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You must be joking... Why do we tip or pay an extra service charge in restaurants - at all? The way I see it, its like this. You have agreed in principle to pay for your food at advertised prices. Having selecting your meal from the choices on the menu you then sit and wait quietly and patiently for it.
The meal arrives and you eat. Surely you should expect to get good service with it. Why pay extra on a tip or a service charge?
Surely you wouldn't expect to tip the lady at the petrol station because she smiled at you when you paid? I wouldn't tip the chap who just spent 20 minutes helping pick the wood for my DIY project so why should we be expected to tip at a restaurant?
We all know that in the restaurant business is one with a very high margin. Surely tipping and paying an extra service charge just helps keep waiter staff wages down?
You shouldn't have to pay a tip for the food...
It would be much better to make service charge and tipping obsolete, but if the food or service is not up to standard then make a complaint and its up to the restaurant owner or the manager to put it right - perhaps even discount it. You shouldn't have to pay a tip for the food, because you have already paid for it and the waiters and waitresses are paid by the restaurant to serve the food!
By: Wes
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yeah the USA is really a place where money TALKS. In the UK it is not. The UK is a strange place where people pretend they don't like money when they actually do. If you tip in a UK restaurant the waiter/waitress would act as if you owned him/her that money in the first place! So yes if you do have money and you wanna enjoy your money then don't waste it in the UK - fly to the States!!
30/06/14 Nick
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The country which is suffering the greatest disease of tipping is the US of A. Virtually every personal service provider there, seen or unseen, expects a fat tip. The USA is a country where there is a huge difference in the wealth of the richest and the meager scrapings of the poor can gather together. It is a country where half the country is not entitled to health care. There is a kind of expectation there that the rich should make up for the different station that they enjoy in life by tipping the less fortunate. This disease of tipping and the huge wealth difference between the better off and the poor in society is spreading across the world like the Black Death. Depressing isn't it? Tips never brought real happiness. Don't expect smiles from those you tip. It's horrifyingly their grudging expectation. Remember they actually hate you!
29/06/14 The Hated Class
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I was in a restaurant yesterday and it had a notice on the table warning cutomers if they asked for a particular waiter or the Maitre d, they would be charged £10 for their time. This isn't even a particularly posh eatery, just straight from the yellow pages. Trading Standards say it is not obliged to step in. I have asked some of my posh friends what they think, but they are all on expensive, posh holidays at this time of year. It makes my brain mad mad mad. Oh yeah, and I didn't even leave a double figure tip this time (the sign of a real man) ... remember one thing, those who pamper me most when I am eating my tea in their restaurent!
24/06/14 collar
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Why is the UK such a rip-off?
In this react it isn't. Tips are not mandatory so nobody is ripping you off.
If a restaurant uses a service charge system just tell them you're not accepting the charge when you order.
Personally I do tip but only when the service has been above the expected norm. It's personal choice and everyone should have the right to do it or not without being lambasted by anyone else.
23/06/14 Freddie
In this react it isn't. Tips are not mandatory so nobody is ripping you off.
If a restaurant uses a service charge system just tell them you're not accepting the charge when you order.
Personally I do tip but only when the service has been above the expected norm. It's personal choice and everyone should have the right to do it or not without being lambasted by anyone else.
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Countries where tips are NOT expected, and if there is a service charge added to bills it is only 5%, or at the very most 10%.
China, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Australia, Denmark, Belgium, Estonia, Brazil, New Zealand.
Why is UK such a rip-off?
Never ever tip mediocre or even average service anywhere! Tips must only be reserved for exceptional effort.
I suppose UK's waiting service was so terrible on a international scale that restaurant managers had to add a kind of compulsory "Service Charge" to bills in order to persuade their customers to part with some extra monies for their very poorly trained staffs.
The hospitality industry in Britain is second-rate, as are most of the restaurants.
23/06/14 Tipping is a Rip-Off
China, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Australia, Denmark, Belgium, Estonia, Brazil, New Zealand.
Why is UK such a rip-off?
Never ever tip mediocre or even average service anywhere! Tips must only be reserved for exceptional effort.
I suppose UK's waiting service was so terrible on a international scale that restaurant managers had to add a kind of compulsory "Service Charge" to bills in order to persuade their customers to part with some extra monies for their very poorly trained staffs.
The hospitality industry in Britain is second-rate, as are most of the restaurants.
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I have noticed that the practice of adding a 12.5% Service Charge to the bottom line of the final bill seems mainly to exist in chain restaurants. And also in restaurants in large cities. It doesn't happen in family-run businesses in the country In most cases the latter are far better and have a much higher quality than the former. Ask yourself are we rewarding incompetence? Are we rewarding financial greed?
Stop eating out in the eating establishments of large restaurant chains. Prove to them what they really are worth by boycotting them.
23/06/14 Don't Eat Here
Stop eating out in the eating establishments of large restaurant chains. Prove to them what they really are worth by boycotting them.
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A rip-off indeed - I hate when I'm at a resturant and I get new waiting staff and everybody wants to tip them before I even look at them! They don't return on time with the first course, get it dirty and all badly presented and they think its acceptable. At least ask me if I have read the menu yet - then if I have take it away - one thing that I have already said, ask to see my plate when I get done. or better yet earn your own money. I have to sneak in my doggie-bag like I'm stealing.
18/06/14 collar
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Most restaurants who collect a 12.5% fixed service charge from customers employ amateur serving staffs. These staff should be on minimum wage namely £6.31. They do not deserve 12.5% of the cost your meal. The restauranters are ripping you off as well as their own employees.
18/06/14 British Restaurants Are A Very Bad Joke
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In a typical restaurant the price of a bottle of red or white has already been jacked up by 150%. Tipping on top of that? Tip my @rse.
11/06/14 Dead and Buried
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Pah! Tipping? what can I say - Veggie is what I am, and Haloumi are great, just try asking the waiter for help with a polite voice, I want none of his sauce like the last time and he keeps turning round and serving someone else. Another thing I do is ask for special tomatoes. Cut off the top and make 'em purty, get my glass and fill with a mix of juice and mineral water. Put the menu back on the table and wrap things up with a desert. in foil it goes for our doggie and put on the bill. I can guarantee that your waiter will want to be f friends with you and want one.
10/06/14 collar
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In some restaurants I have been in where you have ordered a beer or juice to go with the meal, this often comes in a bottle or can with a pull ring. Should one have to pay 12.5% tip service charge for opening these often very expensive items? Have you noticed how most amateur waiters do not know how to pour a glass of beer properly without causing it to froth up over the top of the glass. Stop tipping these amateurs.
10/06/14 No more tipping
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Tipping needs to be banned as no one knows the appropriate amount to tip, nor do they understand how to tip. Most people I know overtip, as they are afraid to be embarrassed. Don't feel embarrassed. Just don't tip. In the end the employers will have to pay their staff proper wages. Stop burdening customers with this out of date practice
10/06/14 Stop tipping
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How large is your 'esse' exactly? I might be interested!
30/05/14 collar
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TV is teaching us day by day that the real people who matter in a restaurant are not the serving staff, but the chefs. Restaurants rise and fall by the quality of their food and cooking. The so-called table service is only a very minor part of the overall dining experience. The lion's share of any tip should therefore go to the staff behind the scenes, the backroom girls and boys. The front of office staff are generally amateurs of little consequence.
30/05/14 Who deserves my largesse?
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me