More fun with the drinking public!

[AFpheonix]

This may surprise or even shock those of you who have not done much food service, but I don't know a SINGLE server or bartender that wants that to happen. And yes, I include myself in that. Why? Because we would make a lot less money.

It would be interesting to see the rate of tips earned from servers from states such as mine, where they do earn minimum wage, compared to other states where they don't. I know it doesn't make me adjust the rate at which I tip, but then, I tend to rarely be an SC. (I'm sure I've had my moments though)

[Lace Neil Singer]

I always tip, and I'm glad to hear that my £3 is appreciated. That of course is from me dining alone; if I'm with other people, we generally throw a few quid each into a kitty and hand that to the server.

[Boulder_Bear]

my tip scale

excellent service gets between 20-25%(depending on my mood, and the environment)
good service gets a flat 20%
normal service gets 15%
and then it goes down from there depending on the service of waiters, quality of food, bus people all that.

There have been a couple of times that I haven't left a tip once was because the waiter never refilled our bottomless drinks(I was dying.), he literally threw the straws, for our drinks, on our table from half way across the room, he was rude, and he didn't put the order in correctly, he brought me the wrong type of burger, Then when I saw the manager and, as he walked by, I asked if I could talk with him, he looked at me and just kept walking by. Sorry but a tip is a gratuity, gratuity=gratefulness(basically) if I'm not thankful for the service I'm not going to be grateful.

[friendofjimmyk]

but the one guy again complained about me not doing separate checks. "If you really wanted to, you could have."

OH HOW I HATED THAT when I worked in restaurants. Customers telling me that I could do something "if you really wanted too!" NO, I CAN'T YOU STOOPID F***! Is what I wanted to say, but alas, I would just smile and walk away.

It was most often regarding separating checks. The biggest pet peeve I had with separate checks are the fact that most people didn't tell you until AFTER the entire order has been expedited or in the end of the meal - one person takes the checks of two other parties on the table and PAYS FOR THEM ANYWAY!!!!

[friendofjimmyk]

To add to the tip conversation...

When I was working in the industry, I worked in Ohio and then Texas when I moved there. The minimum wage for servers in both states was/is $2.13. I had a few people who once commented that I was a good server and that they hoped the restaurant paid me well...I told them what I made and you should have seen the look on their face. I then explained the whole issue about how the government figures since we are tipped employees, our minimum wage can be set lower than the rest of the industries. This applies across the board to restaurants...busboys, bartenders, etc are all paid lower than minimum wage because we receive tips! These folks were shocked but thanked me because they never realized that.

Then, I have heard, that in California and Oregon that they pay the servers very well on top of being tipped. Server jobs in those states have waiting lists...or so I have heard.

When I eat out I tip 20 - 25% depending on the service. If the service was freakin' outstanding - I will tip as much as 50% especially if I am eating alone and I don't incur a bar bill anymore.

I have not tipped once and that was because the service was ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE! We got one round of drinks and sat there for over an hour needing refills and to order food. By the time we found her, we asked for the check which took another 30 mins - we almost walked that's how bad this was and the place WAS NOT BUSY! We were figuring that the round was free. We saw the server doing other things and waiting on one or two other tables but not us!

I have seen some servers I worked with do some really crappy stuff to their tables where I have gone to the table and apologized because it's just not right for people to be treated that way when they are not doing anything wrong.

There was this one server I worked with one server who hated even the simplest, nicest requests from customers. One asked him to have a glass of water without ice. This was easy, he had to pick the glass up and fill it up. Skipping one step of adding ice. What does he do, fills half the glass with water from the hot tap and then the rest with regular water from the machine. He said when the customer complains it's too warm he'll have made his point that they should've asked for water with ice! I said, "DUDE! You just created more work for yourself!" He claimed it was the principle of the matter.

[Lace Neil Singer]

I only had really bad service once, when this waitress completely ignored me; probably cuz I was eating alone and there was this big table right next to me. Eventually tho, after I'd tried to attract her attention 3 times and still been ignored, I walked right up to the bar and asked them to get me the manager.

When she arrived, I told her politely that I was now leaving, cuz of the waitress ignoring me and that I was starving and didn't have the time to wait for her to decide to come and serve me. The manager was livid. Not with me, but with the waitress. She offered me free drinks if I stayed, and got me a waiter who served me impeccably. She also told me that the rude waitress would be dealt with; I got the impression that this wasn't the first time she'd done this.

Oh, and I tipped the waiter; he was super cool and attentive and definitely deserved a tip.

[MadMike]

There was this one server I worked with one server who hated even the simplest, nicest requests from customers. One asked him to have a glass of water without ice. This was easy, he had to pick the glass up and fill it up. Skipping one step of adding ice. What does he do, fills half the glass with water from the hot tap and then the rest with regular water from the machine. He said when the customer complains it's too warm he'll have made his point that they should've asked for water with ice! I said, "DUDE! You just created more work for yourself!" He claimed it was the principle of the matter.

What an ass! What concern is it of his if the customer wants ice or not? I can't stand control freaks.

I'm another one who had no idea how tipped employees get screwed out of minimum wage until I came here, and as a result, I wasn't a very good tipper until then. Now I usually tip right around 20%, unless I get really shitty service. The only time in recent years that that happened was with this waitress who spilled a drink on my wife. This was not the reason, we both understood that accidents happen. But then she vanished after that, never coming back to see if we needed anything else, or even to clean up the mess. We had to go up front and ask the manager for our check, and made sure to tell him what happened. Needless to say, he did not look happy. I would not have wanted to be in that waitress's shoes.

[Jester]

It would be interesting to see the rate of tips earned from servers from states such as mine, where they do earn minimum wage, compared to other states where they don't. I know it doesn't make me adjust the rate at which I tip, but then, I tend to rarely be an SC. (I'm sure I've had my moments though)

I know that when I traveled the country working for the restaurant chain I used to work for that when I worked in those states where the pay rate was higher I did NOT notice a significant dropoff in the tip rate. Some places do, as a whole, tip better than others, but I did not see any correlation between regular pay rate and tip rate, just between geographical location and tip rate, if that makes sense. (And if you are wondering, in my cross-country travels, without question the best place as a whole for tipping was Boston. Even the shipyard guys were breaking out no less than 20%!)

There have been a couple of times that I haven't left a tip once was because the waiter never refilled our bottomless drinks(I was dying.), he literally threw the straws, for our drinks, on our table from half way across the room, he was rude, and he didn't put the order in correctly, he brought me the wrong type of burger, Then when I saw the manager and, as he walked by, I asked if I could talk with him, he looked at me and just kept walking by. Sorry but a tip is a gratuity, gratuity=gratefulness(basically) if I'm not thankful for the service I'm not going to be grateful.

That server deserved a write-up, not a tip! I know all of us in the food service industry bitch about tips, but that is because we do our jobs. (At least I hope we are doing our jobs if we are bitching about lousy tips!) This dude did NOT do his job. Myself, even as a longtime server, have in fact stiffed a server. I have to be really hot under the collar to do it (and it's been probably 8 years since I have), but it does happen from time to time.

I have not tipped once and that was because the service was ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE!

I have to relate a story here about a time my friends and I went out to a place that was KNOWN for bad service. It was a Denny's in Phoenix, but this is not anti-Denny's. This particular Denny's was known to be bad, and we were in the mood for some comedy relief, so we went there to dine, just to see what would happen.

Well, it was about midnight or so, and there were four of us. We were the only table in the place, plus there were two guys at the counter. So, how bad can service be when there is no one in the restaurant? Allow me to tell you about it.

1. The waitress pulled up a chair to take our order. Now, if a server is doing this to be friendly and build rapport, that is one thing. This was not the case. The waitress made it real clear how tired she was, what a bad day she was, etc., just plopping down into the seat. Interesting. Not fatal to her cause, but still not what I call good service. (And yes, you CAN sit down with a table and give excellent service, as I said above.)

2. Our food took a LONG time. We. Were. The. Only. Ones. There. But whatever.

3. The coup de grace. We were drinking sodas and iced teas. You know...drinks that get refilled. All four of our glasses were bone dry, and we had not seen hide nor hair of our server since she dropped our of meals. We waited. And we waited. And we WAITED. Finally, we were sick of waiting, and damn thirsty. So on one of our cell phones, we called the restaurant and asked for our server. When she got on the line, we politely asked her if she would be kind enough to fill our drinks. Boy, was she embarrassed...but rightfully so. Had she just kept our drinks filled, not only would we not have embarrassed her, but I would not be typing about her right now.

This, and the others mentioned in this thread, are the people that drive good servers nuts, as they make us as a group look like a bunch of lazy idiots that are doing this because we don't have the skills to do something else...which, sadly, is the impression many people have of the food service industry.

:sigh:

/rant