Suggested Tips

[Snowbird]

Just to make you aware our wonderful serving staff is paid $______ per hour which is below minimum wage. Please take that into consideration when you see the tip line on your bill. Calculators are available upon request.

I'm not entirely sure how I would feel about having how much money I make plastered on a card for general public viewing, tip incentive or not. It just feels like it would be opening a much bigger can of worms to all sorts of other nasty SC tendencies I've seen noted here.

Then again, it also bothers me that this pay system requires the generosity of others to -just- make minimum wage, and -maybe- more. Maybe. I do understand that it's supposed to help assure good service but as I am reading even in this thread, that's not the case. Good servers get stiffed, bad servers follow customers out of the restaurant... it's just not a good system. And yes, I know there's likely no reform for it in the future, I'm just ranting, so... end rant.

As to OP, I think I would get perturbed if the tip suggestions were hand written but if it's printed out, it's coming from higher up. That's who I'd go to about it. Heck, if they secured one of those little plastic tip calculator cards into the bill holder, I think that would work better. It wouldn't be a suggestion, just a helpful tool if needed.

For adequate service, I usually double the tax, because it's 7.5% here. I do the 10% x2 if it's really good service.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

My mom, however, is kind of sensitive to waitress's 'asking' for tips. And by sensitive, I mean she hates it. Some servers, when they take your money and go to get change will ask "Would you like change back?" which is basically another way of asking if they can keep the change.

Actually, as an ex waitress, it's another way of asking if she needs to waste another trip out to the table. Two, actually. One to bring back the change and one to retrieve the tip from the table after you leave. A busy waitress does not want to stop at tables she does not need to. It eats time. On a busy shift, a few seconds here or there can start sliding you into the weeds.

Many people overpay the bill, fully intending that the waitress keep the difference. It's a reasonable thing to ask. It is not presumptuous to ask. It's presumptuous to NOT ask. She asks because she is trying to be polite, not because she's rude. She's trying not to assume the money is for her, even though it probably is.

Your mom needs to lighten up.

[Miyon]

One time at a Denny's me and some friends had food and stayed for coffee for awhile. Our server was terrible. No refills for like 20mins+, rude, etc.

The bill was about $10 and we normally are very good tippers but we left her a quarter because of the bad service. She got so mad she followed us to the register and threw the quarter at us hitting me in the face.

This Denny's always had a security officer at night and he saw this happen. I said to him she just assaulted me and he pretty much said if we left a quarter tip then I deserved it.

[Muses_nightmare]

I'm not entirely sure how I would feel about having how much money I make plastered on a card for general public viewing, tip incentive or not. It just feels like it would be opening a much bigger can of worms to all sorts of other nasty SC tendencies I've seen noted here.

Then again, it also bothers me that this pay system requires the generosity of others to -just- make minimum wage, and -maybe- more. Maybe. I do understand that it's supposed to help assure good service but as I am reading even in this thread, that's not the case. Good servers get stiffed, bad servers follow customers out of the restaurant... it's just not a good system. And yes, I know there's likely no reform for it in the future, I'm just ranting, so... end rant.

As to OP, I think I would get perturbed if the tip suggestions were hand written but if it's printed out, it's coming from higher up. That's who I'd go to about it. Heck, if they secured one of those little plastic tip calculator cards into the bill holder, I think that would work better. It wouldn't be a suggestion, just a helpful tool if needed.

For adequate service, I usually double the tax, because it's 7.5% here. I do the 10% x2 if it's really good service.

This is the type of thing I totally disagree with, all jobs should start out at minimum wage +, like in BC here. As far as I'm concerned service is included in the price, which is not something a lot of people agree with. And having your wage known to the customers opens things up for all kinds of suck.

One other thing I never understood was why some jobs are tipped jobs, but others aren't. Like right now I'm a blackjack dealer, I get tips (which I consider extra money, not automatically part of my pay) but I do a great deal less for the customers than I did when I was working as a floor associate/cashier for Zellers, but there I never got tips (in fact wasn't allowed to take them. Never made sense to me. But I digress, and I'm getting off topic

[otakuneko]

Suck from a waitress AND a rent-a-cop. Is that like suck squared, or just double the suck?

Rent-a-cop probably didn't want to endanger his paycheck, hehehe.

[South Texan]

Some servers, when they take your money and go to get change will ask "Would you like change back?" which is basically another way of asking if they can keep the change.

Many people overpay the bill, fully intending that the waitress keep the difference. It's a reasonable thing to ask. It is not presumptuous to ask. It's presumptuous to NOT ask. She asks because she is trying to be polite, not because she's rude. She's trying not to assume the money is for her, even though it probably is.

As an ex-waiter, I have to disagree. I think it is very presumptuous to say anything to insinuate that the customer has or intends to tip the waiter. What other reason could there be for asking if change was needed than the assumption that the customer may have included a tip with the bill? Although it may be reality, any act on a person's part showing an assumption or expectation of a gift or tip is, in fact, considered rude. Rather than asking if the customer wanted change, I learned instead to announce that I would return with the customer's change. If the customer's intent was to include the tip in with the bill, then almost every time the customer would tell me there was no need for my making change.

I really know people like Meganjo23's mother who, if asked if they want change, will take offense and may reduce the tip they initially intended to leave.

[South Texan]

Rare is the waiter that gets more than a couple bucks.

I truly am hoping that this was a misstatement and not what you actually meant.

If it was what you meant to say, please remember that waiters have very good memories of who does and does not tip (two bucks on anything more than a twelve-dollar bill is considered a poor tip) and treat repeat customers accordingly as they do not see the point in wasting time giving anything more than minimally adequate service to someone who does not respond accordingly to good service.

[Bagga]

Now that last sentence distresses me rather.

The concept that we HAVE to respond accordingly to good service. I tip well, for the UK at least, where we run a fairer system which sorta means that waiters get minimum wage as a matter of course. But I expect the waiter to give me adequate service no matter how I tip. If I was a sucky customer, maybe I would deserve retribution the next visit, otherwise, not.

BUT, for many years of my "working" life I have been unable to tip, even when I ate in the cheapest of greasy spoon dives. The poor aggrieved waiter was still getting more than the minimal social security check I was given every week.

So, in my book, good waiter service should get a nice tip, but shouldn't expect it, Excellent waiter service always should get a tip - this of course was a problem to me when having an occasional treat with a friend, even when I was broke. However, my tips often took the form of a nice book I had found, a small present, whatever. Or a massive "total tip" at the times when I was back in work, and could afford to "pay my arrears".

And waiters do remember,. I know, because once or twice I have returned to a favourite restaurant years after leaving such a tip, and got beaming smiles and perfect service!

[otakuneko]

I truly am hoping that this was a misstatement and not what you actually meant.

That's exactly what I meant, though maybe I should clarify that that's generally for me dining alone.

I'm in and out in half an hour and all I really ask is that my glass doesn't stay empty very long. I'm an easy customer and don't ask very much of my waiter at all. They might have to get me one refill, if that, and bring my food and check. That doesn't change if I order the 15 dollar lasagne instead of the seven dollar spaghetti. The waiter's doing the same amount of work. If I ask more of them, then of course I'll give them more. If I'm not dining alone, I'll tip more, as obviously that involves more work.

Put another way, tips aren't commission. Installing a hard drive is the same whether it's a cheapie Samsung PATA or a more pricey Seagate SATA drive. Same time and effort, same compensation.