If you dine out, you should read this...

[critter crazy]

My question is, there are tons of jobs, that only pay minumum wage, and they dont get tips. And they manage to survive?? So why must we be pretty much be ordered to pay a tip, when others dont get one??

I also will not tip if the service is bad! Just a few weeks ago, when my parents stopped over, after my dads testing for his cancer, we went out to dinner. The service was horrible!! We sat at the table for 20 mins, before even being asked what we wanted to drink, then the food took over 45 mins to get to us, and half of our food was ice cold. Then it took well over 30 mins, trying to catch the guy for our check! I was furious, my poor dad got a drink spilled on him, and they took forever to bring us something to wipe it up with, then he almost fell cause they didnt clean up the floor! Needless to say they didnt get a tip, nor will we ever to to that place agian, family restaurant my butt!!

I am a very good tipper, but bad service=bad/no tip!

[Karen]

Minimum wage for food servers is often far lower than what the rest of the community gets paid as minimum wage. Sad, but true.

Anna, I often get take-out, and don't tip them, and no one has ever suggested that I do. That is not the same as serving a table - they
A. take the order,
B. type it into the cash register, and then
C. put the food in a bag for me when it's done and hand it to me.

How does that remotely compare to
A. Greeting and seating me,
B. Giving me a menu and reciting the daily specials
C. Answering question about the menu
D. Getting me drinks
E. Taking my food order
F. Checking and refilling my drinks, inquiring about the food,
G. Inquiring about dessert,
H. Bringing me my check,
I. Asking whether I want to take anything home, boxing it up if I do,
then after I leave,
J. Bussing and cleaning the table for the next person

Just curious ... places where I regularly get take-out are always friendly and glad to see me, so they don't seem angry that I haven;t been tipping them ...

[Alysser]

When me and my friends go out to applebees, we usually tip the reccommended amount, but last time our waitress took forever to return the change. We waited over 15 minutes! So, we gave her a $3.00 tip. Since the service was not terrible(she was nice), we gave her something. Trust me, if someone was rude to me and took forever they will not get a tip. They don't deserve it if they act that way!

[jennielynn1970]

I waitressed when I was in high school and after high school. One of the places was a nudist resort where we didn't get tipped (hello... they wore no clothes, they had no pockets!), but they did have to pay minimum wage. At least around here, if you're working a job like waitressing, if you don't make at least minimum when you add in your tips, payroll has to make up the balance.

Most of the waitress and waiters I know these days make some damn good money. My one boyfriend worked 3-4 nights a week, and pulled in about $600 minimum just in tips for those nights.

When I tip, I normally do 15% as a base. If they are excellent I'll do 20%. My delivery guys get at least 25% cause they have to drive to get to me as well. My chinese delivery guys are the best, and I always tip them well. I may not be rich, and I may be tight on money, but I know how I would feel if I were them, and they need to make a decent living as well. I've never not left a tip... even if they sucked. I figure some days I suck at work, and I wouldn't want to not get paid.

[critter crazy]

To be honest, i think all the points could have been said in a much nicer way. Calling epole names, and talking of Castration sure does put one in a foul mood.

[jennielynn1970]

To be honest, i think all the points could have been said in a much nicer way. Calling epole names, and talking of Castration sure does put one in a foul mood.

I agree with that totally... Plus who has room for a list that long in their wallet, lol! It's basically "Remember not to be cheap, and tip the way you'd like to be tipped yourself."

[Catlady711]

I've never worked as a waitress, however in H.S. I washed dishes in a busy restaurant. I don't know if any other places have the same procedure with tips as this place did but I thought it was grossly unfair to everyone. This place worked like this...

Waitress or bartender at the bar takes care of customer

Busboy/girl cleanes up tables and collects tip money, not the waitresses, bartender collects their own

ALL tip money collected went into a can during the shift

At the end of the night the tips were divided up evenly between the bartender, cooks including prepcooks, and waitresses but NOT the busboys/girls or the dishwashers which were the lowest paid in the place.

So the customer who left a tip intended for the waitress, it got split up between various people but not the ones responsible for the cleanliness of the place.

I only worked there for a couple months and got the heck out of there.

[columbine]

I waitressed when I was in high school and after high school. One of the places was a nudist resort where we didn't get tipped (hello... they wore no clothes, they had no pockets!)

So did they bother with lobster bibs?

It stinks that restaurants are still allowed to pay an insultingly low wage to their servers when even the newest potscrubber on the line is at least technically supposed to get the local minimum (although as likely as not they're working under the table for much less). Restaurant work is back-breaking and brings one into daily contact with folks who can't hold down another job, for reasons ranging from noncitizen status to a criminal record. I hardly ever eat out because I just won't go unless I can afford to tip heavily. And yes, if the server's rude or slow or makes a million mistakes with no discernible reason, I don't tip heavily. But if the place is gonzo, my dining companions are rude or unreasonable, or the server is clearly injured or too pregnant to be on her feet all day, I don't worry about slowness or a few mistakes.

Love, Columbine (dang, now I'm jonesing for fish-n-chips at my favorite local place again)

[jennielynn1970]

So did they bother with lobster bibs?

Love, Columbine

Do you really want to know what they did or didn't wear, lol!! Some things were very odd (napkin rings where I never want to see them stacked again, and clear plastic shorts... why??? ).

The funniest sight was the handy man who was also a member... steel toed boots, athletic socks, a tool belt with all the tools, and a baseball hat. And that was it! Oh, and a guy who had legally changed his name to Santa Claus... I thought that was just sick cause he looked like Santa, but rode around on a golf cart naked. Who wants to sit on THAT Santa's lap?! EEK!

[lbaker]

my goodness Jen... you really can give a visual image!!!! um, maybe too visual ~ That's hysterical

[shais_mom]

Do you really want to know what they did or didn't wear, lol!! Some things were very odd (napkin rings where I never want to see them stacked again, and clear plastic shorts... why??? ).

The funniest sight was the handy man who was also a member... steel toed boots, athletic socks, a tool belt with all the tools, and a baseball hat. And that was it! Oh, and a guy who had legally changed his name to Santa Claus... I thought that was just sick cause he looked like Santa, but rode around on a golf cart naked. Who wants to sit on THAT Santa's lap?! EEK!

this is off the topic - but I'll finish reading it and get back to it - but I had to say - was this in PA? One of my college professors was from PA and he worked at a hospital around a nudist resort, and he xrayed a guy that had shot himself in the knee with a nail gun. It went behind his knee cap and in front of the bone. My instructor asked the guy what happened and he had been roofing next to the nudist place and he asked Wil, have you ever seen anyone naked riding a 4 wheeler? and Wil said no he said yea well I hadn't either.....