My mom always told me to leave 15%, so that's usually what I leave. I don't have a lot of money as a student, and it's usually other students waiting on me, so I figure leaving the standard is doing pretty good. A friend of mine that was a pizza delivery guy said he *hated* delivering to college kids, because they never tip. I try to not do that.

Occasionally I do the double-tax method, but usually I actually figure out what the percentage is and leave that.

Where I work, servers have their own bank on them and when someone gives us big bills we may not have the change for it. Then we have to find someone else to get change, find a to-go specialist, or a manager. All of which tend to be way busy. This means, even though I may be working as hard as I can to get your change, it's going to take me a while.

I've had people get really pissed off at this. What do you want me to do, NOT give you change?

He's not talking about getting his change though. He's talking about not getting the check/bill. As in he hasn't even been allowed to TRY to pay yet.

I am known for being a generous tipper, and usually I don't even bother figuring out percentages, I just make something up. Obviously it depends on the person and the service, but let's just say tipping well usually leads to better service on repeat visit. When I go to places I go to frequently, I usually tip better than a place I don't think I will be returning to.

It's amazing what a reputation for being a good tipper can do. For awhile me and one of my friends always got the same waitress at Red Robbin and since we were leaving her like $10 tips on $30 orders, she was REALLY going out of her way to make sure we got good service.

This also reminds me... One time Frank and I were at a local restaurant that brews their own beer and we ordered a beer. Keep in mind, I'm there twice a week either to write my lesson plans or to work on some design.

I'm also known for being a damn generous tipper and I know every single server that works there so whenever I show up with anyone they only thing they wanna know is what my company is having for dinner because they already know what I want, "Liter of IPA, right? What's everyone else having?" Some new kid that had actually started working there and even though he'd already taken our drink order, he decided to card Frank. Frank didn't have his wallet on him because I was buying. This little prick wouldn't serve him a beer!

Needless to say, I didn't leave a single tip but Frankie, ever the sucker for being a kind soul, pulled him aside before we left and gave him a $5 tip for having brought me my liter of beer. I was still kind of pissed that this little shit wouldn't serve him so I just told Frank in mid-transaction, "What the fuck are you doing? I could've bought another pint with that." I left a penny on the table as well.

I'll tell you what though, they've never refused service to anyone who walks in with me after that and that boy never worked the floor again.

I thought Frank was too young to buy alcohol anyway.


As for me, for poor to average service, I will tip 15% and round it up to the nearest whole dollar. Pretty simple. For awesome service, I will usually tip at least 25%. When I am using my company purchasing card while on company business, I stick to 15% regardless of how awesome the service is though, as I don't want to get in trouble.

I can't serve people alcohol if they don't have an ID. That's sort of an asshole thing to do, really. He could have lost his job if a cop came in, saw Frank with alcohol and no ID.

I've known people to get fired for serving people they know are 21 but don't have an ID. So, really that was an asshole thing for you to do, he was just doing his job.

Seriously Paco. Dude was just looking to not get fired.

I do apologize for the fact that, apparently, where you live cops just walk up to patrons in restaurants and card them to ensure that the law is being followed down to a "T".

Tell me. When you take a drink order do you go and place the order, bring it back to the table and THEN card people? What would you think of someone who did that to you? If he was REALLY doing his job he would've carded him PRIOR to going and filling our drink order.

He got fired anyway, so... what did we learn from this?

Serve every motherfucker around so that we may all eat, drink and be merry. For tomorrow we might die.

I know this is a silly question, but I often wondered about this. I hope the servers here could answer, does it actually matter whether if the tip is in cash or electronic? Does the electronic tip go to you specifically?

Here in the UK, it's very uncommon for tips to be a part of an electronic transaction, so I'd assume that anywhere that allows tips from cards incorporates it into a staff 'tip pot'.

Sugar coat it all you want, Encephalon, but you basically got mad because some kid wouldn't break the law for you. As you said, he was new, so he didn't know you, and he didn't know that you weren't an undercover cop. He probably had the "don't serve underage people" spiel drilled into his head in training, and wasn't comfortable enough in the job to bend the rules (not that I'm saying he should have in any case).

A logical person would assume that an underage person wouldn't have the audacity to order alcohol in a classy restaurant. Maybe in a bar or nightclub, but a normal restaurant? He probably took your order, then started thinking about how old Frank really looked while he got your beverages, and decided he'd better check to be on the safe side.

That's interesting, thanks Krelien. I had never had a serving job of any kind that would beget me tips. I'd be terrible at customer service! ;)

Anyway, so how does that work? The electronic tips are included with your paychecks later on or handed out by management? How long would it take?

Depends. 20% is my average tip (the "base tip" if you will). Then, I add or subtract percentages depending on the quality of services.

Only one place I've worked at had a communal 'tip cup' that was divided among whoever was working. At the end of your shift, you'd take whatever was in your cup. I've worked two other jobs like that, and you kept whatever you were tipped. That said, I generally tip 20-25%, unless the service was crappy... But I still tip.

Also... I can't believe the 'minimum wage' for servers in the US. Here, minimum wage is $8.75/hr, and even servers make $7.60/hr plus tips. To see that most places in the US only make like, $3 is just crazy.

If you leave a tip on your credit card it automatically goes to the server. The computers keep tabs on it. At Village Inn at the end of the night they cash you out your credit card tips. At OG, we keep all the money given to us on us, so at the end of the night we either give OG the money that was given to us, or if it's less than we made in credit card tips, they owe us money.

You HAVE to claim credit card tips because they're already in the system. Which is why it's fabulous when people pay by credit card and then leave cash tip. That's one less dollar that's taxed.

At the Olive Garden, the computer automatically figures out the credit card tips to credit card sales ratio and you HAVE to claim that amount in cash. I've had a few rough nights where I've actually been required to claim more than I made because I had a few awesome credit card tips and then average cash tips.

Because my tips are taxed, I end up with paychecks that are about $30 a week. Before tax they're well over $150.

The place I work for tends to ask if the customer wants to add the tip to the bill--if it's a group of 10 or more. And if they say, "yes," then a slip is printed out for the server to hand back to the cashier--since the extra money is in the register.

For smaller groups--people are asked if they would like cash back for a tip. A LOT of people say yes to this, although once in a while you get a few who think the tip is on the card and I'll get the money later--although they already got the money themselves....

If the guy is new, I can definitely see this being an issue. When I was at Wally World, I found out that you had to card EVERYONE in a group. So, if person X is buying alcohol, and person Y is with him, and person X has his ID but person Y does not, you can't sell it even though person X is the one buying.

And they drilled that through both computer-based training (although admittingly that did not mention carding everyone...but did repeatedly state you would lose your job if you sold drinks underage) and in person training (where I found out from a co-worker you had to card everyone, which was verified by a manager the following day and then really verified when the aforementioned situation happened resulting in a pissed off customer).

And I can definitely see the "just in case" situation. I know I ran into it where I would have a customer come up, about to let him/her go, then think about my job being at state and it being the law, and card them anyway. Granted, it was before they were sold the alcoholic beverage. However, there is a difference between where I was (in which you have to make a decision then and there more or less) and at a restaurant (where you have time to give it more thought).

As it goes for tipping, I always heard it was 10%...but I guess I was wrong on that. Also...someone mentioned a penny...someone once told me that was actually a compliment somehow...but I can't really see it being so...

I don't use a universal 15%, it's hit or miss with me. I understand if they're busy and what not when service for us is slow. I'm a person who's somewhat easily satisfied with their service as so long as you provide my refills and initial service/checkup, you're bound to at least get %20+ of the bill.

No, you're supposed to leave a very small amount so the server knows you didn't forget to tip, but that you thought their service was poor.

As for the carding everyone in the party and not selling to anyone if there's an underage person, at least one of the grocery stores in my college town did that. I suppose it would shoot them down once, until they realize to leave the underage person in the car. To do it in a restaurant is just stupid. If Encephalon had bought 2 beers, or bought one and then handed it to Frank, it would have been obvious, and the server could have dealt with it. No need to deny a legal-aged person alcohol.

You know, of all people, I didn't expect you to say this.

I don't understand why you'd get mad and not tip for someone doing their job. I mean, if you want to feed Frankie beer when he's underage, why not just feed him beer at home?

I don't know, man. This was ridiculous of you. I'm sorry.

The loophole here is that for places where you make a lot of money on tips, they're allowed to pay you as little as $3/hour as long as you "on average" make enough money to be over minimum wage again. Same with retail store employees on commission. A friend of mine worked at an electronics store that runs on commission, and his hourly pay was something like $4.50/hour. He made a percentage commission on everything he sold, and there was on top of that a giant "pool" that everyone split in their paychecks. All told he would actually make something like $9-10/hour when he got his commission and pool added to his base rate.

While some states have different laws, this is the federal one:

(from here.) This is why workers who get lousy amounts of tips lose their jobs: not only do they cost the business money in lost customers if they're bad enough, but they have to pay more per hour for an underperforming employee.

For one, they brew their own beer there so we don't just get to take a pitcher home with us and, second, it's GOOD FUCKING BEER. It should also be noted that he'd already been served there before when he came out there the previous summer so it was especially irritating to have to argue with a kid who still hadn't hit puberty about whether or not my friends could drink there. Last I checked, I was literally putting money in his pocket to make sure the above happened.

I know it was ridiculous of me. Who said it wasn't? I may be sugarcoating it and, yes, I'm an uptight asshole. I just think that there should be a little leniency for patrons like myself and their guests who sink roughly the equivalent of one waiter's yearly salary into this joint.

I'm not even exaggerating when I say that either.

Additional Spam:
This is another thing I don't agree with. Tips being taxed. Where I eat, the vast majority of my waiters, waitresses and busers are great people and they often deserve their tip, if not more. One of them tells me that their tips left by credit card are taxed because, well, you can't really hide that kind of thing without the help of a guy named Vinnie who runs a drycleaning business in Jersey. This is why, when my friends and I eat anywhere, I go out of my way to ensure that their tip is left in cash if their service was good. I really don't care if I'M the only one having to take the brunt of the tip.

I mean, seriously, if I have a party of 6 and service is exceptional, a crisp Jackson is in order. No questions asked.

Do you realize all the things that happen if you are caught selling alcohol to someone who is underage? You WILL lose your job, you will be fined, the business you work at will be fined, and in some cases the business can lose their license to sell alcohol.

I can't count the number of times I was ready to slug a customer working as a cashier because some asshole started yelling and cussing at me cause he couldn't buy beer because he didn't have enough sense to leave his underage friends outside. But it was always satisfying if a manager overheard them swearing, came over, and notified them that they were now banned from the store.