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Yesterday was not a very good tips day. One woman outright stiffed me on an order...which doesn't make a whole lot of sense, given that she was working in one of the biggest building complexes in town. It's not like she couldn't afford three frigging dollars for a fifteen dollar order. By the end of the day, I had made about $6, when if people had tipped 15%, I should have made $18. Poo. I was so annoyed that I finally went ahead and wrote a 500-word editorial to send in to the local paper. Maybe they'll run it, I dunno. Either way, it made me feel better.

An interesting discussion on tipping.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

tryptophan.livejournal.com

While I generally try to tip, I also recognize that tips are not MANDATORY. A tip says "you've done a good job for me". To me, tips are a bonus, I don't think you should be calculating how much you "should have" made if people didn't "stiff" you and be pleased with what you did make. If tips are that big a portion of your pay, you should see if the company will factor them into the cost of product or delivery.

From:

robotech-master.livejournal.com

I make either $3.50 or $3 an hour, depending on whether I work daytime or nighttime hours. But I'm taxed on minimum-wage, which is about $2 an hour more. That's the way these jobs work—I'm considered to be employed by both the delivery service and the customer, so half of my salary is supposed to come from each one.

So if someone doesn't tip me, I'm essentially paying to wait on them. That doesn't sit well.

Despite what people say, a Cornell study has shown that there is actually very little correllation between quality of service and size of tip (http://www.news.cornell.edu/Chronicle/96/5.16.96/tipping.html).

Lynn said the amount of the bill is still the dominant factor influencing how much tip one leaves and how much money a server earns.

The study's findings, Lynn believes, suggest that tipping may not be the incentive for excellent service that restaurant managers believe it is.

"Managers assume that servers are motivated to perform well to get good tips, so management doesn't make any effort to modify service performance," he said. "They don't give additional incentives for providing good service because they assume the tip is a sufficient incentive. Well, this study shows that's not the case."

I give great customer service. I've polished my customer service skills over four years of grueling retail work. But in most cases, the people have already decided what they're (not) going to tip me before I ever get there.

Trying to factor that into cost of delivery wouldn't work. Delivery already costs $5.25 to $6.75, depending on where the deliveree lives...and though customers may assume I'm getting part of that, I'm not seeing a penny of it. It's going to maintain the fleet of delivery vehicles owned by the company, as well as to provide them with the portion of my salary that they pay and to let them make a profit to stay in business. And the food already is charged at restaurant rates, with profits to them built in as well. I don't think they could raise the prices any more and stay in business.

I was raised not even to question that you always tipped at least 15% unless the service was lousy—not that you don't tip unless the service was exemplary. My parents taught me that it's just a cost you factor into eating somewhere from the beginning, like sales tax. I wish more people felt that way.

From:

tryptophan.livejournal.com

I suppose thing are a little different here. Minimum wage in BC is $8/hour. You make that regardless. In addition, I already pay 14% sales tax before I tip, more if I drink. To this end, I generally tip 10%, more if service was really, really good and zip if the service was lousy. I'm also surprised the Labour Relations Board (or state equivalent)allows companies to pay less than minimum wage with the assumption that the employee will make up the difference in tips.

From:

izzylobo.livejournal.com

Waitstaff in the US are a weird category of employee, because tipping is so ingrained into the culture, so the wage laws are weird around them - and it varies a lot (fast food places pay minimum, or more; delivery places sometimes pay less, sometimes pay more. Waitstaff are almost always paid less, although three bucks an hour is pretty low).

How much I tip generally depends on the situation. In most cases, I tip twice the tax - which in Rochester means a 16% tip, *for a sitdown meal*. For other stuff - it depends a lot. Pizza and sub delivery generally get a buck plus the change part of the change, two bucks if it was fast service - otoh, when a friend was doing pizza delivery, for Pizza Hut, he was averaging six-seven deliveries an hour, and making seven bucks an hour from the Hutt, not counting a mileage per diem to cover normal wear and tear/gas/whatever on his car.

Other places that deliver get larger tips for the delivery guy, depending on the service, and the cost of the meal. I will admit I don't tip delivery guys as much as sit-down. OTOH, I'm also not expecting as much from them - get me my food, on time or early, without killing anyone.

If it's wrong, it's not your fault, and I don't take it out on you (and if the food is wrong in a restaurant, it *is*, to an extent, the wait-unit's fault - a really good waitstaff can look at a tray of meals, know exactly what table it's for (even if he or she is managing a dozen tables), who gets which plate, and what, if anything, is missing, or incorrect. Alas, such service is *really* hard to find these days). Although, otoh, if it's wrong, I expect it to be fixed, quickly, without hassle (unless I just don't care - If I ordered Chicken Makhani, and got Chicken Tikka, it really doesn't matter. If half my order is missing - that's another thing).

From:

artmomz.livejournal.com

I don't think anyone can truly grasp it until they've done it themselves. And there are always *other* factors to the equation too. Such as a case of poor management:

For example, I worked at Shoney's once...and the night manager decided to give me a section that she knew was too big for me to handle during one of their known rush hours. There were a lot of upset customers that night, and to top it off..she decided to chew me out in front of the whole store for not being able to cover it all. I never had a problem with her prior, but it was also known that I was leaving them soon to go work for UPS (which pays tons better than Shoney's).

I ended up walking out that night...a move that totally goes against my personality. I did end up tell my customers goodbye first. (That was the best part of the night actually...some of them decided to tip me right then & there before I left. :o)

But you know, the managers are getting fully paid for the services from the establishment. If they do a poor job of managing, it doesn't directly effect their income then & there.