Trying to get me fired?

[Imogene]

Yeah... in the few weeks the store has been open, I have assisted innumerable customers to their cars with their shopping... a good three (that I remember) have tried to tip me for it, even after I say, "I can't accept tips," and, hell, the guy I'm about to tell about knew that even before I grabbed his cart to help him out.
Literally, as he's walking to the end of the checkout, he pulls out a wad of bills, and says, "You guys can't accept tips, can you?"
m: "No, sir, we can't."
As we're walking he says, "Well, what if I just drop this on the bags, and you happen to find it while you're loading those into her car?" (Note: Apparently, the couple had divorced, and had come in separate cars, and he wanted me to take the bags out to her car. No wonder they divorced...) We run into her, helping the kid out of the cart she had been sitting in, and he takes the kid, and I follow Her to her car, and just start loading groceries, letting the $5 drop to the ground.
M: "Did you drop $5?"
"No..."
M: "It's by your car... so, I figured it must be yours," and continue to load groceries, as I finish, I tell her where the $5 came from, and tell her to let him know, "I didn't take his tip, I could get fired for it."

[PepperElf]

always good to cover your butt

a long time ago (in the 80s i think) there was a bagger at wegmans doing that. Store policy was "no tipping" for car service.

One of the baggers didn't obey the rule and would chat with the customer and convince them that he needed the extra money. I don't know if he only targeted elderly, but one of the ladies he convinced (conned) was a tiny elderly woman on a very low fixed income.

wegmans was notified. i am thinking the employee must have been under suspicion, or already had marks against him, because the manager stated that the man was going to be fired. they're pretty serious about their image

[bainsidhe]

Hmm, PepperElf you make an interesting point. I've always wondered why employees can't accept tips for such service. It's probably to discourage employees from trying to insist on tips from customers. Although it's too bad, since I'm sure the employees could use the extra money.

[Sandman]

When I was working at Staples.. the corporate rule is "no accepting tips" but at store I was at.. we followed the rule of one refusal. We refuse it one time.. and if they insist... take it.

It's better to please the customer in that case by taking it than offending them by trying to uphold corporate rules.

The company I work at now.. has a strange setup for accepting tips. No cash.. but food, tickets, and gifts are acceptable without manager authorization as long as it's under $50 (and various other regulations.. but it's pretty liberal). If it amounts to +$50, then we have to get approval from our one level ABOVE manager (basically.... our boss' boss).

[bubblelittlepally]

The grocery store I worked at only hired special people for bag help and sometimes a high school kid or two. These guys would make more an hour than the office staff because they were soo good at guilting customers into tipping them. One guy got $100 on Christmas eve.

[flutes_and_fabric]

Back at work I was offered a tip once. It was a slow day and someone had left their keys on the counter. I guess she didn't drive cause she never came back for them. I noticed it had a tag for a local gym, so during my break I called them, gave them the number on the tag, and got her name and number. I called, and she came back to grab them. Apparently it had been a long shopping day and was so happy she offered me a tip. I kept saying no, and finally my manager just told me to take it.

[Becks]

At my place of employment, if the baggers get tips, they have to turn it in to go towards the Christmas party.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Hmm, PepperElf you make an interesting point. I've always wondered why employees can't accept tips for such service. It's probably to discourage employees from trying to insist on tips from customers. Although it's too bad, since I'm sure the employees could use the extra money.

That's probably it.

At the swamp I'm not allowed to take tips when loading up customers' merchandise. They want that to be a service we offer all customers, without them feeling obligated to tip. If you allowed the employees to take tips, you'd probably wind up with a few who'd be aggressive about being tipped.

I can count on one hand the number of people who've offered me a tip in the 11 years I've been at the swamp. One time, the lady was kind of aggressive about it; I mean she shoved the money in my hand FFS and insisted I keep it. So I just didn't tell anybody about it.

But now, I wouldn't put it past LP to set up somebody by having one of their own pose as a customer having something carried out and offering the carryout person a tip.

[Bloodsoul]

I've had one customer walk across the entire parking lot just to try and tip me, and another slip a tip in my back pocket when my back was turned. Oy.

The company television in the break room at times would list the question and answer regarding the procedure, but it always went by so fast that I still don't know why it's officially not allowed.

[joe hx]

My guess is taxes. You can't report the tips at a non-tipping job.

[JLG]

I once found a customers purse left in a shopping cart in front of the store. I called her house number that I found on her checkbook.

She came in the next day to pick it up (I was off that day) and gave the assistant manager $40 as a reward to give to me.

We are not allowed to take any kind of reward or tip. Even if we were allowed to take a reward I would not have taken it because giving back a lost purse to someone is the right thing to do.

The assistant is kind of dopey so that is why he probably accepted the tip to give to me. The lady also left me a really nice note thanking me and saying how she is glad their are still honest people out there. It was a lovely note.

So what were we required to do with that $40? Deposit it into the store account. We were doing a campaign for Juvenile Diabetes at the time so I was hoping the store would have donated it.

[Mike Taylor]

When I was selling toys at two of my previous jobs, we had the "Refuse 3 times rule." It was not officially sanctioned by either employer, but the store managers were lenient enough to let tips be a reward for a good job (though it was understood we were not to expect them or ask for them). I got maybe five tips combined over the decade I worked for those stores, but they were usually pretty hefty.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

I used to shop at some grocery store years ago (I don't even remember which store) where they had a no tipping rule. That's fine, but then they starting getting pushy about "helping". I'm a pretty sturdy person, I neither want nor need help with groceries.

If it is a store's policy to "help" that is fine, and if it their policy that cannot accept tips, that's fine. However they have to pick one and only one. They cannot have both.

Because my policy is that I tip people who offer personal services to me. No exceptions. I actually got pushy right back to the manager over that one.

If the store policy is that I have to be stalked out to my car by someone who's help I neither want nor need, don't try to tell me I cannot relieve some of my embarassment over same by tipping the kid. Because their store policy ends where the hatch on my van begins.

[ParkingWitch]

My guess is taxes. You can't report the tips at a non-tipping job.

That must depend on the specific job and location. At my work we have occasional memos about tip reporting and a form we can request, and last week the IRS lady doing my taxes asked if I had any tip income to report.

[PepperElf]

could be the taxes - or like in the case i showed, to prevent employees from conning little old ladies out of their money.

on the flip side i have seen authorized tipping - at the military commissary. "Baggers work for tips only".

Sometimes I didn't want to deal with that, so I would get 15 items or less, go through the express lane, and drop a dollar in the tip box and then take my own groceries to the car. actually i'm betting it's not a bad job if people are generous.