Grinch Like Restaurant Tippers

Wow, what a sense of entitlement you have. YOU accepted a minimum wage job and you’re pissed when people leave you 10%. I wish I knew the name of your restaurant because I WOULD AVOID IT LIKE THE FUCKING PLAGUE!!!!

Life is hard.

It’s when people hear about wait staff whining and bitching about lack of tips that they start questioning if they should be tipping them at all if they’re gonna be jerks about it. Your bitch makes me want to tip servers less, not more. And since when has 10% become a bad tip? I remember other servers saying in bitches that 10% is perfectly acceptable, and 15% is bonus.

It’s amazing to me that anyone in this town eats at the same place twice. You could leave a twenty dollar tip on a $50.00 bill and your server still might spit in your last cup of coffee with dessert. How should I know if they’ve had a slow week, or that they have no money, or that my twenty might be an insult? Moreover – why should I care? I want my food, that’s why I’m here, take your log cabin/sob story to your boss or your parents. If you do a good job, I’ll tip you. If you look me over or give me shitty service because you think I won’t tip, guess what? You’ve projected yourself right into ringing in my bill down to the last cent and no fucking tip for you. I’ve got some sour news for those of you who act as if you were traded into the restaurant industry and have it so fucking hard – attentive service, good service, efficient service is your basic job performance. That extra mile shit you talk about? That’s what distinguishes a server from a good server. The good ones EARN tips. The ones who do the bare minimum don’t deserve free money, and all you servers crying about your shitty tips, you either work at a dump, your tables just don’t tip, ever, or you’re a shitty server. If you’re a shitty server you deserve nothing more than the minimum wage you admit you hardly even work for.

Other posters have already made the point. I think I am going to stop tipping period. It seems that every other waiter is being ungrateful for the tax-free money that they are getting. That tip I give is from my wage after taxes, I’ll bet they don’t claim their tips as income. So be grateful for the free money you do get. But since you aren’t, what’s the point in giving money that could be better spent?

Good point, “Can’t smell the Salt.”

Bulls-eye, Beav! I bow to your verbal greatness.

Wow J, do you even understand service? That there IS a minimum expectation of CUSTOMER service? I assure you I have NO issue going into a restaurant, ordering my own drinks and grabbing my food from the kitchen. This is the servers job. If you want a tip as a server,( and I’m NOT hard to please ) add something to my experience, be polite and friendly, be attentive, get my order right the first time, Apologize if the kitchen is slow , I know its not your personal fault. As the Beav said good waiters EARN their tip.

What I don’t get is why servers blame customers for not getting tips (because they rely on the tips to survive) when they should really be directing their anger at the establisment for implementing a policy that essentially says the cutomer is going to provide part of their wage. Servers should band together and demand a decent wage to beging with. I bet servers would get a lot of support from the customers on the issue too. Then we can get back to tipping for good service, rather than to cover the server’s expenses (i.e. tipping out) that I as a customer don’t really understand or care about.

Here is a question. What if more restaurants around here starting adding the gratuity right onto the bill, like many finer dining establishments do? How would you, as a patron, react to that? Would you be obligated to pay that amount or would it still be optional? I, for one, would not pay it if the service sucked.

I don’t think an automatic gratuity is right, either. I’m paying a restaurant to make and serve me a meal, it’s not my responsibility to pay their staff, it’s the restaurant’s. We should all stand up to the government and make them change the laws so that restaurants are required to pay their staff a proper wage, instead of relying on the customers to do it. I tip according to the service I receive, I shouldn’t be obligated nor bullied into paying more than I feel is right.

Tipping comes with excellent service. Servers are lucky enough to have found a job in an industry where you *can* live off your tips and bank your wages. What about all the other service industries? At one time, it was customary to tip a server and nobody else. Now it’s expected that you tip for taxis, haircuts, restaurants, fast food, delis, etc. I leave a tip if the service is fine, simply because I know that most of the time when I’m working a nine-hour shift after being in university for eight hours and I’m going to have to go home and study/write a paper, I find it hard to summon that extra bounce. I’m always friendly and helpful when I’m working, and most of the time I can fake it, but I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt for okay service. However, if you do a bad job, scoff at me, act like I’m a nuisance when I’m following everything with smiles, pleases and thank-yous at a restaurant, you don’t deserve a tip. And yet I feel like I have to tip you because I know it’s the first thing you’re going to check and I’m going to be hated at that restaurant afterward. So guess what, when you’re an asshole, you still get a 15-20% tip from me, and I’d say that goes for most patrons who don’t want to be the target of one of these bitches.One more thing, sorry for the rant, but this crap about “if you can afford to eat a meal in a restaurant, you can afford to leave me a huge tip” is rude. For God’s sake, get down off your high horse. You know, sometimes my friends and I get tired of all the work we do and decide to give up something so we can scrounge together enough money so we can eat in a restaurant. And I’m not talking a fancy restaurant here, I’m just talking your regular, sit-down restaurant (which I suspect is the type of place most of these angry servers are working), and sometimes it hurts like hell when I’m tacking on an extra 10 dollars that is supposed to be going towards something else. I leave it anyway, because I know it’s expected, but don’t turn around and bitch us out every two days for never tipping you. Fuck RIGHT off.

Holy fuck, this AGAIN? Y’know, I dine out probably more than average, more than I should in town this small, and I usually do 15-20% but based on all these waitstaff bitiching I’m getting to the point where I think I should be paying closer attention to the server and make sure I don’t overtip. Maybe scale it back to a meager 10%, as that seems to be the norm.

OK Jammie… We’ll go with a full 1/2 page per wk… totally… bitch about Tips… Top of the page?.. or Bottom..? Depends on your bandana.. I guess… The other 1/2 page… New on the Coast the “Society Page”…. First “Collectors Edition” Issue the Kay-Desi Wedding Special…How about it Tim…!!! This story must be told…!!!!

Even if I am tickled pink with your service does not mean that I owe you a fucking thing. I owe what is on the bill, no more, no less. Do you tip the girl/guy who helps you buy shoes, do you tip your dentist after a cleaning, do you tip your pilot when you get to your destination? I’m willing to bet the answers are nay, nay, and fucking nay. Why do I owe you a cent for your service? Did your boss not make it clear that this is what your job entails, serving people?Here’s a couple of “tips” for you don’t eat yellow snow and may the wind at your back never be your own!

I am a former Food and Beverage server from years back. My opinion of this particular server is that he/she is frustrated that there are people dining who just don`t get it, and to tell you what, neither does the general public who think a waitress/waiter is comparable to a shoe salesman, not to offend shoe salesmen here. Being a solid, professional, curteous server involves far more skill and training than running in the back to search for a pair of size 9`s. A server in a restaurant has the ability to contribute to making an important business dinner a success, taking a client out to a restaurant, ordering a nice bottle of wine, receiving fantastic service from someone who is knowledgeable can make a potential client very happy.T.I.P.S To insure professional/proper service. Tips are in fact optional. There is a big difference between an order taker and a server. An order taker merely writes down your order and punches it in, a professional server has the skill and knowledge of an entire menu, both food and wine, and is able to properly assist a guest in the restaurant in making their choice. And when it comes time to open a bottle of wine, this Professional does so without the aid of his/her teeth or putting the bottle between their legs for leverage. They get screamed at for less than stellar food (which no server prepares), they deal with families who have no control over their children, they deal with drunks.Working in a restaurant afforded me some luxuries, the hours were flexible allowing me to go to University and not have to work 40hrs a week just so I wouldn`t have to eat Kraft Dinner every night. I could work 2-3 shifts a week, work at the restaurant on the weekends, make some solid money to live off. Some tables tipped well, others didn`t. What the message this bitcher is sending is, if I am understanding his/her bitch is that, don`t forget, the diner is receiving a service that is in fact far more than just a minimum wage job, this server is trained in ways that took years to perfect to offer you and your family an enjoyable dining experience. There is far more to it than hitting the bottom of a coffee cup with a coffee pot like at your local coffee shop. Go home, grab a tray or something to balance full glasses/plates on, go to your NSLC, grab a bottle of wine, now, open it the way you see a server in a restaurant opening it, label out, cork inserted in a way that it won`t split, describing you the vinyard/grape information while doing this, not as easy at is sounds, now , times that by let`s say 6/7 tables of 4 = 24-30 guests in his/her section, how easy do you think that would be to manage properly and professionally?It doesn`t sound like this bitcher is working in a pub serving flat draught and Nachos, sounds like this person is working in a restaurant where “order takers” are not hired, “Professional Servers” are. The F & B industry, from what I remember is often a way out for many financially, lots of single parents who, just minimum wage alone can`t support a child. To all of you who say they don`t always have enough cash to tip, that`s cool, doesn`t sound like this person is asking for 25%, but after offering his/her professional service for a table that had a bill of 150.00$, probably took up a table in their section for over an hour, 5 dollars is a slap in the face, especially after telling him/her how much they enjoyed the service. There is a reason that in Europe that the gratuity is automatically included in the bill, it is to ensure 2 things, that the server does not get his pocket picked by cheapskates, and 2, the guest does receive attentive,professional and proper service. So the next time you go out, just for you who don`t know, the average server is more than content with a 12-15% tip, 20% and up is a bonus and is appreciated.

OK, although Andrew has made a valid point by saying “… a professional server has the skill and knowledge of an entire menu, both food and wine, and is able to properly assist a guest in the restaurant in making their choice.”However, I cannot say with certainty that this particular OP is a “professional server”, but I am going to assume, since “he” said “waiter”, that he is not. THEREFORE, the “service” provided at minimum wage is not the type of “service” provided by a “professional server”. (I have been both – with great success both here and in other provinces).And for the majority of the recent “tipping bitches”, the general attitude of the OPs is one of entitlement, which indicates to me that they are people of the younger-generation persuasion who think everything should be handed to them on a silver platter because their absentee parents bought them everything they ever wanted to make up for a lack of time and energy spent raising them to be decent human beings who know how to EARN a living.I’m sorry, am I bitter? You bet your ass! I watch my other half work like a DOG for $10/hour only to watch some 17-year-old kid refuse a job pushing shopping carts at his place of employment unless he can start at $10.50. And the management is SO desperate to get someone to push their shopping carts, they start a snot-nosed entitled teenager off at 50 cents more an hour than someone who’s been there for 5 years, and is now CAPPED at his wage because he’s had “too many raises”.Our society rewards the loudest whiners, look at the responses to tipping bitches where you see us get all contrite, and say “weelllllllllllll, I guess if you’re working that hard maybe I should tip more” or “if the person is a “professional server” then that’s different”. BULLSHIT! They’re just whining until they get their way – and we GIVE it to them!Please keep in mind, not EVERYONE living and eating in Halifax is North American. Did you ever think that perhaps the couple who left you $5 on their $150 bill told you how wonderful the service was because that’s their idea of a tip? The $5 was gravy you wouldn’t have gotten otherwise. And if you really *are* such a “great” “server” you certainly must get hundreds of other tables that pay you a minimum of $25-$40 per $150 so those larger tips would MORE than make up for one freaking table.I realize this is LTWWB, but for the love of whatever monotheistic deity you believe in, suck it the hell up!

Gidge, I respect what you are saying, I have no clue what the original Bitcher`s situation is. My opinion, is that as a former server, and someone who remained in the industry even upon graduation from University because the money alone was intoxicating, it appears to me he/she perhaps was a touch frustrated at the poor tip received from one maybe two tables?? Came home and posted a bitch while the blood was still boiling. I am not defending nor supporting, what I am saying is this is a business that while not rocket science, is far more a skill than what is often recognized by many in the public.Something tells me, at a bill of 150.00$, this server is not slinging nachos, something tells me they are working in a restaurant that is somewhere along the lines of casual dining. There is no denying that the younger “workers” of today expect alot for doing little, my personal scale for tipping today is as such. I walk into a restaurant with a gratuity of 15% for the server, if that server provides excellent, knowledgeable, helpful and efficient service, that 15% is bumped up to a higher %, if that server merely does his/her job, it stays at 15%. If my server is non-existent, and appears as though they are far more concentrated on the post-wok plan for the evening, I too, let my displeasure known with a poor tip.Accountability is rare these days, there is every chance this server may not be the greatest server and the tip reflected his/her service despite the people who told him otherwise. There are also individuals out there who just plain do not know how to put proper gratuities out there for a server. That`s life, this is called the “BITCH” section, this server bitched, whether it`s right or wrong, anyone who`s been in the service game knows, each table is a hit or miss, some tables tip well, some don`t tip well, some take the Mr.PINK attitude.True Story: Was serving in a Fine Dining Restaurant in Ottawa, a man sat in my section and waited for his guest, had a 100$ bill on the table, said it`s mine if I provided him with the level of service he expected would be worth 100$. I was a little nervous opening his bottle of 85.00$ Cabernet, tried to assist in proper wine/food pairings, menu suggestions etc… at the end of his night, he handed me 95.00$, I was really grateful as this was big money back then as it is now, I mentioned to him how generous it was of him but I also asked why hold back the five bucks? I wasn`t pissed, just wanted to know what I did to lose the 5$ and how I could avoid doing it again, he said, he didn`t know my name until I put the bill on the table. He said, if I was going to be his “host” for the evening, it made sense that he and his guest new my name. Great point.Cheers

I know that most, almost all, servers do not claim their TIPS, as they should, on their Income Tax. Perhaps we should start enforcing this. Audits for those who do not any TIP activity on their Income Tax statement. If I were a server I’d shut the fuck up. Their is a pretty hefty penalty for Tax Evasion.

“I know that most, almost all, servers do not claim their TIPS, as they should, on their Income Tax. Perhaps we should start enforcing this. Audits for those who do not any TIP activity on their Income Tax statement. If I were a server I’d shut the fuck up. Their is a pretty hefty penalty for Tax Evasion.”Dude, you’re a fucking loser. (Not that it should be news to you, i’m sure you’re already aware.)But seriously, what the fuck do you care if servers claim their tips or not?

“Thanks for the update on your opinion, like it matters what you think. Thanks just the same though.”Yo shit is weak yo.

Lily, that’s disgusting.

Lily, it’s a shame that the economy and then and now prevents people from working anywhere else but Smurfy’s. A damn shame their employees only option is to sit there and take it like a bitch as opposed to finding an alternate means of employment. If their employees continue to work there despite these conditions when there’s about 1000 other restaurant/pubs/bars/clubs etc with in the general area maybe there’s somthing more to the story?

Jeez Kim, I haven’t seen that bad an attitude on the coast since last night when Kay was on her usual rant… You wouldn’t happen to be Kay’s more-evil twin would you..?

ah kay, I’ve missed your incoherent ramblings, i REALLY have…these posts have been beaten to death. but I’ll say it again, just for old times sake- tipping is not a right. It’s a tip. and frankly, I get so very very sick of self-righteous waiters making me feel like I can’t go out to eat somewher enice, simply because I only have the money for the meal itself, not to line their pockets.I’ve recently spent some time overseas, where a)servers are essentially treated like slaves and b)if there is tipping, which isn’t a cultural norm, most often the establishment takes it. How do they handle it? they very clearly tell you when you ask the price of an item ‘the company takes this much’. if youw ant to tip, you do. and theyll warn you when the establishment is just going to take the tip entirely. my point? it could be a whole hell of a lot worse spoiled canadians.

When I visited Southern England, the way to tip in many bars and restaurants was to buy your server a drink. I don’t know how widespread this is or whether it happens in more upscales spots, but it was kind of a cool idea.