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I believe, only once in my life I've had really bad service when I went out to eat, and b/c it was a chain, didn't mind, b/c she was new and in training....
I also believe that some Americans have become very angry people looking for something to complain about and if your going to allow something so small to define you, well? What can I say. And I'm not talking about the person who started this thread, just a personal observation.
What you say about some Americans having become angry people looking to complain has been stated to me by American friends. Older people who have seen this change in attitudes. I see this in England as well with younger folks. I guess there are all sorts of reasons for this, not belonging in this thread.
Yes and because they can afford it, well maybe not all of them, as evidenced here, but back in the day people didn't forgo eating out because mom was at home cooking a nice healthy meal. They ate at home because taking the family out to dinner was a luxury. I know a lot of people who make minimum wage who think nothing of going out to dinner at least once or twice a week. If prices at restaurants go up enough to absorb the cost of paying a decent waitstaff I can see it once again becoming a luxury, something for date nights or special occasions.
Fast food on the other hand..... probably skyrocket their business if sit down places become unaffordable.
I'll bet all those minimum wage workers who think nothing of going out to dinner at least once or twice a week are not dining all that often at the joints where the wait staff makes several hundred a night in tips.
I suspect they are eating at restaurants where the wait staff is just barely scraping by, coming to work when they are sick (over half of restaurant workers say they do this because they don't have sick days), relying on food stamps, subsidized housing, either subsidized health care or the local ER for medical care... Those meals are being subsidized by the taxpayers.
How can anyone with heart think it is okay for one person to get a cheap meal at the expense of another person making a living wage? How can anyone with a brain think it is okay for taxpayers to pick up the slack so that restaurants owners can make money and patrons can have cheap eats?
Some do not seem to grasp that our economy is consumer driven. It's a demand then supply economy. The more people earn a decent wage, the more money they have to spend, the more goods and services are increased to meet the demand...
Say a wait staff salary is increased by $10/hour. Say one person takes care of 10 tables. That's a buck a table, or maybe fifty cents more a meal.
People are going to quit going out to eat because the cost of a meal goes up fifty cents? If that were the case, they'd have already stopped dining out as I've noticed prices have gone up as much as a buck a meal in restaurants over the past year or so.
I remember the big ruckus about restaurants and bars going non-smoking and all sorts of dire predictions that folks would quit going out to restaurants and bars.
Please. Management. Pay - the - staff. Put up the price of meals if necessary. Let the people look at the menu, and that is the price to pay. Stop this pony and trap. PAY THE STAFF........... This thread will soon hit 300 posts............ end the torture of hard working people depending on their looks. PAY THE STAFF properly for the job they do.
Yes, there is that!
But...let all people who think they don't need to tip try serving for one week. I have a feeling things would get more balanced if they had some perspective. Oh, I don't think servers should ask for tips any more than I think customers should stiff them on tips. Not much I can do about it though...
What you say about some Americans having become angry people looking to complain has been stated to me by American friends. Older people who have seen this change in attitudes. I see this in England as well with younger folks. I guess there are all sorts of reasons for this, not belonging in this thread.
I don't know that it's angry as much as soft, entitled, and whiny.
Have you noticed how it's often people who are reasonably well off and have not experienced any true hardship, who act like this? They should travel to war-torn or developing parts of the world for some perspective. Or even just take a drive through the inner city. Heck, just watch Season 4 of The Wire. It's brutally real. The episode when a mentor takes at-risk youth to Ruth's Chris Steak House for doing well on a teamwork exercise drives the point home.
Put it to the brats on this thread this way: That you can even go to a place that has servers makes you more well-off than a lot of people.
I'm not sure if this is the right category, but it seems to be the only one close. Anyway.....
Last night, I again had something happen to me that seems to be becoming a common occurrence. I had dinner at a Mexican restaurant. The "waitress" took my order, but someone else brought my meal and beverage (including refill) to the table. The "waitress" was nowhere to be found until she came by with my check. Then, to add to her already poor service, when I handed her a twenty for a $14 check, she asked if I wanted change!!!!! (I'm going to give her a $6 tip for a $14 meal which she never even checked on????)
Sorry.....but if you ask for a tip, you don't get one.
I usually tip 20% without thinking about it. In this case, I may have tipped less, because she was a terrible server. However, when she asked for a tip, she automatically removed any chance she had of getting one.
I have had people ask for tips as waitresses, delivering food, and at the car wash. Do people really think that this benefits them?????
Has anyone else encountered this?
Yeah. I have. I just simply ask for my change. I usually leave 15%-20% regardless of service. People have "off" days. People get PMS. People have things happen behind the scenes we have zero clue about...
I prefer to give ALL servers the benefit of the doubt. Not to mention, I've seen too many good servers get left just $1 tips. It's usually been by an elderly party, overly demanding jerks, or a big crowd of obnoxious teens. I like to think I'm helping to keep the servers positive and from getting fed up [pun intended] and/or discouraged.
I don't know that it's angry as much as soft, entitled, and whiny.
Have you noticed how it's often people who are reasonably well off and have not experienced any true hardship, who act like this? They should travel to war-torn or developing parts of the world for some perspective. Or even just take a drive through the inner city. Heck, just watch Season 4 of The Wire. It's brutally real. The episode when a mentor takes at-risk youth to Ruth's Chris Steak House for doing well on a teamwork exercise drives the point home.
Put it to the brats on this thread this way: That you can even go to a place that has servers makes you more well-off than a lot of people.
I know it's off topic, but I think kid's grow up slower nowadays. They stay in school as long as possible to avoid the day they have to grow up and earn a living. This is encouraged by parents who know it's hard out there.
I laugh at all the youngsters in England studying for a 'media' degree at college........ Then they leave college, owe many thousands in school fees, and wonder why they can't find work in the 'media'.........get a degree in something useful, and you'll find work. But, subjects like advanced mathematics are difficult, so they go for what's easy.
It's a lot of things I think. Expensive housing, low wages, plain immaturity, and a sense of entitlement. They blame the older generation. The boomers get stick in both America and England. I'm a boomer....... I left school at 15, and worked six days a week. I got my first mortgage at 24 years of age. At the same time, the work was there. If you were willing to do it, work hard....... you got on in the world. I do understand young people's frustration, and they are correct that my generation had job opportunities, and were paid better taking inflation into account.
But, they have to work with the cards they're dealt. I'm done with all that. I'll keep going to places that interest me like here in Tunisia, and America. I will tip servers according to custom. But, it's still not right!!...........
NO, actually we bought $100 gift certificates to get the $20 free gift certificate deal they had a christmas time FROM HIM even BEFORE we got seated. I guess you can say $20 was free out of the $34.69 if you look at it that way, but anyone that doesn't see that gift certificates are a method of payment not a discount is just plain stupid.
How did I reinforce that? So 31 cents he really wanted rather than nothing? I doubt that was his plan that he wanted a 31 cent tip, I mean really you can't even buy anything with 31 cents by itself. He was just too lazy to get the change from the bar or bring some change on himself and decided to not give us coins because he was selfish to tip himself PART OF THE TIP that we were going to give him. I made him get the 31 cents and made sure he knew what he did wrong by telling the manager about the theft. He could have given us $6 change and decided to forfeit his 69 cents of his own money, which by doing that would have made his tip increase in size to show he wasn't selfish. Instead he chose to steal it tip himself instead of letting **US DECIDE THE TIP AS IT IS SUPPOSED TO BE DONE**.
Even if a penny was owed in change, if my server didn't return that penny, they'd get stiffed and I would make them get the penny, because that's OUR MONEY, NOT theirs to do anything with. WE TIP, NOT THEM! If you get change everywhere else, why because a person makes tips that you wouldn't get your full amount of change WITHOUT having to ask for it?
Anyone who balks over missing 31 cents from 2004 needs to stop sweating the small stuff. I'm sure if I had a penny for each time you told that story over the past eleven years, I would have accrued enough money to pay for dinner, plus leave a generous tip.
In the future read the fine print on dining certs, as some round up to the nearest dollar, and that might have been the case with your dining cert.
Anyone who balks over missing 31 cents from 2004 needs to stop sweating the small stuff. I'm sure if I had a penny for each time you told that story over the past eleven years, I would have accrued enough money to pay for dinner, plus leave a generous tip.
I lost a one pound note which was birthday money in 1967. Still plays on my mind..........
If the employee is tipped, it isn't unreasonable for them to ask.
If a restaurant owner fired them for it, they would immediately be opened up to a lawsuit for underpaying all of their "tipped employees" that make far less than minimum wage.
Someone else bringing the food sounds like they were working in teams. They probably also split the tips. Restaurants do that they can put as many of the staff into the "tipped" category as possible and reduce the amount the customer pays.
They don't ask if you want change, if they did, no problem.
A server can pick up change off the ground or OFFER HER OWN CHANGE, that's not an issue.
Per this thread, some servers ask if you want YOUR CHANGE.
It's not petty because people don't pay for a meal to be treated rudely.
It ruins the meal. So I'd even go so far as to say they really didnt get what they paid for.
A nice meal and decent service. I'd have stayed home.
really? you find a server asking if you want "your" change back as rude? it ruins a meal? for heaven's sakes your meal can get ruined from such a small statement I would say you are way too sensitive. again I find it petty.
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This thread will soon hit 300 posts............ end the torture of hard working people depending on their looks. PAY THE STAFF properly for the job they do.
Then they leave college, owe many thousands in school fees, and wonder why they can't find work in the 'media'.........get a degree in something useful, and you'll find work. But, subjects like advanced mathematics are difficult, so they go for what's easy.
