Discussion (bring your "A" game): If you wait tables are you guaranteed a tip?

[Scott]

Discussion (bring your "A" game): If you wait tables are you guaranteed a tip?

I'll assume that with the wide demographic on this forum there will be people on here who have served or waited tables with varying degrees of experience. I'll also predict that many on here have never waited a table.

Is a tip guaranteed?

Who decides the industry standard of what a tip should be?

Is it OK to tip less than the industry "standard"?

If someone wants to give a low or no tip, is there a reasonable justification or are they automatically a cheap bastard regardless?

This should be interesting...

 

[summ8rmk]

Interesting?

GS6

 

[Scott]

Interesting?

GS6

Haha. Autocorrect.
Got it.

 

[NorthMNSledder]

I guess I'm old school. I tip based on service. If the service was terrible I would not leave a tip. However with that said I can't remember the last time that I had that bad of service. If the service was that bad I would have most likely already talked to a manager and nobody would be surprised by no tip. But I will adjust the tip based upon the level of service we are getting. AND this is a big one. Just because the kitchen is slow does not mean the service is terrible. Some of the best waitresses we have had were covering for a slow (for whatever reason) kitchen. But they were busting there butts to make the rest of the experience enjoyable.

For me personally I have always looked at it as I'm going to tip 20% and the service we receive will drive that number up or down.

However I have to ask..........Did one of your kids get a new job? LOL

 

[summ8rmk]

I generally tip 15-20%. Service will have to be really horrible to leave less than 10%.
Great servers may get 30% from me if they can improve the mood or atmosphere.

GS6

 

[snowracer21]

i tip 20% always, unless it is exceptional service and then i'll tip 30% or more, also, if the waiter/tress gives me something for free (free beer etc) I'll tack that on to the tip.

I had one terrible experience at a BWW, I ordered my food, it came out wrong (severs fault), returned it, came out right, but with no ranch dressing. I asked her for ranch (who eats chicken fingers without ranch?)
I watched her go a few tables down and talk with friends of hers for 10 minutes, I starred at her the entire time. I walked up to the bar and got my own ranch and then informed her of it.

She didn't get a tip, my gf also spoke with the manager when we left and he informed us she was on her last strike anyways. Sorry hunny, serving isn't for you.

The biggest thing people need to realize is, if your food is slow, it's not the servers fault. If your drinks go unrefreshed, or your order is wrong, that generally IS their fault.

 

[Pro-8250]

My $.02 0n tips

Yes, this will be interesting!
You have just consumed the most fantastic food you have ever eaten at a nice restaurant. How many tip the people that prepared it????
How about your paper boy?
What about your garbage man?
Last week we had our septic tank pumped. The temp was in the upper 80's with high humidity. The young man had to pick up two very heavy concrete covers to pump it out. (Crappy job) I gave the kid a $10 tip. How about your bank teller?
You walk into a bar and order a beer. Pay for it and leave a tip.
You walk into a gas station and buy a lottery ticket and some tobacco and leave no tip.
And I am also told if you are gambling, you tip whether you win or lose. How many people tip when they lose?
Nice topic Scott! My daughter and I are headed your way in October to Las Vegas. Turning south at Bozeman. Won't make it as far as Florence. Wings at the Buffalo bar in West Yellowstone MT. Yum!!!
I'll wave to you on the interstate.

 

[snowracer21]

Yes, this will be interesting!
You have just consumed the most fantastic food you have ever eaten at a nice restaurant. How many tip the people that prepared it????
How about your paper boy?
What about your garbage man?
Last week we had our septic tank pumped. The temp was in the upper 80's with high humidity. The young man had to pick up two very heavy concrete covers to pump it out. (Crappy job) I gave the kid a $10 tip. How about your bank teller?
You walk into a bar and order a beer. Pay for it and leave a tip.
You walk into a gas station and buy a lottery ticket and some tobacco and leave no tip.
And I am also told if you are gambling, you tip whether you win or lose. How many people tip when they lose?
Nice topic Scott! My daughter and I are headed your way in October to Las Vegas. Turning south at Bozeman. Won't make it as far as Florence. Wings at the Buffalo bar in West Yellowstone MT. Yum!!!
I'll wave to you on the interstate.

well, in my old state of NY, servers did not make minimum wage, they made about $3/hr and relied on tips to clear minimum wage. Bar tenders mostly do NOT get paid at all and rely all on tips.

I worked Valet through college, we did not get paid, and relied solely on tips.

 

[Pro-8250]

well, in my old state of NY, servers did not make minimum wage, they made about $3/hr and relied on tips to clear minimum wage. Bar tenders mostly do NOT get paid at all and rely all on tips.

I worked Valet through college, we did not get paid, and relied solely on tips.

They get paid minimum wage here. It is a proven fact that tipping is discriminatory. I could be working next to a 26 year old bomb shell doing the exact same job in a bar. I know who will get more tips. Basically, tips justify the business to pay their employee less money. So in reality, the customers tips are subsidizing the business owner, so they can pay their employees less.

 

[05900]

They get paid minimum wage here. It is a proven fact that tipping is discriminatory. I could be working next to a 26 year old bomb shell doing the exact same job in a bar. I know who will get more tips. Basically, tips justify the business to pay their employee less money. So in reality, the customers tips are subsidizing the business owner, so they can pay their employees less.

Probably a fact 'cuz you pour weak drinks..!! And what if there is a "tip jar" some places even have a "pool" so the bombshell should be "equal"..

 

[Himark]

I have invested a lot of time into this and my brother as well. My brother owns a consulting company "Ceptera" He and I were on a trip years back and I low tipped a waiter. He argued and I told him tips are performance based. The biggest problem was the waiter/waitress just picks up the tip and thinks....."what a cheap skate"

We have designed these tip cards. One is based on 20% and the other 15%. You can score your server and leave the card. This allows the server to KNOW areas that caused them to lower their percentage of tip. It also helps them isolate areas that may be out of their control but yet need to be corrected to get the maximum tips. ie, food quality or late drinks being served. It may just be the bar tender and not the server. This card gives them the tools to go to their manager and say..........."LOOOK"

Here is a image of the 15% card.

 

[sledheader]

A tip is just that.....a tip. An amount paid above what is required to dine which is dependent on the service provided. That said, I normally pay in the 15-20% range. One distinct time that I remember leaving a very slim tip was actually at Bullwinkles in West, Yellowstone after it was highly suggested on this forum. My fiance and I took a snowmobile trip last February and actually got engaged the day this happened. It was Valentine's Day and I knew they were going to be busy. We went there twice on this trip, the first time was about two days before Valentine's Day the first night we arrived in West. Food was awesome and service was great. Very nice people and I left a healthy tip. I made reservations that night for Valentine's Day night knowing that I would be proposing earlier on Valentine's Day and wanted a nice meal to top off the day. Well, we showed up about 5 minutes before the reservation and it was packed. I thought, "Great I have reservations, we will be here just a minute and we will be taken right in". Nope, waited over an hour with people getting seated before us. Finally got seated in the far back corner behind the bar. Waited about 20 more minutes and my fiance and I were starving by this point. We finally helped ourselves to the salad bar before we even got menus. We got our food each of us ordering prime rib and it was tough, not nearly the cut that we had gotten a couple days prior. Drinks were not refilled and we were finally done eating by about 9:30-10 when our reservations were at 7:00. It was about an $85 bill and I left about a $3 tip. It didn't ruin the day, but it definitely ruined our first dinner together as an engaged couple. We were both irritated on the way back to the motel.

 

[Wheel House Motorsports]

Having worked a lot of food service through high school and college it definately helps when you've been on both sides of this. Understanding that the food service industry pays pretty poorly I firsthand understand the 'need' of tipping for people to keep doing there job. Keeping things flowing well from hostess, to waitress, bartender, line cooks, even the dishwashers is a big project when your even remotly busy.

Again, when tipping or thinking of the service provided, acknowledging who is at "fault" if your service is sub par. All it takes is one person in the system to slack and it sandbags everyone else. I usually do 15%+ for average or above average. I have never 'not' tipped. But I will tip something petty like $1 to let people know they did a pretty piss poor job and I didn't forget to tip either.

When people do above average work in any field it never hurts to throw people a bone. Or at least acknowledge their hard work. Nobody really wants to be at work, so let people know when they are kicking ***! Feeling appreciated may not be something you can spend, but it sure does make work a little easier.

 

[Pro-8250]

There is a restaurant/bar down in town that pay their employees substantially more and tipping is not allowed. When I was the age of 15 to 18 I worked at a gas station. Go out in all kinds of MN weather, pump gas, clean windshields, check oil and check tire pressure and bring back change. I never once received a tip. Tips subsidize the owner to pay less in wages and more profit for them. I have two friends that are bartenders/servers and claim one dollar a day when filing their taxes. At least that's what they tell me. Oh, and in MN sharing tips is illegal.

 

[Pro-8250]

Probably a fact 'cuz you pour weak drinks..!! And what if there is a "tip jar" some places even have a "pool" so the bombshell should be "equal"..

I love it!
I got to say I have been laughing at your reply. Hot and humid here so I am going to crack a beer and give a toast to you. Dry air and cool temps coming out of the north west on Wednesday night. Ya Hoo!

 

[05900]

What happens to the tip with the new trend..."food runner"?!?
Waiter/Waitress takes order..
Runner brings food to table..
Someone may come back to check ..
Waiter/ Waitress brings bill .
Busser cleans table . . . some kinda Ponzi pyramid scheme

 

[Scott]

When I was a kid in the 80s, tips were usually 10%.

At some point they went to 15% in the 90 or Y2k.

All of a sudden lately I'm hearing about this 20%.

What drives this? Who decides and "sets" this?

 

[NorthMNSledder]

When I was a kid in the 80s, tips were usually 10%.

At some point they went to 15% in the 90 or Y2k.

All of a sudden lately I'm hearing about this 20%.

What drives this? Who decides and "sets" this?

I always thought it depends on where in the country you are. For example here in MN just north of Minneapolis it pretty much always been 20%. When I visit friends down in northwestern Iowa a 20% tip is huge to them. So maybe that plays into it a bit also.

 

[Scott]

We've all seen this on menus too...

"Parties of 10 or more will have 15% gratuity automatically added to the bill."

15% of final bill AFTER tip? Or before tip?
Or are you expected to add MORE tip on top their large party gratuity?

Is the restaurant telling me that 15% is standard?

 

[Wheel House Motorsports]

know as autograt or auto gratuity... its basically a pre-built in 15% tip that they run, usually very easy to see on your bill when they run it. Mainly because handling large tables like that is ALWAYS trouble/effort for server staff. 99% of time time with a large group, always needing strangely split up checks, everyone is chatting, nobody makes up their mind so people are talking over each other making mistakes easy when putting in orders. People are always changing their mind, sharing, etc. A server could easily handle 4 2 tops vs 1 8 top. It takes a VERY talented and alert server to handle these tables so.

Basically, bad customers result in "poor" service due to chaos at the table, so nobody(wait staff) will want to wait them unless they are are guaranteed at least some level of tipping. I have literally seen the staff play rock paper scissors to avoid handling large tables at the resturant I worked at.