At a previous job where I worked there was a restaurant/pub located in the lobby of a hotel next door that we would have lunch at on a semi-regular basis. (They had a great buffalo chicken sandwich). Once, after not having been there in a month or so we decided to have lunch there with a former coworker who had come to visit with her infant son. The place was virtually empty but they rather rudely told us we couldn't bring the baby into the pub because he was under 21. (Like we were going to order a beer for an 8 month old.) OK, not a huge deal and I can understand their wanting to make sure only people of legal drinking age are in the pub. Since there were about 7 of us we asked if they could seat us in the main restaurant in two side-by-side booths so we could all see & talk to each other. The waiter gave us grief over that as well because only a small section of the empty restaurant was "open" despite all the tables being fully prepared with silverware, etc. and we being literally the only party there. Throughout the course of the meal the waiter was rather flippant and not very polite. When it was about time to go he brought us the bill and said "I've added on a 20% tip because of the size of your group". Before we'd even gotten the bill we had discussed and decided to leave him a very small tip. Because of the arrogance of adding a 20% tip to the bill (and there was NO posted policy anywhere about tips being added for larger groups) we not only decided to not leave a tip but we also informed the manager of the way we were treated and our decision to not leave a tip.

I don't think any of us ever returned to that place after that.

i'm with killing the tip and imposing service charges or raising the cost of the food...

i think it's a tricky judgement to make. personally unless the service was completely inexcusable, i always leave a tip. if i am not treated well, or my food is a disaster or whatever, i will consider going below 15%, but i usually leave something.
if service is absolutely foul, i generally send in a complaint, but having worked in restaurants i feel like not tipping is never the way to go about it. if you don't tip they may just think you forgot, where if you leave a small tip your displeasure is made clear.

I've eaten at the Linkery, and while I don't have a problem with the set service charge, the first time I visited, I did have a problem with the way they explain it. They basically tell you there's no tipping, which isn't true. It's just a set tip. But we thought that the 18% they were talking about was factored into the price of the food, since they kept saying "no tipping." It wasn't an issue because it's a great place, but the "no tipping" thing is absolutely improperly phrased.

"Leave change" is about the dumbest idea ever. If you don't tip because the service was horrendous, your waiter (who failed to provide service, remember?) is not going to assume you were an absent-minded sillyhead; they know you didn't tip.

That said, unless you have the kind of service that makes you go complain to a manager, you should tip.

I like the Linkery's approach. Service charges and tips are just a way to charge some of the labor costs directly, instead of burying it in the markup costs of the meal.

Whatever, waiters and such already get paid. THERE IS NO REASON TO TIP. If one of them give you snobby service because you do not tip, complain. They are not doing their job then.

My wife and I both worked in foodservice while in college (she was a waitress and I was a cook) and so we both know how it works. We know how hard it is to make it as a server, and what assholes the patrons can be. My wife actually served a table once where at the beginning of the meal, the guy took out 10 one dollar bills and told her that each time she made a mistake he would take a dollar out of her potential tip. He was so nit-picky that by the end of the meal there were only two dollars left. When he tried to give it to her, she just handed it back and said, "You know, it looks like you need this more than I do, pal. Keep it."

We take a lot of things into account when leaving a tip, like looking at how busy our server is, how many tables they're covering, etc. It has to be really bad for us to leave no tip, and I think we've only done it one or two times. Usually, though, we try to leave at least 20%.

I chose the 10% minimum answer, but that's for a restaurant with actual "service". I usually just blow off the tip jar at places like Dunkin Donuts, or at most just chuck my change into it. It's getting a little ridiculous.

I'm usually a generous tipper - I have too many friends in the industry to be anything other than a generous tipper. I know how hard they work.

That said, there have been 2 occasions where I didn't tip AT ALL. One where I ordered a vegetarian dish and was served one with ham. When I complained, there was no apology at all - the server simply took the meal back and came back 20 minutes later with a new dish. The manager acted as though it was my fault and refused to apologise at all. So no tip plus a letter to management

The other situation had the server yell at our party for being to rude as to ask for the cocktails to arrive before the meal and not 15 minutes afterwards. She went off at us for about 10 minutes when we were being polite about it. We didn't finish our meals - just paid and left no tip.

Otherwise, it takes a lot for me not to tip at all.

The worst tip I ever left was 5 cents and a note. The note described how to get a decent tip. We were at a local Italian buffet. The waiters prime job was to clear plates, give new ones, and refill drinks. Instead, he seemed to go out of his way to avoid us. At one point, we waved to get his attention, he waved back and went to the kitchen for awhile. The manager was nowhere to be found. I ended up writing a letter to corporate, because the service stunk that much.

That said, I start at 15% and round from there. (Note: This is Nebraska, and we tend to be conservative on things like that.) I usually round up, sometimes up to 20%. Sometimes I round down (I'm not a fan of service with a snarl).

I would have no issues with higher prices and no tipping required. BUT...there would need to be an easy way to handle problems. Like it or not, a lot of us don't want to have the confrontation of talking to management. While I can accept problems with the kitchen, I do have issues when then server in a half-empty restaurant can't keep my drink filled.

@Geminijinx07: I'm with you. Generous tipper generally. Non-tipper VERY rarely.

And if I am out on a fancy date and my date has a boobalicious outfit on AND the male server doesn't flirt with her or ogle her goodies...BIG TIME tip.

@Jinx: Most wait staff get paid far below minnimum wage because they are tip based. When I bussed tables I made abot 3 bucks an hour. The rest of my pay was my cut from the wait-staff's tips.

While I do feel badly that servers have to share out tips and make so little money, I have not tipped when the service was atrocious. (Usually I do 15-20%, but I will go higher if warranted).

My meal is cooked poorly or wrong? Not necessarily the server's fault and it won't always reflect in their tip. Ordering a burger and fries and asking for ketchup (why isn't it just brought with a burger? Think ahead!) and not getting it for 15 minutes? That's poor service. Getting attitude about it? Not getting refills/napkins/silverware? Seriously, that is your job!

If I see my server is swamped with a horrible party being demanding of his/her time, I'll be fair and not be adding to his/her bad day. But blatantly ignoring me to go gossip with co-workers? Tough.

My expectations are very low in a restaurant and it never ceases to amaze me how often they can't be met. All I want is my food and drink and the bill when I'm done.

@Jinx: Most wait staff get paid below minimum wage ( usually around 2,3 bucks an hour where I'm from) because they're expected to make up the rest in tips. So yes, there is a reason to tip, and if you don't want to tip don't go to a place that has waitstaff.

I always leave a tip, even if it's a small one for poor service. This is because I've been a waitress, and I was absolutely terrible at the job, so I feel sympathetic (I didn't do it for very long, thankfully). For normal service I tip 20%, for exceptional service I might tip 20% + a buck or two, depending on the size of the bill.
If you can't afford to tip, eat at a fast food restaurant instead.

I worked at plenty of restaurants when I was younger, and if I get shit service I don't leave a tip. I know it can be hard work, but if a server is rude or they are terrible at their job they don't deserve a tip. I see tipping as a reward for good work.

@taking_this_easy: or, making UPS delivery people and DMV employees work for tips! ;)

I've only refused to tip one time, and the service was absolutely terrible. Terrible as in our waitress took 25 minutes to even take our order, and then literally left the restaurant, only to appear again just as we were paying. Normally I'd leave something knowing that the hostesses are probably taking a cut, but when we asked the hostesses to help us (refills, a take-home box, the check) they would agree to find us some help and then go back to the podium and stand around. I had to walk back to the kitchen to get my own box and we had to go to the register to get someone to print out our check.

Otherwise I tip about 10% if the service is appalling. 20% if it's normal, more if it's exceptional. And yeah, I wish I didn't have to tip at all but I know those servers are making less than the already low minimum wage.

When I get bad service, I don't just "not tip," I complain to a manager with specifics. "I have been waiting 40 minutes for my meal. This has never happened to me before, and I brought friends here because this is one of my favorite places. This is unacceptable."

Usually I get at least a free dessert and an apology.

If I leave a smaller tip because of a problem with the service, the server will be sure to hear exactly why from the boss.

Years ago I once witnessed a waiter in a deli treating a customer with incredible rudeness. I don't remember the issue; I just remember my companion and I both noted the way the waiter treated his customer. When the customer left, he left a nickel tip, which the waiter proceeded to throw on the floor, cursing out the departing customer. We felt compelled to remark to the manager on the way out that the waiter had been way out of line and that this was a rare instance where the serving staff deserved no tip.

I always leave 15% to 22% for less-than-superb service. For superb service, I will leave about 30%. If it's shitty service (this has been only a few cases, that's how shitty I'm talking), I will leave anywhere up to 10%. I know this is wrong, but I once had service so bad that I left a negative tip and wrote a note telling her to make up the difference by providing better service to the next table she has.

If my server is pregnant, and the service is superb, I will leave up to 100%. However, if I find out you're wearing a fake belly, you'll get nothing whatsoever.

My most important feat is keeping my water full. If you're not busy and I have to let you know that I need water, you just deducted a small amount off of your service quality. The reason this is extremely important to me is because when I am eating, I always have to have fluid to wash my food down completely before taking the next bite. This is even more-so true for clumpy foods such as rice, bread, fries, etc. However, if you POLITELY bring me a pitcher of water, that adds a bit to your quality of service. If you bring it because you're lazy and don't want to fill it up every 5 minutes, then f@%k you and your tip.

@seandavid010: I cannot fathom why anyone would fuck with someone who has direct access to your food.

In my experience, cooks/chefs were also very protective of waitstaff, and if they heard a customer was being abusive, you never knew what would happen to the order upon leaving the kitchen.

I don't tip. Ever.

I'm a former waiter. I tip 20% for solid service, 10-15% if it was not so good. I have no qualms with leaving no tip if the service was exceptionally bad... maybe happens only a couple times a year.

That said, in the example given I would probably leave loose change, at most $0.50. The service clearly did not go out of their way to -serve- you, so they were just as clearly not doing anything to earn their money.

& on the whole "gratuity or not" issue, we need a much, much higher minimum wage if we're trying to eliminate tips. Australia minimum wage is AU$26, I believe, to name just one example. Let's not make people have to work two full-time gigs to get by, hm? Even if it is a "low-skill" job.

I frequent a "foodie" board in a major city with lots of hugely expensive world-class restaurants (or at least they THINK they're world-class).

I don't have that kind of money (I'm more an 'immigrant-owned hole-in-the-wall place' guy) but DAILY I see posts like this:

'I spent $250 on dinner for two, and the food arrived frozen in the middle [I swear this is real] and our entrees arrived an hour after our salads and the server spilled a full glass of wine and didn't apologize or replace the wine ... do you think I should have said something to the manager? Maybe I will when we go back again.' WTF?????

On the other hand, I also frequent a board where working folks vent their frustrations, and there are daily horror stories about ill-tempered, condescending, 'entitled' customers who wouldn't be satisfied with anything. I never see any waiter's blog without equal tales of nastiness.

So there are two sides to consider in this issue.

Since I spend such a modest amount at my accustomed haunts (and, BTW, the REAL 'world-class' meals are served in such places for very little money) I tip generously (20% to 25%) and I'm repaid with a warm greeting when I return, excellent service, and some tips about 'off-the-menu' specialties I should try.

I've had awful service and tipped little, once or twice I've tipped nothing, but in those cases it was clearly the fault of bad waitstaff, not the kitchen's fault.

@IphtashuFitz: Sounds like you were problem customers from the start.

Back in the days, people gave tips for a beyond the world service. these days its common for people to give tip even for okay service. I only give 10% and some odd cents. I remember 1 time I never left a tip, well only like 56 cents or so and the lady started yelling!

I always give a small tip even if the service is lousy and a good tip if it is good. However, if it is really bad, I always ask for the manager and comment and I do the same if the service is really good too. It's kind of funny to see manager's get a little nervous around me (I am 6'5" and ex military) only to have me tell them how great the service was. Some manager's will greet me by name now.

@sean.thor: Ignore the troll. Someone says the same thing every time tipping is discussed. No one can be THAT ignorant of societal norms.

Long ago, MAD Magazine had a bit on restaurant waiters, and one cartoon has come in useful over the years.

The table is a disaster and a note is taped to one clean plate that reads: I looked for you the whole meal; now you look for the tip.

I've worked floor

@Jinx: I'm going to cut your state free of Canada and shove you over to Russia.

I've had a waiter follow me outside to inform me that I had forgotten the tip. It was the single worst dining experience of my life and the idea of rewarding such a horrible experience,(wrong orders, cold food, ridiculous wait time, indignant waiter), was insult to injury.

I believe that was the only time I had never left a tip.

I live in Northern Virginia, and have found that we get pretty bad service as a rule around here (compared with the Midwest, where I used to live, and the service was almost always very good). I guess that "tipping is not a motivation for good service" thing is true, at least here. But what I've noticed is, when I'm in Las Vegas, I always get STELLAR service everywhere I go, from a Starbucks to a food court stand to a four-star steakhouse. Not to mention, I've always gotten over-the-top helpful service from everyone else in Las Vegas too, not just wait staff. And I honestly think it's because Las Vegas has such a tipping culture - you tip EVERYONE for EVERYTHING there. Could it be that in LV, the tip-as-reward system works, where in other places it doesn't?

Or are my experiences just bizarre?

Unless it's a large group, I don't think a tip should be automatic. Why doesn't that restaurant instead just raise its prices by 18% and tell the customers that tip is included in the meal?

@jenniferrose76: I've tried the formal complaint route, and that has NEVER worked out for me. And I don't mean I've never been sent a gift card, etc. I've never gotten a response, period.

My brother, who is kind of an asshole sometimes, will leave tips of $0.02 and a "note" to the server on the merchant copy--his "two cents." I've never done that before, but I've definitely left well under 10% before for ridiculously bad service.

So here in Israel, 10% is standard (as opposed to 15-20% in the US). 15% is "GREAT service", 20% is "I have a mental defect".

Maybe this is how y'all got into so much debt?

Anyhoo, I tip 10% rounded up.

"Just add an 18% service charge to the posted price and call it a day." How is this any different than what Ticketmaster does? (See previous article.)

What this idea continues is the idea that businesses can post one price to get you in, then not let you have the product in any way for that price. That's crap, and must stop. Now. It should be absolutely illegal under any circumstances to advertise one price but charge another price. That would stop Ticketmaster, restaurants, and anyone else from pulling shenanigans. The price you pay is the price they post--period. And if everyone has to do it, that levels the playing field. Most importantly, it gives us, the CONSUMER, a TRUE indication of the purchase price of the product. By the way, this should also include rebate situations--no more "IT'S ONLY TEN DOLLARS (after instant rebate of $10 and mail in rebate of $30)" crap. The advertised price must reflect the amount of money I must pull out of my pocket in order to acquire the product. Period.

My wife and I have a sliding scale. If we bad service, we leave little to no tip, but we put what we would normally have tipped in a pot.

When we get good service again, the lucky waiter/waitress gets the pot on top of their regular tip.

It's rare that we get lousy service more than once in a row, but I remember it happened one tip where our tip was almost as much as the bill.

Its a myth that wait staff get paid less than minimum wage. Their base pay is indeed lower because they are expected to get tips. HOWEVER, if they don't receive enough tips to bring them up to minimum wage, their employer is required to pay the rest. That means that they are ALWAYS making at least minimum wage. So the question comes down to this: Is the job deserving of making more than min wage? My personal answer is no.

Of *course* it's reasonable to leave no tip...but only for no service. Tips are not mandatory - if they were, they would not be called 'tips'.

There have only been a handful of times when I have left no tip - it requires exceptionally bad service, though - to the point of talking to the manager and/or never returning to the establishment ever again. And the few times I've left no tip, I feel it is important to also leave some sort of note explaining why.

@TracyHamandEggs!: I don't know...I've known people personally who didn't tip because of very similar mentality. One guy felt if the servers really wanted to make more money, they should get better jobs that don't pay crappy hourly wages. Needless to say, I rarely dined out with him if I had anything to say about it.

I was eating at a Japanese place that I always go to, and although they have *decent* service, I find myself going back because of their low prices.

I somewhat caused a scene one time because of the wait time of having my order taken, and how long the food took to get to my group. Fortunately though, the manager came over and apologized. Since then, every time I stepped foot into the restaurant he would greet me and during my meal, he would come up and ask if I was finding everything alright.

Totally beside the point though. So I was there maybe about 3 weeks ago with 2 of my buddies...one guy ordered his usual, I ordered my usual, and the other guy who we don't bring their often (and is REALLY picky about his food..) ordered his dish without vegetables and no soup, and asked to have his vegetables substituted with another order of rice (and the waiter look totally sure as to what he just ordered).

So our food comes (and it was served by someone else), and my and the other guy's food is fine, but my picky friend's food is wrong. He's never brave enough to speak up for himself, so I mentioned the mistake for him. So I tell the guy who served us (not the original waiter...who's nowhere to be found) what my friend requested. He told us "you didn't ask for that." We were like "yeah...we did." And back and fourth a couple of times, he asks "so did you want it like that or not?" (with an attitude).

At that point we were like "never mind...forget it."

Although not so much a big deal, my friend can pick his vegetables out, just not drink the soup, and...deal with having half the rice he wanted, but we all agreed to leave a very very small tip. Something like 3 percent.

So we put our money down, we're heading out to the parking lot...and...he chases us on the way out.

"I think you forgot the tip!"

I just kept walking, but my friend who can't stand up for himself gave him like $5..

Never going back.

I wish I lived in New Zealand where tipping is considered RUDE. Why is it up to the customers to shoulder the burden of properly paying a company's employees?

For good service, I tip ~20%. For neutral service, I'll do 15%. For poor/mediocre service, closer to 10%. If it's really bad, I'll just round up plus a dollar or so. There have been a couple of occasions where I did not tip at all, but the service has to be pretty atrocious to get to that point.
That said, I despise tipping. I think it's an arcane practice and used by restaurants to avoid paying their employees a proper wage. I think it's past time to dispense with the "server" exception to the minimum wage laws and force companies to pay their waitstaff properly. I would rather see an increase in the actual cost of the food than to always have to assume that my dinner will cost 30% (tax and tip) more than the menu price. I generally despise added fees and charges, and believe they should just be rolled into the face charge for the service.

@TracyHamandEggs!:

how? they were just wanted to have lunch and the restaurant didn't seem to want to allow them to do so.

I tip 20% for good, 15% for average, and 10% or less for sub-par. I've been known to go 30% for exceptional service. What bothers me a lot about the pay scale for wait staff is the stupidly low minimum wage most states allow restaurateurs to get away with paying. $2 an hour?? That obligates me to leave a tip or else imagine the guy's kids going hungry, which I resent. But even worse, it's grossly unfair to wait staff in lower-end restaurants. When your customers are well-heeled and the average check runs $50 or more per person, waiting tables can be a great living. But what if you wait tables at Applebee's, or - worse - a buffet place? Same minimum wage, but vastly smaller tips, and often no tips at all. Wait staff at those places sometimes don't even make it all the way up to the real minimum wage. No wonder they have high turnover.

There are two standards to service with me: Capability and affability. Meaning, if you are both capable and affable, you get the best tip. If you are friendly, yet less than stellar at your job, or vice versa, you get a pass. If you are neither, you get some change and a frowny-face on the bill.

I worked service, so I am more forgiving about certain things, and less on others. It's simple.

I'm not rewarding terrible service, for whatever reason. There are issues each time I go out to eat it seems. Messed up order, very slow service, inattentive waitstaff, foreign objects in my food, lukewarm food, etc. If I left a tip for that, it'd be like tipping them (the establishment) for annoying me! No thanks to that!

I'm a tipper. I always tip when my service was timely and I had a good experience. Always. But if I got bad service (and I'm not talking about someone in customer service not being "nice" to me, because well, that's stupid. They don't have to be nice to me, they just have to be polite, accurate, and timely for me to care...), then I'm not giving you any more of our hard-earned money after the bill is settled.

I don't know why anyone would expect different.

I think it's perfectly acceptable to refuse to leave a tip for truly horrible service. By this, I mean cases where the waitstaff was rude, arrogant, or just didn't seem to care.

Sometimes poor service is not the waitstaff's fault...being understaffed or having a tour bus pull up when there are only two people on the floor is a different situation entirely. In this case, I'll still leave an average tip.