To not want to leave a tip ?

[cookieswirls]

Went for a meal tonight nothing fancy just pizza and my friend seemed mortified that I didn't leave a tip. I was paying for our meal and I generally don't leave tips. Ive never left a tip for anyone actually not taxi drivers, hairdressers, waiters is that mean of me ?

I think a tip shows appreciation for waiting staff that go over and above the fetching and carrying of your food and drink. The minimum wage covers the job, the tip covers the experience, if you don't like the experience don't tip. I used to be a waitress and relied on tips to make ends meet therefore I worked harder, was cheery when I felt miserable, polite when the customers were damned rude and made sure the people I was serving had a good time and felt they wanted to return. There's more to waiting tables than carrying plates.

I rarely tip tbh. Taxis I round up to the nearest quid for convenience. I do tip if the service has been really really good though for some reason or other but generally..no. I don't really get this 'but waitresses work hard for minimum wage' stuff, in the uk. Care assistants, cleaners etc...they don't tend to get tipped. I know which job I would rather do...

I do tend to tip on holiday though, as their minimum wages and such are not like ours. But I also leave tips for the hotel cleaners and stuff too...

I hate the tipping culture in the US with a passion. Paying workers minimum wage and relying on customers to make it up for them is awful and seems extremely demeaning. Give them a fair wage and whatever that got on top should be a bonus for the excellent service they provide. I hate tipping, I find it awkward. Just tell me how much I need to pay and that's what I'll pay...

I don't tip in the UK.

I love the way people tie themselves in knots in these threads while insisting we should tip, when there is no logical reason that a very small selection of low paid workers are singled out for tips. It's all very silly.

I'm an ex-waitress by the way.

What's wrong with tipping in order to buy an enhanced experience in future? If you've enjoyed the experience and want to return, then tipping is good, isn't it? They will remember you and treat you better. To me, that's the main point of tipping apart from giving the standard 12 per cent.

See to me this suggests that tipping isn't as common as people on this thread are making out. If wait staff are able to remember those that tipped and therefore give them an enhanced experience in future then surely tipping is not the norm considering how many people go through the doors of an average restaurant.

I do usually tip 10% plus in restaurants. I find it a bit embarrassing if I'm out with a friend who doesn't (unless there's a good reason not to). The worst though is the one who would pay off the balance of the bill if I or others paid first including tip! So she'd pay less by using other people's tips. She's still in the same group of friends- I always pay the right amount then drop my tip on the table as I leave if eating out with her in a group, so she can't do it to me any more. She's hardly badly off either!

I tip in restaurants because it is the convention. I tip generously in places I want to return to because it buys me better service.

Allie but surely that would have been your employer's job, to make sure that your salary enabled you to make ends meet? Why do you feel it is the customer's job to do that?

I don't find that waiting staff generally go above and beyond telling you about the menu, bringing out food and drinks and arranging the bill. I don't actually want them to do more than that and that is their job.

Sometimes you do encounter somebody who feels a real passion for doing their job in as efficient and friendly a manner as possible but I wouldn't say that this is typical - and I travel all over the UK for work, stay in all manner of hotels and visit goodness knows how many restaurants and teashops, often with clients.

I'd prefer staff to be paid commensurate with the job that they do - a fair wage for it - and to tip when service is outstanding, not bog-standard as it often is. I'm discerning; I don't expect what I haven't paid for and I don't expect or want to be held to ransom because of a convention that means precisely nothing.

limited... what do you mean by 'better service'? I'm interested because I personally don't want or expect waiting staff/taxi drivers, etc. to do more than their jobs, ie. what they're paid for.

I think it's just expected, so rightly or wrongly most people tip, but if your friend was embarrassed why didn't she put her hand in her pocket and pay the tip!

U.K.
Tip in restaurants unless service has been particularly bad.
I've always had hairdresser at home so don't tip. Recent trip to hairdresser salon cost an extortionate £160, I'm not adding tip on that.
Would tip nail tech if I had a spare pound or 2
Not massage or any other service that is priced up

I'd be mortified too. It's just exceptionally miserly not to consider leaving a tip. If service is good I normally leave 10%, if it's exceptional I'd leave a little more. If on the other hand service is appalling then I'd leave nothing and this is essentially the messsge you're conveying every time. Dust the cobwebs off that purse!

... and this is why some posters are having a problem with the lady-bountiful tippers out there, Countess. 10% is nothing for good service but it depends what you call 'good'. It's very subjective.

The non-tippers or the exceptional-service-tippers haven't been criticising the shall we say, 'regular-but-shrapnel-tippers' on this thread so why do you have to be so rude and derisory when you obviously either haven't read or understood the points being made?

So, in answer to your stupid cobweb comment, keep your measly 10%.

If I'm out for dinner, I will usually leave a tip - providing that the waiting staff keeps it and it's not split and the person on the receiving end is actually happy, professional and friendly! Normally 10% of the bill.
I was out last night and the food was atrocious, but the waiter we had couldn't do enough for us. I told him that he has been fab and have left an email for the manager to read
I only tip bar staff or waiting staff! I've been there and done that, they get minimum wage and it's rubbish!

I don't feel it should be up to the customer to help me make ends meet I was just saying it was the case for me. Out of interest, what do the non-tippers do when service is added? Do you take it off or just not eat at those restaurants?

YANBU I don't usually tip either.

Unless I've received outstanding service, like if they've gone above and beyond, then I'll leave a tip.
But when that's the career they've chosen and all they've done is their job (which they are paid to do) then why the hell should I feel obliged to tip?!
Restaurants are expensive enough without tips too!
People in other minimum pay jobs don't receive tips.

Btw I only tip well when I have appreciated the service not because I'm on an ex-waitress crusade or anything!

I always tip. I worked in NY as a waitress for many years so whether it's the done thing or not here I must tip.

Allie, I accept the service charge and pay it and, if the service has been really exceptional, I tip the waiter/waitress cash, in their hands - and it's typically about 20% because that's what 'exceptional' means to me.

I just will no longer tip waiting staff for merely doing their jobs, ie. if my bill is £9.20 I pay £10 and go but I don't consider that a tip, it's just change and if they want to put it in the tips jar, that's fine but it's not a tip in my book.

It's nice to other posters on the thread valuing exceptional service and actually knowing the difference.

*nice to see

Posted before I read the full thread but wow. Even when I do tip its a fiver at the most. At the weekend we took all the kids to TGI fridays and tipped the waitress a fiver on an 80 quid meal. Now I feel stingy even FOR tipping given its apparently terrible to tip below 10/15%

This has got so prickly. It is absurd. People getting so defensive about people who chose to share their money around. It's a car crash.

WankingMonkey I wouldn't say £5 was bad for a family table. If you left, say 60p in my waiting tables days I'd have chased you to ensure I returned the change you forgot!

Wanking, Don't feel bad. I don't believe for a minute the posters saying that they would tip 10-15% on an £80 meal but I suppose people can say any old thing on here, can't they?

10-15% probably equates to a few pounds in reality.

I used to love TGI Fridays but service is really disparate. Dismal in Cardiff and truly exceptional in Jersey. If you get the chance, try 'Wicked Chicken', it's not on the menu anymore but the chef can probably make it for you; it's delicious - if you like spicy food, that is.

Nah I always get the steak. Its always done so perfect where so many restaurants will burn it if you ask for medium

We paid by card and to a different waiter to the girl who served us but he said did we want to leave a tip for 'Chloe' and assured us she actually gets it. We also tend to tidy up tables a bit as the kids leave a big mess.

TGI fridays in the metrocentre in Gateshead is new so standards haven't slipped yet, as I have noticed with ones elsewhere sometimes.