Andre Roberson Leaves a less than expected tip in ATX

Sure - if you're looking at one specific instance, you'll have a lot of variation. But over the course of thousands of tables, all that stuff is going to average out. At the end of the day, 2 people work at the same restaurant for a year. The one who provides better service is going to end up making more money than the one that doesn't. That's the incentive - it's not about any one specific table or situation. That's also what incentives good service across the board, rather than just to certain tables of people one might stereotype as the type to tip well.

 

I leave a tip usually underneath one of those dishes on the table

 

It's not that simple.

I just came back from a restaurant where they were undermanned. The servers were overworked and understandably the service wasn't very good.

Should I tip well for their hard work, thereby paying a high price for bad service, or should I tip little, thereby punishing the servers for a fault not theirs? The only beneficiaries of the American tipping system are the owners, not the customers, not the servers.

 

Then the restaurant will suffer in reduced customers and reduced sales. That has nothing to do with relative service quality.

Service quality is relative to the other waitstaff and environment- it controls for all those things. If the server is in a crappier job, they will tend to move away to better opportunities so only the worst servers will be there. Poor systemic problems result in failure for the restaurant.

In your example, within the known crappy environment, a good server will still make more money than a bad server over an extended period of time. Of course they would make more within a better restaurant too, but that's irrelevant to the service quality factor which they can control. That's no different than an employee of a good, successful company making more money than an employee of a bad, failing control, regardless of if the employee is the reason for that success or failure.

Many servers disagree, which means either you are wrong, or you somehow know what's better for all these people than they do. Perhaps, like most anything else, the answer is somewhere in between - the tipping system benefits some servers and hurts others.

 

There has been research done.

"Although tipping culture may be beneficial to servers, the practice isn’t exactly fair. As Freakonomics radio host Stephen Dubner points out in “Should Tipping be Banned?”, tips that servers receive correlate to their race, attractiveness, and other discriminatory factors."

That tipping has a large correlation with service is mostly a myth. It does to some degree but nowhere as much as proponents claim. Race and attractiveness are far higher factors.

 

Hate to break it to you, but unfortunately, race and attractiveness lead to higher pay in many corporate jobs as well.

 

The point of tipping in the minds of some proponents is that it rewards and incentivizes better service. Research shows otherwise. It was a response to those who make this claim that it is just not true.

Your larger point is also true but does nothing to refute but rather supports that US tipping system has little to do with good service in most cases and thus cannot be supported on that basis.

 

You mean like promotions and raises at a corporate job should be based purely on performance/results? It's the same thing brotha, on different scales.

 

If tipping can't really be defended on the basis of rewarding superior service (because research shows it is based on race and looks), then at least understand what you're defending, for those who defend the US tipping system.

Keep in mind I was responding to Major who made that claim and then you jumped in. So even if you already knew that tipping isn't really related to service qualify, he and others clearly believed it. My comment was made to Major and others who have this mistaken impression. If you never had it then you were not the target of my remarks.

 

I am not here to defend the US tipping system. I'm neither for nor against it. All I've been saying is that this is the current system that is in place and EVERYONE knows it. Either tip like expected, or get all your food/drinks from the grocery store, or McDonald's. Until people who care enough to get the system changed (not me) get the gratuity/employee wages built into the bill, then deal with it.

 

Except that this is the problem. Everyone is criticizing Roberson but it's not obvious that he was a bad tipper. I can see his POV.

For Roberson, it's not really obvious that you are supposed to leave an extra big tip for a single bottle that the server just hands over to you AFTER he left a $200 tip on a previous $100 tab to that server.

Roberson looked at it as one tab. That would make it $100+$500=$600. He felt his $200/$600=33% tip was more than generous. He did not feel he needed to add to the tip for just being handed a bottle and his previous tip should have covered it.

Now you can claim that it was a new tab and I understand that. But I also understand why Roberson POV that it is equivalent to if he split it, say, to two $100 tips instead.

 

That's assuming you believe Roberson. I haven't followed the story close enough after initial details, but did he post the first check where he tipped $200 on $100, or are you just taking his word for it? And I have a VERY hard time believing the same bartender would put him on blast if that was really the case. Wouldn't the bartender be happy with a 33% tip? Even if it were multiple people serving him (and his boys), whoever posted the receipt would have known about the $200 on $100 tip.

Also, do you realize that bar he was at doesn't do bottle service? His reasoning is even worse there... 'it's not like it was a club'... so he's basically saying if he got bottle service at a club, he would have tipped. But if he got a bottle from a place that doesn't sell bottles, then it's all good. None of his explanations make sense.

Occam's razor - Roberson is a cheap **** that is trying to save face.

edit before I go to bed: please take a look at the menu below and let me know if you're still buying what Roberson is selling:

http://www.chupacabracantina.com/drinks/

 

Regardless of his previous tip, the main point stands. If all a bartender does is sell and hand you a bottle in a couple minutes of "service", is it really obvious that you are supposed to give him $100 to do so?

I can understand a sit down $500 dinner with several people where the server takes several orders, brings trays of food and drinks, is constantly refilling drinks and checking up and takes away everything at the end after a couple of hours a $100 tip is justifiable.

If a server is mixing and serving drinks at your table, I understand it as well.

But it's not obvious that I should pay $100 for just being handed a bottle!

There is reddit thread on this:

One person wrote:

So when you say everyone knows the tipping system, well clearly that's not true. Even among bartenders, his position is supported that no you don't need to hand over $100 to a bartender to just sell and hand over one bottle, even a $500 bottle.

You say Roberson was knowingly being cheap. But there isn't universal consensus on that even amongst bartenders.

 

This tipping thing is too complicated

Rocket River

 

this board is cheap as hell. That dude should have tipped at least 15%. This has become the custom here. If you want good service, you tip appropriately. If you want people to spit in your stuff, you tip 2% lol.

 

I remember serving Patrick Ewing when he was an assistant coach at Pappa's Seafood and his bill was 390 and he left me a 7 dollar tip.

 

They only people that tip well are folks who have worked in the industry of know people that do.

 

Did the waiter constantly check on him, offer to pour his drinks, etc?

I mean I get he ordered a few expensive items there is still service after the item has been delivered and with the way our tipping culture is, that's the only way waiters are getting paid.

Also Roberson makes like 100x more than most of us. Sometimes we compare these guys to us and how we would handle that situation but most of us aren't spending $500 bucks at the bar on two or three things on a regular basis.

 

this is ridiculous
1. it's his money he can do as he please.. just because he is rich doesnt mean he has to tip well on everything... if he did he'd be bankrupt quickly
2. Servers expectation are out of control. You see a ball player you are expecting to get paid?
3. People commenting and complaining about this man tips is trying to spend someone elses money, it is easier to say but when it is is your money it becomes hard.
4. Those how want him to pay crazy amounts of tips are out of touch with the value of a buck.
5. I understand the service industry, i worked in it for a long time. The best way to get more money is be a consistent server and be genuine.
6. a Tip is a Tip is a Tip - is is voluntary. The idea is to keep the servers in check in providing good service, not bad service.
7. This man should be fired, because as a server you represent your company, I would never go to this place if I was always afraid that someone is going to call out my information out to the public.

 

Except the "service" we are talking about is handing over a $500 bottle over the bar counter.

Not sure that is worth $75 fee. He said he already paid a good tip while he was waited on and closed the tab. Then he decided he wanted to just buy a bottle instead of getting more service.

If you're just handing over a bottle from the shelf, I could see how paying over $75 to do it seems excessive. Many bartenders agree and said that if you're just selling and handing over a bottle, it's unreasonable to expect $75-$100 just for doing that.