Gratuities

I have been thinking about this quite a bit this week. I have been on the road all week and have eaten at restaurants quite a bit. Wednesday night I decided to get room service from the hotel I was staying at that night. The girl come up with my meal, and says " I circled the gratuity that was already put on your bill". Putting the gratuity on the bill for me only mildly annoyed me, but when I didn't add more to it she was visibly pissed off. Then, I was listening to Howard Stern and they were talking about leaving a tip for the hotel cleaning staff. What the hell is up with all the gratuity BS? I have a job that takes me all over the province to help technicians and dealerships. I am on the road most of the month. None of my dealers give me a gratuity for driving 10 hours to come see them. My gratuity is a pay check every 2 weeks. When did we the consumer become responsible for subsidizing a business' payroll?

 

You have to tip the hotel maid. You have to tip the bar tender. The guy that fetches your car, the chick makes you coffee, the guy who installs you gawd damn dishwasher, the dude who hails you a cab, calls a car service for you, the guy delivering furniture and the mouth breather that grinds up a tree stump.

Shit is out of hand.

 

I was on the road with my dad for a bit and he would always leave $3 on the table between the beds when we checked out. He said that those people have a totally crappy job and $3 doesn't hurt his bottom line one bit and it makes him feel good.

So now whenever I stay anywhere overnight, I leave $3...just because it makes me feel good. It's nothing but my own personal Karma device.

 

3 horse, 5th race.

There's your tip.

 

If gratuity was already added in, I wouldn't have added more to it either. If I'm staying in a hotel only a night or two, I don't tip. If it is a week and they are providing full service each day, I will. I also will not add money to tip jars if they are paid minimum wage or more. If they are a legitimate waiter/waitress then they are paid less than minimum wage and I tip very well for good service. Usually 20% or more. I was a waiter in college so I know the struggle. If the owner allows a tip jar and isn't paying his employees enough, than it is his fault. I won't compensate for his cheapness.

 

Why do I pay a 'processing fee' of $3 when I send a check to pay my auto insurance? I don't know. There must be someone processing it somewhere that was left out of the budget?? Everybody tries to get what they can where they can it seems these days.

 

It was actually the 13 horse in the 12th race

 

I got a tip last weekend for bouncing an unruly customer.

Added to the change in the ashtray of the car, I could get a cup of gas station coffee.

 

guess it depends on the "level" of service you want.

 

I met a waitress once, I gave her the tip, and then some!

 

Adding gratuity to a bill completely defeats the purpose, and annoys the hell out of me.

If you do a great job, I'm a great tipper. If you do a shitty job, I'm still a pretty good tipper even though I shouldn't be. 15% added to the bill just short changes good service and does nothing to deter terrible service.

I always tip the maids at hotels. $5 per night, and I do it every day. If you do it on checkout four Marias get screwed, and one Maria gets $25.

Tell someone from the UK that they have to tip the guy who puts their bags on the shuttle bus and they'll have a stroke.

 

I agree with tipping the hotel maid. If you forget something in the room you are much more likely to get it back if you tip the maid. But if a tip is added to a bill already and the server hasn't done anything special why should they get more? I guess if they were overly friendly maybe a little more.

I've traveled quite a bit for work myself. There is nothing that annoys me more than a server that acts like YOU owe them something. Let's get this straight. I don't owe you shit but my respect and a smile. If you give good service and respect to me it's MY choice to give you a f*cking tip. If you have a bad attitude and clearly don't give good service I'm not giving you a red cent extra. I always try to tip 15 or 20% if I get good service

 

Don't fart when you have the shits......

 

I think everybody should tip the independent bike shop owner.

 

That was one of my favorite parts of travelling to the UK. If your beer was $5 you payed the bartender $5 and that was it. Here if you do not give the slack jawed no personality imbecile that brings you a cheeseburger 20% tip they get all pissy...

 

Me and my wife see eye to eye on the tip. If we get a shitty waiter we may not tip at all. Its a reward not a necessity. I get tips all the time in the tow truck but that's because im polite and do my job well..

 

I learned about tipping the hotel maid from my dad. Makes sense if you think about it.

 

I am happy to leave a good tip when the service is where it needs to be for sure. That said I feel it should be completely unexpected and optional for the customer and only happen when the server adds to or improves the overall experience.

If the price of the food needs to go up a bit to allow for the servers wages to increase I would have no issue with that.

 

Tipping when picking up take-out gets me...