Author |
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Lyn
Member
08-07-2002
| Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - 8:29 am
I walk in to a restaurant with a 20% tip in mind and wittle it down according to the service I get. For the most part I usually end up giving between 15-20% but have occasionally left less. (I've only left nothing once - the service AND the food were awful. Even the customers around us were grumbling)
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Jewels
Member
09-23-2000
| Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - 9:02 am
I worked customer service for a large, well known mail order company during the holiday season one year when I got out of college a million years ago. People would call and complain about the craziest things. Very rarely would somebody call to make a positive comment. On the rare occassion that somebody did, it made my day. It completely changed how I treat anybody in the customer service field....from telemarketers to wait staff, especially during the holidays. I always try to call the company or whomever just to say thank you for the good service. I don't think it is necessary to tip more if you are out somewhere, I think tipping is over done these days anyway (I have to tip someone for making me a cup of coffee? I don't think so.), but I will make a point of telling them good job or thank you in another way either by a comment card or by telling them directly.
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Eeyoreslament
Member
07-20-2003
| Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - 10:36 am
.
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Racsan
Member
04-09-2004
| Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - 10:47 am
Leaving nothing for a tip doesn't get your point across, just makes you cheapskate. Leaving a penny gets the point across to most wait staff. I've only done it once, but that was after many attempts to get wait staff attention AND talking to the manager who did nothing about it. "CUSTOMARY" tip in my book is NOT 15%. Wait staff (and delivery drivers for that matter) know what they are getting into as far as the pay. They shouldn't "expect" at least 15% unless they EARN it. I go into it planning on $1 per adult, $0.50 per child minimum as the tip, and build from there. Normally I end up tipping 20% - 25% but I do not feel obligated to tip anything if the service isn't good. One example, I was with 3 adults so the based tip would start at $4.00. Waitress started out good checking on us, then a party of 8 came in. Over heard her tell her boss that she would take care of it herself because she needed the tip. We never saw our waitress after that. Somebody else brought out our meal and we asked him if somebody could get us more drinks. Nobody came by. I walked up to our waitress and asked nicely if we could get some drinks. She smiled politely and said sure, then went over to the big party and started to take their order. So I went and asked to talk to the manager. Assured me we would get drinks ASAP. Never saw another drink. We had to go ASK for our bill. Waitress got an actual penny left on the table. She got her automatically added 18% from the larger party, but she lost a nice tip from us. And our bill was probably just as big if not bigger than the bigger party's bill because we had drinks and food and desert, and they had cokes (free refills) and appetizers. So she lost out on a nice tip from our party. I wrote the manager a nasty letter AND I never went back. I have a friend who has left her tip written on a napkin when she has gotten bad service. Here's your tip: don't eat yellow snow.
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Darrellh
Member
07-21-2004
| Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - 12:45 pm
Some people assume that wait staff makes money from the restaurant, so tips are smaller. I waited tables for a few years, and we all didn't like working the Sunday lunch crowd. Large parties coming in from church, without making prior arrangements. They ran us ragged with requests, and instead of tips, they'd leave tracts.
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Colordeagua
Member
10-25-2003
| Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - 1:21 pm
Tract = tip? I don't think so.
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Darrellh
Member
07-21-2004
| Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - 1:49 pm
Oh, yes. We had many a waiter try to refuse to work Sunday lunch, or would try to trade it out with someone else. I mean, I appreciate that you show concern for my soul, but how would you feel if your boss at your job gave you tracts instead of a paycheck? Tracts AND a tip, would have been much better.
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Grooch
Member
06-16-2006
| Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - 1:54 pm
What are tracts?
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Kitt
Member
09-06-2000
| Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - 1:57 pm
That's bizarre - I just tried to post a post that said "What are tracts?" and it said I'd posted in this discussion in the last two minutes. I click back to the thread to see if I double clicked or something, and there's the exact same post by Grooch and none from me! Spooky. But to emphasise Grooch's post - What are tracts?
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Scooterrific
Member
07-08-2005
| Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - 1:59 pm
Thanks Grooch and Kitt!
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Escapee
Member
06-15-2004
| Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - 1:59 pm
Aren't they little bible verses or religious paraphanelia?
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Grooch
Member
06-16-2006
| Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - 2:00 pm
Lol! That is bizarre.
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Darrellh
Member
07-21-2004
| Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - 2:01 pm
Yes, Escapee. Some church groups use them instead of a tip.
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Scooterrific
Member
07-08-2005
| Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - 2:03 pm
Oh I must have been absent that day!!! Thanks!
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Escapee
Member
06-15-2004
| Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - 2:03 pm
Well, I imagine some people believe that people might benefit more from the word of God than from anything monetary. I'll bet not one person who has ever been part of wait staff feels that way, though.
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Darrellh
Member
07-21-2004
| Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - 2:11 pm
True, but in this particular case, it made the waiters a good deal more reluctant to read them than if there had been a tip in it or on it.
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Colordeagua
Member
10-25-2003
| Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - 2:26 pm
Darellh, I believe you that some might have left tract instead of tip . . . but a tract is NOT a tip. Not a time to be "shopping" your beliefs.
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Darrellh
Member
07-21-2004
| Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - 2:33 pm
Colordeagua, I fully agree with you.
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Colordeagua
Member
10-25-2003
| Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - 3:39 pm
Darrellh, how's your sister? Doing well, I hope.
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Darrellh
Member
07-21-2004
| Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - 4:21 pm
I did an update in the mammogram folder today
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Cwcoop
Member
04-19-2008
| Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - 4:42 pm
Color, I am glad it wasn't at the downtown spot, that would have surprised me - I didn't even know they had a suburban location. Lucky for you. I feel ya on the downtown/suburban commute. I am done with it myself going on a couple of years now. I am so happy you started this thread. I am really learning a lot.
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Yesitsme
Member
08-24-2004
| Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - 5:00 pm
Warning....I have strong opinions on this subject! As a former waitress, I have never seen a situation where I felt that someone really cared about the eternal salvation of the waitperson when they left just a tract (and unfortunately in NC that happens a lot.) They were simply cheap. If they really cared about the person, it would have been accompanied by a most generous tip that would make the person think that they had actually been noticed. I was a struggling college student, and while I never felt that a tip was mandatory (though I made $2 an hour without it), when I got a tract it bugged me because they hadn't even bothered to find out that I already was a Christian. What uncaring hearts.... certainly not the heart of Christ. If God gives you the ministry of leaving tracts, leave it with a tip that is double the bill....that will make someone pay attention to your message. (And if you are a Christian and see someone else leave a tract and nothing else, consider leaving a monetary tip on their behalf and letting the waitperson know that it comes directly from God.) And one more thing on the waiting subject...be a kind customer. Sometimes during those years a kind word would make my day! I still have vivid memories of some of the kindest and this was back in the 80s. Isn't it better to be remembered for such a thing, instead of being the jerk who stiffed them? I told you I was opinionated about it!!!! One of my pet peeves from way back.
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Biscottiii
Member
05-29-2004
| Wednesday, May 21, 2008 - 1:13 am
One point I might add, perhaps its seems like a No-Brainer, but I've caught friends doing it and had to give a gentle reminder as we're splitting the ticket. They simply didn't consider & weren't merely trying to stiff the waiter. When you're going out with a coupon, like 2-fer-one meals, it's customary to calculate the tip on what the FULL price was - rather than the ENDING price. Not fair to take the savings out of the server's tip since they had to work just as hard to accommodate. That coupon was a perk between the business & the customer, the server had no choice in the matter. As far as leaving Tracts instead of Tips, I am absolutely stunned!! Cheap, Cheap, Cheap!!
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Biscottiii
Member
05-29-2004
| Wednesday, May 21, 2008 - 1:25 am
My younger Sister, single Mom with her young daughter, lived with me for a while back in the late 1970's. Waitressing at a Denny's for minimum wage. Gave me a whole NEW perspective of the meaning of the tips. Like she said, "You can steal my paycheck but my tips are sacred! Those are a measure of my skills and hard work!" One time I came home and she was taping (yes, with scotch tape) halves of dollar bills together. Asked what she was doing, wasn't that kind of illegal? She said oftentimes customers didn't want their friends to think they were cheap, so they would TEAR a bill in half and leave it sticking from under the plate. After she had a stash of half-bills, she would try to tape together pieces that might look reasonable enough to take to a bank teller and cash them in. Guess all the years we spent as kids doing Jigsaw puzzles came in handy.
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Juju2bigdog
Member
10-27-2000
| Wednesday, May 21, 2008 - 7:49 am
Tearing the dollar bills in half is just astonishing, Biscotti.
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