I don’t think I saw this on the forum last week. How does everyone feel about gratuities? I believe they should be earned and that gratuities reward those people who go above and beyond in the service industry. I do not believe that they should be mandatory. Mandatory gratuities are rather presumptuous and the proprietor is pretty much guaranteeing excellent services.
If you’re frustrated by poor service at a restaurant, think twice before you decide to not tip. You may be in for a bit more than just a dirty look from the waiter.
“Nobody, nobody wants to be forced to pay a tip or be arrested for terrible service,” Leslie Pope said when her happy hour ended in handcuffs.
Pope and John Wagner were hauled away by police and charged with theft for not paying the mandatory 18 percent gratuity totaling $16 after eating at the Lehigh Pub in Bethlehem, Pa. with six friends.
Pope claimed that they had to wait nearly an hour for their order and that she had to get napkins and silverware for the table herself.
“At this point I became very annoyed because I had already gone up to the bar myself to have my soda refilled because the waitress never came back,” Pope said.
After the $73 bill came, the group paid for food, drinks, and tax but refused to pay the tip. After explaining the bad service to the bartender in charge, Pope claimed he took their money and called police. The couple was handcuffed and placed in the back of a police car.
“I understand that, you know, we didn’t pay the gratuity, but it was a gratuity, it wasn’t something that was required,” said Wagner.
The owner admitted that the group waited unusually long for their food, but said the pub was extremely busy that night. He said managers offered to comp the food, a claim the couple denies ever happened.
“Obviously we would have liked for the patron and the establishment to have worked this out without getting the police involved,” said Deputy Police Commissioner Stuart Bedics.
Police charged them with theft since the gratuity was part of the actual bill. However, it is doubtful that the charges will hold up in front of a judge. The couple is scheduled to appear in court next month.
ooh - I see a congressional debate on the the “tip” bill. The restaurant union(SEIU) will start pouring funds into reps/senators who support it and candidates running agains ones who dont. black panters will appear outside of voting locations to intimidate voters…
If you’re a party of more than six…“tips” are mandatory for a reason at that point it becomes a service fee.
If the service is that shitty than you ask to speak to a manager.
That said if you’re in a party of one and you don’t have enough money for 15% than you don’t have enough money to eat out and should stay home and cook.
Big boy rules my ass. If it’s just me and a friend and the serice sucks, then no tip. The whole big boy rules works in reverse too. I don’t know what it’s like elsewhere, but here in Olahoma the waiters and waitress’s only make like 3.35 an hour and the tips are expected to make up the rest. They know damn well that their wages are tip dependent. Also, I used to date a waitress and she was a nazi about tipping at least 20%, but if the service sucked then you wouldn’t get jack from her.
As I get older and more financially sound, I find myself tipping more generously. I’ve reached the point where, typically, I tip about 20%
HOWEVER, if the service is bad, or the food is lousy, I’ll tip whatever I feel is appropriate. Once or twice in the last six months I’ve tipped less than 10%; and I can remember probably the worst meal and service I’ve ever received where I just pulled out a handful of change and left it on the table…
they entered into a legally binding contract… they knew an 18% gratuity would be added, and agreed to pay by sitting down and ordering food and drinks.
on the flip side of that, it’s a civil contract, and therefor a civil matter. breech of contracts are almost never “crimes,” and the police erred big time by getting involved. that could easily become a section 1982 for the responding agency. there are SCOTUS decisions on this very topic (i no longer have access to lexus nexus, so find them yourself).
as far as voluntary tipping goes, i’m partial to a $0.03 tip for REALLY shitty service… otherwise, i tip between 15 and 20, service depending. if the server really went out of her way, then the sky is the limit. i’ve tipped 100% plenty of times, final bill depending. they work hard and deal with a lot of assholes, and depend on the tips. plus, its an extremely established custom… i can’t believe some people simply dont tip… like my mother-in-law.
I always tip a small amount, even if the service was terrible. I worked through school on tips and other shitty jobs, its no fun to have a bad night get ruined by customers who might end up making the job difficult. Parties over 6-7 were generally more difficult because they are small enough to think their stuff should still be done instantly. Parties of that size are a loss to the restaurant, thus the mandatory tip. Parties over 20 are accepting, so its not an issue. If I go out with enough people to have this rule go into effect, the tip and time to get food generally doesn’t matter, so I don’t see the issue with the people. Enjoy your friends and the ability to go out and do so.
The servers do have a rough job, and get the blamed for everything that goes wrong. If the food is cooked wrong you really cant blame the server, and if they get it taken care of quickly, or get it comped I will tip them better. But if it is the server that screwed up, the tip goes down, like not filling drinks, never coming back, forgetting stuff.
They are getting paid to serve you, if I want to get my own food and drinks I can go to a fast food place, and even some of them serve you now.
I disagree also. I think tipping is way for restaurant owners to extort money from their patrons to pay their employees. Why is it you have to tip at the outback, but not tip at burger king?
I am not a business owner, but if I eat at the local dive for breakfast, I pay $7.99 for 2 eggs, 2 bacon, one pancake and one piece of toast, not to mention $1.09 for a coffee. Plus a tip? :rolleyes:
I can go to burger king, get a double croissanwich (2 eggs, 4 bacon, hash browns and coffee) for $4.99
Only reason I tip is for good service, if you don’t refill my drink, never come over to see how I am doing, things the server is responsiable for, then no tip. Now if the cook makes me a chicken sandwich and I ordered a steak, that is not the fault of the server if they sent the order in correctly and I tell them, the tip is for you, not the cook.
The mandatory tip saves the server from getting screwed when they spend all night with one table, instead of many tables where their tips will average out even if one table tips bad.
gratuity - 3 dictionary results (I left the British war veterans one out)
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gra⋅tu⋅i⋅ty [gruh-too-i-tee, -tyoo-] Show IPA
–noun, plural -ties.
a gift of money, over and above payment due for service, as to a waiter or bellhop; tip.
something given without claim or demand.
Even is the restaurant adds it in to the bill I still have the right to refuse it. A Gratuity is a GIFT or something given without claim or demand.
Having said that, I usually tip at least 20% as long as the service was at least half way decent. My wife worked as a waitress waiting for her RN license in the US and I had lost my job so we are understanding of the plight of wait staff.
I once threatened to reduce or remove the gratuity (party greater than 6) at a restaurant in Vermont after they gave me a really really hard time about a simple request – put the guacamole on the side or on a small separate dish – this was 9 years ago so I forget the exact details – on our huge expensive nachos plate – but they did it so I gave them their 18% or whatever it was.
The funny thing is, these places that add it to the bill, are causing their wait staff to lose tips with me since I normally tip about 20% but if it is on the bill then that is all they get.
(I take 20% of the bill before any sales tax, and then round up to the nearest dollar or half dollar, on average. Sometimes I will take a little bit more, 22% or 25% if the service is outstanding)