Restaurants and tipping

hippyadam

itselliebell wrote: »

always tip takeaway delivery drivers as they get paid a pittance!

Me too! And strangely they always seem to turn up faster the next time...

fluffnutter

squirrely wrote: »

However I was then told by the waitor that this was "a little short"

If a waiter said that to me, I'd remove all of my tip on principle.

I do tend to tip quite happily (the usual 10, 15 percent) but I think that's just plain rude.

967stuart

Honestly, if a waiter/waitress went the extra mile to be friendly and helpful then I would without a doubt give a tip, but i really find it hard to justify paying someone 'extra' for simply doing their job.
I mean, would you tip the women/man on the check-out at tescos ?? ....... "thanks for scanning my shopping love, heres 10% of my bill" ..... no you wouldn't (or would you ?? lol )
Its such a con, but saying that, its 100 times worse in the states, they demand a tip for everything !! , ask for the time and they would hold out their hand !

The best one I have had was when i was in london, I bought a bottle of beer and a vodka and coke for the misses, the bill come to £12.50 !! they guy then had the cheek to put my change on a little tray with the the words "please leave the change for the hard working staff" .... the guy the sat back down reading his book !! ...... needless to say he didn't get a tip !

nellytheelephant

I don’t tip at all either, I don’t really think it’s fair to decide that some people are worthy of a tip and others aren’t – I’ve worked load paid jobs and didn’t see the sense in tipping someone who probably got paid more than me anyway!

meritaten

to me it depends on the level of service plus I happen to KNOW that most wait or bar staff are paid the minimum wage but what most people dont know is they are not paid after the premises close to customers - so if clean up takes an hour - its an hour they arent paid for. so i dont mind leaving a tip 10% if the service is good and i will leave more if its been excellent. bar staff i just usually hand over say a tenner for a £8.75 round and tell them to keep the change. as they hope i am going to be as generous for each round - i find i get served much quicker next time!
there is no way I would pay a charitable donation by being charged it on a bill - is that legal?

Lavendyr

squirrely wrote: »

However I was then told by the waitor that this was "a little short", at which point I told him I wasn't going to pay the charitable donation, and would be tipping 10% rather than 12.5%. He seemed rather put out, and as we left the waitress who was serving us earlier glared.

If the staff did this to me I would refuse to tip, full stop. Very poor.

villageidiot_2

As someone who has worked in various restaurants all over the UK including London i'd like to give you the waiter's point of view.
Waiters work long hours,usually split shifts which means working lunch then having an hour or two off then coming back for dinner,and most weekends.
Tips are expected in most restaurants to make up the wages as most waiters are on minimum wage.If no one paid tips then the restaurants would only have to put the price of food up so they could pay the waiter's more as no one would want to work these unsocial hours,and put up with so much !!!! from customers for less than £6 p/h ,especially not in London.
Obviously if you receive bad service you shouldn't be expected to tip.
Another point to the person who said a monkey can do it.There are a massive variety of restaurants out there requiring different skills,from small fine dining to large,ultra busy themed restaurants,and believe me it's a skilled profession.

hoyles10

I tend to tip about 10% of the bill but more if we've received a very good standard of service.

18 of us went for a meal over Christmas and we had a really good laugh with the 2 girls serving us. After a few drinks we paid the bill and left a tip which on asking the manager we were told that the tips were split between all the staff, so we asked if we could leave a bit extra for the 2 girls who served us and put up with us all night which he said they could so we all chipped in an extra tenner each so they got a £180 bonus.

A couple of days later we saw one of the girls in town who came over to say thanks very much to us, and after a chat it was nice to know that her and her mate got the whole of the extra £180 we left them.

I must admit if we hadn't had rather a lot to drink then they may not have got such a big tip

kitschkitty

To be fair loads and loads of people earn minimum wage in all sorts of jobs and I'm sure some are easier and equally some are harder than waiting jobs. Its the employers responsibility to pay those wages by running their business well, not relying on extra donations from customers. If that means the restaurant trade should change it's working practices then so be it.

That said in all sorts of different situations I think it's nice (if you are able) to give someone a reward/bonus/gift if they go above and beyond, or make your experience/day that bit better, but that should be out of your gratitude not because you feel you have to for any reason.

talulahbeige_2

I only tip if the service was worth tipping, i'm not going to be forced into tipping someone who doesnt deserve it.


For those who say "I don't get tips for doing my job". if you receive a bonus from yuor employer its the same thing just paid for by your employer rather than the customer!