NAME AND SHAME. Restaurant service charges

Poppy9

Bossyboots wrote:

Even if it wasn't aimed directly at me, you are doing your cause no favours with your attitude.

Hear hear

Finally "if many waiters are better educated and more skilled" as you say why are they working for £2 per hour? Could it be your attitude letting you down. You come over as aggressive and elitest. Bossyboots was rightly saying she was unhappy with her meal. Yes her version of medium rare maybe different to yours or the chef but sadly restaurants don't give you pictures showing you what they class as rare, medium rare etc. I am not surprised you are disappointed by your tips.

You are right the minimum wage is averaged over a period. So if you are not getting tips your employer has to make up the wages. Either way you get more than the £2 per hour.

reen_3

Bossyboots wrote:

I take it personally because your remark about people ordering medium steak and then sending it back because it is undercooked came immediately after my post about having done exactly that.

Even if it wasn't aimed directly at me, you are doing your cause no favours with your attitude.

to be honest, i hadn't even read your previous post. and i said 'medium-rare' rather than 'medium', which only makes a difference in that a medium rare stake should be very pink on the inside.

i'm not sure what you mean by my 'cause'. i'm not here asking for all of you to start tipping out of the goodness of your heart. i'm merely explaining that if people stop tipping, salaries will rise and you'll be paying more for your food without having the option of the service taken off the bill if the service was bad. or, worse yet, salaries will not rise and all the competent waiters will move on and your meal will be brought to you by the same people who work behind the counter at mcdonalds. no good, experienced sever (especially in london) will work for £5.20/hour.

Murtle

well apparently they get paid £2 an hour.....

ADC_3

I tip when I get service above and beyond... However after years of steak and chips and caesar salads I can confidently say that most restaurants in the UK are pretty dire. Consequently I don't tip much. I have argued in restaurants about a 10% compulsory service charge and had it taken off the bill; I have even been shouted out of a restaurant in London because I insisted on not tipping because the service hadn't been that good, "How do you think we make a living" was the call as I walked out the door. When you consider the charge of £10 for a wine that cost £1 this is risible.

I have some experience of this. My son works in a pub kitchen and with 3 seconds training he was cooking every item on the menu. His advice after a few days work was

"never eat chicken nuggets or any similar product. They are cooked at the beginning of the day and kept warm for several hours to feed to children and gullible adults"

"the way we decide if a steak is rare or well cooked is down to guess work on behalf of the cook"

Most Restaurants in the UK deliver very poor food and get away with poor service. Where I get good service I tip 10%. Any waiter who expects 20% should get a new job.

jellyhead

£5.20 an hour? i wish i got paid that much :rotfl:

you really are very rude. you're only a waiter - in what way exactly do you think you're superior to mcdonalds counter staff? okay i'm not in london but everyone in my mcdonalds is a graduate, paying their way through an MSC, PHD etc. and the manager wouldn't even consider hiring anyone without A levels at least. public servants can't be hired without GCSE's minimum. anybody can be a waiter. you amuse me

Poppy9

jellyhead wrote:

£5.20 an hour? i wish i got paid that much :rotfl:

you really are very rude. you're only a waiter - in what way exactly do you think you're superior to mcdonalds counter staff?

Reen has attitude. Thats an optional extra at McDonalds :rotfl: Now I wonder why there is always a big queue in McDonalds but rarely at restaurants It isn't the food so it must be because you get honest decent service at M's and are not expected to tip the staff?

Quite honestly I don't care if the person serving me anywhere has a GCSE to their name. I work with plenty of well qualified professionals who are thick as s*** (I hope my colleagues don't think I am one of them :eek: )One day someone will devise a common sense test and that'll sort out the chaff.

reen_3

clearly you guys have been going to some really lousy restaurants. £10 for a bottle of wine? you're joking, right? perhaps it was a pub and you got confused because they had food-like products on the menu. and cooks? a restaurant has a chef, not a cook. these people who've trained for years at the craft of making food. they never have to 'guess' whether a steak is rare or well done.

as for the comparison between myself and a mcdonalds employee... firstly, pretty much everyone i work with has at least an undergraduate. about half of the staff have a masters degree. why do they work there? because it pays better than research and similar jobs, and rent in london is expensive. in terms of service, i would like to see a burger-flipper recommend a good bottle of wine from a list of 200 to compliment a meal. you know those sushi restaurants with conveyor belts where a little robot brings you your drinks? that's fairly similar to the level of service you get at a fast food place. i wouldn't tip the robot.

CAHA

1) a service charge is not a tip. it's a way for restaurants to keep prices down. you pay for service the same way as you pay for the clean tablecloth. even if it wasn't listed separately, you'd still be paying it, as you've always done. more often than not, your server gets none or only a small part of that money. people who complain about restaurants who add a service charge and then leave space on the bill for a tip clearly miss this point. a tip is to reward the server for doing more than simply taking your order and bringing out the food ('cause that's all they are paid to do). did she laugh at your bad jokes? did he hold the table for you though you were 30 minutes late? did she play with your bratty children? (trust me, no kids are cute once they enter your restaurant.) give you directions to the theatre? patiently listen while you modified every single item that you ordered? if the service was good enough for you to say 'thank you' at the end of the meal and mean it, then you should tip. 10% is ok. 15% is good. 20% makes me smile.

I am happy with this...if I understand what you are saying....I just want you to take my order and bring my food out in a pleasant manner...I do not want anything else...i.e. to do the job you are paid to do...which means, using your system, I do not need to tip. This makes me a lot happier than having to pay you a 20% surcharge to see you smile. I could of course argue that if you did your job properly you should be smiling all the time anyway...but I wouldn't be so churlish enough to say that...

jellyhead

Poppy9 wrote:

Reen has attitude. Thats an optional extra at McDonalds :rotfl: Now I wonder why there is always a big queue in McDonalds but rarely at restaurants It isn't the food so it must be because you get honest decent service at M's and are not expected to tip the staff?

Quite honestly I don't care if the person serving me anywhere has a GCSE to their name. I work with plenty of well qualified professionals who are thick as s*** (I hope my colleagues don't think I am one of them :eek: )One day someone will devise a common sense test and that'll sort out the chaff.

sorry if i sounded snobbish about qualifications, i'm not at all. i just think that counter service staff in mcd's are people like anybody else and i don't see any reason to look down on them or assume they're inferior in some way. okay everyone's had experience of bad service from mcd's from time to time, but we've all experienced bad waiters too. and now reen's looking down on us all, suggesting that we don't frequent a high enough class of restaurant to know what we're talking about - surely on your wage you couldn't afford to eat in them either :rotfl:

Poppy9

Jellyhead

I knew you wouldn't be so churlish as to look down on people. Reen seems to have cornered that market:D Reen is now contradicting herself. Firstly she says they are paid just £2 per hour then she says that they are waiting tables because it pays better. If they are just doing it for the money then I would work in Macs for the £5 per hour unless of course they didin't pass the attitude test to work in Macs. i.e. smile and be gracious at all times. They could also earn more as a school cleaner, dinner lady or lollypop lady for the council. Councils are always desperate for these staff and pay over £5 per hour.

ps Reen whats wrong with paying £10 for a bottle of wine?