What's your tipping policy?

[scottwagnon]

even though i was a server, and am a strong supporter of tipping, there were times i was actually put off by overtipping. this was because the the tipper usually lacks confidence to tip correctly, so will overcompensate to avert any little tiny negative reaction, even though he or she may be completely dissapointed. i really hate this. PLEASE DON'T TIP ME A TWENTY WHEN YOU WOULD PERFER TO TIP ME A DOLLAR. thats just bologna, and pathetic.

please don't overtip me because you feel you have to or i might be upset. thats you not me!

please tip me exactly what i deserve. yes even a single penny if i was an ahole, but at least tip the busboy and hostess seperately, when you choose to tip me a penny.

PLEASE DON'T TIP ME 175 DOLLARS on a 750 dollar ticket, simply because i served you a bottle of 700 dollar wine. i don't want you coming back acting like you want your money back, because you were dumb in the first place.

and yes its okay if you tip me 10 percent on expensive steaks. would perfer you tip me at least 15 percent, but 10 is okay.

point is, i want to be tipped only based on quantity and quality of service. please dont punish me with 3 percent tip for bad food i had no control over.

[Noctilum]

$25 and under, typically $3 if I am alone, and $5 if I have someone with me.  Don't recall the last time I spent more than $25 on  my meal.

[jonmyers]

Tipping is both a wage and a gift. Tipping is paying the person for a service provided, a job done.  If the job was done well, one can feel free to give as much as one likes!

I love tipping because it is the one place in our society where giving is socially acceptable.  This is important to me because I believe that a healthy society is one where people focus on the concerns of others over themselves, yet many of the messages and values that we hear daily make it difficult to give and recieve without a feeling of awkwardness.

I love tipping because my dollars go straight into the hands of the person that is going to pay their rent, or buy their daipers, or pay for medicine.  There is no church, NGO, or non-profit out there that can offer a 100% transfer of funds.

re: "But there are servers out there that smoke pot and take pills."  Yep.  There may be folks that choose to spend money on things you wouldn't spend money on, and there may be folks that are addicts.  But they are not panhandler's, they are working their tail off.  I believe in being generous, but it's important to remember that we're not talking about charity here.  Tipping is paying the person for a service provided, a job done.  I believe the effects of being rewarded for a job well done have a more lasting effect than the results of any poor choices made.

re: "Servers at smaller restaurants work just as hard as servers at premium restaurants."  Yep.  This is exactlly why I love eating at places like Denny's.  I can order a large meal, dessert, drink, leave 50% and still spend less than $20.  It's a beautiful thing.

jonmyers

[scottwagnon]

you may tip me as much as you want, but at least have an explanation as to why you perfer to do so. perhaps you want to be generous for my own benefit.. if you seriously wanted to tip me 160 for serving you a bottle of wine, that is fine too. just tell me why you perfer to be very generous.

just please dont return with the feeling of me scheeming you out of cash, it wasn't me that expected this kind of generosity.

id really perfer to earn exactly a perfect balanced sum of money for the quantity and quality of services that i have preformed. that will encourage me to work harder and better. too little and i will starve, unable to aquire the energy needed to optimally perform my duties. too much and i may lose motivation to achieve higher success. but thanks anyway, i can still do better with too much than too little; but nonetheless would still perfer, just right.

[Anonymous]

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@scottwagnon wrote:

you may tip me as much as you want, but at least have an explanation as to why you perfer to do so. perhaps you want to be generous for my own benefit.. if you seriously wanted to tip me 160 for serving you a bottle of wine, that is fine too. just tell me why you perfer to be very generous.

just please dont return with the feeling of me scheeming you out of cash, it wasn't me that expected this kind of generosity.

id really perfer to earn exactly a perfect balanced sum of money for the quantity and quality of services that i have preformed. that will encourage me to work harder and better. too little and i will starve, unable to aquire the energy needed to optimally perform my duties. too much and i may lose motivation to achieve higher success. but thanks anyway, i can still do better with too much than too little; but nonetheless would still perfer, just right.

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My God where have you been working, or what is your mental make up that you are dwelling on the the money/service ratio too much. they tip they leave. Get a new one in to start it over.

have you really had people returning the next day upset they left tha much?

[Anonymous]

Funny on topic of tipping:

My one buddy is friends with the bartender. Buddy tips a little above 20% when check is presented.

bartender/server here my base is usually 30%+- especially to people who know where i work etc.

Go out with buddy to bar with the bartender friend: Buddy gets "free" drinks, my tab shows all of them. Even when we are all 3 doing shots. (as in the bartender offers shots, we say yes, 3 get poured one for bar, friend, and me- and I am the only one who gets a check that shows it)

I never get a free drink, my friend who I am setting next to pays for maybe 1/3 his drinks.

We run one check we run seperate checks, I never get a free drink.

I understand the concept that I am not the friend, but I am in with the friend and I normally tip $10-$15+.

Finally last time in, buddy had no tab, I had a $23.00 one.  Buddy always wants to drink there. I understand I would too if i drank for free.

I left 10%. (plus because the Bartender is my buddies friend I have given him quite a few free drinks when he came in and I waited on him- "Hey usmc58555 can you hook Tony Up when he comes in?"  And the Bartender stiffs me. More then once.)

Not my issue anymore. obviosly the bartender dislikes me.

[ReVeLaTeD]

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@scottwagnon wrote:

even though i was a server, and am a strong supporter of tipping, there were times i was actually put off by overtipping. this was because the the tipper usually lacks confidence to tip correctly, so will overcompensate to avert any little tiny negative reaction, even though he or she may be completely dissapointed. i really hate this. PLEASE DON'T TIP ME A TWENTY WHEN YOU WOULD PERFER TO TIP ME A DOLLAR. thats just bologna, and pathetic.

please don't overtip me because you feel you have to or i might be upset. thats you not me!

please tip me exactly what i deserve. yes even a single penny if i was an ahole, but at least tip the busboy and hostess seperately, when you choose to tip me a penny.

PLEASE DON'T TIP ME 175 DOLLARS on a 750 dollar ticket, simply because i served you a bottle of 700 dollar wine. i don't want you coming back acting like you want your money back, because you were dumb in the first place.

and yes its okay if you tip me 10 percent on expensive steaks. would perfer you tip me at least 15 percent, but 10 is okay.

point is, i want to be tipped only based on quantity and quality of service. please dont punish me with 3 percent tip for bad food i had no control over.

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Talk about an illogical approach.

I tip whatever I feel like tipping.  It's MY choice, not the bus boy and not the waiter/waitress/cook.  9 times out of 10 I tip whatever rounds the dollar up nicely.  So if the charge is $7.10, I'll give $2.90 to make it a nice round $10.

If I'm in a decent restaurant with someone on a date AND the service we got was exemplary, I will tip accordingly.  There was once a time, back in the age when I had no expenses yet was making around the same money I make today, in my early 20's, I remember tipping a gal $50 on a $15 2-person meal.  I did it because (A) I had the extra money, (B) she attended to us near perfectly, from refills to food delivery to empty plate retrieval, and (C) I overheard in passing that she was going to be leaving in the next few days due to layoffs.  Even given C, she still served us like she loved the job, and that made me open to tipping.

What I do NOT like, are places where they assume I should tip.  I tip if, when, and how much I want to.  Not on demand.

My tipping policy is the same as my charity policy: If I see a true deserving person, I give. 

[KingAdrock]

My tipping style can vary greatly. First and foremost the cost of the meal doesn't necessarily = the difficulty in serving it. So I don't see basing your tip purely on a percentage as the best approach. As other posters have pointed out, if I order a nice bottle of wine I'm not going to tip any huge percentage of that. Pouring wine is exactly the same whether it's expensive or cheap. Or if my bill is small but the service was great I'll tip more, doesn't matter if it's 30% or 50% or whatever. Also I live in California, where everyone gets paid full minimum wage, regardless of whether you get tips or not.  Being someone that's worked my butt off at a few minimum wage jobs that got no tips; I'll admit once in a while I can get the Steve Buscemi attitude: "You know what this is? It's the world's smallest violin playing just for the waitresses." I've told server friends of mine the concept of federal tipped minimum wage of $2.13, the look of horror on their faces was something to behold.

But anyway, I usually keep it around 15%, all things being equal. If service is great I tip more, if it's not so good I tip less. Of course when deciding whether to tip less I make sure it's actually deserved. The service is slow? That's bad, and will reflect in the tip. The service is slow but the restaurant is really packed and the server is running about doing their best? No worries then. Food gets to me cold? That means it sat around before they brought it. Food cooked wrong? The server didn't cook the food, the cook did. That's not their fault so their tip won't suffer. Server's in a bad mood? I've worked customer service and it can be soul-crushing at times. But I do expect you to warm up at least a bit after a few minutes of me being polite and understanding.

[marty56]

LOL depends if DW is watching or not.