Help! Bizzare dining experience!

[ryryryann]

Originally Posted by shel

So, don't talk to me about being disrespectful. When a server does a reasonable job they should get a reasonable tip. When they do a lousy job they should get a lousy tip or no tip at all.


shel

A lousy tip is fine because most servers realize that they half assed it and no server should ever argue a tip. But leaving no tip, what kind of service did they have to do to warrant that.

[lentil]

Originally Posted by ryryryann

A lousy tip is fine because most servers realize that they half assed it and no server should ever argue a tip. But leaving no tip, what kind of service did they have to do to warrant that.

I'd never leave no tip at all. When I really want to make a point, I leave a very small tip just so they don't think I forgot. Has a lot more impact.

ryryryann, surely you know someone who hasn't deserved a tip at one time or another! I think we all do.

ETA In all honesty, I can't remember the last time we left an impact tip. Rarely do we leave less than 15% and normally we leave more.

[RonCoox]

This brings to mind a night a few years ago. I had a very nice dinner at a little french place here in CA. I payed with cash and as we were leaving the waiter held the door for me and I told him how much we enjoyed the evening and that we would be back. He seemed less than enthused.
Prior to going to dinner I had hit the autoteller and got a bunch of twenties. When I got home and counted my remaining twenties I realized that for some reason I had way undertipped. I really don't know how. This did explain the waiter's attitude however. I peeded and moaned to myself for a couple of minutes and then had a thought. I called the restaurant, identified myself, mentioned what had happened and asked if I could put the tip on a credit card over the phone. They said yes, I did it and all were happy.

[lentil]

Ron, Good for you! Many would have just said "oh well" and forgotten about it. You certainly made that waiter's night.

Something similar happened to us recently. My husband will not admit that he may need those reading glasses. You know, the ones I always have on my head, in my purse, and on every surface in the house? He borrows mine whenever we go out, but won't actually buy his own. We had dinner in a nice new place where the lighting was more for mood than for reading. He picked up the bill, squinted at it for a minute then handed the server his card. He then squinted at the receipt and wrote in the tip. He later mentioned that the bill was a lot higher than he would have thought, so we mentally went over what we had and what it should have been. Turns out, he tipped on an $80 bill instead of a $60 bill. I should have put a pair of those glasses in his stocking for Christmas.

[firerose0801]

Someone very early on said something about pre-tipping for large groups getting you better service; I do that all the time with 8+ people and find that I get wonderful service each and every time. While I, of course, think that servers should ever argue with you about the tip (and certainly not track you down), I have never in my life left smaller than a 10% tip and I usually leave 20% unless service is truely awful. If she was given your table to wait, she probably only had smaller tables for the rest of the night (since I doubt she was very experienced), so you did actually cheat her out of the majority of her for the night. It would be nice if servers got a minimum wage base, so that obligatory tipping was not in existance, but they don't, and so simply refusing to tip at all is actually very, very rude. I wonder if the restaurant has a policy of addign 18% gratuity to groups over a certain number or a certain dollar amount (to combat things like what happened with your table, on both sides...). If so, putting everything separate checks would have probably negated that policy. If not, they really should consider doing so.