Bad service. To tip or not to tip, that is the question. You're having a nice meal and enjoying yourself. Suddenly your waiter/waitress gets snooty, rude or abusive. What do you do?
Some people would still leave a tip, while others might cut the tip in half. Others might forget the tip entirely. So what would you do?
People who get tipped, depend on those tips as part of their income. Without tips some of these people are not making a living. But when the service isn't provided…It's a complicated issue.
The waiter does bear a resposibility to provide a service. If they don't, a lesser tip is a consequence. The problem with this reasoning is that many waiters will not get the hint and just think you are cheap. Though I suppose you could always leave a note.
What would you do?
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Comments
3 Comments so far
I always tip commensurate with service. My rationale is this: everyone has to work hard, and they are in the business of being a service provider. They know this, its what they do.
Tipping is the consumer's way of providing feedback on their satisfaction.
People often argue "well, it wasn't my waiter's fault if my food arrived wrong… it could be the grill's fault." I usually counter that if a waiter gets enough bad tips because of orders being mistaken or showing up wrong, they will gently notify the grill staff of this fact.
I usually make it a point to let my waiter/waitress know when my order comes out wrong. Sometimes they verify that they took it wrong, sometimes they say it was the grills fault. Either way, the tip usually goes from 15% down to 10%. If it happens more than once in one meal, they get nothing from me. I haven't ever left a note to explain myself, I believe the act itself is pretty self-explanatory.
Good post!
[...] week I asked if you tipped for bad service. Now let's take a look at some of the tricks that waiters use to get good tips. You may think that [...]
So true, excellent post, I would like to comment that being a waiter myself
I get to see the other side of the coin. Absolutely should service be to the best of your waiters ability, but there are a couple of common situations that many restaurant guests often don't consider when tipping.
1. Many mistakes are often truly the kitchens fault.
Many guests forget that kitchens and chefs are notorious for being difficult when it comes to fixing or changing foods. Even if it's their fault! Not an excuse of course but many times when food is brought back the faultess waitstaff enjoys a berating by the chef/cook. Tipping adversely simply because a steak is not cooked properly is unfair to a waiter who has done their best to remedy the situation
2. Short staffed/understaffed.
Restaurant often has a high turnover in waitstaff forcing more experienced or even inexperienced waitstaff to work far above their ability. I've come to work countless times to find out that a waiter or even a shift may not have come in.
This is a MANAGER'S issue not waitstaff. Eventually every waiter hits a limit on the amount of tables they can properly serve but staffing issues may double or even triple a waiters workload. Of course this can make it impossible to properly serve our guests. To work your absolute best with triple your tables and walk out with less tips than a normal night due to guests not understanding is devastating. If you can tell that your waiter is alone or a comment is mentioned about such, know that your waiter is probably doing there best. Make a comment to the manager don't take it out on your waiter.
3. Your waitstaff remembers you by your tip then your attitude
Now this one I'm not so proud of but it's still true. Many times a guest will tip poorly in spite of great service or due to something entirely out of a waiters control. I can assure before you're out the door every waiter in that restraurant will know. That guests service will NOT be very great from then on or if it is it's probably because your waiter looks at you as a notch on their hat. On the spin side a good tipper is always taken care of and an exceptional tipper is served hand and foot. A waiter is a waiter so they can provide for themselves and often a family as well. Better service goes to those who tip better because often one really good tipper can make up for three or four poor tippers. This is especially true for regular customers. Poor tippers are often given to newer waitstaff or those who don't care enough to give great service to anyone.
And last but not least
4. Waitstaff live on tips!
As the article mentioned many waiters make far below the standard minimum wage. It's regular for me to bring home around $45 every week for 35-40 hours of work. Unless your service was terrible 15% isn't that much of a difference but it means a lot to a waiter. I tip 18%- 20% standard and 15% for poorer service. That's the scale most good waiters work on a good waiter will see 15% as a failure on his part but not enough of a drop to breed dislike.
Anyways that's some often forgotten truths from a waiter. Hope that is useful and that it inspires guests to remember that even though we are paid somewhat we still CHOOSE to wait on you our guests. Just as much as yall choose to grace our restaurant.
Michael M.
Waiter, Cook, and your humble servant.
4.