As a waitress, I hate people like you on principle no matter how good a person you may be.

My feeling is, if you don’t care to take part in the social convention of tipping, then don’t take part in the social convention of dining out. Get takeout and stop making people run around at your beck and call for free. Jeez.

it’s my understanding that many dining establishments do not generously compensate their wait staff. the wait staff relies on the gratuities as part of their income. if you encounter terrible service let management know. nothing is worst than bad word of mouth to spread concerning the restaurant.

if you don’t want to tip then it would be appropriate to dine in fast food restaurants like mcdonalds.

I absolutely tip, and tip well, but I do hate the whole practice. Tips should be given as a thanks for exceptional service, at the discretion of the customer, rather than being a standard expected amount in order to pay the wages of the server. I’d rather have them raise prices 15-20% and do away with tipping (as long as that extra money goes straight to the servers as higher salary).

One other comment: I hate when they put tip jars at counter-service places. A tip shouldn’t be expected or solicited in that setting. As far as I know, those workers are being paid normal wages, not tip-based wages.

I wonder what the ‘principle’ is?
Personally I see no reason reason not to give a tip.

NOT tipping is terrible. Most servers don’t even make minimum wage. They depend on their tips for their wage. If you don’t want to tip, go to a walk up/counter type establishment and get your food to go.

It really depends on the agreement the worker has with their establishment.

My tips always reflect the degree of service I receive. If you are a waitress or waiter and you suck at what you do, you will get 10% from me. If you are great, you’ll get as much as 50%. Another thing that I think is poor practice is when the waitress takes it upon herself to “ask” if I want my change back. It is not up to a waitress to tip herself out of my money. Those who attempt to do that think more highly of themselves and their services than they ought to. That practice automatically results in a low tip, a complaint to the manager and a letter to the restaurant’s headquarters. It’s an insult to me as a customer and makes the waitress look like a complete fool.

i like this topic. i agree with him

I must assume that most people do not know that most restaurants take an automatic 5% of the sales from their wait staff. This money goes to a tip pool which is then divided between the support staff (ie: hostesses, bar backs and bus staff) If you leave less than 5% to a waiter/waitress then they are paying for the privilege of waiting on you. They are automatically taxed on 15% of their sales weather or not they made that amount of money. I would LOVE to see the look on your face if you had to pay Uncle Sam for money that you did not actually make.