what i found when i used to deliver furniture is that the richer the person was the less the odds I’d see a tip.

How do you think they got rich in the first place, huh, sonny?

uh oh are you supposed to tip furniture deliverypeople?:(

haha, yeah that’s what I was thinking.

Se, you are the reason the world sucks.

You’re not supposed to, there’s no law saying you should and I’ve not known many who expect it (ie it’s not a job like waiter where they don’t have to pay you and can force you to just work off tips), it’s just nice to do so.

tip all delivery people generally

ups guy?

midwives?

they make pretty good bank xpost, don’t know about midwives.

You do not have to tip all delivery people. I generally do myself, but wouldn’t think badly on anyone who didn’t tip furniture/electronics/UPS/mail/movers etc. Some of those people I wouldn’t think to tip and do not ever tip.

I do actually have a big problem with people just assuming that they’re getting a tip because they do some form of service? You wouldn’t think to tip the cashier at the store where you bought the furniture. Like I said, I generally do tip people who deliver large items or movers and stuff, especially if they are friendly and very helpful, but seriously when I’ve worked in stores that offered delivery service, those people made significantly, significantly more $$$$$$$$$$$$ than the other people who worked in the store. So, in closing, teeny please do not feel bad.

Midwives aren’t allowed to accept tips (money), but the nature of what they do, they get more chocs/flowers than they know what to do with...

Tipping furniture guy—not manditory. But the store I worked at had free delivery and set-up so people were a little more obligated than with your average delivery guy. Esp since setting up their little brat’s bunkbed ment moving all their pre-existing furniture and junk around followed by an hour or so of work. also: it was obvious we were not paid well.

i was joking about midwives of course. would love to see it tho.

If they help you get stuff up your stairs I think you should tip them.

You must be russian!

Tipping movers = mandatory

i wasn’t thinking of fedex etc, more people who deliver things from stores or restaurants. movers should always be tipped, those poor bastards.

anyway i enjoy tipping—you give a guy a couple bucks then you both feel good abt the situation.

definitely tip movers/furniture guys, even if it’s just a few dollars.

I’m assuming we all tip our bartenders and wait staff, yes?

In the same way that you’re assuming that everyone on this thread is American, yes.

bartenders = a dollar on every drink unless the drink is expensive and then i tip a little extra

restaurants = 20%

counter service = usually a dollar if the counter person has to do any actual work

that sounds abt right

Tipping $1 per drink gets really old, esp. when you get slow service and no buy backs.... :/

I’m delighted this thread has taken off, but I think we may’ve missed the point here :/

restaurants = 20%

GOOD service = 20%

I always try to break 15% percent and round up unless the service is awful.

If the bill is tiny, you gotta do 20% because who wants a sub $2 tip?

same as jbr. don’t really use movers so. . .

sonic and coffeeshops always give me anxiety though. never sure if I should and how much.

In the same way that you’re assuming that everyone on this thread is American, yes.

goodbye!

flipside: perverse enjoyment gleaned when bitterly tip-withholding.

I tipped 20% for a meal on Saturday but that was a fairly inexpensive meal and the waitress was really good (taking a bottle away and heating it for the baby, showing the boys through to the kids play area, taking Anne’s meal back to warm it because she was changing the baby’s nappy).

Normally I tip 10–15% for a meal.

Moving house guys usually = my mates + a hired van and therefore tip = crate or two of beer once we’re all done.

I don’t tip delivery people apart from the paper boy.

Tipping barstaff is a rarity apart from in my Dad’s local where there is good value in buying the barmaids a couple of drinks.

There’s a definite UK/US cultural divide on tipping but I think it’s becoming more common in the UK. We now have people sitting on toilets in some city pubs giving out hand towels and cheap aftershave and staring meaningfully at their saucers of loose change.

*in* toilets, not on them :-/

PLEASE KEEP JAYMC AWAY FROM THIS THREAD.

I don’t tip delivery people apart from the paper boy.

I just remembered I tip food delivery people too.

I tipped 20% for a meal on Saturday but that was a fairly inexpensive meal and the waitress was really good (taking a bottle away and heating it for the baby, showing the boys through to the kids play area, taking Anne’s meal back to warm it because she was changing the baby’s nappy).

God, I should only tip 10%

We now have people sitting on toilets in some city pubs giving out hand towels and cheap aftershave and staring meaningfully at their saucers of loose change.

Least favorite part of seeing shows at “upscale” venues here... fucking cocoa butter smell in the lav.

http://tipthepizzaguy.com/

Lawyers: the worst

Labor and employment lawyers are awesome tippers!

Social justice types = good tippers

Current/former servers = good tippers unless they receive bad service in which case they are ruthless.

I never properly tip cab drivers because the fair is never an even dollar amount so I end up having to round up or down plus there’s pressure to figure it out quickly, especially if the cab is blocking traffic, and then I have to subtract the fare plus calculated tip from the denomination I’m giving the driver and tell him how much change to give me back and it seems like no matter how much change I ask for, the driver responds by disdainfully repeating my quoted figure, like “You want twelve back? Whatever lady, I got kids to feed. Now beat it, I’m blocking traffic.”

Also, in flagrant violation of laws posted right there in the back of the cab, every cab driver in Chicago constantly talks on a cell phone while driving. But that’s clearly another thread.

Least favorite part of seeing shows at “upscale” venues here... fucking cocoa butter smell in the lav.,

place on christie and grand totally not fancy but has a bathroom attendant wtf

i always overtip cab drivers. those guys make NO money.

I tipped the guys who delivered our couch because they had to take our front door off the hinges to get it into the apartment and I felt really bad about it. I also tipped the laundry service delivery guy (they are running a FREE laundry promotion in our neighborhood—I normally don’t use the service) because it was FREE and so I loaded those fuckers up with every dirty machine washable thing in our entire house.

But I am (almost) a labor and employment lawyer, a social justice type, AND a former server/low wage worker so I’m pretty much a giant bleeding heart when it comes to tipping. Except I won’t counter tip if all the person did was ring up my order and hand me change. I think counter tipping is becoming a way for employers to weasel out of paying their employees more money (but you make tips!!!) and I disapprove of this trend toward the private ordering of wages.

In my experience, coaches of any sports team at any level higher than high school are incredibly bad tippers—especially when they’ve brought their WHOLE GODDAMN TEAM. High school and lower age group coaches however are precisely the opposite, again, in my experience.

i never tip. also, what are these ‘stairs’ you speak of?

I don’t tip furniture movers because I have never not been the one to move my own furniture, with one exception: my piano. I tipped the shit out of those guys. Also tipped: piano tuner.

Rednecks = bad tippers

In the same way that you’re assuming that everyone on this thread is American, yes.
— ailsa_xx (ailsa.watso...), December 18th, 2006.

Pardon me, but WHAT THE CHRISTING FUCK ARE YOU ON ABOUT? I’m Canadian, as is Thermo Thinwall.

Dude—english be not tippin’

Yeah, I gathered that, but sheesh.

this thread has the potential to become extremely bad! It is a good thing that most people I know working as waiters and bartenders are not on ILX!

Oh relax.

xpost

Why don’t the British just fuck off?

Right, can I just go FUCKING CHRISTING STOP CALLING US ENGLISH I’M SCOTTISH and then we’re quits and we can just agree “one side of the Atlantic be like this, other side be like that” and then the rest of the world can all hate us all.

Thermo, I’m fine. Sorry for the derail.

Ailsa, feel the love. It was more of a “huh?” than anything else.

this thread has the potential to become extremely bad! It is a good thing that most people I know working as waiters and bartenders are not on ILX!

I know!!!

I think calling a Canadian american is a way dumber blunder than calling a Scot English.

“The narcissism of small differences”

OK, whatever. “American” = from the continent of America, i.e. includes Canadians, innit (did I dodge that OK?)

(hugglez all round)

IF U DONT WANT TO BE CALLED AMERICAN THEN STOP HUDDLING ALL UP AGAIST OUR BORDER BACK OFF GIVE US SOME SPACE JEEZ

Ilx has made me so paranoid about tipping, meaning that the two times I’ve been to New York this year I’ve just thrown money at people and hoped they won’t assume I won’t tip because of my accent. Even so, tipping the cloakroom attendant threw me

Hey—it’s your fault we had to build all dem forts along dat dere boarder all dem years ago!

xpost

tipping coatroom attendant = always yes in bars/clubs, usually no in restaurants

When my girlfriend and I moved into our new place the movers hustled us for their tips. The head guy told us we were expected to tip at least $30-$40 for the delivery. We were kinda surprised, but seeing as they had to climb and down three flights of stairs, we decided that it wasn’t bad to give them $40. Dude comes back in the apartment and flat out tells us that he meant $30–40 PER PERSON (there was a five-man crew) and that, if not, “all of your stuff might not make it into the apartment”. I called b.s. and the guy started getting hostile about it being standard, yadda yadda. So I told him to hold on and I went back in and called the company’s main office. No answer, nothing after four calls. I come back in the other room and the dude is loading our stuff BACK ON THE TRUCK. I had no idea what to do, I was thinking about calling the cops but my gf didn’t think that would be a good idea. So after this guy threatens again to “lose” our stuff, we pay them enough for $30 per guy and they go back to unloading our stuff. In the end they did steal my PS2 and all of my games. Fifteen calls and countless hours of wasted time later, the company refused to take any responsibility for what had happened—saying it was between the crew and us. So yeah, I’m really weird about tipping delivery people now. And this was a fairly popular Chicago area company that drives big pink trucks.

WTF?? Why did it default to my non login name? Can a mod or someone change that?

Holy shit! That’s fucking criminal! You should file a complaint with the consumer protection division. I’ll bet you wouldn’t be the only one. At least file a complaint with the better business bureau.

Which moving company was it? We used Starving Artists movers and they were smelly and clumsy but honest and hard working.

Holy fuck that’s crazy! That’s toally b.s—“between the crew and you”—if they work for them it’s between you and them! Those wads owe you a playstaion!

wow, that’s pretty bad. (xpost)

question: are you always supposed to tip $1 per drink? like for a $2–3 beer? or is that for fancy drinks? or are beers $1 and fancy drinks more? (just curious. i do it because it’s an easy rule to go by. also, note that i do not live in ny.)

(x-post)

Trust me, we filed complaints with everyone we could find. Talked to my cousin thats a lawyer, and he said that the company pretty much covered their asses enough that fighting it wouldn’t result in much. We’d have to go after the crew themselves, but with the high turnover we’d never find them again. Sucked big time. It was E-Z Movers, you see their big pink trucks all over the place.

When it comes to drink tipping, I usually tip two or three for the first beer and then usually a buck every other one if its the same bartender.

Canadians are bad tippers. Scottish people are skinty arses.

Just kidding. I think the rise in prescription medicine for “anxiety/depression” is directly related to tipping. It’s impossible to leave the house without agonising over what, and where, and when, to tip.

The tip cup phenomena is just...awful.

“Tipping is not a city in China!”

um, well, since we’re in Massachusetts I guess I don’t have to care.

I tip everyone, all of the time. especially the gas station attendents who pump the gas. But I also make them check the oil.

i am a little bit obnoxious when it comes to restaurant tipping. Having been a server, I tip 20% all the time. You have to really piss me off -basically pour hot coffee on my lap—to get a 15% tip.

I also live in a small town—so tipping is obligatory, since I will see these people again. Sometimes, at a party. or at a bar. Also, i’m getting to the age where my friends kids are serving the coffee and donuts.

Thankfully, not serving the drinks!

I figure, since I’m going to tip, why not get the most bang for my buck? Which means...“you, server, need to have a random conversation with me because I am paying you to do so.” It’s cheaper than a shrink!

Plus, they have to be nice to you.

Unlike shrinks.

But sometimes I don’t even want to leave the house because I am calculating all of the tips that might happen.

Running back up to the top of the thread: I think one reason wealthy people might not tip as much for things like deliveries is that they’re used to having people do menial tasks for them — in fact, they’re probably used to frequenting the kinds of businesses where people do complimentary services for them. So someone delivering a piece of furniture might not register quite as much as a tip situation. Whereas a person who’s not used to that kind of service is going to be way more keenly aware that someone’s doing something for them — maybe even viewing the person as an equal who’s being very helpful and doing favors — and so will be way more concious of the whole tipping thing.

E.g., I have never had movers, and I get the feeling that if I ever did I would be so amazed by the whole thing that in the end I’d be all “OMG I can’t believe you guys moved all my crap and I didn’t have to do a thing! You can just have my ATM card if you want!”

That was basically how I felt last month!! I think I tipped them $30 each for 3 hours’ work and was GLAD to do it.

I mean, they didn’t complain about the 30 boxes of books, I’m not going to complain about the incidental expenses.

the last time i did a big move, the guys not only moved my boxes down 5 flights of stairs but packed them as well. they got a LARGE tip.

I tipped 20% for a meal on Saturday but that was a fairly inexpensive meal and the waitress was really good (taking a bottle away and heating it for the baby, showing the boys through to the kids play area, taking Anne’s meal back to warm it because she was changing the baby’s nappy).

Normally I tip 10–15% for a meal.

this is terrible. 10% is considered a BAD tip. it’s considered pretty much the minimum for poor service. 15% is like a “C” tip. i hope you realize that wait staff curse you out behind your back. if you are a regular of any restaurants, whenever the wait staff sees you come in, they argue over trying to get someone else to serve you. if the restaurant gets remotely busy, a server will know to ignore you and give better service to their other customers.

you should know this.

he lives in the UK, moron

oh. i missed that part.

anyways, let that be a lesson to you Americans. too many people seriously do think 10% is an acceptable tip.

something else to consider that too many restaurant-goers do not realize:

if your meal is less than $10, or really cheap, TIP MORE THAN 20%. 20% IS NOT AN ACCEPTABLE TIP ANYMORE. if you leave your server $1.50, they don’t give a fuck what percent that is. it’s still a dollar fifty. they still have to serve you a hundred more times just to pay their electricity bill that month. most servers do not get paid by their restaurants, the money only goes towards taxes, so YOU are the SOLE person paying their monthly bills. a dollar fifty isn’t going to cut it. get ready to get poor service if you become known for this.

I hardly think over a hundred dollars in tips on top of nearly $700 in moving costs can be considered an “incidental expense”.

(xx post)

going back to the OG thread topic, i think a lot of servers hate waiting on groups of female customers because there’s a “ladies who lunch” stigma — i.e. they take forever to finish their meals and pay the check and free up the table, and they’re lousy tippers. i was at veselka over the weekend with robyn and tokyo rosemary, and the waiter for our table was actively ignoring us and we had to flag down someone to yell at him so we could order.

Oh no no no, Jon, my moving costs were much lower. I’m not referring to your experience in any way, because it sounds a) illegal, and b) shitty.

Ok Laurel, I really didn’t mean to come across like a cheap-ass or anything. Up until the end of the time I’d been really friendly to them, buying bottles upon bottles of Gatorade for them and offering up the rest of the beer in our fridge for when they were done.

But yeah, back on topic, hm very much OTM.

I found when I was waiting tables in college, that college kids were generally GREAT tippers because they knew what it was like to work a shit job for shit pay. Also, if you are even a semi-cute guy, you can make tons from the groups of high school girls that go out to eat. High school boys though? You might as well be working for free.

Couples on first dates = great tippers!

Up with first dates! :D

(xpost)

jbr, yeah, it’s definitely true that groups of “ladies” are bad news. of course not always, but frequently enough so that servers develop aversions.

but also, don’t be too quick to assume the worst about your server. too many people think their servers are nefarious evildoers who at the first sign of WHATEVER will choose to ignore you the entire evening. in my years of serving, i’ve seen that happen only a couple times. almost every time something like that happens, there’s something else behind the scenes. who knows what’s going in the kitchen? the manager giving the server some kind of shit? another table being ridiculously needy and hogging attention? something wrong with the computer system?

the other day i had a table of about twenty people who all wanted separate checks. UGH. do they realize it takes like 5 minutes to even print that many checks? then, as i was ringing them all up (BIG SURPRISE — this was a Church group) one woman’s credit card was declined. when i tried to return it to her and delicately let her know that her ass is broke, she was all, “OH, I THOUGHT THAT ONE WOULD DECLINE! I JUST WANTED TO TEST IT AND MAKE SURE!” thanks you fucking bitch, it’s not like i have other customers waiting on stuff. please, let me ring up your friends twenty separate credit cards plus a few extras just to test and make sure they are still maxed out. thanks! the rest of my customers appreciate it!

Also, if you are even a semi-cute guy, you can make tons from the groups of high school girls that go out to eat.

you don’t even need to be semi-cute. giggling high school girls were always the best tippers when i lived on tips.

What do you guys think the undertipped ratio is as regards in-house service vs delivery in the food service industry? I’m not sure why, but my gut tells me in-house are usually more often undertipped than delivery people. I’ve been so long out of food service that the whole thing is becoming more and more foreign to me. I just throw money at everybody and hope for the best anymore.

Oh come on Otto, don’t crush my dreams of being “semi-cute”.

another lesson for people who dine in restaurants, from your friendly serving staff:

we don’t like it when you sit at the table for a long time after your meal is over. it costs us money since we have to wait for you to leave instead of serving the next party. it would be appreciated if you considered raising your tip slightly to compensate for the extra hour.

we do understand this, however, it is after all your night out. however, if you are going to do this, when the meal is over — PAY YOUR BILL. this is the single CRUELEST thing you can do to a server. often, if you pay your bill, your server can end their shift and leave to enjoy the rest of the night. if you refuse to pay your bill and simply sit there for hours, you are forcing your server to sit around and wait for you. your server is not paid by the hour. he is standing around and smiling like an idiot for hours solely because you are too self-centered to realize that simply paying your bill will let him go home.

Mickey:

(a) Maybe it’s just New York pricing, but you can rest assured that I’ve never gotten anything remotely approaching good service at any place where a meal cost less than $10.

(b) And maybe this is just an NYC thing, too — I don’t recall it happening so much before I moved here — but sometimes customers don’t like sitting at their tables for a long time after the meal is over, either. And yet I wind up doing it at 80% of meals, because nobody will ever bring the damn check. It’s worst when you’re reading a book: it’s like you become invisible. You have no idea how many times I’ve decided I’m just going to try to leave without paying, since the worst that will happen is that they’ll (gasp) make me pay, which was all I wanted in the first place — I’ve only tried this once, and they didn’t even notice, and so once I was out on the sidewalk I had to walk guiltily right back in and wait some more.

Mickey needs a different jobby-job.

midwives?

with placenta

nabisco, I’d imagine both those are regional things. over here there’s plenty of restaurants that offer around-$10 meals. don’t get me wrong — these aren’t high class establishments, but the serving staff at Chile’s deserve to make a living just as much as any other restaurant.

regarding point b — I’ve heard people complain about that before, but honestly it’s never been a problem with me. I’ve never once ate at a restaurant and not had my check given to me in a reasonable time. I don’t think I’ve ever done that to a customer either.

xpost

alison murchie, working on it. :(

probation keeping me from moving to a different area isn’t making this easy. despite what it may sound like though, i do love waiting tables. i plan on doing this on the side well into my career.

The only thing that’s ever made me as angry as a long-ass bill-wait was the time I walked into this place and ordered a burger, and then five minutes later a woman sat next to me and ordered a burger, and then an HOUR later they brought out a burger and gave it to her, and I was like “WTF, I ordered before her,” and the waiter actually tried to tell me she got hers first because she ordered it rare, while I had ordered mine medium — so then 15 minutes later I’m like “hey prick, if my burger was a rare like hers FIFTEEN MINUTES AGO then I’m not sure I’m gonna want that shit,” and hey gives me some patronizing “oh, it’s coming right out” crap, and finally after an hour and a half I get a shitty burger.

(This is at a restaurant I stupidly keep going back to, because it’s convenient, even though they’ve served me rancid meat, mashed potatoes with a plastic cigarette-pack wrapper in them, salad with a ROCK in it, and a “seafood gratin” that was pretty much the worst dish ever concocted by people who weren’t starving to death. And yet ILX’s own Ed contends they have one of the best burgers in Manhattan.)

PLEASE KEEP JAYMC AWAY FROM THIS THREAD.

??

I tip a dollar per drink, and roughly 20% in restaurants (rounding up for good service and down for bad service). This seems fairly normal — were you expecting me to go on some controversial tirade?

Oh wait, because I don’t understand the concept of “buy-backs”?

I found when I was waiting tables in college, that college kids were generally GREAT tippers because they knew what it was like to work a shit job for shit pay.

I am sad to say this is not true among my friends. Most of them have not actually worked shit jobs for shit pay, though.

(For full disclosure, sometimes I’m guilty of pretty bad tipping due to shortness of money, even though I order the cheapest thing on the menu then. I try to keep a karmic balance at the 2 restaurants and 1 bar nearby by tipping extra at other times. Maybe I should stay home and eat pasta those days...but my friends, I like them...don’t get mad at me! I’m sorry! I’m sorry!)

xpost xpost xpost.

good lord, nabisco. what restaurant are you talking about?

nabisco, haha.

i rarely get angry at restaurants since i’m a lot more sympathetic and aware of all the things that can go wrong despite a server’s best intentions. the only time in recent memory i remember being really angry was going to a cheap vietnamese pho place by myself with a book, sitting down, and being utterly ignored for about 10 minutes while other people, all vietnamese, who came in after me were promptly waited on. finally i asked someone if i was going to be served, so they chose to serve me. the food was delivered and that was the end of it. i was never checked back on, drink never filled, nothing. it was the only time i considered walking out without paying. i did completely stiff the server though, i gave him a $0.0 tip. it pretty much takes something like that for me to give someone below 15%. 15% really is not a good tip. 10% is an insult. anything below 10% is a monetary way of saying “i will never come back here again.”

(Lauren: Deluxe, on Broadway up by Columbia. I eat there too much because, well, it’s between the subway and my apartment, and I’m totally lazy, and you can get a decent sandwich or whatever. But yeah, they also often have horrible service and have set an near-unbeatable record for “foreign objects found in Nabisco’s food.”)

in pho restaurants it’s considered rude for the waiter to bring you a check when you finish eating. you’re supposed to go up and pay at the register.

I believe there are quite a number of cultures in which dropping the check unbidden is considered rude, as it might make the customer feel unwelcome.

I remember one five-hour lunch I endured in sultry Savannah where the waitress seemed to feel that any sort of attention at all to our table would be rude. She strolled over after we’d first been sitting for 45 minutes to ask, “So ... y’all want a menu?”

yeah the most complex thing i ever get at DD is iced coffee.

So to clarify, I should tip a dollar for a $5 sandwich? I guess I could tip for the privilege of sitting unmolested in their coffee shop for hours on end . . .

movers should always be tipped, those poor bastards.

Poor bastards nothing. The last time I had movers in they were four hours late turning up, they slagged off the programme I was watching on the telly and then slagged me off when I got mad at them for being four hours late. They broke my picture frame and they tried to overcharge me for storage despite us having already agreed a rate. They can fuck off.

I’m sorry, I am not tipping at Starbucks. That company must make, like, 80% of their $$ from drinks OTHER THAN drip coffee: I think that makes my caramel latte “the standard” and not a terribly labor-intensive aberration that they’re making as a special favor to me because I asked nicely.

ok not if they do a bad job

xp

My mind is starting to combine this tipping thread with the “dick in a box” thread, with disturbing/hilarious results.

lately, all I see in the jar are dollars

ok, anyone who works that kind of job want to fess up to putting those bills in there to make people feel bad?

— jw (jo...), December 18th, 2006.

yes, I did that a lot. when i worked at a coffee shop for 5 years, that is.

I always tip coffee people if they’re making anything more than a coffee and an untoasted bagel. My rule of thumb is to round up to the nearest dollar (if the order costs less than $x.50, and throw in a quarter or two if it costs more than $x.50) If there’s any prep-work involved, or a call-ahead order I make sure there’s at least a dollar in the pot, and if I’m ordering for more than 5 people I usually tip $2–3. What’s unfortunate about all of this is that by-and-large the barristas snag the gratuities, while the kitchen help is jacked in spite of the fact that they’re more responsible for the product.

also:

trannies are terrible tippers

roman catholics (even church-ladies) are fairly decent tippers.

social workers, teachers, and clergy-members are good tippers.

fathers with their school-aged kids on the weekends are the best customers.

mothers on weekday nights with their kids are a mixed bag, inclined toward terrible customers.

construction workers, laborers, etc., are among the more easy-going clients.

roman catholics are good peeps

i’m sure you’ve all seen waiterrant but in case you haven’t...

http://www.waiterrant.net/wordpress2/

Hey, have we had the argument yet about minimum wage vs. working for tips yet?

Do you tip at Maccas? What happens if you ask for it without pickles?

Everytime I delivered a sandwich to the assisted living towers, the person on the other side of the door was waiting with a check written out to the last cent with no tip. One blind guy who was living with a quadraplegic woman made me write out $13.37 exactly on his signed check, and then took it to the woman so she confirm that I hadn’t put $1000 or anything like that.

Couldn’t get too mad at those people, though. The stories were tips enough.

x-p: I currently have the ignore function turned on for Rock Hardy. I am also about to exchange my perfectly good American dollar bills for Australian coins. Goodbye, Useful Wallet, at least for now...

One blind guy who was living with a quadraplegic woman made me write out $13.37 exactly on his signed check

haXor?

ppbbbbth...

Be sure to tell us if the weight of all those horrible coins makes your pants fall down or anything.

Has nobody ever heard of stealing from your boss? like, just don’t ring in the purchase, and pocket the cost of the triple sow cow deluxe macchilattefucky.

It’s a cash register! Register some cash to your own pocket!

And then tip everyone you encounter.

I think counter tipping is becoming a way for employers to weasel out of paying their employees more money (but you make tips!!!) and I disapprove of this trend toward the private ordering of wages.

This is interesting. I live in Oregon, where we have the highest mandatory minimum wage in the country. It also applies to servers. The restaurant lobby complains, but the working-class folks I know make more money as a result.

I recently started a second job in preparation for a trip abroad next year. I’m baking (breads/pastries/etc) for the first time in a while. The restaurant divides all tips equally between everybody who worked that day—total tips divided by total hours. On a good day I can make an extra $5/hour.

And yet ILX’s own Ed contends they have one of the best burgers in Manhattan.

Ok I’m intrigued now as nothing surfaces from the mists of memory as the best Burger in Manhattan, I can’t even remember eating a burger at all last time I was in Manhattan.

However I am prepared to admit that it could have been something I might have said, what is this place?

Deluxe, by Columbia — you said on some sort of Manhattan burger thread that you enjoyed theirs. And they do in fact have pretty decent burgers. It was just funny and memorable to see my local foreign-object eatery singled out for such an honor.

I think I can only have raved about having a grilled cheese sandwich there. Or at least, my weak memorised brain can only remember grilled cheese in the deluxe across the mists of 5 years. I didn’t get further north than Zabars last time I was there.

I find that I have to wait impatiently for a check more often than not. Britain’s restaurants generally levy a ‘service charge’ of between 10 and 15 per cent and servers are paid more than in America, hence the differential. European mainland servers make Proper Wages.

My sis is a waitron so I tip between 20 and 25 per cent, at least in Minneapolis (our pho places are table-served and Mexican order-at-counter/pick-up/eat on-site rate $2 for each 10 spent). If you do 15 per cent on the nail that’s a bit of a passive chuckyufarley. On Monday our bartender made Chris K’s drink with the wrong vodka and then when she was a ways into it, hadn’t noticed, he came back with the korrekt drink and said ‘see if you like this one better’ and was sorta willing us to hang onto both although CK and I misread those signals. He was tipped HANDSOMELY eg. full food rate. I’m sure we will get the red carpet if we go back.

When a barista is involved my tip is anything between 50¢ and $1—unless I order a sandwich and there is table service.

This may have to do with me feeling like the dollar is Monopoly money right now, though, as pounds are hella advantageous in current exchange rates.

I hate to bring it back to this when it was mentioned earlier and nobody dared bite, but can any of the waiters on here discuss the aforementioned comment about black people being stereotyped as bad tippers? I’ve heard people say that before but it’s been 15 years since I served food and my personal experience was that almost everyone was a shitty tipper.

aforementioned comment about black people being stereotyped as bad tippers?

My g/f was a waitress over the summer and she said it generally held true for her. (Lesbians didn’t tip well either.)

I got a $100.00 tip on a $60.00 tab from a black couple who were delighted that I didn’t racially profile them.

I gave them good service, we chatted about politics, the weather, whatever.

I almost fainted when i saw the tip. They left a note as well. ‘Thank you for your exceptional service.“

It was very clear that they were used to being ignored by waiters.

I spent some of the $100.00 buying drinks for my co-workers—some of whom had refused to take the table because ”black people don’t tip“.

almost everyone was a shitty tipper.

To clarify, I meant EVERYONE was a shitty tipper (regardless of skin color), not EVERY ONE was a shitty tipper (meaning all black people). The place I worked was one of the “meals for less than $10” places discussed above!

I’ve gotten crap tips from black people, but I’ve gotten crap tips from people of every race at some point. I think a lot of it is observation bias, frankly, or an expectation that you’re going to get a crappy tip so when you have a white table and a black table who both need a side of ketchup, you bring the ketchup to the white table first, believing the black table is a wash. And then you get a crappy tip.

The most awkward race-related moment in my career happened at the aforementioned southern redneck bar and grille when I brought out sandwiches to a big table of lunchers and one woman’s plate was lacking a pickle. She asked why she (the only black woman) was the only one at this table without a pickle on her plate? I was mortified for two reasons: 1) The kitchen staff puts pickles on the plate so I had nothing to do with it but even if I had, I in no way wanted her to think that I was making some shitty little passive aggressive racist gesture; and 2) the owners and most of the staff at this place WERE huge racists (the owner once explained to me that most boxers were black because black people were better able to take blows to the head and when I challenged his source for that idiotic idea he shouted, “Doctors! You’re not some civil rights activist, are you?” He also called the Filipino cook “Hop Sing.” Horrible. Also one other (white) waitress generally dated black men and was thus regularly called “n*gger lover” I could go on and on but I quit) and for all I knew, the cook DID leave the pickle off her plate in some shitty little passive aggressive racist gesture.

Anyway, I brought her about ten pickle spears and apologized my head off and I just hope that it didn’t ruin her day, because shit like that really can. My tip was shit but that’s because they were all rednecks and they used a fucking coupon and the concept of calculating the tip before the discount was like fucking alien to everybody who ate there.

yes, it’s true. black people are the worst tippers.

this is obviously not always the case, as aimchurchie says. at least once a week i’ll be surprised by a large tip from black people.

i believe black people are bad tippers because (at least in this area) they are disproportionally poorer than the white minority. statistically, the average black table i serve is more likely to make $8.00 an hr than the average white table. if a black table isn’t lower class, they are just as unpredictable as a white table and all the other regular modifiers apply. button up shirt and tie “business man” who is black = good. i-just-got-out-of-my-baptist-church middle class black man = bad. etc. lower class white people are just as likely to be piss poor tippers as lower class blacks people. i am just as unhappy to have a table of white rednecks with dirt under their fingers as i am to serve some black people still wearing their food lion uniforms. there’s no difference.

i guess that pretty much sums up my theory on it. in summary, black people deserve their reputation for being poor tippers, but there’s a reason for it and anybody who thinks it’s directly related to their race is an idiot.

but can any of the waiters on here discuss the aforementioned comment about black people being stereotyped as bad tippers?

I think it’s just that there are fewer black tables (if you live in area that’s 90% Latino and cracker, like me), so the times a waiter gets stiffed stand out more. If you get screwed by a family of fundies or rednecks, it’s harder to remember, ‘cuz they’re everywhere, and there are more tables to offset it.

And then it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The worst for me were drunk yuppie-rednecks (nee Republicans) on the lake—fifteen-plus on the patio, separate checks, ordering drinks for each other, moving around, management wouldn’t let me make them pay by the drink.

the number one indicator of how a person will tip is how they act. people who have no manners and treat you in a way that indicates they are inconsiderate of you and have absolutely no respect for you as a human being are NOT going to be considerate of you with their wallet.

snapping your fingers to get my attention = i am not a dog. no tip.

“reminding” me to refill your drink when it is still 3/4s full = thank you for making it clear you consider me an absolute idiot. no tip.

answering “how are you doing?” with “i want a jack and coke” = is that how you speak to your mother too? no tip.

refusing to stop talking and give me a moment to speak when i approach you = if you don’t even recognize my existence, your wallet won’t either.

etc, etc.

but to balance all this negativity out... yesterday i served 3 very elderly people. the man seemed somewhat rude, although the 2 women were very sweet. they were very needy. being very needy is almost always a sign of a poor tipper. they actually tipped me very well. after they left, a server told me about what they did for amanda, a girl who worked in our restaurant a year ago before i started. amanda told the 3 people (who are obviously regulars) that she is trying to go back to college. they tipped her $1,000. sometimes the world is a beautiful place.

I have always been tipped well by lesbians. maybe it’s because I have a lot of black friends.

I did have an experience with cross dressers that threw me for a loop. The ladies came in, en masse, from a meeting for men who are choosing to dress as women—big, burly, married cross dressers.

I was polite and acceptant of their choice. To be dressed as women and their desire to be seen as women. I was running the place, and i let them use the women’s room, the only caveat being if someone complained.

HOWEVER—after three weeks of accomodating them and being nice, i sat down at the table with them and said:

“You can carry a purse, and wear make up and wear a dress. And i respect that. but what part of cross dressing makes you think that separate checks and a 10% tip is gender specific? I’m tacking a gratuity on if you don’t step up to the plate. Also, no more separate checks. Look to the person next to you—you will now be sharing a check. ok, ladies?”

Cross dresser dominatrix!

They loved it! But, y’know, I defended their right ( or, rather, the right they don’t have), to use the ladies room—and, believe me, I had to stand up to some very angry men about it.

“Get those freaks outta here!”

My reply? “You’re the freak who’s leaving if you keep up with that talk. Look, I have your beer in my hand! Want it back? Behave.”

I made lots of money from both sides of the gender debate.

aimchurchie, OTM: re lesbians.

lesbians are the best! i love them! no (well, rarely) any kids to spend their money on. they spend their money on recreation. i love lesbians.

gay men, however, who hit on me, leave me their number and creepy notes, or in the case of this one elderly gay couple, ACTIVELY STALK ME = no thanks. do not want. you can go sit in aimchurchie’s section.

this thread is phenomenally irritating, and the anecdotes espesh so (i’ve worked like 6 jobs in customer service) and can hardly endorse any of them.

Why is it irritating that people in different restaurants in different parts of the country (or world) have had different experiences with clientele?

No one has yet presented their anecdote as a truism.

My newspaper delivery guy gave me a self addressed envelope with a happy holidays card with the NYT. What’s appropriate?

also big shockah in people who work in “customer service” not being able to relate to trevails of people who live off tips. yes, both of us deal with the public. yes, we are both frustrated by the public. you, however, make the same pay no matter what happens. we may not be able to afford rent should we deal with enough selfish, inconsiderate assholes. there is a huge difference.

in summary, black people deserve their reputation for being poor tippers, but there’s a reason for it and anybody who thinks it’s directly related to their race is an idiot.

Umm, judging by the rest of your post, we should be abandoning the “black people are poor tippers” notion in favor of “poor people are poor tippers” (with a related “black people are more likely to be poor”).

This thread makes me wonder if servers are more likely to give the full recommended donation at museums and such.

P.S. my own personal contribution to the bad-tipping black people (and bad-tipping dorm-dwellers) stereotypes is that nobody in my family had any notion that you were supposed to tip pizza delivery guys until, umm, Superbowl Sunday of my first year of college, when I came back from the door with the full amount of change and four other guys totally freaked out on me.

That said, I still hate tipping for an order from any place that already charges a $5 delivery fee.

$3 is my minimum tip for a delivery (that goes up depending on how big the order is/the distance the guy’s driving to get to me).

The black-people-not-tipping thing is a total self-fulfilling prophecy and shouldn’t be taken as gospel at all. My general impression is that black folks are generally (generally!) treated a lot worse at restaurants, perhaps BECAUSE everyone assumes they’re shitty tippers (but also no doubt because of explicit and implicit racism), and therefore they tip less.

I resent the implications of your post

I tip people who are doing something that I would find unpleasant (e.g. waiting tables or delivering furniture), difficult (cocktail waiter or hairdresser) or just doing a great job (tips for Nabisco on this thread, I’d tip hm as well for the entertainment provided)!

I think it’s desperately unfair that people are expected to tip because the employer won’t pay a proper wage but not half as unfair as making workers reliant on the goodwill of others (who don’t know them or have any context to understand where they’re coming from mood-wise that day) above the cost of the product (or service). As a European, tipping is definitely seen as rewarding the individual on top of their basic salary, my understanding above is that in the US and Canada people are tipped because they are not paid properly. This is awful and open to all manner of abuse as has been shown in this thread and others.

So what do I tip? Restaurants at the very minimum 10%, even if service awful, going up to (or beyond) 20% should there be a bunch of us or if the service was fun/pleasant/just as needed. At bars, I’ll tip if on holiday and I know that’s what’s done. I don’t think I’ve tipped all that much in bars here, it’s just not the done thing but people who bring me drinks or food at my table I tip well out of guilt at my own laziness for not going to the bar! For deliveries I round up to the nearest 5 at the bare minimum and like jbr I take into account how far they have had to travel. Plumbers or electricians I don’t tip, there is no need. If the job is done well though and the disruption is minor then I’ll throw in extra. Taxis I tip but have recently stopped giving as much, I don’t feel that most of the time anything extra is deserved with the high cost of waving one down, the rudeness that I seem to get 7/10 and the really high rates.

I’m a great believer in money over gifts. We saw it where I worked over the past while: what use is a gift voucher for lots of dosh when I’ve got xmas/credit card/mortgage/etc to pay off? We are ungrateful brutes for sure but to have it for something more practical would be nice!

I come off as awfully cheap I’m sure and apologise for long post. Reading through the thread I was thinking that I was lucky to work in bars in Europe, the tips weren’t great but at least I had enough to live on!

PS. My nightmare involving tipping is maths. Multiples of 10% only I’m afraid, everything else is too complicated!

I also come off as a total snob. Nature will out I suppose :(

yeah reading this thread the maths thing really jumped out. i wouldn’t know how to start working out 15% of anything, especially not while simultaneously trying to count change, concentrate on not forgetting bags/coats, and so on. i’m so glad we don’t have the tipping culture in the uk, it’s just the basic 10% at restaurants (more if the service was particularly good).

I love the no tipping culture in Iceland.

my hairdresser gets 33% tip, is that too much

Should I leave a cash tip for the cat sitters? I already paid the service but I want them to take extra good of my cats!!!

This thread makes me wonder if servers are more likely to give the full recommended donation at museums and such.

— the pony-poop paradox (n!t$u...), December 21st, 2006.

i don’t go to museums. i almost always give money to homeless people though. does that count?

yeah reading this thread the maths thing really jumped out. i wouldn’t know how to start working out 15% of anything, especially not while simultaneously trying to count change, concentrate on not forgetting bags/coats, and so on. i’m so glad we don’t have the tipping culture in the uk, it’s just the basic 10% at restaurants (more if the service was particularly good).

— lexpretend (lexusjee...), December 21st, 2006.

thanks. i needed one more reason to consider you an idiot.

here’s a hint. first calculate 10% of the bill. you can round doing this. consider $32.57 to just be $30. 10% would be $3. then, take half of that, which in this case would be $1.50. add that to the original 10% = $4.50.

What about picking up food? Say I’m getting take away burgers and the total is $25?

Sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t. If you guys say I’m crazy, I’ll stop.

Ok, here’s another:

My roommate just asked me to call her a cab, I asked where she was going, etc. She said that she expected the cab to cost $14, I told her I’d drive her for $8.

Do I get tipped?

You should get kicked for charging your roommate.

Last night ate out and the bill was 30 and change. . I tipped 6.50 and then felt bad b/c that seemed kind of chintzy right here at the holidays. I should’ve just gave her ten. :(

fezaffe, can we see the haircut in question first pls

We used to pay 15% tax in ontario (14 now)—which made figuring out tips super easy!

thanks. i needed one more reason to consider you an idiot.

...on the other hand i’m not on probation

Sam, you tipped over 20% — holidays or not, I do not want to live in a world where that’s something to feel bad about!

My newspaper delivery guy gave me a self addressed envelope with a happy holidays card with the NYT. What’s appropriate?

Shit, is there a tip db

pizza-delivery drivers:

How much do they get an hour from Dominos/Pizza Hut/etc.?

How many deliveries does the average pizza dude make in a busy hour?

Do they pay for their own gas?

A:

1) 30–35% (less if you’re poor or black)

2) One, if it’s you ordering apparently

3) No—you do.

...

my roommates and i started ordering the ny times recently (november-june, no sunday paper, student rate = $45 total). since we started getting it in november, we got a letter from the delivery person the first week about a christmas bonus, suggesting a tip of $1 a week, or $52. i don’t know what a year’s subscription at full price is, but given that it was the first week we’d gotten the paper, and our entire subscription cost less than $52, we decided not follow this suggestion.

unfortunately, then finals hit and we all moved out and completely forgot about the paper tip! aaah! we will have to do it when we get back in january. what’s appropriate?

Buh! Five bucks and a used copy of Miss Manners’ book, tops.

i’m really bad about tipping for haircuts but am good about everything else — i have easy to cut hair and am totally undemanding, so never sure rilly about how much to tip (+ prices vary totally with no regard to quality from place to place) and i always get the most confused at astor b/c you pay upfront and not to the particular barber, so i have no idea where to give the tip — if i give it first before going upfront, or give it upfront, or what. i always feel confused.

i get frustrated by a lot of waitstaff tho b/c i feel like i’m low-key and so they’re not super attentive or whatever — like just notice when i’ve got my arm sort of gently waving and take my order, and then notice it again when i want my check and otherwise whatever dude. even tho i always tip well, i feel like lots of places don’t have this very basic concept down and so you get waitstaff totally preoccupied with this or that more demanding table or issue instead of first just trying to keep orders and bills straight.

as this is bumped anyway, tipping question from a former big american tipper who is a bit clueless now that i live in the US.

valet parking came with my hotel room package (in chicago)...how much do i tip the dude that brings me my car tomorrow morning? and do i give it to him or the front desk (logic is that someone else parked it and they should share, or something?

A buck or two to the person who hands you the keys would be acceptable. And yes, it’s all shared, so you’re not just tipping him, but tipping everyone who participated in the parking and unparking of your car.

Should I leave a cash tip for the cat sitters? I already paid the service but I want them to take extra good of my cats!!!

If it was me, I would. I always tip more when I expect to use a service again, and would like people to think kindly of me. I realise this is a capitalist crime: using my money to get superior service, but I don’t care. I tip my hairdresser well because she cuts only my hair when she is dealing with me, she doesn’t flit off to talk to other clients, she doesn’t stand around chatting to other hairdressers, and she gets a great cut done quickly. That earns you a big tip in my book.

One of the nice things about working in a charity shop was that people kind of gave you tips, by putting money in the collection tin on the counter. So even though the charity got the money, we all got to feel like it was our good service that was getting that little bit extra for them.

Newspaper delivery people who hand out envelopes in anticipation of a holiday tip really, really get on my nerves. Am I the only one? I am a good tipper for other services.

i love that biz markie’s tip for waiters is “don’t drink and drive”

Okay, we just had a new refrigerator delivered and thanks to ILE’s consciousness-raising, I tipped the two guys $10 each.

at least two bucks for the valet but no more than three unless they did something extra (kept your expensive car close by, etc)

as this is bumped anyway, tipping question from a former big american tipper who is a bit clueless now that i live in the US.

Did I miss something? Have you moved back? Or do you mean now that you live in the UK?

The girl who used to cut my hair charges $20 for a straight haircut. I always tip her 7–10 dollars depending on how pleased I am with her work. The last time I went to her I gave her $40, expecting to break the other 20 for change, so I could tip her. She took the $40 and said “thanks.”

Haha SCAM.

I always specify when I give someone an extra bill like that that I want change back from it.

I did recently get completely gamed by a pizza deliveryman who seemed to refuse to understand that I wanted change from him (he did a very amusing “I no longer understand English” thing at which I point I just shrugged and let him keep it haha.)

this is going to sound ridiculous but I used to go to old school Italian barbers or a friend of friend who gave good styled $25 cuts. i’ve stopped playing russian roulette and now go to this quasi-salon which is not very pretentious at all, but I have to pay the cashier woman rather than the hair cutter person directly. considering that the tip is now significantly more, how do I know that the cashier isn’t pocketing it or that the salon isn’t keeping it? it seems gauche to slip it to the hair cutter directly, but i want her to know when she does a great job.

I had a dream last night that I was in some bar/restaurant in the U.S. talking to Tony Montana (!?) about guns (!?) and then when I went to pay (with a card) I couldn’t work out where to add in the tip (this happens in real life too) I asked the girl at the bar and then TM got really pissed off with me.

Mike, you can fold the tip bill into quarters and slip it to your stylist directly, hand to hand so it’s kind of covered? This is maybe unnecessarily secretive but I too find the public exchange of cash kind of...oogy, so I compromise. Usually just walk up quietly, say “thanks again” or something like that, and sliiiiiide it over.

If, tho, I’m tipping a beautician who has her hands busy with other customer (pedicure, etc) if I’m acquainted w/ someone from previous visits I put bill into apron pocket directly.

Mike, you can fold the tip bill into quarters and slip it to your stylist directly, hand to hand so it’s kind of covered

PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF CHRIST DO NOT DO THIS. It pissed me off every time someone did it—this is not The Sands circa 1962, you are not Dean Martin. Doubly bad when it’s a lousy tip.

What do you think one should do instead? Apart from stand in the middle of the salon and say, loudly, “HEY MISTY, I GOT YER TEN BUCKS OVER HERE WHEN YOU’RE DONE.”

I think a woman can do this to/for another woman but might understand why a man might feel emasculated either doing it or being the recipient.

this is not The Sands circa 1962

no, it’s a salon, present-day where that’s the usual way you tip someone

or you can put the tip in the little envelope and give it to the person behind the desk. i don’t see why you wouldn’t trust them—how many times are they going to get away with ‘no, s/he didn’t leave a tip’ when the stylist person comes asking?

wow. i thought i was a decent tipper but it turns out that except at restaurants, i am not. (i’ve quit going to a salon to get my hair cut anyway though. my roommate will do it over the bathroom sink for free,or a drink, and it comes out better than last time i got it done professionally. grrr.)

Leave tip at station when you get up to go back to the front. Discreet and safe (from sticky fingers). If I didn’t have change beforehand I guess I’d walk it back to the station.

But the only time I got cuts in a gen-u-ine salon I was dating a stylist and the tip was dinner.

In London your stylist/whatever always walks up with you to the till. Out of that tip they tend to give £1–2 to the ‘junior’ who washes your hair beforehand and sweeps up.

this doesn’t happen in the US, does it? i always tip them separately

I dunno—that would be like also tipping the dish-busser after a restaurant meal, when it’s the waitron’s call on slipping the busser $10 or whatevs at the end of a shift. According to my sis, the waitron.

Tonight went to happy hour with friend and we tipped as if full price on happy hour drinks and snacks. Server got $8 on $28 check.

i think i take my cue in this regard from my friend who got her hair cut by frederick fekkai, so maybe it doesn’t apply to my $30 neighborhood place

yes, it’s true. black people are the worst tippers.

Clearly you don’t have much experience waiting on the French, Dutch, German or Brits. Oh and Canadians! They are the ones that’ll sneak up on you: no strong accent—except the French-Canadians—and then at the end of the meal—BLAM! You get a credit card with the dreaded maple leaf.

I will always give each group of people consistent service because while I might suspect that a German or Black person might tip me poorly, I would only be guaranteeing that by favoring others who fit the good-tipping demographic.

At the salon where I get my hair cut, I pay with a credit card, and the person at the desk up front asks me, “Would you like to leave a tip?” And I say, “Yes.” And he says, “How much?”

Haha, once when I worked in a small hotel, a couple who had been staying all week had noticed that I had waited, cleaned their rooms, served behind the bar, covered reception etc. The wife collared me in the TOILETS (!) to slip me a £20 tip which I was not to share with anyone on the grounds that I seemed to be single-handedly running the place.

What do you guys think the undertipped ratio is as regards in-house service vs delivery in the food service industry? I’m not sure why, but my gut tells me in-house are usually more often undertipped than delivery people.

Not true at all! I delivered pizza for one of the big US chains when I was in college, and found that rather than a percentage, people tend to tip a specific dollar amount. Say the order was $20, you’d most likely get $2 from it. A lot of people don’t tip at all, specifically Born-Again Christians (though I now have a good collection of Chick tracts), poor whites, poor blacks, realtors, and office managers (when delivering to offices). It’s different being alone with someone on their turf—they can be as rude as they’d like and there’s no societal pressure on them to make themselves look good. You guys in restaurants had it easy. Five dollar tips were considered good. We would also have to pay for our own gas and car maintenance. For each delivery we took, we got $.50 for gas, which in many cases wouldn’t cover the distance there and back. To make up for this , we’d try to take more than one delivery at a time, if they’re both going in the same direction and ordered at the same time. Oh, and if the cook fucks up, I have to make a second delivery FOR FREE (though if you’re charming, you can turn a second-trip into a $5 tip). On a typical Saturday night, I’d make ~$75 for about 30 deliveries, putting about 105 miles on my car (but it’s stop-and-go driving, so I was getting the low end of my Camry’s fuel economy) so minus $12 for gas. And people ordered more and tipped less in bad weather. Fight nights and Bowl games were good, though.

While my single best tip ($50 for a $12 order) came from an older black lady who lived in a rough apartment complex), the best tippers tended to be single working mothers, liberals, fat people, and former servers/drivers. Drunk/stoned people were a mixed bag. I quickly learned the bartender trick: never carry coins or any bill larger than a one (if the bill is $15, and they hand you a twenty, you’re more likely to see something back if you don’t give them a $5).

Also, and I’ve mentioned this on a previous Mickey-complaining-about-tips thread, as a delivery driver I have had my car run off the road and into a guardrail, I have been mugged at gunpoint ($65 worth of tips gone), bitten by dogs, and threatened by more people who meant it than you could imagine.

to the tables who gave me really bad tips tonight after i gave them really bad service: i’m sorry. we were really understaffed tonight and i had way more work to do than i could possibly handle. i didn’t mean to give you poor tips. thanks for complaining to the manager about me. it’s nice to get feedback. no hard feelings, okay?

urgent tipping question: some guys are coming in an hour to clean and fix the gutters on our roof. $260 for the job. should we tip and if so how much??

― nice catch cuauhtemoc blanco niño (dayo), Tuesday, December 27, 2011 7:51 AM (32 seconds ago) Bookmark

count the leaves at the end give them a dollar for every gold leaf and take one away for every silver leaf and if the difference is more than fifty send them hang-gliding

a++

aye, it’s good hang-gliding weather this time of year, it’s true

Good joke, that

tipper rarely

Bring nationalism into it, that’ll surely help

xp you went a long way for that one