To tip or not to tip?

I f I think the service is worth it I pay extra = If not good enough I won’t pay “extra” and tell them why

I never tip things are to expensive already

When service is not good I wont tip
When service is good we tend to leave any change say £3 – £4

On a £30 pound bill in a moderate (some wld call cheap) restaurant a 20% tip is £6. Thats quite a lot in this economic climate for someone to just bring you your food which they are already being paid hopefully at least minimum wage for.How many tables a shift times 6, sounds like a pretty penny to me

Are people eating out as much as they used to or have many of us cut down due to the overall expense of it?. Those jobs may be being cut back especially if they think the deserve to be paid 20% hey even the VAT man is considered greedy for taking that amount

Personally I don’t care a damn what your should or should not leave, its my money I leave what i see fit & what I can afford.

Italians never tip in Italy, although they will round up the bill by few % if that is more convenient. If the waiter seems offended, he’s only trying it on. Much more important is to congratulate the cook if the food is good “complimenti al cuoco”.

I travel to the USA at least once a year always for holidays/shopping … My first visit was about 25 years ago. On that visit I was taken aback when I was told by the bell boy of the hotel I was staying at that he noticed that I had an English accent and informed me that it was the custom in the USA to tip bell boys as well as the waiting staff in the restaurants. “Oh” … I exclaimed. He also told me how much he expected from me. Because of his cheek …..I gave him something close to what he asked for. I told him that it was not the practice of the British to tip; he said that he knew that, and that is why he was telling me to tip him.

So since then, when it comes to eating in restaurants in the USA I always say to the waiting staff when the bill is presented – “I am from England and it is our culture that we do not tip unless it is for really really exceptional service and the price we see is usually the price we pay, however because I am in your country I am expected to give you a tip regardless. How much extra do you want from me?”

Most are surprised to have to enter into a conversation about their tip, ie discussing percentages and then waiting for me while I do my calculations – mentally or/and on the bill in front of them – sometimes making silly arithmetical mistakes, then asking them if it is the practice to round up or down figures, then asking should something be knocked off for a shortcoming or to add a little extra.” The conversation can go on for over 5 minutes or so.

I usually give them what they ask for in the end.

The price of anything you see in the USA is never the price you pay – NEVER …. you have to factor in city/county/state taxes as well as the tip!!! Shops charge whatever they like anyway …. I noticed in the same street in San Francisco – from the Tenderloin to Downtown – you can be charged 5 different prices for the same size can of coke. They charge whatever the market will bear.

The USA has an awful system for charging. Awful. Simply awful. And it’s beginning to creep in over here ie Air Fares. The price you see is never the price you pay!

The price you see should be the price you pay. Prices in a menu should include all aspects of the service, including cooking and bringing the food to the table. In all countries, restaurants should pay their staff adequately without them having to beg their customers for more money. One isn’t expected to tip for good service in a shoe shop, so why in restaurants? Although we’re not as bad in the UK as they are in the US, we’re still a lot worse than in many other European countries.

If a restaurant shows a lower price in its menu than the price it ultimately expects me to pay, then it is giving a misleading indication of price, albeit legally in many countries. However, it is ethnically wrong.

I don’t like tipping at all, and in developed countries I minimise my use of services where the staff expect to be tipped. I will tip 10% (my standard rate) if I think the service was good. However, it does not seem fair to me to tip some staff e.g. waiters and not others e.g. kitchen porters or factory workers who probably work just as hard for just as little money or maybe less. Possibly if I was rich I might tip more, but it seems to me that it’s a form of showing off, and enables people to avoid paying taxes, and assists management to avoid paying some workers a fair wage. It always feels like coercion. When I was in paid work, I travelled to some developing countries and there I gave small cash tips to people where I considered it appropriate. I also say thank you with a smile. When I was a waitress in a well-known place in London before the minimum wage became UK law I was paid £7 per week (v. low even in those days). I was always grateful for any tip, even a few pence, and would never have dreamed of complaining about a low tip or no tip and would never have asked for a tip even though I needed the tips to live.

To the previous poster
£7 per week? Please tell me that was a very very long time ago and that youre really really old? How much do waiter staff get these days here in the Uk? Surely at least min wage?

In the UK at least, you might assume the practice of adding an “optional” service change to the bill is simply to embarrass, coerce or encourage customers to leave a tip as a matter of routine. In fact, if the restaurant management know what they are doing, it is to ensure that VAT is not payable on the service charge. This became effective from 1982:

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/vatscmanual/vatsc56400.htm

So, if the recommended gratuity is supposed to be 15% and you don’t think they deserve more, check it is 15% of the net amount only. If 15% is added to the gross amount (after VAT is added to the bill) you are effectively paying an 18% tip, as no VAT is due on the gratuity element of the bill. And if a smaller or no gratuity is warranted, you can always rely on the Tribunal ruling “… that since the statement ‘service not included’ meant any service charge was voluntary, the customers were not obliged to pay it.”

I still stick to my pre-1982 practice of declining to pay any optional service change and leave an appropriate cash amount – less VAT. Most staff seem very happy with this arrangement.

Call me mean, if you wish but……..

Service is included when you buy a meal in a restaurant, so there is no need to pay additional amounts, called a ‘charge’ for that service.

That service should always be good and if not a complaint is valid.

A tip is a gratuity and should be at the discretion of the giver, not a set or ‘standard’ amount.

Having said all that, I will usually leave the small change for even a standard level of service and will tip for exceptional service. The level at my discretion; it’s my money and my show of gratitude!

I also agree the table needs reviewing. In Greece, for example, it is actually Greek practice to leave the small change and rare to give the bigger tips mentioned in the list, especially when eating in Tavernas rather than the upmarket restaurants. Often these are usually for the ‘bread waiter’ and not the waiter who actually serves you. As well as the these tips a ‘thank you’, especially in the local language, is always appreciated. As is normal, tourist areas are always charged more and bigger tips (from those who know no better!) hoped for.

It is far more common to get given a little ‘on the house’ at the end of your meal when asking for the bill such as a small drink, melon or other sweet as a thank you for using their service rather than expecting a big tip. This occurs even in these difficult times in Greece!

Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland and New Zealand conspicuously absent from the list.

Lorna, thanks for the input however I think we are aware of where the information came from and that Which? have abbreviated it however it is not necessarily helpful or apparently correct.

French TB : ” It is standard practice to tip tour guides and bus drivers after an excursion, generally 1.50-3.00€, depending on the level of the satisfaction.”

Which? ” Tour guides €5-€10.”

So why the discrepancy?

Also, and especially for France, eating out is a very common pastime for tourists and I would suggest that the FTB’s advice is misleading and Which? should query this ambiguity so readers do not individually have to contact them. There is plenty of current anecdote to suggest that some waiters are taking advantage of customers.

If it is a legal requirement to include the service charge why are there exceptions?

TIPPING IN FRANCE : Almost all restaurant include tax and a 15%service charge (service compris) in their prices. If a meal or service has been particularly good, leaving another 1.50€ (or 2-3%) is customary, as is leaving the waiter the small change from your bill if you pay in cash. If service is not included (service non compris) a 15% tip is appropriate. In hotels, tip porters 1.50€ for each bag and chambermaids 1.50€ a day. Taxi drivers should be given 10-15% of the metered fare. Tip hairdressers 10%, assistant 5%. Small tips of around 1.00€ are reasonable for cloakroom and washroom attendants, ushers and museum tour guide. It is standard practice to tip tour guides and bus drivers after an excursion, generally 1.50-3.00€, depending on the level of the satisfaction.
France.

Which?
“15% service charge, plus discretionary tip of €1-€2 for good service. If there is no service charge, tip 15% Discretionary tip is appreciated. Porter €1-€1.50. Housekeeping €7-€14 10%-15% Tour guides €5-€10. Bar staff service charge plus discretionary tip €1-€3 for good service”

Have to say that I will positively AVOID any place which has a “service charge” already included, or make sure that I don’t pay it, if it has been automatically included (as if I was assumed to be thick, and too fearful to complain… I think I’m turning into a grumpy old man!!)

To me it seems like the Mafia “Protection Money” racket has been extended to nearly every service industry in the USA, and having read an article about service charges (and wages paid in the UK and USA) I can see why some in the USA will depend on tips as the minimum wages are incredibly low (even if some costs are lower over there).

See the article at http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bills/article-2355717/