so where did this mandatory 10% tipping thing start??

so where did this mandatory 10% tipping thing start??

Author
Discussion

btdk5

1,850 posts

189 months

Sunday 5th October 2014
quotequote all
Vipers said:
hedgefinder said:
bhstewie said:
Do you tip the checkout person at the supermarket or the person behind the counter in McDonalds?

They're both likely to be on minimum wage and I've never honestly understood what makes someone getting you some food or drink different.
this is exactly the point i tried to make earlier..
Sums it up.


smile
It's quite simple. One is giving you a service the other completing a transaction.

steve2

1,771 posts

217 months

Sunday 5th October 2014
quotequote all
i have booked a lunch time meal at a hotel in London for my wife and 5 of her friends and had to leave my card details which i have no problem with ....

But what i do have a problem with is that the meal costs £48 each and there is a discretionary device charge of £15 per person which they wanted to include on the bill!!

So a £90 tip!!!! quick phone call and ask for the manager to ring me back and he agreed to leave the service charge off and leave it up to my wife to sort out on the day, and no they will not be getting £90

hedgefinder

Original Poster:

3,418 posts

169 months

Sunday 5th October 2014
quotequote all
btdk5 said:
It's quite simple. One is giving you a service the other completing a transaction.
what absolute rubbish... the poor young people in mcdonalds dont just serve you the food, they usually make it and bag it up for you as well!

In ALL areas of retail the people serving you are providing you with a service that they are paid to do. Whether its pouring yu a drink in a bar or finding you the correct size pair of shoes in the dpeartment store.

Edited by hedgefinder on Sunday 5th October 18:03

g3org3y

20,606 posts

190 months

Sunday 5th October 2014
quotequote all
Blayney said:
If there is a table service and it's good, 10%. If not they get nothing.
yes

steve2 said:
i have booked a lunch time meal at a hotel in London for my wife and 5 of her friends and had to leave my card details which i have no problem with ....

But what i do have a problem with is that the meal costs £48 each and there is a discretionary device charge of £15 per person which they wanted to include on the bill!!

So a £90 tip!!!! quick phone call and ask for the manager to ring me back and he agreed to leave the service charge off and leave it up to my wife to sort out on the day, and no they will not be getting £90
eek Outrageous!

HTP99

22,445 posts

139 months

Sunday 5th October 2014
quotequote all
When we were in the States a few years ago it really grated on me when we were in the hotel lift and there were a couple of employees in the lift with us comparing how much in tips that they had received so far that evening, I really resented them counting out a wad of dollars, it was so crass.

A group of 9 of us went to Pizza Express last month, as we were a large group 12.5% was added on automatically as a "service charge", we had very good service so the brother in law asked the waitress if she would see any of the service charge if we paid for it along with the bill, on a card, she said that she wouldn't so we paid the bill minus the service charge and gave her the 12.5% in cash.

bitchstewie

50,812 posts

209 months

Sunday 5th October 2014
quotequote all
btdk5 said:
It's quite simple. One is giving you a service the other completing a transaction.
I'm not sure that I agree tbh.

Food in McDonalds has to be cooked.

The person at the supermarket checkout might help bag my shopping for me.

Extending it a little if I go to buy some shoes I might try on several pairs ditto clothes where it isn't a "transaction" in the sense that buying a newspaper is.

They're all providing a service and are likely all being paid minimum wage yet culturally it seems bar and restaurant staff are different.

I'm a hypocrite because I'll also tip in a restaurant, but I'm damned if I know why I do so there yet don't in the other places.

OldSkoolRS

6,720 posts

178 months

Sunday 5th October 2014
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There was a big thread recently about tipping on a guitar forum I post on, got pretty heated and ended up being locked in the end. As it is US based most of the posts were from there and the impression they have of us it that we're very tight when over there on holiday. I always thought 10-15% was typical in the US, but when I saw the typical hourly wage is only $2-3 I understand now why they survive more on tips, so 20% is more the expected amount (obviously provided the service hasn't been poor).

Over here I've always tended to tip 10% (or up to £10 if the meal is over £100) when out for meals, but then I know plenty who don't tip at all. Though in all honesty I've no idea where it started from (possibly seeing my parents do it?), but I'd feel odd not tipping these days, though if the service itself is poor then I've not tipped. In those cases I may not go back again anyway, so it doesn't concern me that someone will remember I didn't tip last tip and spit in my food or whatever. If the food itself is poor, or we have been left waiting for excessively long times (and seen other tables served in the meantime) we have complained and even had money knocked off the bill.

BarbaricAvatar

1,416 posts

147 months

Sunday 5th October 2014
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Always tip 10% (in a restaurant), because waiters/waitresses have memories too. I used to be one once upon a time, and you remember the tossers. wink


hedgefinder

Original Poster:

3,418 posts

169 months

Sunday 5th October 2014
quotequote all
BarbaricAvatar said:
Always tip 10% (in a restaurant), because waiters/waitresses have memories too. I used to be one once upon a time, and you remember the tossers. wink
yeah, so was I and also my wife for that matter.
I never once "expected " a tip or thought that a tip should be a certain percentage of the bill if one was given, I was grateful to be given anything.
I just dont get the people who consider it socially unacceptable to leave less than 10% in a restaurant yet leave fk all anywhere else that people on minimum wage work......if anyone has a genuine argument as to why this should be the case then I am all ears.....

bitchstewie

50,812 posts

209 months

Sunday 5th October 2014
quotequote all
BarbaricAvatar said:
Always tip 10%, because waiters/waitresses have memories too. I used to be one once upon a time, and you remember the tossers. wink
Guess it might just be how I'm reading it but being rude or a tosser is fine so long as you tip? confused

hedgefinder

Original Poster:

3,418 posts

169 months

Sunday 5th October 2014
quotequote all
bhstewie said:
Guess it might just be how I'm reading it but being rude or a tosser is fine so long as you tip? confused
I'm just hoping the next time I buy a pair of trainers the shop assistant doesn't st in my nikes..

McSam

6,753 posts

174 months

Sunday 5th October 2014
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I don't dine out expensively, and a typical meal for two might come to £50-60. I almost always leave a few quid on the table, up to a fiver of change, but won't if service has been notably crap, and will ignore any "discretionary" cheeky rubbish snuck onto the bill.

How generous I am - and it is a generosity in this country, not a requirement, social or otherwise - depends on whether we've had to wait ages after plainly being ready to order / finished with a course, and whether we've been asked how the meal is while midway through a big conversation or stuffed full of food!

FlossyThePig

4,083 posts

242 months

Sunday 5th October 2014
quotequote all
The first time we went to New Zealand I asked my son about tipping. He said no-one tipped in NZ. I must say the service has always been excellent, pity I can't say that about the UK

Updated to add
Last year, in Italy, we took a taxi from a small town railway station to the local car hire firm. Fare about €8.70. I handed over a €10 note and the driver was mortified that he didn't have the correct change. A London Black Cab driver wouldn't have even looked for change.

Edited by FlossyThePig on Monday 6th October 19:04

SonicShadow

2,452 posts

153 months

Sunday 5th October 2014
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Warnie said:
TIP? A bloody TIP??

I can hardly afford a meal out these days. 2 pints for me £7-8, 2 glasses of wine for the wife is £10-12. Then 2 kids 2 drinks each thats around £6. So that's £25 on just drinks alone at a standard stty pub where the beer will probably be st and the wine will be cheap nasty crap. Add in a meal without starters, that's another £40, so £65 for a cheap meal out at an average st hole. At your average st hole the service is not great, all you normally get is asked how your meal is, usually when your mouths bloody full or are in deep conversation.

So that £65 notes for a couple of drinks each and a bit of meat and salad topped off with stty frozen chips. Tip? I don't think so.
Decent rant, would recommend.

8/10.

surveyor

17,768 posts

183 months

Sunday 5th October 2014
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I discovered a few weeks ago that some employers are employing waiters as apprentices. This valuable skill that takes 12 months to learn and that will see the person in a career means they earn about £2.68 per hour. It's not very much.

I found out about it when step-lad got a job in the local burger joint, but having done some research the big boys are at it too.

I also found out that at the said local burger-joint the tips are to be handed in to the owner, and go to the Christmas party are some sad excuse. I don't eat there anymore.

I'm consequently in a quandary. I'd like to tip, but I'd like to know that my tip is not swallowed by the employer.

mike-r

1,539 posts

190 months

Sunday 5th October 2014
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Does anyone know if in chain restaurants/pubs if the tip actually directly to the waiter/ress? I think we're all in agreement that good service will be rewarded with a tip, but if that doesn't go directly to the person and is distributed between all staff then it surely defeats the object e.g. tips given on a card machine.

Irrelevant for me however as I don't leave tips, fk 'em.

Ray Luxury-Yacht

8,910 posts

215 months

Sunday 5th October 2014
quotequote all
I always tip in restaurants, in cash, and I often buy the barman a 'drink' too if I'm in a pub for more than just one.

I understand the misery of crappy wages. Then again, I am a bit proletariat like that biggrin


Here's another one for you though - what about delivery drivers? Like Dominos pizza etc?

As far as I am aware, they are on similarly poor wages - and their contract usually also means they get a derisory remuneration for the use of their own vehicles to do the job with. Plus they have to (or at least SHOULD be) pay a higher insurance premium for the business use.

So I always tip these guys too. Sometimes they are petrolheads, and comment favourably with a big smile upon the interesting cars I have on my driveway biggrin so they get an even bigger tip then, often a fiver biggrin


bitchstewie

50,812 posts

209 months

Sunday 5th October 2014
quotequote all
Incidentally if it's all about "service" why limit it to the person who served you - what about the chefs who cooked the meal?

hedgefinder

Original Poster:

3,418 posts

169 months

Sunday 5th October 2014
quotequote all
some tills used to allow the staff to enter a code to let them remove funds from the till when an overpayment of the bill has been made to provide a tip.... but this definately isnt the case everywhere.

190bhp

45 posts

116 months

Sunday 5th October 2014
quotequote all
This Fb group is trolls winding poor American servers up.
https://www.facebook.com/bodybuildersagainsttippin...