Javaman

I assume you mean mainland Europe. My wife is English and we lived there together for over four years and weren't expected to tip at all. Not to bartenders and not to waiters. I thoroughly enjoyed this. Even when service or food is terrible, I feel very awkward in voicing my displeasure so, for four years, I didn't have to worry

Oddly, my wife now has some trouble figuring out the tip only because it's so foreign to her. I usually end up tipping 20%+ because I'm lazy. For those that care or are bad at math, here's my method. Double the bill, move the decimal one place to the left, and round to the nearest dollar (or get out your small, round money to make up the difference. So say the bill is $25.25, doubel to $50.50, move the decimal to make the tip about $5.05 and then round up to $6 (actually, in this case, I'd probably just leave a fiver and leave it at that unless I had a quarter or something in my pocket).

We got confused this past weekend. We went to one of those buffet places where you can stuff yourself for a few dollars. I can never eat very much so usually think I'm getting the bad end of the deal in those places. The tableside service consisted of getting our dirty plates taken away. We got all of our own food. And yet, there was a sign on the wall soliciting tips (?!?!). What do you tip in this situation? I think the total bill for the two of us was around $18.00 (which I thought was a lot... but I'm cheap) and I said to leave $2.00. I don't know if this is right or not. I'm inclined to think that was too much... what is that, 9%?

Gawdawful

A dollar per person is a very appropriate tip for this type of restaurant, unless you made them go to a lot of trouble for you. The only reason I can think of that the buffet place had a sign soliciting tips was so they could pay their table bussers at the tipped employee sub-minimum wage allowed by law. What cheapskates.

Warren in OK

Shadowy Man

I did pay for the meal, did I not?

If you're adding a "service fee" to all of the food, why not just raise the prices and have no tip. The watiers/waitresses can get paid for performing the service they provide. If they want to make more money they can either get a different job or work at a fancier restaurant that pays more - and presumably has more competition for hiring, so the better waiters/waitresses will work there.

Kind of like every other job.


It just bothers me that gratuities are obligatory. Kind of ironic isn't it?

agnawstick

You and 3 others go to "Chuck's BBQ Shack"... the waitress is attentive, gets you seated right away, fills your drink order, and delivers your ribs quickly and is very attentive to you. It's very reasonably priced. Your total bill comes out to $35. You tip her 20% which comes out to $7.

You go to Phillipe's snooty bistro. You wait even though a table is open. You order 4 glasses of the house wine, at $7 a pop, they take 15 minutes to arrive. You place an order for 2 appetizers at $10 each. They take even longer to come. You then order 4 main courses at $22 each, and get refills on your wine.... you wait 30 minutes, and your dinner arrives. Your bill is $164. You will show that waitress. You will only tip her 10%. You leave her $16.40.
That sure showed her... oops, she got more than twice the money as the hardworking waitress at the rib place. Go figure.

Gawdawful

This is one of things that bugs me about tipping. That is why my general tipping guideline, regardless of the bill, is a $1.50 per person for lunch, which is typically more hurried and less service is required, and $2.00 per person for dinner, more if service is outstanding. I just don't know why the poor schlob at my favorite Mexican restaurant with the cheap entrees should get less than the mindless automatons at the Outback steakhouse. Their employment at the more expensive places are often based on youth and appealing looks, certainly not the quality of service. I don't tip on the basis of youth and appealing looks, or over-exuberance either. Jeez, how many times can you ask if everything tastes OK?

If paying someone on the basis of good work is the case for tipping, why can't I stiff the nimrod at the garage for not getting my car repaired when he promised or the doctor that makes me wait 1-1/2 hours past my appointment time? "Uh, yeah, Doc, instead of the usual $80 office visit fee, I'm only paying you $40 this time because I didn't like the wait or the diagnosis and your bedside manner could use some work." Like that would work. Can you say "Collection Agency? I knew that you could."

Back to the OP: No money was lost, nothing stolen. I don't give a rat's patootie what the bartender thinks about who left the dollar. Oops, this was a restatement of what I've already said. Too bad, I still think that.

Warren in OK

Non-praying Mantis

End of story? Not by a long shot. You forgot bellhops, barbers, valet parking attendants, etc. How much do you tip them? Or others?

Bellboys - I refuse to pay 15% of my hotel bill to the bellboy. They don't deserve that much, even at a cheap hotel (which has no bellboys anyway...).

Barbers - you are paying for the haircut, which is the actual service, aren't you? Why tip them? Do they expect one or not?

Valet parkers - Where is the service price to take 15% of for them? Do you tip them?

Bathroom attendants - How much do you tip them??? I have no idea!

Finally, why don't you tip teachers (or nurses, or others)? The quality of your service varies significantly from teacher to teacher, and we aren't paid for making our lectures better, we are only paid for doing them. Why not tip your teacher and get better service? Tip your nurse to get better service.

I'll say it again - tipping is stupid, pay the service employees properly, and it becomes unnesscessary.

NPM

kkholiday

Do you not believe that a servers make $2.13 an hour? They do. I had no problem accepting a $2/hour wage for three years because I knew that my personality would earn me enough to make a shift worthwhile.

Non-praying Mantis

A personal question, if you don't mind:

How much per year did you make from wages, and how much did you make from tips (average)?

NPM

kkholiday

I don't mind. I got a paycheck every two weeks which was usually around twenty dollars. It was kinda funny to all the waitresses when the checks were given out because we usually couldn't care less if we got them or not. I would walk away with all my tips at the end of each shift in cash (the restauraunt would pay me for my credit card tips). On a good night, say a Friday shift from 5 till midnight, I'd leave with an average of $150. Remember though for every good shift we get, we'd have to work a few crappy shifts during the week where we might only make 40 or 50 bucks for the same amount of time. I usually worked only three to five shifts a week just to pay my rent in college.

kkholiday

I don't mind. I got a paycheck every two weeks which was usually around twenty dollars. It was kinda funny to all the waitresses when the checks were given out because we usually couldn't care less if we got them not. I would walk away with all my tips at the end of the night in cash (the restauraunt would pay me for my credit card tips). On a good night, say a Friday shift from 5 till midnight, I'd leave with an average of $150. Remember though for every good shift we get we'd have to work a few crappy shifts during the week where we might only make 40 or 50 bucks for the same amount of time. I usually worked three to five shifts a week just to pay my rent in college.