Tipping waiting staff..

It shouldn’t just be part of the meal, just a habit. Why should the person who brings you your meal be tipped?
Why not tip the person at the till in Supermarkets as well. I wish some would be brave enough to stop the whole tipping culture including service charge. No one should be made to feel mean if they don’t.

The restaurant doesn’t lose out though. They are able to retain staff as their wages are being topped up by tips and they don’t have to put up their prices even more to pay their staff more.

@igelkott2026 I’ve never tipped my hairdresser but they’ve had my custom for 28 years. They don’t need tips on top and there’s something odd that it seems older women do it the most. Of which I’m one.

Service charge in a restaurant is acceptable if you have been advised about wine, details of the menu (sometimes that’s every course!) and they do look after you at very good restaurants - water topped up, wine poured, friendly welcome etc. If it’s a burger joint - they aren’t doing anywhere near as much. A bigger group in a high class restaurant is more work!

USA has rinsed football fans. Tipping is 20% plus anyway. If op cannot afford the service charge, then I’m afraid eating out isn’t possible. There are treats that are cheaper than eating out if you resent the cost. Many restaurants close every year so they are hardly reaping huge bucks. Read Tom Kerridge on the subject. He’s not making any of his restaurants pay!

I literally always tip the wait staff in cash but I refuse to pay service charge, so the restaurant will continue to lose anyway - seems like a bad business model.

If they were wiping a family member’s arse, I’d definitely be recognising it too. We tip the binmen and postman at Christmas. The guy that fills our oil tank twice a year. The gardeners, the cleaner, the window cleaner - we give them all tips.

It’s not quite the same as hospitality though. You go out for a meal, you tip the waiter every time unless the service is bad. It’s part of the cost of the meal to me. I’d rather there was a service charge added on tbh, but I don’t begrudge tipping. I tend to think people who do are tight.

I know a man who, despite being skint to the floorboards, asks a lot of women out to posh restaurants on dates to impress them and get his leg over. Invariably, he makes a huge fuss about something - that he's usually had a hand in - to get the bill either reduced or written off and then goes off on one about the service charge. Yes, he is still single and pushing 60.

They can’t afford to put the prices up as that will put off more customers who are struggling with the COL.
I don’t agree with them adding the service charge to the bill though. They should leave it to the customer to tip if they want to. We always tip unless the service is poor.

I have absolutely no idea why we tip hairdressers either. They are not badly paid.

I never have except once during COVID when I felt sorry for them standing around in masks all day (and they did the trick of adding it on the contactless machine).

Agreed. Fortunately the last time I had service with an eye roll they didn't put a service charge on and I very much didn't tip (in Prezzo in York although a couple of years ago now).

I think if the service had been bad enough to warrant it, the atmosphere would already be soured.

I know they (in the US) have been getting very het up about this and moaning about people not respecting their culture etc.

But seriously - I am not some upper class Lady Bountiful being condescending (in the old fashioned) sense to my underlings. I thought the US did away with the class system when they threw the Brits out. Ha ha.

Also most states have a minimum wage.

This is true, but they need to increase prices rather than adding removable service charges, which relies on customers like @JuliettaCaeser (no offence btw) to pay out of politeness and embarrassment.

Never use the chains anyway as they are pretty low quality. Local gastropubs and cafes are so much better

I don't like eating out. I don't find the food that much better than what I can produce.

Service - strangely enough when I cook at home I serve things faster and hotter than in a restaurant.

I hate tipping - having spent my working life in low paid but very heavy responsibility jobs I absolutely resent someone in an easier job being paid better through tips. Waitressing is not hard - i've done it. It requires few skills and little knowledge.

The hospitality industry needs shrinking anyway and if they keep charging more and more additional charges for lower quality food in smaller portions it will shrink more than it might like.

I think we pay enough for these very average meals eg sausage and mash £15 approx, and silly prices for drinks. The menus in all these chains are the same and boring,Hunters chicken, scampi etc . Stick to the small cafes, much better value.

Some may be struggling , not the huge chains, but shouldn’t expect the public to subsidise wages.

Fat cat bosses? Get real. Most of the hospitality sector is struggling to survive. Pubs, cafes and restaurants are shutting down all over the place.

Why should I subsidise the poor wages paid by fat cat bosses?

Wow!
‘Please remove the DISCRETIONARY service charge from my bill’.

‘Why?’
…….that would really piss me off!

To be honest I think that a lot of the time we don’t want to feel embarrassed not too so we just pay it, I think restaurants know this.

But if more of us actually did question the service charge ( if we haven’t had particularly good service ) then we should be able to do so without embarrassment. It’s poor customer service to add it on in my view.
Where there is a big group I can see that all staff work harder to get your order out all at the same time etc ….. but for smaller groups and couples I fail to see how service is related to the amount I am paying.

That’s why things never change!

They totally rely on people like you to get away with it.

The fact that you have never come across a person who doesn't tip and is so easily mortified by individuality means that you probably live in a bit of a bubble, so we likely wouldn't cross paths, so we're both safe in that regard.

It’s rude and mortifying to ask for the service charge to be taken off. Would totally sour the atmosphere of eating out.

I'd happily not want to go out and eat with you if you insisted on me paying for a service charge when the service was shit. Mug!

Thats outrageous. Trying to make you feel bad for her.

I used to tip cash for good service. I cannot abide an automatic service charge and always ask for it to be removed. I will tip if the service has been good. But frankly, 9 times out of 10 it’s crap. Especially in chain restaurants. Forgotten drinks, long waits for food, incorrect items arriving. Mostly whilst staff are chatting by the till. Often I’m the one in a group who will say I’m not going to pay if, for example, we had to wait 30 mins for a pudding. The rest of the group are normally relieved that I’ve been brave enough to say it and still eat out with me so I can’t be that cringe.