How do you feel about tipping?

[DaveInPgh]

My mom tips the postal carrier. She gives stuff to everyone. Dr office? Accountant? Anything and everything.

Now those are a couple I never heard of.

Steve, do patients ever give gifts to your office staff?

[Eagle]

Someone mentioned they didn't' like tipping elsewhere, and instead of hijacking the thread I decided to just start another one since it wasn't part of the OP.

I am not fond of tipping in most situations because I'm expected to. When I was a waiter I appreciated the tips, naturally. However, it makes it hard for me to want to go to any sit-down places knowing I'm going to lose 10-15% more in a tip. Nothing against waiters/waitresses, I just don't like having to pay more for the meal than just the food. I do tip, but it's rare I tip a lot.

Those two statements are contradictory. First you say you don't under tip but then you say you only tip 10-15%. I guarantee you've had some very unhappy servers.

I hate the whole convention of tipping but if you are going my to eat out you need to be prepared to tip accordingly. 18-20% is standard.

I think DisneySteve has a point. We typically give a 20-30% tip. If we plan to eat out we try to keep in mind the tip.

Here's a really interesting thing we do sometimes... We tip even the bad waiters or waitresses. Sometimes they're having an off day. Sometimes they just had a fight with their significant other, a friend, a co-worker, or their boss. It's a great way to show others mercy or grace. Sometimes we see their reaction and others we do not.

Still, when I have an off day at my job I still get paid. Food for thought.

What do you think GoodSteward?

[DaveInPgh]

Here's a really interesting thing we do sometimes... We tip even the bad waiters or waitresses. Sometimes they're having an off day. Sometimes they just had a fight with their significant other, a friend, a co-worker, or their boss. It's a great way to show others mercy or grace. Sometimes we see their reaction and others we do not.

Still, when I have an off day at my job I still get paid. Food for thought.

I also try to keep that in mind when I receive bad service. Sometimes you can just tell they are having an off day. Providing a nice tip just might be the thing gets their day back on track.

[bjl584]

I tip at sit down restaurants, for food delivery, and for a hair cut.

[DaveInPgh]

Another point to keep in mind is that the poor service may not be their fault at all. They might have put your order in correctly and the kitchen screwed it up. Or management not staffing properly making it near impossible for the server to provide anyone with good service.

[disneysteve]

We typically give a 20-30% tip.

I think anything over 20% is above and beyond what any server expects. 18-20 is standard.

We tip even the bad waiters or waitresses.

More often than not, I think, bad service is not the fault of the server. It may be that the restaurant is assigning too many tables to each server to keep payroll down. It may be that they're running slow in the kitchen. The server can't bring your food out until it is cooked and ready. Even when mistakes occur on your order, the fault often lies with the kitchen staff, not the server. I never punish the server for things beyond his/her control.

[GoodSteward]

10-15% is standard for where I live. I grew up being told that by everybody and it's what I often see on receipts. You have to remember we live in a lcol area, so everything is lower. When I was a waiter 10% is what I "expected" to get, and was fine with it. I suppose in bigger cities (or higher end restaurants) 15-20% is minimum. My aunt who is more generous on this side of things always told me 10% at a buffet, 15% at a sit-down place where they bring you everything. It's just where I'm at.

Either way, I avoid eating out at sit down places because I have to basically pay the price of another plate nearly just to say "thanks for bringing my food and drink." Most of the time the service is sub par from what I find as well. You guys help me remember why I prefer Holiday Inn and Fast food. I wonder how much money is spent in tipping just to be at nicer places?

Now even fast food places bring food, but they don't ask for a tip. My local chick-fil-a and DQ will bring the food to you if you're dining in.

[disneysteve]

Steve, do patients ever give gifts to your office staff?

Absolutely. Every year at the holidays. And a couple of patients give me gifts, too. One woman gives me a fifth of Absolut every year because she knows I like vodka. I'm not about to tell her that I don't go through anywhere near a fifth in a year so we have a shelf full of vodka downstairs and I've regifted a few of her bottles.

10-15% is standard for where I live.

Now even fast food places bring food, but they don't ask for a tip. My local chick-fil-a and DQ will bring the food to you if you're dining in.

I never thought about the fact that the standard tip varies by location. I've always assumed it was the same everywhere. Good to know. I'll still tip 18-20% no matter where I am because I'd have no way to know what the standard is where I happen to be, though.

We've been to a few Panera locations and Chik-Fil-A locations that bring the food to the table. I haven't seen anyone tipping, though you really ought to. I wouldn't do it based on the price of the food but more like at a buffet where we usually do $1 or so per person. If they have a tip jar at the counter, I'd drop in a couple of dollars at a place like that.

[DaveInPgh]

Absolutely. Every year at the holidays. And a couple of patients give me gifts, too. One woman gives me a fifth of Absolut every year because she knows I like vodka. I'm not about to tell her that I don't go through anywhere near a fifth in a year so we have a shelf full of vodka downstairs and I've regifted a few of her bottles.

I would have never thought tipping a doctor was a thing.

at a buffet where we usually do $1 or so per person.

Same here. I don't base a buffet tip on percentage.

And if I end up with a pile up of dirty plates, I have no problem with leaving no tip at all.

[disneysteve]

I would have never thought tipping a doctor was a thing.

I think there's a difference between a tip and a gift.

[DaveInPgh]

I think there's a difference between a tip and a gift.

Yes. Poor word choice.

We sent my child's pediatrician a greeting card when he retired. That is about as far as I would go.

Especially now that I know the doctor is just going to regift anyway

[disneysteve]

Especially now that I know the doctor is just going to regift anyway

Would you rather know your doctor is consuming multiple bottles of vodka?

[HundredK]

The only doctor I have ever gifted was a surgeon. I happened to wander over to the Hunterian Surgical Museum in London shortly after my surgery, and I found a little USB Stick that was the shape of a surgeon. So I bought him that as a little gift to give him at a followup appointment and he seemed delighted. Never occurred to me to gift doctors otherwise.

For those of you that haven't been, a visit to that museum is a super cool (and free) must-do in London. It's like something out of a sci-fi film. Jars and jars of diseased body parts everywhere! Truly amazing. https://www.rcseng.ac.uk/museums-and...terian-museum/

[97guns]

went to chili's last night with another couple and their pre teen daughter, we waited an hour for a table. once seated the waitress 1) brought menus and took our drink order 2) brought our drinks and took our order 3) brought our apps 4) brought our food 5) brought our check and 2 doggy boxes. our tab was $78 and we left her $12. considering the amount of service actually provided and the fact that she probably had another 3 or 4 tables at the same time her nightly tips are way out of proportion in my eyes, with a potential to take home $240 on a 6 hour shift is rediculous.

we rarely go to these kind of foo foo resturaunts, we usually go to non chain resturaunts where ill leave $2 or $3 on a $20-$25 meal which is totally within reason in my eyes

[Like2Plan]

I also wish it was included in the price. It would take away some of the uncertainty.

Also, whenever we travel we have to make sure we have bills that we can use to tip. Sometimes, we go to places where we didn't know a tip would be required. Example--we went to a restaurant that had valet parking. (The restaurant was in the suburbs, so we just assumed they would have a parking lot) We normally give a tip to person who takes the car and also the person who brings the car to us. So, this time we just gave the person who brought the car a double tip. (Although I have read from some sources that you only tip when you pick up the car, so we might be doing it wrong when we tip both ways ).

On the other hand, we just returned from a trip to WDW where we had dinner at a buffet. We used a discount card, so the tip was automatically added in (it is part of the program--they give you 20% discount and then add in 18% of the un-discounted pretax amount for the tip).
The server was very slow to take the plates away, so we still had dinner plates on the table when we were trying to eat dessert--He was nowhere to be found during most of the meal and he didn't bring any additional drinks until the end of the meal when we had to ask him to take away plates and bring refills. If it hadn't been an automatic tip, I believe I would have given less than 18%.