Yeah, I've got your damned tip right here!

[wolf]

Originally posted by sycamore
Back in my PR days (that's pre-Rho), I would try to be all smooth and shit. If I was getting good service by a cute waitress, when I signed the bill, I would leave my phone number under my signature (even though it was unrequired). Never got a call though...*snaps his fingers*

You clearly didn't leave a big enough tip ...

I do agree that the server can make or break one's impression of a restaurant. There are quite a few places that I've gotten an entirely different impression of, just by having a different member of the wait staff.

I don't have a problem with tipping, and typically do so at the 20-25% level ... there was this one time, though ... I was with friends at the wyndham franklin plaza in Phila for a sci fi convention. we ate in the hotel atrium restaurant because it was more convenient, and got badly snubbed by a gay waiter. I understand that this is part of his job (the snubbing, I mean)... and we WERE dressed for the con. But his assumption that he would get a shitty tip affected his ability to provide service ... we watched how he handled the table of businessfolk next to us ... it WAS just how he was dealing with us as con participants. Told the little bastard off at the end of the meal too ... showed him how much he WOULD have gotten if he had provided us the same level of service that he did to the business suit crowd and then exact changed him. I doubt that this made any difference in his behavior. I haven't been back there since.

I also take issue with the mandatory 15-18% tip for large parties ... left to our own devices, the folks I hang out with would tip WAY over that amount. But when they lump it in like that, as though it's an expectation rather than a bonus ... fuck 'em. they get what they write down on the check.

A question for all (and I know that there is someone on here that's working for a coffee cafe of some kind) ...

What do you think of tipping folks at what are essentially fast food establishments (I'm talking starbucks type places ... counter service, they dole out the product, you take it) and wander off, don't stay in the store for any real length of time, no table service). Do these folks deserve tips? I'm thinking not, since they are working in a fast food environment. I don't tip the guy that turned over my Big Mac on the grill and assembled it ... why should the barrista get tipped?