid tips true or just a rumour spread around by resturant staff because credit card tips cannot go undeclared on a tax return (hence coercing customers to leave a cash tip)?   In the UK 10% is "normal" (this isn't mean or stingy - European restaurant prices are considerably higher than in the US) - we register our disapproval or dissatisfaction by not tipping - the idea that you can get crap service and still be expected to tip is just silly. In some of the restaurants I've eaten in I should be tipped for being a good customer in spite of the poor service I've received.