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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think rich folk are the WORST tippers

61 replies

CRad · 29/11/2016 22:24

Name changed in case my boss is on here Hmm (some minor changes to protect my employment)

Guess what I got for my christmas tip....go on guess!

Clue...I am a private cleaner for a very wealthy family. I cleaned for the last time this year today as they are off to Canada skiing for the month.

In fact fuck it i'm just going to tell you what I got......

A new tabard. A TABARD. I don't even wear a tabard Hmm

OP posts:
listsandbudgets · 29/11/2016 22:26

LOL that's awful.

my lovely cleaner gets £30 ( a weeks pay) and a nice box of biscuits or chocolate

user1477282676 · 29/11/2016 22:26

Oh God! It's like the modern version of how the Lady of the manor would get the housemaids a yard of print cotton for Christmas! "for a new frock"

Shock

I'd leave the bastards!

My Aunt is a cleaner for a number of wealthy clients and she gets great gifts...cash, perfume...a beautiful Christmas hamper from Fortnum and Mason from one lady...

LemonRedwood · 29/11/2016 22:27

It's probably a hint Grin

mammybops · 29/11/2016 22:30

I think you have rubbish clients.

I used to work as a waitress for some properly posh places (silver service etc) and could make more in tips from one night than I did in wages for a week. They virtually threw money at me!

If you annette dependent on their custom maybe a Christmas gift to yourself could be giving them notice to terminate your services.

KlingybunFistelvase · 29/11/2016 22:31

Hmmmmm, I don't like to generalise about people based on their wealth or lack thereof, but, generally speaking, I think yanbu. I have worked in a lot of bars, hotels, private members clubs and, in a lot of cases IME, the more upmarket the customer appears, the more measly the tip! I don't know why.

mammybops · 29/11/2016 22:31

FFS Annette is meant to say are not...why my phone insists on betraying me I have no idea!

QueenMortificado · 29/11/2016 22:32

Don't rich people stay rich by not spending their money?

That said, I think if you expect bonuses and gifts you'll be very disappointed if they don't come

Original poster
CRad · 29/11/2016 22:32

They are quite strange folk tbh. I'm allowed to drink tea but not the coffee or the hot chocolate.

I might sew my name into it.

OP posts:
Original poster
CRad · 29/11/2016 22:34

Klingy, I agree. DH is plumber and any tips he gets are always from working class/lower middle class people. The wealthy ones are the 'whilst you're here could you just.....(insert a job they want doing for free)

OP posts:
Original poster
CRad · 29/11/2016 22:35

And i'm going to refresh the same old story i've been telling for years on MN.

DH was asked by a customer to use the 'trade entrance' when he arrived.

It was the back door of a bog standard 4 bed detached Grin. Our back door is forever known as the trade entrance now.

OP posts:
timeforachangeithink · 29/11/2016 22:46

I delivered takeaway for years and in genera got far more tips from less salubrious areas.

QueenMortificado · 29/11/2016 22:48

Our back door is forever known as the trade entrance now.

I've had some unwanted visitors in my trades mans entrance before..... Wink

flightywoman · 29/11/2016 23:03

I would venture to suggest that they aren't 'old money'...most people who have always had it know how to treat the people who work for them and also how to not make people feel uncomfortable - there is a feeling of being engaged in the same venture, albeit at different levels.

But people who have acquired money don't always have those niceties of knowing how to treat 'staff'. Not being allowed to drink the coffee is a massive indicator for me that they don't know these things.

I'm sorry your employers are mean and thoughtless...

mylittlephoney · 29/11/2016 23:05

I second Flighty New money = tight arses

JurassicFart · 29/11/2016 23:10

I don't think you're far off the mark.

The best tips I've ever got were at a bucket-and-spade resort in Spain, from holidaying working class Brits. I think it was because they were happy to be on holiday and all a bit pissed, and this made them generous.

In contrast, the two five-star posh hotels I worked in, full of elderly guests with names like Priscilla Dreyfus-Whittington ... hardly a bean.

RaskolnikovsGarret · 29/11/2016 23:13

I totally agree. I worked at a law firm as a junior lawyer, and went for lunch with a partner/friend. His treat this time, I had paid last time in a nicer restaurant. The meal for two of us cost £8, so he left a tip of 80p.

That was ok, but he spent the whole walk back regretting it, and saying 80p was far too much, and asking whether he should go back and ask for it back. This from a man on close to £500k. Hmm Yes, let's go back and demand an 80p refund from someone on minimum wage, great idea.

madgingermunchkin · 29/11/2016 23:15

It depends whether you're talk nouveau riche or truly U. Nouveau riche do tend to be tight, but the truly "posh" tend to be very generous people.

stopgap · 29/11/2016 23:27

Generous tippers here, but my husband is American. Absolutely minimum of 20 percent for good service in restaurants, and a week's pay or double for cleaner, gardener etc.

Aeroflotgirl · 29/11/2016 23:31

Oh gosh, I woukd have given you a nice Christmas bonus, and a nice bottle if wine, or gift card. However I am too poor for a cleaner. That is crap op 😥😥

Aeroflotgirl · 29/11/2016 23:34

oh god Rask what a horribal quality to have! I dread to think how tight he is with his other half, if he has one. If he did that on a date with me, that would be a dealbreaker.

Akire · 29/11/2016 23:35

You could cut it up to make dusters lol. Maybe they like their staff to look like staff.

Tea is probable big standard tea bags. Coffee or hot chocolate from somewhere stupidly expensive so you can't possible have those!

Pallisers · 29/11/2016 23:41

We are very well off (now) and we tip as much as we can. (I give a month's pay to my cleaner as a xmas bonus but then she is someone who means a lot to me and is a big support to our family). I think I tip more than DH and I am definitely more working/lower middle class than he is (he is more middle class). My parents taught me to tip/be generous if you have it.

But I did have a funny experience with a friend recently. Now, in fairness to her she is an incredibly generous person, gives money and raises money for an orphanage in Honduras, actually goes there at least once a year to do hands-on volunteering etc. But her family is extraordinarily rich - venture capitalist/3 homes/trust funds for the kids/never worry about money again rich.

We split a bill for dinner and by mistake they gave me her credit card slip to sign and me hers (we are in US). I added a tip and signed without thinking. Then we realised. Then we swapped and I realised I had given double the tip she did :) - on her credit card.

cafenoirbiscuit · 30/11/2016 10:32

I seem to remember reading that the Princess of Wales spent a lot of money on gifts for the royal family for her first Christmas with them. She didn't realize that they only spent a small amount (like a fiver) on family gifts. Cue embarrassment ...

MadameCholetsDirtySecret · 30/11/2016 10:35

The trade entrance sounds like a euphemism to me Grin he wasn't at centre parcs was he?

As for the tabard, that is all sorts of wrong.

thatwouldbeanecumenicalmatter · 30/11/2016 10:44

You could beautifully embroider in lavish script type font across the front "Merry Christmas you filthy animals" - obviously as a nod to Home Alone, not at all as a passive aggressive dig at their cleanliness Wink