While I am always grateful for any 18-20% tip, there are times when more than that should be left. Here are a few examples.
1. If I have made more than 10 trips to your table in the course of your meal, there is a per trip charge.
2. We charge an additional amount for excessive messes and spills.
3. After dinner is finished and paid for, rent must be paid for each additional hour that you intend to sit.
4. If you order insanely specialized items and they come out correct, additional money should be left.
5. If your child throws up at the table (or near it), an additional charge will be applied.
6. If it is not your friend's birthday, but you convince me to bring a cake with candles and several other waitresses to sing, you should definitely leave an additional tip.
7. If there are more than 10 people at your table, and you're having a business meeting ordering nothing but appetizers, 20% may not cut it.
8. If you pay with a gift card, and the meal costs you nothing, please leave at least 18-20%.
9. If you hit on me during your meal, please leave a larger than necessary tip.
10. If you intend to leave me your phone number, please leave a larger than necessary tip.
I'm sure there are other situations that I may have missed. But you get the idea.
7 comments:
Have you ever worked at one of those salad bar & dinner places like Sizzler, where you order your food at the register, go to the salad bar, and then the server asks you how you want your potatoes (butter, etc), and then brings the food to the table? The server would also bring you refills on water / drinks. It finally came upon me that this is a pretty cheap place to eat compared to many, and a 20% tip is a good thing so the server can make a decent living. Am I on the right track her? Some of my friends don't feel they should leave more than a dollar or two because of the self service. Comments?
"1. If I have made more than 10 trips to your table in the course of your meal, there is a per trip charge."
100% AGREE COMPLETELY! If feel I asked for more things than normal, I should tip MORE than normal.
"2. We charge an additional amount for excessive messes and spills."
100% DISAGREE. Usually they have BUSSERS who clean messes, but if there isn't any, still, if I have left the restaurant already, WHY should I care about what goes on AFTER I have left? The tip is for "SERVICES RENDERED", NOT to care about messes AFTER I have LEFT. I do NOT count cleaning up as part of SERVICE, because I do NOT CARE about that. I care about what I ASKED FOR, NOT what I didn't ask for or what occurs AFTER I have left for the NEXT SET OF CUSTOMERS.
"3. After dinner is finished and paid for, rent must be paid for each additional hour that you intend to sit."
I am NOT one of these people, but if let's say the table I am at doesn't ask for ANYTHING ELSE for the additional hour we are there and has already paid right before that extra hour began, if there are NO MORE SERVICES, THEN THERE SHOULD BE NO MORE TIPPING. If I sit an extra hour and get refills, of course tip more, but if I am NOT ordering anything else or asking for anything else, then WHY TIP MORE? Remember, the table is NOT like a bowling lane. It's NOT for "RENT". People can dine however LONG they please and if that means they stay an extra hour, if they don't get ANY MORE SERVICE AT **ALL** FROM YOU, THEY DON'T OWE YOU ANYMORE MONEY. TIPS ARE "TO INSURE PROMPT "SERVICE", which means "SERVICE" is NEEDED TO GET TIPS. If customers are just chit-chatting and do NOT need your "SERVICES" ANYMORE, then there's NO RENTAL FEE FOR JUST TAKING EXTRA TIME AT A TABLE. I do NOT get paid at my work to do nothing, so WHY SHOULD YOU? Think about it, for that particular table during that particular hour, you would have done **ZERO** WORK for that table, so WHY should that hour be in consideration for extra money if NO MORE "SERVICES" ARE PROVIDED? TIPS ARE FOR "SERVICE", NOT TO RENT A TABLE THAT ISN'T EVEN RENTABLE. This is NOT a bowling alley.
"4. If you order insanely specialized items and they come out correct, additional money should be left."
I AGREE 100% TOTALLY. If I am a pain in the ass to my server, I will tip 25% or more if everything went well. I feel the more work my server provides their customers, the MORE they need to give to their server.
"5. If your child throws up at the table (or near it), an additional charge will be applied."
Agree 100%, unless after it happens, the customer has left. The customer is paying for services that are affecting THAT particular customer, so if it happens AFTER the customers paid their bill and they are ready to leave, NO, no additional money for something that occurs AFTER they left the restaurant. If it happens DURING the visit, DEFINATELY WAY MORE TIP should be given, because that's extra work my server has to deal with and it's extremely gross. My server may have to deal with cleaning it up after a customer has left, but you can't expect someone to care about their server AFTER they have left the restaurant, nor does the server care about their customers AFTER they have left the restaurant.
"6. If it is not your friend's birthday, but you convince me to bring a cake with candles and several other waitresses to sing, you should definitely leave an additional tip."
100% COMPLETELY AGREE for most situations! Extra work and time spent on a table's services should DEFINATELY get a HUGE tip ONLY though if the rest of the service went well. Like if my server took 3 times to get my order correct, even if they sing me happy birthday, sorry, but a stiff would be in their future. NOTHING can make up for getting my order wrong over and over again.
"7. If there are more than 10 people at your table, and you're having a business meeting ordering nothing but appetizers, 20% may not cut it."
I disagree in that it depends on the service. If you bring me the wrong appetizer, you WILL NOT 100% FOR SURE NOT GET 20%! Also, having a business meeting shouldn't have something to do with tipping unless you are having to get refills constantly for people or something.
"8. If you pay with a gift card, and the meal costs you nothing, please leave at least 18-20%."
I AGREE 100%. A gift card is just like paying with a credit card or cash. It's truly NOT a "discount", but truly just "Pre-paid credit" at that particular restaurant.
"9. If you hit on me during your meal, please leave a larger than necessary tip."
I agree depending on if it's a compliment or not. Like a bad looking person I'd feel wouldn't be a compliment, so I'd hope they would leave me more money if I was a server, but if it's a good looking person, I'd be happy getting a normal tip, because they would have brightened up my day. Also, if they would be taking up a lot of extra time that you couldn't attend to your other tables as much, then OF COURSE they should leave more money for that customer being inconsiderate to the other customer's time.
"10. If you intend to leave me your phone number, please leave a larger than necessary tip."
Totally DISAGREE 100%. All you do is throw the piece of paper in the garbage if you don't want it. This does NOT merit getting you a HIGHER TIP.
You do realize that each comment posted here was meant as a joke, right?????
If you honestly think that any of the comments here are serious, then you have a much lower opinion of waitresses than some of your other comments would suggest.
anonymous - I just fully read through your post.
This is an interesting question, one that only leads to more questions.
So I am starting a whole new entry devoted to just this topic.
but if let's say the table I am at doesn't ask for ANYTHING ELSE for the additional hour we are there and has already paid right before that extra hour began, if there are NO MORE SERVICES, THEN THERE SHOULD BE NO MORE TIPPING. If I sit an extra hour and get refills, of course tip more, but if I am NOT ordering anything else or asking for anything else, then WHY TIP MORE? Remember, the table is NOT like a bowling lane. It's NOT for "RENT".
actually it is for rent. the longer you sit there, no longer buying anything, you are dead space. you are taking up a table that your server is depending on "turning and burning" to make money. The average diner is at their table for an hour. more than that is always fine, if you are still buying things, or at least up the tip. In my resturaunt, we get 4 table sections. If I have one or two tables "camping" out, not ordering anything that cuts down the amount of tables I am able to serve during the night---noticeably decreasing my take home money.
The name of the game is turning tables. We don't need customers pitching a tent. If your done leave. Like they say in the bars "you don't have to go home but you can't stay here"
Springs1 is obviously an idiot. So if you're not there to watch me clean up your mess, then you shouldn't tip more because of it? You still made the mess and I'm still cleaning it up. That doesn't even make sense. And squatting at a table is the worst thing you can do. If you want to sit around taking up space, do it somewhere where you're not costing anyone any money.
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