first time I've left a 2cent tip

[Mystic]

There is only one time that I've ever left without dropping a tip. Many times I wanted to, but this is the only time I actually did it because we felt the service was so bad that it was deserved.

We were at LAX airport waiting for a flight out to come back home and decided to stop at a restaurant for a bite to eat before getting on the plane. It seemed a little upscale, but not "suit and tie" upscale. More like a privately owned chain style place like Olive Garden or Outback. There were people much better dressed than we were, as we were in comfortable flying clothing rather than suits since it was a 12 hour flight, and hell, if a Best Buy exec isn't too good to fly in comfortable clothing (See: Man Denied First Class Seat on United on news sites Nov 09), neither am I.

Anyway, we were seated and ordered our drinks, which took forever to arrive, and then took our order, which also took forever. We're talking about 40 minutes total of wait time just to get food and drink. Meanwhile, did the waiter, who was very snooty to begin with, come to see about refills? Nope. Did he come to see how our food was? Nope. He wouldn't even look at us when he passed us several times as we tried to wave him down.

When he brought us the bill, we gladly paid and left no tip, and left.

Here is where things get out of hand. You'd think it would be over and that was that, but as this is CS.com, you know that's not the case. We went to the bathrooms down the hallway and who other than our lowly waiter comes looking for us screaming "YOU! YOU! WHERE MY TIP?! YOU LEFT NO TIP!!!" while clutching on to our receipt. I explained to him that his service was not deserving of a tip, that he never came to see how we were doing, didn't ask to refill our drinks, pretty much ignored us every time he would pass us, and that a tip is not MANDATORY, it's something that is earned for your service of doing a good job. He then went off on how we're stupid Americans and that he came to this country to provide his family with a better life and how we're bad people... the normal "I'm stuck in a situation where I'm wrong so I will play the race card". Oh, he was of middle eastern descent. A fact of which wouldn't even be an issue had he not tried to play said race card with us as a persons race is of no issue to me. We all bleed red.

I had enough at this point and was pissed that someone had the nerve to come after us for a tip after such shoddy service. I marched myself back up to the restaurant and demanded the manager. After explaining the situation to him, he said he would deal with him and that was that. At that point, I didn't care, but I felt insulted and the need to inform the manager of his workers less than kosher attitude and actions. Had this person been working for me, I'd have fired his ass publicly for such a performance as insulting a customer in front of everyone.

Needless to say, we've not been back to that restaurant since.

[Arcade Man D]

This reminds me of the one time my family got some really bad service at an Applebee's.

Our waiter got to us shortly after being seated, and that was about the only right thing she did. (Preface: it was *not* busy in her section at all. I got a glance at the section chart while we were waiting for the hostess to get back from seating another family, and we were one of two tables in her entire section.)

She takes a good 10 minutes to get a very simple drink order of 1 water, 1 beer, and 1 strawberry lemonade. After that, it took far longer for our food to get here than it took to cook it, based on the fact that all of it was luke warm, except the steaks for my fajitas, which wasn't because it was served on a hot skillet. My father had requested mashed potatoes, and instead was given fries. And no, he couldn't just eat the fries, he had some gallbladder problems at the time where he couldn't eat fried food. It took her another 5 minutes to get the replacement. But the final straw was while we were eating, we saw the waitress off BSing with some random group that came in. She never checked for refills, and it took us a good 10-15 minutes after we'd finished eating to flag her down for our check.

So my mother, who had worked as a waitress for years herself, suggested that then was the time for a zero tip.

[Midorikawa]

you know, I keep forgetting we live in the same state (and have the same first name... to my knowledge there are three of us on this sight).

*sniff* I guess I'm just that forgettable... *runs off to cry in his room* :-P

[Broomjockey]

(and have the same first name... to my knowledge there are three of us on this sight).

If you mean simply 3 people with your first name, and if I remember it correctly, you're looking more at a half-dozen plus.

[bhskittykatt]

There's a Vietnamese restaurant in the neighborhood that Hubby and I tried out once, and it was terrible!

We were seated promptly, but the rest of the night went terrible. There was only one other table besides us, so they weren't busy at all, yet it took them 10 minutes to bring us glasses of water. When we needed refills, we tried to flag down the waitress, who was up front talking to a coworker. She just ignored us, so Hubby had to go up and get refills. Never did she ask how our food was, and it took an eternity to get the check. I believe I left a 10 cent tip.

Working at a motel, I refer a LOT of guests to restaurants on the strip we're on. Guess which restaurant doesn't get my referrals?

[Fryk]

I think the .10 and .02 tip idea is great. I mean, if you leave nothing at all, they would probably just assume you were a no-tipping asshole. But .10 is deliberate, and gets a good message across.

[smileyeagle1021]

If you mean simply 3 people with your first name, and if I remember it correctly, you're looking more at a half-dozen plus.

no, three people with the same first name, in the same state... don't worry broom, I didn't leave you out

[Broomjockey]

no, three people with the same first name, in the same state...

I'm sure there's more than that, still (you forgot on this site, that time )

[bean]

Awhile back, I dropped by a Denny's on my way home from inventory at the Whole. I got off at 1:30, so I was pulling in around 1:35 (block away from my store).

The place was empty, as to be expected at that hour on a weeknight, and the lone waiter was outside smoking a cigarette. Not a big deal, we BS'd about cars and tattoos a bit before I went inside. Someone else pulled up as I was being seated.

I get seated... and wait for a good 10 minutes for my drink. Then he bolts before I can order to deliver drinks to the other party in the place. Then disappears. Another 10 minutes go by and I finally place my order.

15 minutes after THAT, I get my food. The other table hadn't even gotten their drinks yet.

When I'm finally done, I keep trying to get someone's attention so I can get my check. Nobody in the kitchen, nobody to be found anywhere except the party at the other table... who still hadn't gotten their food. Someone from the other table finally starts walking through the back of the place (kitchen, etc) trying to find SOMEONE. The waiter finally re-appears from... somewhere. Other party starts bitching him out since it'd been well over 30 minutes since they ordered and still had no food, he walks up to my table and just says, loudly, to me, "Fucking assholes, I was trying to take a shit!".

Other party walks out without food at all. I was considering a small tip until he did the "fucking assholes" line when I saw how they were treated. That's the ONLY time I've not left a tip.

The next time I went in there, several months later, pretty much the exact same thing. I wound up speaking with a manager the next day about it, haven't seen that guy in there since.

[elsporko]

On my birthday I went out with my fiancee at about four in the afternoon. The service was slower then it should be for a place that only had one other table being served but what was really annoying was that we waiting awile for a hostess to seat us, but none where to be seen. A bartender walked by and got the hostess for us. Turns out she was standing right around the corner from us. I have no idea how she couldn't hear us, but also why wouldn't she ever check to see if people were coming in?

[SuperDan]

I once was at Denny's with my ex sometime around 1 am. The waitress, in a snotty tone, asked if we'd actually be ordering some food. When I said yes, she continued in a snotty tone telling me that lots of people come in and sit there for hours at night only ordering drinks, then she threw (not placed, threw) the menus on the table. Drinks were there in an acceptable time and she took our food order when she dropped off the drinks. I think the food took about 20 minutes to arrive. After the food was there, we didn't see the waitress again until check time. She didn't check on our drinks or anything. I think another waitress got us a round of drinks at some point. Our waitress, who we could hear in the kitchen BSing with the cooks (we were seated near the window between the kitchen and the wait station), showed up about ten minutes after we'd finished eating to finally give us the check.

The total for the order was $18.57. I tipped $0.43 via credit card. I'm not even sure she deserved that, but it made the transaction even.