Do you tip for poor or only adequate service?

Here are the two scenarios:

A) Starbucks. You order coffee. The person pours you a cup and makes change.

B) Per Se. The food is fabulous, takes 3 hours to serve all 5 courses, and you leave wanting to strangle the waiter for his rude attitude.

------

I would not tip in situation B and only tip in situation A if the coffee-pourer (Barista?) was hot. :evilgrin:

so you give the asshole server yet more money.

...and I always slam places that pull that little stunt. I've had irate restauranteurs scream down the phone at me for essentially calling them fraudsters in my articles. My reply is always the same: "if the hat fits..."

For magazines -- As a sideline too.

Small tip (~8-10%) in instance B

Have you dined at Per Se?

:toast:

No. So why should you tip the person pouring a cup of coffee? That's not a tip worthy job. Situation B gets the minimum tip for shitty service.

:)

In the first case, I don't think it's much to me to throw some coins in a tip jar, and in the second case, no matter what the attitude, that's a hell of a lot of work. Who knows why someone might be a little off. I might not tip 30% in that case, but I would tip a reasonable 20%.

is going to cost you at least $100.00.

Dinner for two -- No wine.

:shrug:

Are you saying that you would tip less than that just because it's so expensive, regardless of the service?

That restaurant is so crazy expensive.

Someone I was speaking to the other day said that when you pay over $600.00 for dinner, the waiter doesn't expect a $120.00 tip or more.

But I imagine that they do expect it--- after all, the clientele can afford a dinner at that price, then what's another $120.00 or $!50.00?

I just don't know.
But I would always tip.

I do think they would expect a normal 20-30% tip, especially after five hours of serving one table. I don't think a $100 tip is unreasonable at all. I know I would expect that amount after being on my feet serving people all night.

You give 20% or more when you get especially good service, and/or if it's chump change to you.

between you and me. :)

Actually, this is what I'de do:

15% for not-such-good-service.

20% for good service

and

25% for really good service.

:thumbsup:

:hi:

And I expect it is as well at PerSe. The tasting menu is $240 per person at French Laundry and $250 at PerSe.

You are not obliged to leave anything extra.

what part of percentage do they not understand?

they are taxed as a percentage of sales, they had damn well better be tipped as a percentage

what's wrong w. people?

if you can't afford a high end restaurant, there are tons of fast food and "chain" places or better yet cook at home, anybody can cook a hamburger

It's over. I'll tip...a little. But I don't tip at Starbucks. I just don't understand. I don't tip people who spend less than 3 minutes doing something for me. I paid for the cup of coffee. The person who owns the store pays them an hourly wage. I don't get tipped for sending people their insurance money, and that sometimes takes thirty minutes to process.
Duckie

Why? The tip is how you express pleasure or displeasure. Unless of course, the service is so bad you have to call the manager over

I was sitting in a restaurant that had no more than 15 people and 4 waitresses on staff, and the one assigned to my table and another nearby 20 minutes to make it to our tables just to get our initial drinks. I had to ask another waitress for a menu (20 minutes later).

tip from me when they do that kind of stuff. I have also seen wait staff gab with friends in other parts of the restaurant when I was way overdue (like a half hour)for a coffee refill.

(but have not yet had the guts to...)

In cases of spectacularly poor service, 'tis said that leaving a nickel tip is better than leaving no tip at all, beacuse that way, the miscreant waitstaff might think you just forgot.

Now, here's the kicker: Take a full glass of water. Drop the nickel into the glass. Now, place cardboard over the top of the glass. Invert, place face down on table, yank out the cardboard, and exit. Quickly. :evilgrin:

Always,always,always. I tip better for good service.

No way in hell. If I'm dining somewhere where I can expect dinner for two to come to $200-300 with wine and drinks, then I also expect that the wait staff will be polite. (I've worked for tips myself, and I always made an effort to be polite. Even with unreasonable or difficult customers.)

In the first situation, I almost invariably either tip $1 or whatever change I have in my pocket (tips at Starbucks and similar places that have a jar on the counter are shared equally by everyone on a shift, and they can probably use the money).

I have stiffed only one waitress in my whole life - she deserved it. I have tipped 10% on three or four occasions. Usually I tip around 20%.

they don't have a tip jar at mcdonald's...what's the difference?
i always tip at a restaurant, even if the waiter is a dick.
it's a matter of principle. you never know, they could be having a horrible day, i've been there before, and i know how it is, so i try my hardest not to judge.

Because I've worked in my share of restaurants and sometimes you have bad days and sometimes the kitchen runs slow, people don't show up or show up wasted, shipments don't come in, or the wrong shipments come in...all kinds of things get totally screwed up. Working with the public is the hardest job there is. I don't assume that just because a waiter is rude to me or has a bad night that means they are bad across the board. But that's just because I've been behind the scenes and know how little control they have over stuff.

(maybe I just don't get out much)

I tip.

BUT I always wonder why I'm subsidizing the restaurant owner's business and not the grocery store owner's business, or the clothing store owner's business.
AND I wonder, in a medium priced restaurant, why the waitperson should get a smaller tip than the one in a high priced restaurant. They usually walk the same number of steps, do the same number of motions to serve, and smile.
Tipping actually makes no sense if you think about it.
UNLESS the person has gone out of his/her way...maybe phoned to get you a room in a motel, or started your car and had it sitting in front of the place as you leave, rocked your crying baby to sleep as you ate, or kicked your teenager's butt for being rude.
If a person owns a business they should be able to pay their help a living wage.
I'd rather see reasonable dollars added to the price of a meal... to be paid to the employees along with a NO TIPPING notice.

It does seem silly for people to have to depend on other's tips for their living, when the restaurants are making money anyway, it should work like any other business.
It's kind of a stone-aged tradition, And it slows things down- when I'm out at dinner with certain-moneyed-relatives the paying part is such a drama, with the oldest man putting on his glasses and holding out the bill for the dramatic checking-over then paying for our dinner and our waitress's allowance.. it seems so Last Century, such patriarchal bullshit.

If it's the kind of place where you go to the counter to place your order and throw your own trash away afterwards, I don't tip. But if the server comes to me at the table, I ALWAYS tip at least 15% and usually 20%. If I'm with someone who is, uh, difficult to deal with like my sister for example, I'll go up to 25 or 30% to make up for the hassle. The quality of service doesn't affect how much I leave. The way I see it is everybody has bad days and who knows a decent tip might be enough to help the server's mood so the next person gets better service.

If I get poor service at a restaurant, I still usually tip, but I never go back.

I sometimes tip at my local coffee shop, but not all the time because the guy who owns the place is also one of the baristas.

If the service was bad at PerSe where the service charge is included, I believe(Same as at French Laundry) I would not leave anything extra and would complain to management about the service. Keller doesn't put up with rude service people.

I've worked front of the house in white table cloth restaurants and am almost always a generous tipper, because I've been there. However if the service is bad enough for me to want to complain, I leave nothing and let the waiter and management know why. We went to Morimoto recently and the service at this high end place was appalling in light of the prices charged. We complained and the bill was reduced. Still didn't leave a tip.

Waiting tables is like being on stage. If you're having a bad day, you put on your game face and do your job. It's how you earn your money.

i find that hard to believe, in my experience, people who make up stories about how the waiter was rude are just looking for ways to stiff him on the tip

how often do you meet a rude waiter in a restuarant of that quality? i dunno, i can't think of a time it has EVER happened and i eat out at the high end a good bit

besides, to stiff the guy is stealing, as you know damn well he is taxed as if he was tipped a minimum of 8 percent plus all the assistants have their hands out waiting to be "tipped out"

work in a restuarant for awhile and get back to me, sheesh

i don't think you're obligated to tip somebody pouring a cup of coffee at a counter and it is sexist as hell to tip somebody just for being "hot," i tip for SERVICE

When you add the extra 20% to already high restaraunt prices they become unaffordable.
I'm forced to tip to bring the server's wages up to minimum, so it isn't really optional.