Do you tip when you go out ?

[Halcyon]

I have a rant about tipping!

I went out on Friday night and went for a meal in Wagamama's, a chain restaurant.
At the end of the meal, the bill came to about £35.00 and my friend thought it would be a good idea to give a £5.00 tip.

Now I find that a bit excessive.

When you think about it, in any other job you don't get tips for doing a job well or spending more time on it.
And in this instance the waitress did nothing amazingly different from taking your order to be worthy of a tip.

At the end of the day people who decide to work in restaurants know what the salary is and they accepted the job. They should be content with what they get or look for a job elsewhere.

I'm not on a great salary and only make enough to cover the month.

I don't agree with tipping unless someone has really gone out of their way for you and never give huge amounts. You shouldnt have to pay a lot to show appreciation.
In fact just saying thankyou for your help tonight should be quite adequate.

Even worse is when places ask if you want to leave a tip. In that case I am even more determineed to NOT leave one.


In these financially difficult times we should be saving our money.

What do you think ? To tip or not to tip ?


halcyon.

[Raistlin]

I'll normally leave 10% if some aspect of my experience (service or food for example) has been exceptional for some reason.

There's a little eatery in our local town that we go to regularly; the coffee's awesome, the food's always good, and the staff there are brilliant, I always tip there because we really love going in there even if it's just for coffee.

[Ramrod]

£5 is a bit much imo. I like to leave 10%, my wife is tight and always wants to leave less than that
On a £35 bill we'd probably reach a compromise of £3 tip....

[xpod]

I always try and give a tip but my advise is rarely listened to.

Seriously though,i do tip my barber 33%.He charges £7.50 and i always give him a tenner.Eating out depends purely on the service/food.Usually round it up to the nearest £10 if all`s well.
Taxi drivers..........depends on wether they can chat more s*** than me or not.

[Sir John Luke]

I normally leave c. 10%, unless the service and/or meal is below par.

a) Like it or not, 'plus tips' is a recognised part of the remuneration package for many/most waiting staff. Not true of 'other jobs'.

b) This encourages good service/discourages bad service.

[Raistlin]

Oh yeah, I'd forgotten about my barber - he normally charges me £8.00 and I let him keep the change from £10, I guess that's 25% () but he's the only person that I've actually not minded cutting my hair since 1986 so I guess that's not too bad

---------- Post added at 11:54 ---------- Previous post was at 11:51 ----------

Originally Posted by Sir John Luke

b) This encourages good service/discourages bad service.

I was in a hotel recently where the bar and waiting staff weren't allowed to accept monetary tips, any gratuities were added to the bills. Any tips left in this way were shared equally between all staff (including reception, bar, concierge) regardless of their levels of service or indeed whether you'd actualy had any contact with them during your stay. The only person able to take monetary tips was the concierge, who was also apparently under no obligation to share his tips with the rest of the staff.

[Nikesh]

A lot of restaurants include a service charge anyway, but if they don't 10% is a fair amount.

[Sir John Luke]

Originally Posted by Rob M

I was in a hotel recently where the bar and waiting staff weren't allowed to accept monetary tips, any gratuities were added to the bills. Any tips left in this way were shared equally between all staff (including reception, bar, concierge) regardless of their levels of service or indeed whether you'd actualy had any contact with them during your stay. The only person able to take monetary tips was the concierge, who was also apparently under no obligation to share his tips with the rest of the staff.

I always (where possible) add tips to the credit card bill - largely because I rarely have much cash on me - so I assume they go into a 'pot'. I believe the 'tipping' culture encourages good service overall, rather than necessarily on an individual basis. Also, by tipping in this way, management are able to judge the performance of staff members, as they have a record of the amount of tips generated per employee.

[Raistlin]

Originally Posted by Nikesh

A lot of restaurants include a service charge anyway, but if they don't 10% is a fair amount.

A group of friends and I refused to pay the 10% service charge in a restaurant last year because the service had been appalling (wrong food, generally poor attitude, food arrived cold, etc) - there was quite a group of us as well so it would have been a fairly sizeable amount. I don't think the Manager was overly pleased, we pointed out to him that he needed to take that up with his staff and that we weren't paying.

I refuse on principal to pay extra for crappy service.

---------- Post added at 12:27 ---------- Previous post was at 12:26 ----------

Originally Posted by Sir John Luke

I always (where possible) add tips to the credit card bill - largely because I rarely have much cash on me - so I assume they go into a 'pot'. I believe the 'tipping' culture encourages good service overall, rather than necessarily on an individual basis. Also, by tipping in this way, management are able to judge the performance of staff members, as they have a record of the amount of tips generated per employee.

The don't get a measure of those non cash generating staff though (for example receptionists) who are under no pressure to provide good service because they're getting their tips from the hard working bar staff, waiters, and waitresses.

[Halcyon]

The place where I went to was an average chain restaurant.
Nothing extroadinary, a busy Friday night.

What annoys me is when every ten minutes during your meal a waitress comes up to you asking "Is your meal OK, can I get you anything else".
Well if I could be left alone to actually get on with my meal it may help.
I don't need them to come "fishing" for tips.

I'd feel happier about tipping if I was sure it was going to go to the actual person providing the service. For people like barbers & taxi-drivers that isn't a problem, but in restaurants, etc it has historically been a mess, with some employers taking the view that tips count towards the minimum wage, so the employee doesn't actually benefit.

http://www.instituteofhospitality.or...s2/minimumwage

I don't think the legislation proposed to sort this out has been passed yet???

[Raistlin]

Originally Posted by Halcyon

What annoys me is when every ten minutes during your meal a waitress comes up to you asking "Is your meal OK, can I get you anything else".

I don't mind being asked once, normally during the main course, but tend to ask (nicely of course) to be left in peace if it becomes too much. I normally point out that I'm fine, the food's ok, and I'll shout if I need anything at all.

[cimt]

It depends how much I give them. I often say "keep the change". Does that count as a tip?

[Raistlin]

Yes.

[idi banashapan]

I will tip if the service has been good. I totally understand what you are saying about people taking the job on a salary agreement, but I do also think that the most people that work in these places are likely to be students who rely on the fact that tips are part of what you earn. I'm sure most of us have been to uni and know what it's like living whilst making a loss each month! I've never worked in a restaurant myself though, but have known a few people who do and they have said that tips makes a good part of what they take home. I'm fortunate to be in a position now, whereby my leaving 3 to 5 pounds as a tip will not dent my pocket as much as it will help someone else who gains 3 or 5 pounds a night.