miss direct
misfungled
If I'm buying a drink, I don't really care about the service. I'd also rather a smile and chat were genuine, rather than someone just trying to get a tip out of me.
Tipping in the US?
- Thread starter mattie
- Start date
um, don't they have public loos in the UK where you have to put money in them to do potty? that is totally unheard of in the US. I've never had to pay a penny to take a piss or shit anywhere
miss direct
misfungled
Ha, try going to Poland or most of Europe. At least in the UK there are still some free of charge public toilets.
miss direct
misfungled
"do potty"...ha ha
D
Well-Known Member
absolutely - DC is 100% right. Very often the worst tippers are the among the most monied customers.
scifisam
deleted
That minimum wage includes tips.
are there even any turkeys in the UK?
We have them at Christmas as is right and proper.
Except I don't because I don't eat meat.
I've only ever come across it in NY, so don't know where ya mate is drinking!!
Noone has explined yet that the situation is even worse than the minimum wage being low. I have actually known personally people who PAID for the right to have a job!!!
The bar manager at Windows on The World, the bar atop the WTC in NY, told me that he had to bid in an auction for the job. He had paid that year $100k for the post. The IRS calculated his pay by taking the gross takings of the bar
and reckoned that he would ahve been tipped at 15%, so if anyone didnt tip at that rate he lost out even more. In addition to this he had to pay all the other bar staff out of his tips!! He said that it was worthwhile, so that bar must have been taking a hell of a lot of money.
Bloody Hell. What a weird job culture where that happens.
MY GF reads that a lot, and I was about to post up his recent blog about British customers: Now I have actually heard of at least one British person who refuses to tip, I see what he means.
"Hey, I'm very sorry that the government taxes their tips. That's fucked up. But that ain't my fault. It would appear that waitresses are just one of the many groups the government fucks in the ass on a regular basis. You show me a paper says the government shouldn't do that, I'll sign it. Put it to a vote, I'll vote for it. But what I won't do is play ball. And this non-college bullshit you're telling me, I got two words for that: "Learn to fuckin type." Cause if you're expecting me to help out with the rent, you're in for a big fuckin surprise."
But YOU are not a US citizen and cannot vote or make any changes. All you can do is pay what's expected, or not.
You're quoting a psycho as back-up, btw.
TBH, in a proper restaurant (not a cafe or takeaway) I'd consider 5% to be a paltry tip even in the UK. I'd always tip a minimum of 10% (in cash, even if I were paying the rest by card), and include that in my calculation of how much the meal was going to cost. I thought that was quite normal. Less than 10% = shite service.
I always tip the takeaway guy and occasionally tip people in cafes too. Maybe this is why I tend to get served quickly and they remember what I order even if I've been there once. And I'm not rich at all - very poor, in fact - but I view tips as part of the cost of the luxury of eating out; it's not something I have to do.
scifisam
deleted
um, don't they have public loos in the UK where you have to put money in them to do potty? that is totally unheard of in the US. I've never had to pay a penny to take a piss or shit anywhere
They exist, but they're rare. Besides, McDonald's is always at hand for free loos.
Miss Direct is right - try Eastern Europe if you want to pay to piss. They also sometimes expect tips. I was actually a toilet attendant for one night on the borders of Slovakia, but that's a long story.
i've talked with a number of valet guys who park the cars at fancy restaurants and they all say that the people with the BMWs, Mercedes and Jaguars are the cheapest tippers and the people with the regular cars tip the most
yea well when i was a little kid in england i remember you had to put money in almost all public toilets....of course this was 35 years ago, maybe you all have seen the error of your ways finally
After I worked in a bar DJing, and found out how little the waiting staff were paid, my tipping went up in places like that. They were getting £120 per *week*, working til 2am on Saturdays.
baldrick
hmmmmm
I tip bar staff. I know a lot of other people who do too. Not every time, but i know how much it's appreciated as I've worked behind bars for a long time.
If I worked behind a bar in the US where my basic pay was $2/hr, damn right i'd expect a tip!
I'm actually quite surprised at the amount of people on this board who seem to actively resent tipping
chilango
Ha! Ha! Armageddon
US style tipping has spread thru North America.
In Mexico everybody gets tipped. Kinda merges in with bribing a little. You even have to tip some guy who hangs around the toilets!
In Canada, we were sat in the bar sorting out our exact change for the bus, when the waitress walked past, saw the coins and sniffily said "I don't accept small change". No tip for her! (she would've got 15 - 20% daft cow).
Another bad thing is a lot of places automatically add 10% service charge. Now, do you add extra to that?
What about the tip jars on the counters of fast food joints?
Phh.
Crazy.
In Mexico everybody gets tipped. Kinda merges in with bribing a little. You even have to tip some guy who hangs around the toilets!
In Canada, we were sat in the bar sorting out our exact change for the bus, when the waitress walked past, saw the coins and sniffily said "I don't accept small change". No tip for her! (she would've got 15 - 20% daft cow).
Another bad thing is a lot of places automatically add 10% service charge. Now, do you add extra to that?
What about the tip jars on the counters of fast food joints?
Phh.
Crazy.
miss direct
misfungled
I don't resent tipping per se. But I resent the many bad attitudes that come along with it. I had a very poor, rude waiter in Prague. We didn't tip on the basis of that. He then returned to the table, snarled "tip is not included in price" and stood there, arms folded, blocking our way out.
miss direct
misfungled
One of my friends got all flustered and started rummaging for money, the other two of us just got up, ignored him and pushed past him!
miss direct
misfungled
Cultural difference. Brits generally don't like to tip so much, Americans "go potty", while in the UK, only toddlers use a potty, the rest of us go to the toilet.
spring-peeper
Well-Known Member
Just the opposite. In very rural places you would probably only tip 10%. Rural people expect to work very hard for very little.
On the other hand, you could tip 15 or 20% and be that nice foreign guy, with the cute accent, who overtipped. In a small town they'd talk about it for at least a week.
Not in the rural areas that I live in.
You tip only 10% and we will talk about the nice foriegn guy with the cute accent who doesn't understand the tipping. We would mull it over for about a week and decide to "educate" any other nice foriegn guys with cute accents on the correct tipping amount.
(This, of course, doesn't apply to Americans. We just roll our eyes, sigh and say "Americans" as if that explains this and all other faux pas's they will have made in our town
)
D
Well-Known Member
re mattie's question
Funny that you should ask about NY and Florida. I can say something about NYC and South Beach (Miami Beach).
In NY tip is NOT included in the bill unless you've got a large party. In South Beach, 15-18% is automatically added to most bills and, most of the time, in South Beach the service is terrible. I can't recommend some exceptions to that generalization, but in my experience it's true.
Not so in other parts of Miami - service is not always included and service is not always terrible.
I don't add tip to my bill in South Beach when I have the misfortune to dine in one of the not-so-well-served restaurants (which, thankfully, rarely occurs).
Funny that you should ask about NY and Florida. I can say something about NYC and South Beach (Miami Beach).
In NY tip is NOT included in the bill unless you've got a large party. In South Beach, 15-18% is automatically added to most bills and, most of the time, in South Beach the service is terrible. I can't recommend some exceptions to that generalization, but in my experience it's true.
Not so in other parts of Miami - service is not always included and service is not always terrible.
I don't add tip to my bill in South Beach when I have the misfortune to dine in one of the not-so-well-served restaurants (which, thankfully, rarely occurs).
D
Well-Known Member
Cultural difference. Brits generally don't like to tip so much, Americans "go potty", while in the UK, only toddlers use a potty, the rest of us go to the toilet.
Adults generally do not "go potty" in the US either. This is a mystifying sidetrack in the thread.
miss direct
misfungled
I heard a lot of people say it when I was there.
