Reply With QuoteHow long has this been bugging you, Brian?
Regularly the service you receive at a restaurant is...
1: Reservation (if applicable)
2: Seating
3: Drink Order (if applicable)
4: Drink Transport, Meal Order
5: Meal Transport
6: 1 or 2 Checkbacks (drink refills, plate removal, etc)
7: Dessert Order
8: Dessert Transport
9: Bill
For this the regular tip is 15% of the Bill (even if only #3-#9 are counted).
I'm wondering about the Tipping Etiquette at a Buffet Restaurant. This happens there...
1: Seating
2: Drink Order, Buffet Ordered
3: Drink Transport
4: 1 or 2 Checkbacks (plate removals, drink refills, etc)
5: Bill
The long process for the waiter is the meal order, which occurs very quickly at a Buffet Restaurant. Also, since the waiter is only transporting drinks and not the meals, there is very little interaction with the kitchen, unlike a traditional meal. It seems to me that a Buffet Waiter does about half the work of a Traditional Waiter, maybe less.
Logically, its wrong to give a 15% tip. 5-10% seems more in line.
How long has this been bugging you, Brian?
If you tip at the hometown buffet, you are retarded.
I'm glad I live in a country that doesn't require tipping.
Do you tip at McDonalds? You don't have to be Mr Pink to figure it out: sometimes you don't have to tip.
If the waitress actually brings me drinks and checks on me, I tip her a couple of bucks. If she just shows me where to sit, I don't.
Oh, and also, I don't eat at Home Town Buffet. They're nasty.
You're serious? No tipping down under? How do the waitresses make a living or is it all just serve yourself?Originally Posted by Sean Tudor
My sister almost got fired from accepting tips at McDanalds.
The waitstaff are paid a higher base wage. The restaurant makes up for the increased labor cost by charging more for the food.
Talk about last of the big time spenders...
If it's a nicer buffet where the waiter checks in on you regularly, I leave a 10% tip. If it's your Hometown Buffet type of deal, then nothing.
I haven't eaten at the Hometown Buffet in a while(and only like once or twice. Not very tasty), but I don't remember there being a waiter there. There's a host who tells you where to sit, but I vaguely remember serving myself drinks and shit.
They earn a wage like everyone else. There is no tipping at all. Except by American tourists who don't know any better. :wink:You're serious? No tipping down under? How do the waitresses make a living or is it all just serve yourself?
The vast majority of countries don't tip. Certainly not in any meaningful way, because waitresses make a standard wage. Tipping in non-American countries is usually more for the customer's benefit. You leave a few coins behind just so you don't seem like a tightwad. You know, the kind of foul, lumbering American hulk who would sit in an all-you-can-eat-buffet, loudly snorting and with visible smell waves oscillating away from his body, as a teenage mother crab-walked up to replace the steam tray of Chicken Parmesan that he'd just engorged himself with, and think to himself, "This girl doesn't deserve the extra fifty cents I would have tipped a real waitress." *
The American tipping system works really well for some people. I know Europeans are mystified by it, somehow considering it indicative of the oppression of the lower-classes that happens under the Bush Administration, but I had a friend who was merely a bus girl but at one of the most expensive and widely acclaimed restaraunts in Boston. When she was 18, she was taking home like 700 or 800 dollars a week in tips, on average. That was like 10 years ago - today, it would probably be almost double that. That's more than any waitress at any restaraunt would likely make in Ireland. On the other hand, there's a lot more waitresse trying to eke out quarters from tightwads like Koontz than there are opportunities like the one my friend received.
[size=2]* - Jesus, Koontz, you disgusting fuck - who the hell writes some smarmy pseudo-ethical post about throwing someone an extra buck or two? I know you're a small-brained man with a large appetite on a shut-in's income, hence the McGorgeme Buffets, but you really can't tip a buck or two higher to a girl who likely makes less than 3 dollars an hour?[/size]
Ben, you're serving yourself shit? Don't let the republican self-hate consume you!! :)
I'm pretty sure Thrrrpptt! is right. 10% is apparently the general rule at buffets as long as the server handles the drinks, does a good job on checkbacks, and is not MIA when you're ready to leave. "Showing you a table" is not enough to warrant a tip all by itself.
If you mean buffet in the "Great Wall Of China" sense of the word - where you pay at the counter, seat yourself, get your own drinks and food, and basically get no service - then you don't tip a dime. That's no different from McDonalds.
The one weird exception to tipping rules that I know of is Fazoli's - I've actually never gotten a definitive answer on whether you tip there or not. Yes it's basically fast food, but servers come around to offer you breadsticks and do checkbacks, so in that sense it seems they should be tipped a little. However, I have never tipped a person there, nor have I seen anyone else do it, nor do I see the local Fazoli's staffed by nothing but disgruntled servers who hate all the cheap-ass customers who keep stiffing them on tips. So I guess it isn't necessary there... or is it?
Tip jars are showing up everywhere and it kind of annoys me. There are tip jars at Starbucks, at the donught shop, at the ice cream shop, at the little coffee kiosk on my way in from the train station, etc. I don't necessarily begrudge them for trying, but if you don't provide any kind of service beyond mixing/assembling what I order and handing it to me, you don't really deserve a tip. And I'm not going to feel bad about not giving you one.
I'll just vote "Yes" on any propositions that raise minimum wage or increase worker benefits instead.
Speaking as somebody who has had innumerable service industry jobs over the course of my wayward lifetime: if you can't afford to tip, perhaps you should cook for your own damn self.
________
Home Made Vaporizer
Last edited by madkevin; 02-18-2011 at 07:57 PM.
What about delivery guys? I generally tip them $1 per item, but I have no idea if that's good or bad.
It depends if they are driving a company car or not. Seriously.
I delivered pizzas in college to pay the bills, and the income is pretty darn good for a part time job. Right up until your car needs $500-$1000 in repairs from all the wear and tear. The people who drive company-owned vehicles don't have that expense and hence don't need to be tipped to the same degree in order to have the same income as a person driving their own vehicle. Sure the company gives delivery people who drive their own vehicles some pittance for mileage but that generally just covers gas. Extra tip money is needed to offset repair costs.
All delivery people should be tipped for on-time deliveries or harsh-weather deliveries, but it should be bumped a notch for the people doing it in their own cars.
madkevin, don't you mean, "You should go get your own food and drinks". I can't think of the last time I tipped the cook.
Chet
I usually just round up to the nearest $5. On Friday night I ordered two large pizzas that came to $31.xx. I just gave the delivery guy $35 and didn't ask for any change.
I tip quite generously when I get good service -- often as much as 20-25%, but that's only at formal (read "not fast food") restaurants. I don't tip at buffets (unless the waitress repeatedly comes back to check on me, refill my drink, etc.), nor do I tip at coffee/donut shops, or anywhere else that puts a tip jar next to the cash register where one wasn't warranted five or ten years ago.
I don't tip my barber either, and my mother and sister gave me hell when I told them that -- is that a normal practice? Actually, I think the only people I tip are waiters/waitresses, delivery guys, cabbies, and bartenders. I've never stayed at a hotel fancy enough to have a bellhop carry my luggage to my room, but I'd probably tip him in that case.
Like Nick, I paid my way through college by delivering pizzas. And yes, you should tip delivery people, since they're usually busting their ass to get your food to you quickly. I made good money, but I worked hard (running from car to door, hurrying to pack the orders for delivery) and almost got mugged a couple of times.
$1 per item is a decent tip. I usually tip two dollars and change (i.e., rounding up to the nearest dollar, then adding two more on top of that), unless it's a particularly big order.
No, most people tip their stylists/barbers, though I've never really understood why. I really embarassed myself as a teenager when I started to go get my hair cut by myself and didn't know you were supposed to tip. My parents had always stealthily tipped for me when I was younger and I never picked up on it. I couldn't figure out why the stylist I had been using started giving me the cold shoulder and was really reluctant to "fit me in" for an appointment.
My typical tip for a "Supercuts" place is $4-$5, though I think I may be overcompensating for the above gaffe. At more expensive salons and with more expensive services (perm, coloring, etc.) my wife sometimes uses, though, the usual tips can get well over the $10 range.
Thrrpptt! was cutting his own hair and didn't tip himself?
Yeah, the tip jars at coffee shops and the like have always mystified me, and I work in one. When I waited tables I was busting my ass for those tips, and I deserved them. But at a coffee shop, my job is to get your coffee. All I did was turn around and get it. Why do I deserve a tip for that? I don't know.
I do tip the folks at Cold Stone sometimes though, because they have such a weird method of portioning that I feel guilty about not doing it. Has anyone else noticed this? Almost without fail you order a small portion, or a medium, and the guy goes nuts with the mix-ins until there is no way the ice cream will even fit into a small. We're almost always given a bigger size just because they have no portion control, so I tip because I feel like I'm getting something for free.
Sooner or later Cold Stone is going to have to address this portioning issue.
-Amanpour
I'd prefer they don't addresss the issue. Last time I went I ended up with mroe brownie than I did ice cream. Mmmmhhh.
Does anyone know a proper tipping practice for getting a tattoo? My girlfriend and I have figured $10 an hour to be good. Maybe tipping isn't even something that commonly happens for tattoo artists. To me it makes sense. Maybe I'm alone in this line of thought.
Any good restaurant/bar will split the tips between wait staff, bar staff, security (in the case of nightclubs) and kitchen staff. Not all of these are weighted the same, but the cook should get a cut. So, when you're tipping people, you're tipping everybody involved, not just the waitress. Theoretically, anyway.
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Ecigarettes
Last edited by madkevin; 02-18-2011 at 07:57 PM.
Indeed. Additionally, the IRS figures taxes on tips using 15% of sales instead of the ol' Claim What Ya Got method. Double the tax on your meal and go for it. I usually tip 20% if I get good service, 15% if it's adequate. I'm generous as long as it's all good. Mr. Pink's point about it not being his problem is theoretically valid, since there's no law demanding you be courteous to anyone ever. But, thanks to tax laws, you're costing your server money by havin gthem serve you and shortchanging them. Giving enough to break even is one thing, but penalizing someone for serving you is fucking reprehensible. The IRS sucks, but if you want to fight them, don't eat in restaraunts. If you can't handle tipping someone, go eat at Arby's. I don't eat in crazy buffets, but I'd figure 10% is ok due to the high customer count and relatively lower service-per-customer demands.Any good restaurant/bar will split the tips between wait staff, bar staff, security (in the case of nightclubs) and kitchen staff. Not all of these are weighted the same, but the cook should get a cut. So, when you're tipping people, you're tipping everybody involved, not just the waitress. Theoretically, anyway.
As a corollary to what madkevin said: due to that tip distribution (which is common), there should be no excuse for bad service. I've had servers blame the cook. I tell them they should consider tipping out the cook better, and stiff them. I'll talk to the manager, too. I'm rarely irate, I just explain that I used to work in the service industry, shit happens sometimes, it happened this time, what are you going to do about it? It's rare though. I ate at a Friday's where they tried to serve my girlfriend her meal but not mine, literally 30 seconds after we got our appetizer. I told them that we didn't order just one meal and made them take it back. So, it sat under the heat lamp and came out with my (wrong) order. Manager time, free drinks and appetizers, zero irateness.
I only ever see bellhops in the movies. It sounds like you tip based on whether you see people getting tips in the movies. How long before service industry starts soliciting producers/directors to show movie leads tipping for atypical services.
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