Tipping is not the done thing.

[Lyndaishistory]

You are not expected to tip in the UK! I'm not sure why some people think otherwise.
I would only tip if service was above and beyond but it is not an expectation and I wouldn't "cave" if it was crap service.

Husband and I had a rubbish meal at a well known resturant chain for our anniversary. I complained at the time but nothing was done about it.
Left husband to pay the bill and he tipped them. Bloody hell, I want my fiver back!
Seriously considering LTB over this.

Chain restaurant, bad meal or service. I really wouldn't bother to tip.

Is it really an expectation for takeaways? Had no idea but no-one delivers out here anyway

Tipping in the UK is NOT compulsory, YANBU.
Always some on these type of threads that are insistent it is.
It really isn't. If you insist on tipping, fine, your choice. If you don't though, again, choice.

I don’t agree with tipping waitresses etc when I work in retail we both get minimum wage and no one tips me . I know sometimes it’s a quick exchange in a shop but other times I go above and beyond . Phoning around other shops trying to locate items I even meet my friend who works in a nereby shop to collect items for customers who can’t make the journey to the next town. Sometimes i can be in changing rooms with customers fetching this and that for an hour and no tip so I don’t think that waiting staff work harder than me so I don’t tip.

Senior, you are a nasty piece of work.

Of course tipping is the done thing! Not necessarily for delivery drivers etc, but certainly in a restaurant. I would always leave some sort of tip, unless the service was exceptionally bad.

Seniorcitizen I find your attitude very ignorant and unpleasant! Were you aware that in the US, waiting staff are expected to make up much of their (frequently minimum) wage from tips? Also, waiting staff frequently work extremely hard and may not have had the same educational opportunities as you have had. Think on.

I don't like the tipping, it's not relevant here now that everybody gets at least minimum wage. I don't see why the expectation is that serving staff should get a tip. The only serving staff who, in my opinion deserve a tip routinely, is breakfast serving staff - but they don't get one and don't expect to. The evening servers though do expect a tip. That's unfair.

'Posh' restaurants can be crap and chains can be great - no snobbishness from me about that. You should have received just as good quality food and service from the chain you went to OP, in line with their pricing. No excuse for anything else.

I tip for excellence and I tip well. The rest of it smacks of servility and 'lady bountiful' with shrapnel, and I won't do it.

It is the custom to tip, if you don't, IMO, you are miserly and mean.

Tipping was definitely a thing 15 years ago when I first worked as a waitress.

I wouldn't go out for dinner with people who refuse to tip because I'd feel obliged to pay their share of the tip.

I don't tip, but this....

I know they are low paid but perhaps if they had worked hard at school to get a better paid job or not done a mickey mouse degree at a crap university they wouldn’t need to eaiting tables.

piss take or a twatty troll, surely?

You are not expected to tip in the UK

Not true.

In a lot of restaurants an automatic tip is added to the bill of 12.5% or a tip is expected.

@Seniorcitizen1 has made it abundantly clear in many threads that she never tips.
She sounds like my sister who quite frankly is embarrassing to eat out with.

It is the custom to tip, if you don't, IMO, you are miserly and mean.

Not in the UK, it isn't. In the restaurants London etc where they feel they can automatically add it to your bill, more of a thing. It really isn't elsewhere though.
Never had any problems with service eating out before.
That may be your opinion, doesn't make it fact though.
I'll do IMO you're a patronising little crumb thrower for the sake of "tradition" to the lowly paid workers as you feel you're doing a good deed for them.

sweetsomethings

I've been there. That's why I don't think it should be an expectation and I certainly don't think it is the done thing.

I didn't like that either, rainbowsandsmiles really unnecessary.

I don't like the tipping, it's not relevant here now that everybody gets at least minimum wage. I don't see why the expectation is that serving staff should get a tip

This. With everyone getting minimum wage of approx 7 pounds an hour now, it is completely illogical when you think about it.
Why some but not others?

In the US tipping isn't just part of the culture- it's how many service industry workers pay their rent, as there isn't the same concept of minimum wage. Indeed in some restaurants, waiting staff aren't paid a basic at all, and live entirely off the tips (this is especially true of high footfall/ branded restaurants where the staff are meant to feel lucky to be given the opportunity to earn tips in such an environment).

In the UK it is thankfully different (as we have a minimum wage and- increasingly- a living wage), but that's not to say that UK service staff don't to some degree still rely on tips to top up their otherwise often meagre earnings. It's rather ignorant and tight not to tip unless you've had poor service. I think you can tell rather a lot about a person's generosity of soul by where they sit on this topic.

Not in the UK, it isn't. In the restaurants London etc where they feel they can automatically add it to your bill, more of a thing. It really isn't elsewhere though.
Never had any problems with service eating out before.

This is absolute bollocks. I've worked in many restaurants in the UK, none in London, and almost everyone tips. It's very rare to serve a customer who doesn't tip if nothing has gone wrong.

I'm amazed how many people in this thread seem to have convinced themselves that tipping is not customary in the UK.

It definitely is. I would be so embarrassed to eat out with you.

sweetsomethings I worked in retail for 15 years and completely agree, we'd really try hard for our customers most places I worked and we never got a tip despite doing loads of lifting, boiling hot shops, on our feet all day, getting abuse from customers etc. So tipping restaurant staff but not shop staff or cleaners seems daft.

Also having customer service battered into us by management makes me realise how crap service often is in the UK and it really annoys me when dp tips waiters that don't bother to make eye contact or show any interest, bang plates down on the table and walk away without saying anything etc

It definitely is. I would be so embarrassed to eat out with you.

Fair enough, wouldn't want to eat out with you either thinking you're better than everyone else and your superior attitude.

Yeah, waitstaff in the States don’t even make minimum wage, tips are supposed to add up to that (usually more, unless it’s a budget place). Wouldn’t go back to a place if I didn’t tip, at best you’d get shitty service.

YANBU It kind of sucks when it’s expected every time whether or not it was good, I’d much rather just pay more upfront. Some people seem to like the power to give servers a good or bad day.

CardinalCat or maybe it’s rather not ignorant or tight but rather that maybe they have saved up to afford to a meal out and can’t afford the tip. Maybe they are on minimum wage themselves who is topping up their wages ? Think before you type . Honestly . Not talking about the USA in that as food out is generally way cheaper so tipping isn’t as much as a hardship .

I don't tip since the NLW came out.

Why pay waiting staff more than retail staff, cleaners etc?

If staff deserve more money then their boss should increase their annual wage.

The fact people tip taxi drivers makes me laugh as the three I personally know take home over 30k a year.

I always tip takeaway delivery guys but not, say, the catalogue or online food shop - that would be like tipping the postman - I've never thought about it until now...! Taxis and food delivery and restaurants. That's it. Why?!? How bizarre, foodstuffs and transportation? Is that the rule?!

Good grief, tipping is as British as you can get! Have you ever read Dickens? Shakespeare? A history book?!

Sort of. Tipping was always an upper class British thing, because wages were so shit.

We got unions and workers rights a long time ago and tipping didn't make it's way down the classes as the service industries democratised. In the US unionisation is less common, workers rights are far worse and so tipping became the norm. Ubiquitous tipping for basic service has never been a British thing.

do you ask for the service charge to be removed every single time?

I ask for a service charge to be removed every single time in the UK, even when I am tipping the same amount (unless it's really clear up front). When I tip, I tip the server directly as a thank you. I don't want more companies to introduce stealth charges.

rainbows

I don't think I'm "better than everyone else".

I am just part of the 99% of the population who knows that you're supposed to tip in restaurants and I think that if you won't give a few extra quid to show appreciation for someone on minimum wage who has been running around after you for two hours and being polite to you even if you're being an arrogant twat because you object to tipping "on principle" then you need to give your head a wobble, love.

Have this from me.