Rant: Tip Culture

[wart57]

The Wart family went to Olive Garden on Saturday, the girls love to put black olives on their fingers. When the bill came, it had 3 suggested tips on it, 10%, 15%, and 20%. It gave the actual dollar amount for each one. My bill was $36.00 - 10% = $3.60, 15% = $5.40, and 20% = $7.20. I gave the girl $7.50 - just to show her we ain't no cheap asses. Not bad - $43.20 for a family of 5 to eat, little Rose only ate a few smashed up fettuccine noodles...

[JackofDiamonds]

During lunch hours, I used to bring the bill when I went back for the "how's everything" check-in after the food is dropped. "Pay whenever you're ready, just want to make sure you're able to get out of here on time."

The two biggest times you can ruin your tip are the first drink delivery and the bill wait. Refills, right order, etc., are all important, but if you make someone wait 10 minutes for their first drink or 5+ minutes for the bill, you're a terrible server.

[go birds]

And to change the topic a bit, how does everyone feel about tipping delivery drivers, especially the places like Grubhub and some pizza places where you have to enter your tip up front if you pay by credit/debit or else you have to tip cash. I rarely have proper change (or even cash) to tip so I have to do it up front... and then the order takes forever or something isn't right and they have to go back and fix it. But even then, is it the driver's fault it took forever? Most likely it isn't and I can't stiff them or give them a bad tip for that but you have no way of knowing unless you are ordering from Domino's with their tracker.

yea i hate that. if im ordering from a place i know that does that, i just pay the tip with cash.

upon the first time order, just give my normal tip and hope for the best.

[stlouie_lipp]

The Wart family went to Olive Garden on Saturday, the girls love to put black olives on their fingers. When the bill came, it had 3 suggested tips on it, 10%, 15%, and 20%. It gave the actual dollar amount for each one. My bill was $36.00 - 10% = $3.60, 15% = $5.40, and 20% = $7.20. I gave the girl $7.50 - just to show her we ain't no cheap asses. Not bad - $43.20 for a family of 5 to eat, little Rose only ate a few smashed up fettuccine noodles...

I've never seen that.

[IMADreamer]

I guess that's my question. What's an appropriate bad tip? You want it bad enough that they know, "Hey, your service licked donkey nuts" but you also don't want to be a total jackass and stiff someone completely.

I have no problem being a total jackass. Someone keeping me waiting 20 minutes after my plate was empty would not get a tip from me.

I feel the same way. My time is as valuable as the servers. If he can't get me a damn bill in a reasonable amount of time he's not getting a tip.

[Secret Weapon]

I have to get pretty irritated to leave 10%

There are a million things that are out of a servers control that could lead to poor service. Maybe the computer is acting up, or another server is putting in an order for a 20 top, or another table had a ton of special requests and it slipped his mind he has your check in his pocket.

[cardsfansince82]

I think a Mon-Fri lunch is a special circumstance. No way should anyone be sitting 20+ minutes waiting for a check. You have to assume people have to get back to work. Personally I would have gone looking for someone after 10 minutes at the most.

[JackofDiamonds]

I have to get pretty irritated to leave 10%

There are a million things that are out of a servers control that could lead to poor service. Maybe the computer is acting up, or another server is putting in an order for a 20 top, or another table had a ton of special requests and it slipped his mind he has your check in his pocket.

All of which are near nightly occurrences that a good server will know to communicate to a table. "Hi guys, very sorry about the delay, XYZ is happening. I'll get your check as soon as possible, can I get you anything while you're waiting?"

[jim]

The Wart family went to Olive Garden on Saturday, the girls love to put black olives on their fingers. When the bill came, it had 3 suggested tips on it, 10%, 15%, and 20%. It gave the actual dollar amount for each one. My bill was $36.00 - 10% = $3.60, 15% = $5.40, and 20% = $7.20. I gave the girl $7.50 - just to show her we ain't no cheap asses. Not bad - $43.20 for a family of 5 to eat, little Rose only ate a few smashed up fettuccine noodles...

A fool and his money are soon parted.

[wart57]

The Wart family went to Olive Garden on Saturday, the girls love to put black olives on their fingers. When the bill came, it had 3 suggested tips on it, 10%, 15%, and 20%. It gave the actual dollar amount for each one. My bill was $36.00 - 10% = $3.60, 15% = $5.40, and 20% = $7.20. I gave the girl $7.50 - just to show her we ain't no cheap asses. Not bad - $43.20 for a family of 5 to eat, little Rose only ate a few smashed up fettuccine noodles...

A fool and his money are soon parted.