Interesting article http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22846846 What are people's views on tipping here at Bit-Tech?
I only tip if the service has been really good, standard service gets no tip and I will usually ask them to remove the 12.5% service charge that most places add by default.
Your link is brokes... but reading through that piece makes me a bit upset. I do believe in tipping in the hotel and restaurant sector, but I believe that people there should get a salary that's acceptable as well. Tipping is a PRIVILEGE, and not a right. I have had fights with restaurant managers about this, and I have tipped very high. Very short: I do my job. I get a salary. I do more than my job, I might get a bonus. Tipping is a bonus in my books.
IMO it should be banned. As much as I can appreciate the current situation (servers needing tips to supplement their wages), it shouldn't allow restaurants to under-pay their employees expecting customers to make up the difference. Performance should be monitored and appraised by the management, not the customer.
Its quite cultural. Kiwi's tend not to tip. But once I started working in a restaurant my parents found out how much I earned and these days have a reputation at the local gastropub as very good tippers. I actually like the UK system for tipping, i.e. we tip for good service, because you've improved our meal by being there whenever I needed you. I don't tip for **** service, and I like that level of ****-YOU I can give to a crap waiter. However I do think that its wrong to expect a tip, always assume you're working for the customer and not their wallet.
This. TBH it's pretty alien this far south. If we eat out I'll give them whatever shrapnel I'm carrying, but there's no way I'm going to bust out a calculator just because the restaurant owners can't pay a decent wage.
normally if we eat out I round it up to nearest £5, unless it's only a few pence when I round it up to the nearest £10 instead obviously if service is crap then I don't tip, but I've not had many problems in the last couple of years
My main issue with the tipping when they add it as a service charge is that it's basically like adding a tax to the price of your meal. Steak 10 Plus tip 4 Cost of steak 14 That stupid. Either include it in the price on the menu or make it discretionary. But then I honestly think service charge is the devil compared to may comment above about tips.
I tip when there's occasions where whoever serving me (in whichever field they work) goes beyond their call of duty*. I don't tip if they are just doing their job. That's what they are paid to do, the service is included in the price I paid. If the waiter is just taking orders and delivering the plate, then I see no reason to tip, it's part of the service I paid in the price of the food. My Dad is very mindful of little things, whenever we go on holiday, he always reads online and careful to tip at local average. I think that's excessive and if I were to go to America for holiday, I'll continue to do the same as before. *eg I tipped generously when we can't speak French and a French waiter went through half of their menu for us. (in Paris)
I'll tip 10-20% on a restaurant bill in the UK, 15-25% in the US, rounding up to the nearest even number, edging towards the 20% if it's a particularly nice place (though most of the nicer places seem to add a discretionary ~20% anyway, which I'm happy with so long as it's pointed out) or the service was exceptional. I'll also round up a taxi fare to a relatively even number provided the driver wasn't a dick. This is more out of the desire to not have a pocket full of shrapnel than being overly generous though. It does my head in when I'm in the states and everyone and their brother are expecting handouts - just checking into a hotel can cost $50 with the amount of people tripping over each other to handle your bags, help you out of the car, point you in the direction of reception and your room etc, so I've stopped tipping anyone other than the above. I probably get pubes sprinkled on my pillow, but it's all good for the immune system. I get particularly peeved is when service is tacked on the bill but the waiter or waitress doesn't make a point of mentioning this, especially when there's still a big line at the bottom saying "GRATUITY ________" - I don't tend to study the bill to any great extent, the amount of times I've double tipped (or nearly did) and nobody pointed this out.
Only if i've received exceptional service will I tip. Otherwise, as a customer it is not my problem if an establishment underpays its staff, that is between the staff and the employer to resolve. Also, I'm already paying for something with a profit margin built in - so why would I pay more?
I am of the opinion if the service has been above average then I will leave a few £. Otherwise I just pay the bill and leave it at that, I rarely eat anywhere fancy enough to warranty a tip in all honesty.
I don't tip anything else but food services, but hey, i am from "poor country" compared to you guys . And my tipping usually means rounding to the nearest euro above, or if i have some coins then those - in average it is around 40-60 eurocents. Doesn't sound like much, but it is around 10%. And considering i go to the same restaurant pretty much every day, i am leaving that restaurant around 15 euros per month (around 1,5% of my monthly salary).
I usually leave a quid or two if the waiter hasn't spilled piping hot spaghetti down my back or cocked up my order in some way. But I strongly dislike any form of assumption when it comes to financial transactions.
An absolutely arcane practice, the establishment should pay the appropriate wages and set the prices accordingly.
I think in the UK that could be a reality, and I'd welcome it. The states needs legislation to make it happen. I used to make $1.27/hr (IIRC) waiting tables in the states and would have been shown the door if I waltzed in to the manager's office and demanded $6/hr (or whatever minimum un-tipped wage was at the time). At the same time, if the restaurant decided to adopt a policy of no tipping (and compensated to minimum wage, or even double), I would have left for elsewhere, as I made tips far in excess of what any restaurant would be willing to pay. Over the summers I used to work ~25 hrs a week and typically come away with ~$1200-1500 in tips, and if one forgot to declare the tips, it's mostly tax free (We were required to declare 8% at a minimum... I of course always declared every last penny)
I tip in some places not others. There's a couple of small chain, but popular, restaurants around me that have excellent food, friendly staff, and brilliant service. I tip them, depending on my mathematics skill post alcohol (Or not if I'm driving) I try and leave 15% or there abouts. It's not a great deal of money, and I enjoy the experience there. Large chain eateries like Beefeater, I tend not to tip unless the service has gone above and beyond, but I am a bit more tight fisted with them because large chains should be paying their staff well enough for them not to need tips to survive.
I'm actually a good tipper. However, even though I'm not like Mr Pink and refusing to tip unless I've had 6 refills of coffee, if service is bad then I'll leave the minimum I can if at all. Mrs Snips is terrible at it. We could have had the best meal of our lives but she still would walk out giving no tip at all.
I used to work two restaurant jobs when I was an undergrad at Uni and without the jobs I would've dropped out. The salary was of course minimum wage and I had enough to live with it. It was nice though that some people would tip for the service, I'd always chat with the punters who liked a chat and left the ones who didn't alone. Such as asking if everything is ok when they clearly have steak in their mouth! It's difficult to do 10 hour shifts on your feet all day without a break, not only that but doing the job better than most of the 18-20 year olds who don't want to be there and do sweet fa. So I used to think that getting a tip was just folks recognising that although I hated the job and that I didn't want to be there, that they'd paid for a meal and the service and I'd done my best to make sure they had a good evening. It's the job of course and you get paid for it, but working in restaurants is a crap job. I'm well aware there are far, far worse, but the turn around in staff speaks volumes in most places! As a result I tip if the service was good and I enjoyed being there. After all, I paid to get out the house and have a stress free evening!
