When should you tip a waiter or waitress?

[MadMojoMonkey]

[x] for all but offensive service

If you're in America, and you sit down to eat, or you have food delivered to you, you should tip. These jobs generally pay minimum wage or less, and the workers who take these jobs are relying on tips as part of their wage.

UNLESS: The server/delivery person has been grossly negligent in their roll of customer servant. Bad/cold/late food is probably not their fault, and punishing them by docking their wages for something they can't control is being petty.

IN WHICH CASE: If you decide to NOT tip, you should have a good reason, that the manager should want (and need) to hear in order to ensure positive customer experiences in the future. I mean, if you're offended enough to avoid adding a measly ~$5 to your bill, then the offense must be noteworthy, right?

If the service is REALLY terrible, you can tip $0.01 just to make your point to the server.

[spoonitnow]

If you're in America, and you sit down to eat, or you have food delivered to you, you should tip.

Tipping everyone regardless of the level of service defeats the point of the tipping system and brings down the overall level of service for everyone.

[a500lbgorilla]

Tipping everyone regardless of the level of service defeats the point of the tipping system and brings down the overall level of service for everyone.

Managers and Owners have no mechanism to keep the standards of service high other than customer feedback through tipping?

[spoonitnow]

Managers and Owners have no mechanism to keep the standards of service high other than customer feedback through tipping?

I'm personally in favor of removing tipping completely and relying on managers and owners like you've mentioned. I think that this would be a better system than allowing customers to influence it with the size of their tips since tip sizes are usually based on a wide range of things instead of the level of service (much like you indicated with your earlier post).

[a500lbgorilla]

I'm personally in favor of removing tipping completely and relying on managers and owners like you've mentioned. I think that this would be a better system than allowing customers to influence it with the size of their tips since tip sizes are usually based on a wide range of things instead of the level of service (much like you indicated with your earlier post).

I see what you're saying. If the customers seek out good services and tips are dropped, wages should rise to find people willing to deliver good service to customers. Or wages for managers will rise to see who can best motivate their work staff to achieve the standard.

But if wages rise for an industry with a low bar for entry like food service, there will be more competition for those good wages. And wages will drop.

Then people will be forced to choose between working hard for low pay or working elsewhere for low pay.

Until someone comes up with the notion to subsidize their payroll even further on the generosity of others and institutes tipping.

With the incentive to deliver good service, high skill surplus workers compete for these higher paying positions, and the restaurant is full of high quality staff and is likely to succeed.

Other high wage restaurants see an opportunity to subsidize their payrolls on the rubes and move towards lower pay, tipping-focused models. Innovation through bill-inflation.

Someone really needs to find a way to turn work in the food service industry into a personal investment. A career path kind of thing.

edit: If you could cover the costs of higher education through hard work in the food service industry, we'd have this problem licked!

[kiwiMark]

I'm personally in favor of removing tipping completely and relying on managers and owners like you've mentioned. I think that this would be a better system than allowing customers to influence it with the size of their tips since tip sizes are usually based on a wide range of things instead of the level of service (much like you indicated with your earlier post).

Seems to work perfectly fine in NZ (not tipping as a pretty much standard, I mean) and has the added bonus that any rapport with the wait staff doesn't feel so much like using an escort service.