Tipping


Neuro

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I don't usually start topics, but having come back from a fortnight in California I thought I raise this interesting issue.

Read the Australians' dilemna: http://www.smh.com.au/travel/blogs/the-backpacker/when-it-comes-to-tipping-aussies-are-tightwads/20101101-179to.html

The whole tipping thing is awkward over in the States. I agree with the author of this article - how the hell do you tip moving targets such as bellmen or porters? If you buy a beer at the bar and don't tip, expect a torrent of abuse. On my trip I slipped them a one dollar note (about 75c) and felt very guilty. My vision had always been to only tip for service, i.e. food brought to the table and their helpfulness, not just giving me a beer or driving me to my desired location - and then only 10%, certainly not 20%!!. Very strange! Only those who have travelled to the US will empathise with me here, methinks :blink:

Having said that, the service industry in the US is far better than Europe; if you discard the fast-food outlets entirely, their restaurant service is impeccable, because they rely on tips to make up their basic wage to a livable amount. I like this. I means a superb meal, free tap water as soon as you sit down (and invisisbly refilled without you noticing throughout your meal, regardless of whether you're at a £100-a-head gaff or your local Chinese), nice friendly waiters who want to make your experience pleasurable, and invariably and attentive-yet-relaxed atmosphere.

I'd be interested on people's opinions on tipping.

What do you do in a restuarant over here? 10%? Do you ever increase or decrease this depending on the dining experience?

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Having worked in the catering industry I always tip, I also tip hairdressers, taxi drivers, and hotel chamber maids.

I use the 10% rule as a guideline but my tips mostly consist of a 'keep the change' attitude where I round up the cost. I do tip more for particularly good service and less for not so good service. And I do judge 'the service' as opposed to the whole business. I also check the bill as to whether service in included.

When I was waitressing etc we weren't allowed tips, and when I was housekeeping the same applied but now and

again people insisted on showing thier gratitude and that was a lovely feeling.

As a barmaid I never got tips but I did get bought many drinks and was taught that turning it down was offensive.

Apparently in America if you get bad service, you still tip but you leave your tip in an overturned glass of water.

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I leave tips when I go abroad, but never tip when I eat back here. The way I look at it is, they're running a business - they're making a profit on the meal otherwise they wouldn't be doing it and the staff work there for a salary - just like any other job. You wouldn't tip a member of staff in a shoe shop for bringing you a pair of shoes, so why tip someone for bringing you a meal that you've paid for. Nurses and doctors save peoples live - they're the people that deserve tips, but they don't get any - so it don't seem right to give someone a tip for bringing you a bowl of soup and pasta on a plate.

I do tip my barber because his prices are very low anyway compared to other barbers, and he treats all of his customers as if they're his friends. He's a really nice bloke, and working for himself, I know he's struggled through the recession.

I'd never tip taxi drivers because taxi fares are a rip-off anyway. They stick £2 on the meter before you even go anywhere, and then think that charging £10 for a 5 mile trip is reasonable.

Basically, i'll tip where I feel its appropriate. If someone is working for themself, offering a good service, yet still struggling to keep their business going, then i'll tip. If a company is blatantly making lots of money, and they're paying their staff to do a job anyway, then I wont tip.

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Now Doctors I wouldn't tip, they don't need the money. After a stay in hospital though, I would buy the nurses/midwives a big tin of chocs or biscuits, and alot of other people do too. They save them all up and share them out at Christmas amongst themselves. As so many people would be involved in a hospital stay, it would be offensive to tip the nurse the morning you left, the biscuits get shared within the appropriate people. Some people do give cash gifts to nurses tho..

Surgeons etc, well.. don't get me started on them, but they don't need tipping, and for sure half the time they don't deserve a tip anyway.

As for the Taxi drivers, I usually get quite good service from them, so I would tip, ie if they carry my shopping/pushchair in for me without huffing and puffing, if the journey was good. I got in a cab in Hampstead and asked how much it was to London Bridge, he told me £25+ so I asked how near he could get me for a tenner, he took me all the way there. Unfortunately as I only had a tenner, I couldn't tip! :) My Dad done Taxi driving for a bit when he was made redundant, he had to pay for his medical, and Hackney Carriage license, and he would have been conscientous. Tips made his day. It sosts me nearly £3 to go 2 miles on the bus here, that's a bloody rip off. Not even a nice journey, when you do manage to get a seat.

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Always tip for food service, never for drinks, surely?

And if the food or service has been crap, then either leave it off of reduce it significantly. Simples. :)

I don't like places where they assume you will pay for the extra 12.5% and it's already on the receipt as often that money just gets absorbed into the restaurant and not into the waiters' coffers.

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Interesting article and I have never really thought about tipping "moving targets." I never even knew it was custom anywhere to tip bar staff but this does explain why I got a very angry rant from a barman in Berlin in the summer. I'd ordered a round coming to over 50 euros and paid by credit card as I was out of cash. He had a go at me saying "do you not know it's rude not to tip." I thought maybe he was just trying it on but in my view I had spent alot of money for a round in his bar and as a group we were putting loads of money in his tills. Why should we then be handing over extra cash to the staff. I totally agree with comments that it's the manager/owner's responsibility to pay the staff a fair wage. Drinks cost so much money these days there's no way I can afford to be tipping bar staff as well. In your own local where you know the staff and they take time to chat to you and are friendly, fair enough offer to buy them a drink or say keep the change once in a while. If you've had a load of drinks and the staff are too busy to have collected your glasses, help them out by collecting them up and returning them to the bar. In my experience this goes down pretty well in the UK and I've never felt any expectation to tip but perhaps this is a custom over in Germany where I was or in the U.S although I have never been there.

I tend to leave the 10% tip or there abouts in a restaurant but thats about it. At the end of the day I work very long days doing a pretty thankless job most of the time for a pretty low wage but that is my choice and I see it the same for any job really. If you've given impecable service then it's nice to receive that bit of extra gratitude but we should all work that way as standard and not expect anything extra for it. It makes my day when a client writes a nice email to my boss about me or occasionally I'll receive a thankyou card but I would never expect a tip. These people have paid a lot of money for the service I and my company have provided and it's not their fault if my company takes a huge profit and pays me a relatively measley amount of that money. That's just reality and people should just deal with it.

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I always tip the chap who washes my hands in the toilets on a night out. First met him during freshers week of uni last year and he was so friendly and even remembered me next time I went in. A year on and we are good friends now, so I will always throw him a pound, he will give me a spray of his best aftershave and I get a lollypop too. I did ask him once if he actually made plenty of money doing it, and he said he makes shit loads!!!

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