Tipping in restaurants

[OnTheRoadAgain]

Question:
If I'm in a restaurant that adds a 20% tip on to the bill, and the server was an incompetent goof, or the food sucked will I have a fight on my hands if I feel the 20% is undeserved and should be reduced or even withheld completely?

Absolutely not. You simply tell the manager to remove it from your bill. Alternatively, you can ignore the auto grat and leave the exact amount of cash, plus the tip you decide the service was worth, or not.
Automatic does not mean mandatory.

[OnTheRoadAgain]

http://www1.whdh.com/news/articles/national/BO130037/

"Pope and John Wagner were hauled away by police and charged with theft for not paying the mandatory 18 percent gratuity totaling $16 after eating at the Lehigh Pub in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania with six friends."

The article also points out:
- The order took nearly an hour to arrive.
- The diner had to get napkins and cutlery for the table herself.
- They had to go to the bar to have their soda refilled because the server never returned.

Update: Charges dropped
http://blogs.findlaw.com/legally_weird/ ... arges.html

Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli said today that the Bethlehem commissioner planned to drop the charges. The DA agreed with the decision saying, "it would not be the kind of case that should be processed criminally. It was one of those matters that should be processed civilly."

[OnTheRoadAgain]

So, the lesson is ... when you first go into a restaurant, ask about the tipping policy. If there is mandatory tip-out based on sales and you are a non-tipper, it is better to leave rather than stay, generating a sale that the server is forced to pay out the tip to back staff and thus do her/him out of their measly pay.

The lesson is if you do not feel the server deserves an auto-gratuity, do not pay it. See story update above.
There is no legal issue, no criminal issue.

[OnTheRoadAgain]

Moral of the story is, be aware and familiar with federal law.

The moral of the story is that there is no law.

The bad news: there is no definitive answer, according to the law. There are only interpretations and negotiating points. Which actually might be good news.

In September 2004, Humberto A. Taveras dined at Soprano’s Italian and American Grill in Lake George, N.Y. and left only a 10% tip instead of the 18% gratuity the restaurant required for all groups of six or more. Taveras claimed he saw no notice of the policy, but the restaurant claimed it was listed on the menus. Taveras was arrested and charged with theft of services. However, the prosecutor dropped the charges based on her conclusion that all tips and gratuities are voluntary.
http://philadelphia.foobooz.com/2008/01 ... -gratuity/

[OnTheRoadAgain]

I would also like to comment on the subject of regular customers, there are times when a dime from one person is more meaningful than a dollar from another.

Brilliant deduction!

[OnTheRoadAgain]

My father in-law never tipped. I would throw a few bucks on the table when leaving and he would ask ....who gives you extra money for doing a job that is expected?

We have gone from giving tips as a reward for people who do more than expected to servers expecting tips for basically doing their jobs.

I have stopped tipping in places that put cans on the counter... and altho I often tip 20 dollars regardless if my bill is 100 or less I question the need to tip more if it is.

"WE" have now also decided that those who serve alcohol get enough tips that they do not need to be paid even minimum wage.
Things are the way they are because WE set them up this way.

[OnTheRoadAgain]

Lack of objection IS implied consent.

http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?SilenceImpliesConsent

Ignorance is an excuse not to pay an auto gratuity.
It must be posted at the entrance of the restaurant and on the menu. Granted, it is often in very small print so doesn't hurt to ask.

[OnTheRoadAgain]

I've found this as well. Tipping is, after all, an American concept. Europeans think it's kind of odd.

.

Oddly enough, tipping is a European concept. Medieval England to be exact.

Tipping began in medieval England and Europe as a way to buy protection and evolved into a complicated social practice. Contemporary tipping involves a complex set of motives, including social expectations, guilt, hope for future good service and the public exhibition of one's wealth

Read more: The History of Tipping | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/about_6192417_histo ... z1s9vIMxKf

[OnTheRoadAgain]

Sheesh, talk about jumping to conclusions....I am neither a waitress nor a "tart", I simply know that serving is a difficult job, and it DOES warrant a little extra $.....and I never suggested that anyones food would be tampered with??? I just know that if you are a regular in an establishment, and you are a lousy tipper, you won't get extra attention. You will get baseline service......isnt that what you are paying for????
And just to further comment on higher end restaurants warranting higher tips....usually these restaurants have 'professional servers', people who have chosen this as a career, they have knowledge on food and wine, can make recommendations, are attentive, and usually only handle a few tables a night.....if your bill is $100 a head, you should be tipping at least $25 a head.....if you think that is too much, maybe you should grab a tray and see how easy you think it is.
and remember, dont shoot the messenger!

No, BASELINE SERVICE is NOT what we are paying for, we are paying for EXCELLENT SERVICE, otherwise, we'd just eat at home where the service is better than baseline.
Anyone who serves and is paid to do so is a 'professional server' by definition.
'High end' servers make more in tips simply because their food menu items and drinks cost more, and most people pay a percentage of their purchase for a tip.

And you should not be telling me what I should tip.

[OnTheRoadAgain]

I think it is the result of the restaurant ASSOCIATION's bitching and whining.

I think its a combination of the result of servers not knowing how to band together to demand higher wages from their bosses;
also a result of people taking on tipping as a part of their dining out expense, thinking it is expected, therefore they'd better pay up.

Here's what 'they' think:

Despite such precedents, every so often diners at the Linkery take offense. “I’ll go over to the table and ask if there is a problem with the service,” McGuan, the general manager, says. “If there is, then I offer to remove the service charge. Almost always, the customers’ issue isn’t about the service but about not being able to handle their loss of control.”

People like to decide for themselves what amount they want to leave for a tip, hence the service fees are not agreeable.

[OnTheRoadAgain]

I don't tip when I get a coffee but it is expected to tip at a restaurant. Not good service is 10% good 15% excellent 20%. Everybody knows it, right or wrong. I don't know how it got started but it was well before I was born and I'm almost old.

Can you tell us why you leave a 10% gratuity when service is not good?
You can find out how it got started in my post above.
It was not only before your time lol

[OnTheRoadAgain]

Actually, in study after study serving is repeatedly rated as one of the most stressful occupations.

I worked in the industry for many years. I enjoyed the pace and have always been able to cope well with stress and workload demands (a byproduct of keeping myself physically, emotionally and mentally fit and that still serves me well today in another demanding position). Serving tables certainly not for everyone (especially those who like to make ill-informed presumptions) and I always tip well (20%) for good service, and still tip minimal (10%) for less than (because without making presumptions I have no idea what thee problem was and don't want to unfairly punish the server).

Interesting that you see non tipping for poor service as punishment to the server.

Stressful? Puhleeze! Stress is more about how one handles it, than how much they perceive it.

Most Stressful Jobs 2012

Bring up the word stress in a conversation and you’d better clear your schedule for the next hour.

A whopping 40 percent of American workers say their jobs are very or extremely stressful, according to the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health.

Of course, some jobs are more stressful than others. Job-search portal CareerCast has once again crunched the statistics and come up with its list of the 10 most stressful jobs in America.

"Not all jobs are created equal when it comes to stress levels," said Tony Lee, publisher of CareerCast.com and JobsRated.com. "Probably the one thing that’s overriding is the amount of control you have. People who have the least amount of control have the most amount of stress — they’re reacting to whatever is happening around them."

Many of the most stressful jobs involved peril and significant hazard, whether it’s coming into contact with hazardous materials or having other people’s lives in your hands. In all, CareerCast used 11 criteria to come up with its list: travel, income outlook/growth potential, deadlines, working in the public eye, competitiveness, physical demands, environmental conditions, hazards encountered, own life at risk, life of another at risk, and meeting the public.

The last study I read (Canadian) named the highest stress job as 'air traffic controller', the least as 'musical director'.

[OnTheRoadAgain]

Interesting. In well more than ten years in the industry I never noted that. Of course, tipping out to the bartenders and kitchen staff was always commonplace in the places I worked.

What about the manager's cut?

I take it you didn't read the article?

A few other high-end restaurants have followed Waters’s example, including Charlie Trotter’s in Chicago, the French Laundry in Napa Valley and Per Se in Manhattan (the latter two are owned by Thomas Keller). None of these restaurants, however, including Waters’s, forbid additional tips. “Some people still tip, and the waiters get to keep that money,” said Mike Kossa-Rienzi, general manager of Chez Panisse.

But Porter, like the anti-tippers of yore, was persuaded tipping itself was pernicious. “If you have a fixed gratuity, but people are still tipping, then you’re back to Square 1 in terms of the money dynamic,” he says.

If he could, he would have raised everyone’s wages, but there wasn’t enough revenue. The restaurant was already paying 65 percent of its employees’ health-insurance premiums, and Porter was working on a scheme to give long-term employees ownership stakes in the business. Still, he worried that his staff might not be receptive to his proposal. Michael McGuan, Porter’s general manager, expected at least half of the restaurant’s eight servers to quit. But only one did, and Porter has had little trouble hiring additional waiters. Cassinelli says that’s because most of them, like their boss, have little restaurant experience. While that’s true of a few of Porter’s hires, most of the Linkery’s servers have waited on tables for years. They have simply drawn different lessons from their experiences.

Cassinelli prided himself on earning big tips. “I could always upsell my tables’ liquor and desserts,” he said, using the industry term for swaying diners to order more than they normally would, driving up the bill and hence the tip. There are other tricks at waiters’ disposal. Studies demonstrate that waiters can increase their tips by introducing themselves by name, squatting alongside tables, touching diners and drawing smiley faces on the backs of checks. While Cassinelli isn’t necessarily an advocate of such ploys, he says that waiters only excel at their jobs when they have the proper economic incentives.

But Chelsea Boyd told me that eliminating tipping had made her work as a waiter at the Linkery more meaningful than any other restaurant job she has had in the previous 10 years. “For the first time, I get to concentrate on the job, and I’m looking at the guests without seeing dollar signs or worried about what anyone else is making,” she says. Under the old system, waiters earned between $25 and $35 an hour, much of which was untaxed. “Now, waiters make about $25 an hour, which is fully taxed,” Boyd says.

Renee Lorion, a former waitress at the Linkery who now works in publishing in New York, liked the new anti-tipping policy too. “As servers, we all took a pay cut, but we knew it was for the general health of the restaurant,” she told me. “What made it work is that Jay was very transparent about the restaurant’s finances.”

Obviously, the kitchen appreciates the new policy. “Earning three or four extra bucks an hour makes a difference,” Matthew Somerville, a cook, says. “In most restaurants, there’s not a close relationship between the front and the kitchen. But here you don’t have that tension, where waiters are trying to accommodate customers’ special requests, while the cooks doing the extra work don’t see any of the tips.”

Today, Porter’s employees appear almost as fervent in their opposition to tipping as their boss. But winning over his staff was only half the battle.

[OnTheRoadAgain]

Professional servers would never be so short-sighted. You have no idea why a person doesn't tip (person could be a clueless redneck), but their word of your good service is still good business and could still result in someone else visting your establishment (maybe even your own table) and they could be very good tippers. Good servers look past the small picture.

I'll bend enough to say that good servers (anyone paid to do so is 'professional' by definition, even though they may not be good at their job), who understand the benefit of return customers in relation to their pay cheque, or those actually concerned about the company profits would look past the smaller picture. However, most are looking at the tips in their pockets at the end of the night. This is now a normal part of human nature.

Real professionals are paid well enough that tips are actually extra to their paycheques and do not form a part of their minimum wage.

(My comment was in response to someone who claims if you leave 10% tip, you will not receive good service. In this regard, the claim is that if you do not tip according to the server's expectations, you will not be treated well on your next visit. The professional server in your story wouldn't be fired by me, however the one in the story I replied to would be gone very quickly from my business - simply due to his attitude.)

[OnTheRoadAgain]

The single most important factor in determining the amount of a tip is the size of the bill. Diners generally tip the same percentage no matter the quality of the service and no matter the setting. They do so, Lynn says, largely because it’s expected and diners fear social disapproval. “It is embarrassing to have another person wait on you,” the psychologist Ernest Dichter told a magazine reporter in 1960. “The need to pay, psychologically, for the guilt involved in the unequal relationship is so strong that very few are able to ignore it.” Ego needs also play a part, especially when it comes to overtipping, according to the Israeli social psychologist Boas Shamir.

These psychological factors also go a long way in explaining the steady rise of the average tip in the United States from 10 percent in the early 20th century to 18.9 percent today, with little regional variation. “To overtip is to appear an *bleep*: to undertip is to appear an even greater *bleep*,” Benjamin Franklin reportedly noted during his stint in Paris, and his quandary continues to vex American diners.

That's what I thought.