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I'm going to be visiting some relatives in the US soon and I have been looking at loads of info for my trip, and came across the sticky subject of tipping. I basically hate tipping, I think it is generally a ridiculous practice and I'm (quite possibly) a stingy git when I'm back in the UK when it comes to this.

 

Anyway, I have read stuff online about what tipping should be at a restaurant etc in the US, but want to know what it is in real life.

 

In real life, do you really give 20%??

 

 Quote:
Restaurant Tipping

Do not forget to tip your waiter or waitress. In America, when you are served by a waiter or waitress at a "sit-down" restaurant, you are expected to leave a tip or gratuity of 20 percent. Service is almost never included in the price of the meal, nor is sales tax (which applies in most, but not all American communities). In some restaurants, if you dine with a group of people over a certain number, the restaurant will add a service charge to your bill, which means you do not have to leave a tip, but this practice is rare. If in doubt, ask. If you receive poor or rude service, by all means leave a smaller tip or no tip at all. Remember, if you're dividing a restaurant check with several other people, to take the tax and tip into consideration when figuring out how much each person owes.

 

(And if you don't do they spit in your food?) ;\)

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lol.gif I don't think people will spit in your food coz you need to leave the tip at the END of the meal! Maybe worth not going back if you skip out though!!

 

It is not the done thing in Oz either - and I find it hard to remember when in the USA, but it is very different over there, and the wages are so low they rely on tips. It really is a matter of providing the person who is serving you with an income!

 

We tip for good service at resturants in OZ (much to our friends disbelief) but great service means you have a great time - we feel that should be rewarded and encouraged. But in the USA you need to tip for 'service', not just outstanding service - you can just adjust the amount to reflect your level of satisfaction.

 

When in Rome.

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I just came back from my first ever trip to the big 'ol US, and to my surprise had a brilliant time. The tipping thing is a bit of a mare but I stuck with 10% unless it was really good service (but then I just may be a tight fisted.....!!) Anyway NYC rocked and would thoroughly reccommend visiting. Did help that my friends friend lent me his apartment for the week which is slap bang on Park Ave near Grand Central, for free!!

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Actually this was a big issue on Msn.com a while back. There were would be customers and wait-staff battling it out on blogs and I could see the pros and cons of tipping.

 

From my perspective, I am for the most part, against tipping unless the individual(s) service was greater then I expected.

 

Having numberous different jobs that were lower pay then I would hope for, I still did the best job I could, and if a tip was given, I was grateful, but if I didnt, I knew it was just because I had a job like everyone else and knew that a tip was just that, A graitude for services rendered more then expected.

 

 

Tipping has gone completely out of hand in the states. Speaking mainly towards the food industry. I did not force that particular person to choose the job they did. They do it on their own free will.

 

 

In my firm belief, its the company that one works for job to satisfy the employees with proper wages, Not the customers. Just seems like a backwards system to me.

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I will only tip when in a restaurant and only if the service was good. I think we had a thread about tipping in bars in the US and I'm against that (unless its REALLY good service) While I can appreciate that waiters, barmen etc are on low wages, that is not my fault. Have it out with the boss, join a union and have them lobby government for an increase in minimum wage don't lay all the guilt on me because I didn't leave you a tip for doing your job!! As has been said, in the UK tips are not the norm but if the service is good I will leave 10-15%, not in bars though. I may buy the bar man/woman a beer if the banter was good or (more than likely) I know them, it wouldn't be standard.

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I never ever pay any tip and it infuriates me when people go on about the necessity to give away their money for services they have not paid for.

 

It is not my fault if people get underpaid. It is also not my concern.

 

Why should I pay for 'good service'?

 

Should I not expect 'good service' as the norm?

 

Is below-par service actually acceptable?

 

Do I get a discount if I get bad service?

 

Does that all imply that crap service is what I should accept as the norm and that good service should be seen as a bonus that I am so grateful to receive that I pay extra money? Absurd.

 

Tipping is in a way just helping keep waiter staff wages down and restaurant owners will not want to discourage it.

 

 Quote:
but great service means you have a great time - we feel that should be rewarded and encouraged

 

(Apart from the fact that it should be expected....!) Yes, perhaps someone doing their job really well should be rewarded - but by their employer! Why on earth are we to be the ones to reward someone basically just doing their job?!? It is the responsibility of the employer to reward his staff who do a great job, but unfortunately they often do not and get away with not looking after their employees - because in some way of the fact that people do tip. If a waiter/waitress doesn't like it, they can leave/go somewhere else or do something else. But to ask that people add money to their bill to fund peoples employment is just nuts.

 

Tips are absolutely ridiculous and I will have no part of it.

Nowhere.

Never.

In no circumstances.

Whatever is on the bill is what gets paid, just like in just about every other real world situation.

 

I could go on for hours.........

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Grungy-gonads,

I presume you are not from the USA! LOL!

 

I think most of us who were raised in a no tipping society would feel the same way to a degree. It certainly went against my automatic response when we visited the US, but it is the custom there....and if you are a visitor in thier country should you not try to do the right thing? I made sure I never stuck my chopsticks standing up in my bowl, took my shoes off when I entered homes/resturants (as required), and did lots of thank you's with deep bows - as is the custom.... Why is it any different in America? Just because we are talking money?

 

Fact is - eating out in the US is dirt cheap - because the costs of the labour are not piled high. I was happy to pay the recommended tip on most ocassions because the meal plus tips cost us less than what I would pay for meal alone in Aussieland.

 

I agree - people should be paid well by thier employers - as an Employer we pay above the odds to keep our good staff happy and have a very stable workforce as a result. I understand that rationale - but as a visiting Aussie on holiday I am certainly not going be the one who deny's the hardworking smiling waitress her tip because I believe our system is better.

 

I do hear you. But I think your objection hurts the most vulnerable.

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\:\)

 

I'm from the UK. But tipping is getting well out of hand there too now, though it seems not as much as the US.

 

I suppose if I visited a "tipping country" like the US, then I would have to consider it. I don't honestly know what I would do.

 

I was I suppose referring to my own country, where no-one seems to really know what the heck to do and you even sometimes get people actually paying tips for bad service. No amount of nice smiles will get a tip from me, I just find the whole concept unacceptable. It's just ridiculous.

 

About your point on money --- yes, surely it does make a difference. Chopsticks in bowls, wearing slippers, bowing and stuff does not require me to spend my own hard-earned money. If I am not well off myself, why do I have to pay someone else who is not well off just because their employer does not reward them for working.

 

You see, it totally annoys me that some guilt might being poured on to me as well for not paying more than I should pay. The whole thing just really annoys me intensely.

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Might be worth avoiding the US for a while then, huh?

 

No point feeling guilty - you didn't make the system! You aren't employing the workers for nix! I suppose for me it is about respecting tradtions of other countries, and treating people how I would like to be treated if the situations were reversed.

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Like I said, I suppose I was referring to the situations I know, ie. UK.

 

Well having lived overseas for quite a while and making big efforts to fit in and adapting I don't think I can be accussed of being generally culturally intolerant.

 

 Quote:
treating people how I would like to be treated if the situations were reversed.

 

I'm not exactly sure what you are getting at there. Am I treating someone badly by not giving them a tip? Is that something I should be ashamed of? Regarding situations being reversed, I am quite sure I would be trying to find ways of getting alternative employment if I could not accept the wages I was being given. I am sure that I certainly wouldn't expect people other than my employer to give me money for doing my job.

 

Anyway... I'm usually very easy-going! I will now have some beer and crisps and calm down.

 

smile.gif

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No no GG... have your beer and crisps, but don't take me the wrong way...I understand your frustration at a system that seems just 'wrong'.

 

And as for treating someone the way I would hope I was treated - I just meant if I were in thier shoes - crappy job and all. Sometimes that job is all someone can get, and thier options are not there - it is that or unemployment...and unemployment in the USA sucks! They do not have the same safety nets we have in Aus, and I am sure in the UK as well.

 

As for tipping in Japan, Aus or the UK - I have only ever done it in situations where the waiter/waitresses blood was worth bottling! And never ever consider it a requirement. The only place I was referring to was the USA, in regard to general tipping.

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okay, here's the breakdown, coming from someone who used to wait tables and who dines out a lot when in the US.

 

restaurants:

10% if the meal and service was absolute crap, i.e. you got food poisoning or had to wait 2 hours for your food.

15% if you're european, a senior citizen, or if the meal/service was crap.

18% is standard, expected, and automatically put down for meal/service that was "fine."

20% if it's too hard to calculate 18%, you've been/are a waitress/waitress (the whole karma thing), your company is paying for it, or you're loaded.

 

bars:

tip the bartender/waitress about $1 for every order. so, if it's $3.75, give then $5. if it's $1.25, give them $2.

 

i don't mean to offend anyone, but this was pretty predictable after waiting tables for a few years. in other words, your server will "understand" if you tip just 15% and you're european. if you tip below that, it's quite rude.

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I'm from the States, and I agree with Grungy-Gonads - I will tip as a reward for good service - not any service. Tipping is customary but not required! The problem is that it has become expected . I'll tip anywhere from 0% to 20%. If the service is absolutely terrible, I'll leave a penny to get the point across. Of course that would be if I was so dissatisfied that I'd never be going back to that establishment ever again... Generally, 10-15% is fine. I'd go higher if I know the server from previous visits and got consistently good service, or they gave you something extra on the sly or something (like free dessert or free booze).

 

Just remember that the tip is a reward and it will all make sense. It isn't your job to keep the starving college kid in textbooks and crack - that's their employer's (and ulitmately their own) responsibility. Guilt should not be the engine that drives tipping - appreciation should be.

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 Quote:
10% if the meal and service was absolute crap, i.e. you got food poisoning or had to wait 2 hours for your food.


Do you realise how absurd that is?

It seems that I will just have to be "quite rude" when I go to the US.

 Quote:
10% if the meal and service was absolute crap, i.e. you got food poisoning or had to wait 2 hours for your food.
15% if you're european, a senior citizen, or if the meal/service was crap.
18% is standard, expected, and automatically put down for meal/service that was "fine."
20% if it's too hard to calculate 18%, you've been/are a waitress/waitress (the whole karma thing), your company is paying for it, or you're loaded.


Do people take calculators to the restaurant?

Ezorisu, you missed an important point perhaps. I said that I would not tip for ANY kind of service. I expect good service. I don't expect to go to a restaurant and receive bad service. Why should I pay extra for good service.
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yes, i do realize how silly it is to tip 10% for bad service/food. but, tipping is obligatory as gift giving is to the Japanese. sometimes you just have to give that damn omiyage to that person you don't know or like. tipping 10% is a message to your server that you were completely dissatisfied. not tipping at all is like not paying for your bill.

 

as for taking calculators to restaurants... you think you're making a joke, but tipping calculators are not uncommon to keep in one's purse! :p

 

for the record, i do agree that tipping in the US is a bit overdone.

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 Quote:
not tipping at all is like not paying for your bill


lol.gif I just can't help but laugh at that!

Obviously, I should perhaps just stay away from any place where tipping is "obligatory", as you put it.

Creek Boy, if the prices on the menu are more expensive for whatever reason (perhaps due to 'having to pay the salarys of the waiters'), then I can choose whether the meal is too expensive or not. If that's on the resulting bill, I willhave no problem in paying it. But I don't expect to pay extra to pay the wages of the people serving me.

lol.gif

Again, let me re-state I have not been to the US and am talking from my experience in the UK where things are seemingly not as clearly defined.

I need to retire from this thread I think, it will just wind me up! \:\)
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I'm from the US. I don't like it.

 

 Quote:
18% is standard, expected, and automatically put down for meal/service that was "fine."

20% if it's too hard to calculate 18%, you've been/are a waitress/waitress (the whole karma thing), your company is paying for it, or you're loaded.

 

There's just so many inconsistencies about it all. Like above, 2% is hardly a big difference between "standard/expected" and "loaded".

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I believe many phones have a preinstalled tipcalculater buttons these days. Never bottered using it, but some of my friends I have seen using it all the time.

 

The best that was ever given to a waiter in my presence was in Chicago. After sitting through a meal that was ruined by an annoying, rude, unattentive waiter, that bluntly asked for his tip. A friend of mine snapped back: "i'll give you a tip, be nice to your customers." It might have made him a lot of money, although I seriously doubt that.

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my mate was in Houston for a training course and ordered a round of drinks, not knowing he was supposed to tip he went back for another round and the barman said (rudely):

 

"why should i serve "y'all", you didnt tip me last time"

 

so my mate apologized and said he didnt know he was supposed to. Ordered another round, got his drinks and paid with exact change and told the barman to f-off.

 

brilliant!

 

The whole point of a tip is to congratulate someones good service. Being rude to customers should result in public ridicule and/ or lashings. Service in japan was amongst the best i have ever received. Tipping a barman every time you order a drink is insane! especially if you are a borderline alcoholic like most brits/ aussys are!

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