I have not posted a lot on mumnset, but having read the whole of the most recent thread on tipping, and finding the complete polarisation of opinions about it interesting, i thought i would start a new thread with an illustrative anecdote and see what you think of that?
Me and my husband went for a lovely meal, about two months ago - the waiter was someone we vaguely knew, a friend or a friend's brother type of scenario and he was perfectly nice. Took our order, brought our drinks, brought our food, brought our bill - visited our table a total of six times, in the course of about an hour and fifteen minutes. When i dine out, i usually have some kind of discount voucher or special offer - i have a tastecard - so get a good discount off a meal, on this occasion about £18, so was happy to leave our waiter a cash tip of £5. No problem. This is what usually happens, and seems standard. Sometimes, i don't tip. Sometimes, I leave a pound. Depends.
Anyway, my husband works in retail. Zero hours contract, minimum wage, part time. He works in a shop selling high end technical equipment. A few days after our lovely meal, who should come into my husband's shop but our waiter! Remember, someone we vaguely know. And my husband serves him.
Waiter has a phone of a make that the shop doesn't even sell, but there is a bit of a problem with the software. Someone has recommended that our waiter visit my husband because my husband is, frankly, a genius with a good reputation. So my husband takes a look, says to our waiter, no problem, give me twenty minutes, go off and do your shopping and when you come back i will have fixed it.
So off our waiter goes. My husband does some google research on the problem, downloads a software fix, uploads it onto the phone, and returns it to the waiter in good working order. Thank you, says the waiter, and leaves.
Let me just reiterate, my husband has done this FOR FREE. Did not take payment - not unusual, he would do this for anyone and believes that it builds trust and wins return custom, he always does this. So, we gave our waiter £5 for maybe a 3 minutes of serving us. My husband then fixes his phone FOR FREE and does not get a tip. The waiter did not even buy anything!
Don't feel sorry for us, by the way, we are not JAMs just because my husband is on minimum wage, zero hours, etc; i bought my flat before house prices went crazy, we are child free and therefore, as far as we are concerned, semi retired and getting by very well, thank you.
My husband has a lot of hobbies and interests outside work which he has a lot of time to concentrate on so is perfectly happy with his job. He ALWAYS goes above and beyond for customers; things he has done includes a full forensic data recovery on a water damaged laptop - for free - helping customers with their CVs and court cases, teaching them photoshop and building websites - sometimes he gets a bottle of wine or a box of chocolates, very much appreciated, lots of thank you cards, but its not expected, or very often, or from every customer. He did not, by the way, mind at all that our waiter had not given him anything. Did not expect it. Lots of customers don't tip him, it is a lovely surprise when they do.
I just wanted to see what people thought of that? Why social convention dictates that we give our waiter £5 for doing his job, but our waiter gives my husband nothing, for going well above and beyond? Interesting, especially as noone was able to explain why some service providers automatically get tips and some don't?