This article generated lots of feedback in our local paper...... do you agree?

Customers decide tips, not the wait staff
Brad Flory, Jackson Citizen Patriot

Smart people avoid angering the hard-working waitresses and waiters at Jackson's fine eateries.

Once I accidentally made many of them furious by noting two innocent points about the societal evolution of tipping.

Point one: The standard restaurant tip has somehow risen, in many people's minds, from 15 percent to 20 percent without a vote of the people. Point two: The standard tip is now the minimum allowable tip, in many people's minds, as if tipping is a duty instead of an optional reward.

Waitresses, friends of waitresses and champions of the downtrodden mistakenly assumed I am a bad tipper who wants servers to live in squalor so I can save a few pennies on the experience of eating a cheeseburger.

"You cheap slob," said one. "Customers like you make me sick. If you had to wait tables you would be disgusted how often good service is unrewarded by jerks like you."

And that opinion came from my wife. When I met her, she was a waitress at a greasy spoon called The Clock. She never lets me forget that servers are under-appreciated.

This experience teaches me to use great caution while I point out another societal shift on the practice of tipping. Waiters and waitresses, please take it as helpful advice.

Allow me to lay out an increasingly common scenario.

Say I go out for lunch and the bill is $8.15. And say I hand the waitress a $10 bill for payment.

Instead of leaving to obtain my change from the register, servers may now ask an ill-conceived question.

"Are you all set?"

"All set" is restaurant code for "keep the change." I cannot be the only customer who resents being prodded this way.

My mind instantly translates the question to, "Do you want to give me $1.85 for a tip?" Then my mind races with the math and determines $1.85 would be more than 20 percent (22.7 percent, actually, but my mind does not race with such precision).

This has happened so many times in the past couple of years that I have developed my own personal rules.

"No, we are not all set," I say. "Please bring my change."

Then I cut my tip in half because I feel insulted.

To my friends in the serving industry, please take this as constructive advice. Your tips will be bigger if you let customers decide for themselves when they are "all set."

Assuming some of you are angry again, take comfort in knowing there is a good chance one former waitress will make me sleep on the couch tonight.

 

My +1 was a waitress in college, too. I let her add the tip to the bill at restaurants. I tip about the standard 15/20%, but she tips better than I do.

 

We tip the 20% as a rule. If the tip is added on, sometimes that's all they get, unless the service was very good. We even tip on the total including tax most times, except in Canada.........their taxes are too much $$

If the lunch/breakfast tab is cheap, the tip could be bigger. They work hard, and what's an extra $1.00 on a breakfast/lunch tab.

Sometimes it's OK to ask if we need change. Especially if they can't see how much money is left in the little folder/binder. It saves them a trip back to the table.

Smart waiters/waitresses will also bring back "good change"/small bills so you can leave that extra couple of bucks if you want to.

 

Usually tip about 20%, unless it is a place that adds on the tip which I usually find is 18%. Sometimes I go higher but not often. I've been tipping this amount for some time, probably 10 years. So I'm probably cheap since I haven't increased. Of course if I go to establishment that my son works at and he waits on us his tip is usually very high. Yet with that he usually brings us a free appetizer or a drink that he covers.

 

We usually tip at least 20%, even if some has been added to the check already. My reasoning is that the wait staff did not set that policy so why deny them what I would have given anyway.

 

Usually 20% depending on the service. For very poor service I tip nothing. Tips are earned not automatic.

 

There's a family-style Italian restaurant in our neighborhood where we eat perhaps three times a month, and have been for several years. Most of the servers recognize us. I tip at about 20% plus round-up to the nearest dollar, at least.

We are treated quite well. Seems like there's a lesson here. HPH

 

I tend to more generous when dealing with cart girls.
they drive around the course from foursome to foursome with beverages, candy bars snacks etc.

today i stiffed her. she pulled up the cart and we had to get the goods ourselves and she barely stopped talking on her cell phone long enough to tell us "6 dollars".

and that is exactly the amount she got.

 

Usually 15 - 20%, unless I am totally unsatisfied with their service. I once had a waiter come back to my table 2 minutes after I ordered dinner and wanted to know what I wanted for dessert. I reported him to management and they found out that he was high on something, so they fired him on the spot.

 

I remember reading an interesting algorithm for calculating the tip years ago. They started with a certain percentage, then added or subtracted.

For example, minus x percent if your coffee cup isn't refilled promptly. Minus y percent if they introduce themselves by name, which seems to be universal these days. I forget what the other minuses and the pluses were.