Restaurants that practice double tipping

I learnt years ago that TIP means - To Insure Promptness

the original idea was to give the tip before the meal - ie - "give some cash to insure you got looked after at the start of the meal"

if we get good service we give a tip after or if we dont we feel bad but usually give one anyway.

I dont mind doing it before as we always get great service this way.

I cant understand why we now do it the wrong way round


Gibby

I think tipping is a farce. Whay should people in the service industry receive a tip anyway? They get paid for doing their job, what entitles them to receive extra money to do what they are paid for by the company they work for?

Sure they may not get paid much (and I may sound like scrooge here) but neither do the staff who work in super markets or petrol stations but does anyone tip them? There are loads of low paid jobs who dont get their incomes supplimented by tips, so why should any waiter(ess) receive anything?

Im not saying I dont tip, I do, but only if I think the service staff deserve it. I used to work as a waiter while at uni, I got paid pittence, but I didnt expect people to give me tips to suppliment my income, I was nice to customers, and sometimes they left me a tip, but I wasnt nice to them in order to get a tip, I was nice because it was my job to be nice, to provide a service, and any tips I got went into the tip jar, so they could be shared with the staff behind the scenes, i.e. the kitchen staff who do an arguably more important service, for not much more, and receive no tips. I later learnt that the management took huge amounts out of the tip jar to cover breakages, balancing tills, and even used it for petty cash i.e. to get their taxi home on a night! So from then on I pocketed any money I got and when i felt it neccessary I shared it out with my friends from the kitchen.

Sorry I do realise I have rambled on a bit here, but my main point is why tip service staff? and not other professions, would you tip a traffic warden for leaving you a ticket? I think not, yet they are foing their job too! :P

ADC wrote:

Suffered from this at an un named resto in islington.

Please name and shame this establishment by giving it full name and address on this board.

We went to Dinos near Sth Kensington tube a couple of months ago. The food was good, but there was only one waitress to about 25 customers and we had to wait a long time for our food (would not usually be bothered about this but we had our children with us who were STARVING!!). On the bill was an OPTIONAL 10% service charge. I chose not to pay it as I felt the service had been too slow. I paid the bill & was then approached by the waitress who said it was short. I told her I was not paying the service charge as it was optional. We then got up to leave, then the manager blocked the door (yes really!) and demanded to know why we had not paid the OPTIONAL service charge!! Hubbie explained why and the waitress shouted abuse at us as we jostled to leave the place. This was intimidating & highly embarassing but caused much amusement to the other diners who I presume alll paid the service charge!!!! needless to say, we won't be going there again.
Happy xmas moneysavers xx

An ex of mine worked in an upmarket hotel restaurant in Stockholm, their wages weren't fantastic (far better than here though!) and the staff very much counted on the tips, which they'd split between them. What interested me was a certain nationality - let call them 'Germans' - were known for being very rude, demanding and never tipping. And obnoxious people were guaranteed a 'sneezer'...