because you want to or feel like you have to? I met up with my sister yesterday evening for a early dinner in College Station. The food was good, not great, and not bad either. But the servise sucked. I could understand if the place was over crowded and super busy. It was not. Our waitress spent most of the evening at another table flirtng. She came back around once as our food was brought out to check on us. I asked for more tea. She left and made her rounds to the other tables not to return to us till we got the bill. I flagged down another waitress to refill the drinks and she basicly took care of us the rest of the evening. I got the bill and on the tip line put a big -0-. My sister put five dollars on the table which I picked up and gave to the waitress that actually took care of us. There have been times I left a tip for bad service because I felt I had to. Now I'm to the point of screw them. If they can not take their job seriously they are out of luck.
It's the American way! Seriously, our tipping system needs to be re-evaluated and this has been the case for a LOOOONG time. If you go to other countries, you'll find that if you leave a tip, they'll chase you down to give you back your money, lol.
Most servers get paid less than minimum wage and are living off of tips. I generally tip more than 20% because I figure a couple extra bucks probably means more to the server than myself. But with blatantly awful service I will make a point to either leave a penny or nothing, much like the scenario you proposed. This in hopes they get the message, not because I look down on them which sounds like your current stance...
I tip because people feel entitled and can be assholes to waiters. I go out my way to not give the wait staff a hard time. As long as I get my food and its edible, I'm fine. I don't need to be baby'd and tended on at all times like others. I swear, every time I go eat with my friends, they are always complaining about something. So embarrassing.
It's true that most servers are paid less than minimum wage. But if they didn't get tipped, the employer would have to pay them enough to meet the minimum wage. That being said, I almost always tip around 20%. If the service is just okay, I'll drop it down to 15%. If the service is awful, I'll either give a tip that's the monetary equivalent of a slap in the face, or nothing at all.
If I'm a regular at a place, I'll leave a "don't spit in my food" gratuity. Even if it's to go, if they remember my face, I don't want to give them any reason to do the Horatio Sanz/Road Trip treatment.
the real question should be why do people split tabs when in small groups (2-4)? I know why but it's not very classy. Spoiler
We all need to do the Dick Solomon nethod of tipping: <iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/V1ZZWhSvOMI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
They get paid next to nothing, they literally depend on tips to make money. And at the end of they day, if they didn't get a lot of tips essentially they have to pay out of pocket to pay the busboys, bartenders, and host. Even when I receive terrible service I do leave a tip, it just might not be as generous if the service was top notch.
out of curiousity which place in CS? You know for a college town you would think we would have better places to eat like Austin does, but its really disappointing at our lack of variety and good places. I know Bryan has them. There is one place I refuse to goto due to terrible service, and that is Rosie's Fo.
Black guilt and the wage thing. Particularly if these people live in large cities, I don't understand how they make rent or, with a presumably variable and extended work schedule, get job training or education of any kind to advance economically.
10% if bad. 0% atrocious. 15% if average. 20% if good or better. They don't get paid otherwise, someone has to pay them. Speaking of tipping, was it just my friends, or does every 13 year old boy leave massive tips to any blonde waitress?
not their fault that the restaurants they own won't pay them. I'd rather pay more for the food than have to tip.
Because it's the right thing to do. Most bust themselves to take care of you and I tip based on service. Great-25%-20% Decent-20%-18% Terrible- 2 dollars. Rude beyond words- nothing. But that has only happen twice. Regardless I usually still tip. Mostly on the basis that I hear from my gf who is a waitress on all the horror stories of how disgusting humans can be to people that wait on them. The fact that they live on tips also plays a big part. The only thing I never knew was that you tip people at Sonic. Have never tipped because I didn't know you we're suppose to. Feel bad for never tipping.