Another time about a week after my wife and I got married we went to a restaurant we like to frequent and the server gave us our meal and drinks for free as sort of a congratulations. We tipped her what our bill would have been because we thought the gesture was so nice. Id say she was probably pretty happy that night.
I have only had terrible service a few times where I didn't leave a tip . Like others have said you have to be doing a terrible job to get nothing. Thus thread made me think of this video though. http://youtu.be/9ndpPp5nuO4 Sent from my iPhone
Now days prior to giving a tip for exceptional service... I ask a waitress/waiter if the tips are pooled or if the tip is actually theirs. If pooled, I give 20%. If the tips are actually theirs... I give 30 or 40% and tell 'em, "I'll be back!"
I also hate when another table sits down a bit after me and orders after me yet they all get there food first. We never usually order anything that takes that long to cook over anything else.
I once tipped less because I could tell the waitress favored the elderly couple next to us over us. It only cost her 20% down to 15% so nothing drastic. I have not tipped before, and there are other times I should not have tipped when I did. I rarely go 10% usually 15%, I hate the tip creep thats been going on as the standard went from 10% to 20%.
In 1973 Richard Nixon, a bunch of his cronies, and a crapload of Secret Service ate at a gourmet restaurant where I was bussing tables. They had the whole restaurant and I bussed all tables between courses. I made $2.00 per hour and 10% of the tips for the waiters. I busted my butt bussing tables on both floors of that restaurant hat night. As they were leaving, Nixon handed me a twenty and I thought I was in hog heaven. Then a Secret Service agent gave me $200 as a tip from all the agents. Top that off with another $30 from the waiters I had made over 3 weeks wages in one night. When I got home, I gave $230 to Mom to help pay bills as she didn't make much working as a secretary at the presidential library. I kept the twenty in a frame in a foot locker that was stored at my father's house when I went off to the military. After a few years my step mother had a garage sale and sold all the items in the locker and pocketed the $20. What it taught me was if I worked hard I could be well rewarded; and step-mothers can be cold hearted witches.
I've actually taken a step farther and not paid because I could not get them to bring me my bill. I asked 3 times for it and waited over 30 min for my bill. The last time tracked her down and asked for it. I finally told my wife I've had enough, lets just leave.
In 2000,a group of us went to D.C. for a congressional display. The officers wanted to eat at this foo-foo restaurant at a train station. We sat down, ordered, and waited. After 45 minutes the food started coming out. At an hour and 15 minutes we were told to finish up because we had to get over to the Capitol. There 9 or 10 of us who still had not received our meals. The waiter gave me my bill not only for the food, but a mandatory 18% gratuity for something I never got served. I told him I wasn't going to pay for a meal AND 18% gratuity for not getting it. The others who had not been served took the same view. When we were leaving the police where there. The management had called them. An officer in our group tried to order us to pay for the non-meal. I told one of the officers what actually happened and showed him the ticket the waiter had given me for thirty odd dollars. I asked the officer if he would pay $30+for a glass of water. Long story short, they lost.
Went to Hooters with a bunch of friends and had terrible service, like usual. Our tip was left by one of my friends who use to manage the hooters we were at, She had none of us leave money and then she actually wrote out some tips for the poor girl who had us on her first day. We ended up getting our food FOH FREE!
I have only not tipped once in my life and I dine out a lot. Our waitress was horrible and a massive b****. If the service is just bad, I will still tip 10-15% because I'm aware that the majority of times it is not the servers fault. I'll still leave something. If the service is exceptional, I usually leave 30% or greater. People that do not tip often are either looking for reasons to not tip, or are going to crappy places that to begin with.
There have only been a couple of times I have not left a tip. Once our waitress took our order and then we never saw her again. This was a place where the food was brought out by someone from the kitchen, so she didn't bring it out. Never asked about refills, never checked on our order (not correct), so we paid the bill and left nothing. The second time was at an upscale bar/restaurant that my wife and I used to frequent. They are constantly changing/updating their craft beer menu, so I asked for a sample of one of the new beers when my wife ordered hers. I usually tip $1 per sample I request, over and above tipping 20% on the bill. The waitress brought my sample, then a couple of minutes later brought my wife's beer. I told her the sample was good, and I would take a pint of that. She wrote it down and went back inside (we were on the patio). 20 minutes went by and she never came back. My wife had finished her drink, so at that point I wouldn't have drank the beer if she had brought it, so I left the exact amount of my wife's beer on the table in cash (like I said, we went to this place often, so we knew what it would be with tax), and left. We gave them another shot a couple of months later, in the dining room, but the service seemed to have universally gone downhill.
Never have I not left a tip... I tip more than I should, always have and always will. I just think that I sure as hell know I wouldn't want to be waiting tables all day every day for little pay.
I am speaking with the server &/or manager well before not tipping the individual. It would have to be really bad and I would most likely get our food at a discounted price or free. More often then not the poor services isn't due directly to the person serving us.
I dont think ive ever NOT left a tip, but im sure ive left a dollar or two before. I love hearing the stories about rich and famous people not leaving tips. Like LeBron James.
I know I've had service where I should not have left as big of a tip as I did, but I don't think I've ever received service so bad that it didn't warrant any tip at all. I think I am just too light hearted when it comes to this subject - If I do get bad service, my mentality is that the server is probably being an *** because of the previous 10 A-Hole customers he/she had before serving me. I understand that their job is to be as polite and helpful as possible, but I can also understand that people have bad days. I have not experienced a server who was rude/not helpful on multiple different occasions, that would be a different story.
