To not leave a tip on principle

It's fine.
The definition of leaving a tip for myself was always "if they do something exceptional for you as a customer".
When this very rarely happens, I leave an (extremely) generous tip.
Otherwise, I don't tip at all, these people get paid for their (reluctant) job.

Oh shut up, OP. A group setting is not the time for all these supposed “principles” - you’re just making your friends pay more to cover your share. Don’t be so stingy!

I don't too unless there is some actual service and it's good. Normally these days, in a pub, you can the menu, go to the bar to order food and drinks - the only thing the waiting staff do is actually bring your meal and clear the table at the end. How is that service? That's called doing your job!

By all means don't leave a tip on principle OP but it's a normal thing now and has been for years, including in pubs serving food.

You'll be making a choice to stand out as someone who is awkward and tight. I don't think anyone is going to think you're particularly principled. I can think of better issues to take a stand on.

I always tip, but tips in central London are creeping towards 15 per cent in some places so I will reduce the tip if the service isn't exceptional.
To be honest, when I have had good food with good service I would find it off if I was with a companion who didn't tip.

In the UK tips are unnecessary and should be entirely by choice because all staff will receive minimum wage.

In a group there is definite social pressure to tip.

I don't buy the argument that serving food and cleaning up after it is a much harder job than care work, retail work, hospitality work or the myriad other minimum wage jobs in our society (which are growing by the day).

Long hours on your feet - that's entirely common in loads of jobs. Dealing with obnoxious members of the public - likewise.

Many people in waiting jobs get fed whilst at work - which is not an 'extra' available in other jobs.

I prefer not to eat out these days - this is part of it - and it seems to be expected even if the service is basic or even poor.

If i'm part of a big group dining out, then yes I would tip.

If it's just me and DH we don't, unless it was genuinely amazing service or the food was outstanding.

I always ask for the service charge to be removed.

I think it is so cheeky to just add extra money. I wouldn't be able to charge a customer £14.99 in New Look and add on £1.49 for myself.

The incident where they served you an allergen should be reported to the council. That’s extremely dangerous and they need to be held accountable.

I tend to leave a generous tip if the service has been exceptional, a bog standard tip if the service was just ok.

I’m not minted, by the way, I just know what it’s like to work long, hard demanding shifts for low pay so I feel a bit of solidarity with waiting staff.

A time comes to mind when a very large group of us were out for Sunday lunch - (the service was excellent) anyway one of the kids wandered off and in the drama of finding him and leaving we forgot to tip. I went back the next day, found our waitress and made sure she was properly tipped- she couldn’t believe it, but it made her day. And I didn’t regret forking out the extra cash.

Treat other people the way you would like to be treated.

You could have died!!

I was poisoned by a restaurant recently (fed an allergen after requesting the alternative version and double checking it wasn't there). Didn't realise till after I'd got home and was very unwell for days so had already paid and tipped.

Restaurant admitted the error and offered us a free meal and took extra care the second time around. Then got pushy about another tip for being 'extra careful' on our 'free meal'. Absolutely put me off and I won't be going back.

That said, I would often tip more than the optional service charge before it started being added on as standard but now just pay the charge. I don't really agree with it, I want tipping to be a choice not something you feel awkward removing.

When we were in the US on holiday dd wanted to eat at The Cheesecake Factory. The bill was over $200 and an 18% tip was automatically added with the option for more if the service was good.
The service was fine but a $40 tip for a 90 minute meal seemed ridiculously high to me.
It’s time the US paid staff properly (and provided decent healthcare too).

I'm with you OP.
Difference is, I always tip.
I don't like any form of tipping though, people should just be paid properly, tipping feels a bit like throwing money to the poor and I'm uncomfortable with it. Apparently tipping isn't a thing in Japan.
The system isn't the servers fault though, so I still tip.

can I just ask - have you ever worked as a waitress?

.

If I were a member of your party I would pay extra to cover for your meanness.

Using tips to top up to NMW is illegal and the Ivy doesn’t do it. What they used to do was divide the tronc in a way that gave more to chefs and senior waiting staff and less to junior waiting staff- not sure whether that’s still the case and it sounds unfair so I hope not.

I suspect we consume so much American media that some people think the US tipping system is normal in the UK (it is not; we have a minimum wage).

This is it. I have no issue leaving a small tip, maybe more generously if the service has been particularly good, but there seems to be a growing expectation to tip a certain amount which I don’t like. I also hate it when you can sense the waiting staff check how much you have tipped (particularly when done by card machine) and almost feel the disappointment when it’s less than they expected. I don’t blame them; it’s society creating these expectations, not them, but it does sully the experience. We pay a lot of money to eat out so the awkwardness at the end just ruins it.

I’m with you OP.

its dishonest of the hospitality industry to state a price and expect the customer to pay more on top. It’s an excuse to pay poor wages. I have worked as a waitress in a cafe and we very rarely were tipped. So it’s just certain industries and certain meal replacement eating out. Ethically it’s a mine field which I’m not navigating.

Eating out tends to be an awful experience anyway besides this increase in cost it’s generally over processed foods…and you want me to pay more?!

I don’t like the system either- would much prefer the European approach of paying hospitality staff properly in the first place and setting prices accordingly. But as things are I always pay the service charge/tip- not doing so isn’t challenging the system, it’s just leaving people on low wages out of pocket.

To your point about washers up- most places divide the service charge between all staff, not just waiting staff.

I’m an academic now - but I think all my team have done retail, bar work etc in the past.

However, I do know the type - and suspect there are some in my wider faculty who would take this approach. Not in my team though, thank God.