Counter Tipping

[mykalberta]

Other than pizza I never order food for pickup from restraunts, I cannot believe that the server has to eat the cost of cooks tips on pickup orders.

All the cook did was his or her job, nothing special - they just did what they were paid to do.

[FurnaceFace]

I like the tip in cash suggestion. I never really clued in the staff got dinged on the CC charges. See, it's a good thing these threads come up once a quarter.

[IliketoPuck]

I agree, and an apology does do wonders to smooth over a situation. But sometimes there just isn't anything you can do and you get fata'd.

I still maintain that if you get poor service, and your server sucks, by all means leave no tip, or such a bad tip that they know that the service was crappy.

I was just giving a little insight into how the business works, and how its not always black and white. Believe me, working there motivated me to get my degree and get the hell outta dodge.

[mykalberta]

Where in the world is the following legal?

Employees have to pay other employees even if a bill is payed 100%.
Employees have to pay for the credit card charges.

[Phaneuf3]

Originally Posted by IliketoPuck

I was just giving a little insight into how the business works, and how its not always black and white. Believe me, working there motivated me to get my degree and get the hell outta dodge.

I would disagree. In my opinion, it is always black and white.
If my dining experience was great, it's to the server's credit. If there was a problem with my food and the server worked hard to let me know what was up and went the extra mile to make it right, it's also to his credit. If my dining experience sucked and I have no idea why or what (if anything) was being done to improve it, it's the server's fault.

[Akai-Sesui]

I was recently exposed to a system that works pretty well.

Sit in establishments
Rank your service on a scale of 0-10 (Service Rating)
- Based on attitude, speed of service, effort to follow up.
- 0 being spat in your food in plain sight, 5 being adequate, 10 being perfect
Rate the product on a scale of 0-5 (Product Rating)
- Based on satisfaction of product consumption/usage
- 0 being tastes like regurgitated cat vomit, 2 being okay, 5 being perfect
Multiply PR by 0.5, Multiply PR by 0.8 if you've been served alcoholic beverages (Scaled Product Rating)
Multiply SPR by SR...that's your tipping percent; Min - 0%, Max - 40%

Takeout
When you takeout, you have not had a chance to sample the product. Thus it's not fair to evaluate based on product.
Therefore...
Rank your service on a scale of 0-10 (Service Rating)
-you typically don't get much service for take out, and often interactions are short..
- 0 being 'was pirating DVDs while taking your order', 5 being adequate, 10 being 'gave you freebies while you waited for your food'.
Rate perceived product quality 0-5 (Product Rating)
-0 for Fast Food, 2 for chain/small sit-in places, 5 for Super executive
Multiply PR by 0.2 (Discounted Product Rating)
Multiply DPR by SR...that's your tipping percent; Min - 0%, Max - 10%


System is highly subjective and will reflect how easily satisfied you are, and how willing you are to tip.

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by Akai-Sesui

I was recently exposed to a system that works pretty well.

Sit in establishments
Rank your service on a scale of 0-10 (Service Rating)
- Based on attitude, speed of service, effort to follow up.
- 0 being spat in your food in plain sight, 5 being adequate, 10 being perfect
Rate the product on a scale of 0-5 (Product Rating)
- Based on satisfaction of product consumption/usage
- 0 being tastes like regurgitated cat vomit, 2 being okay, 5 being perfect
Multiply PR by 0.5, Multiply PR by 0.8 if you've been served alcoholic beverages (Scaled Product Rating)
Multiply SPR by SR...that's your tipping percent; Min - 0%, Max - 40%

Takeout
When you takeout, you have not had a chance to sample the product. Thus it's not fair to evaluate based on product.
Therefore...
Rank your service on a scale of 0-10 (Service Rating)
-you typically don't get much service for take out, and often interactions are short..
- 0 being 'was pirating DVDs while taking your order', 5 being adequate, 10 being 'gave you freebies while you waited for your food'.
Rate perceived product quality 0-5 (Product Rating)
-0 for Fast Food, 2 for chain/small sit-in places, 5 for Super executive
Multiply PR by 0.2 (Discounted Product Rating)
Multiply DPR by SR...that's your tipping percent; Min - 0%, Max - 10%


System is highly subjective and will reflect how easily satisfied you are, and how willing you are to tip.

Maximum 40%? That's ######ed.

[mykalberta]

No kidding, it should be more like 30%

[albertGQ]

I would like to crush the myth that it is better to tip servers cash than on a CC or debit. It doesn't matter. The server tips out on the total sales.

Servers are indifferent to a $10 cash tip as they are a $10 CC tip

The only time it would matter is if he gets audited by the gov't and they go back and look at the paper trail to see how much a server should've claimed for income earned from tips

[Starfishy]

The issue of "how the tip is divided amongst staff" is easily fixed by a no tipping system.

[anyonebutedmonton]

Originally Posted by IliketoPuck

Sadly no, your tip is broken down regardless of who screws up your experience.

My suggestion would be to always try to tip in cash, as that gives the server the biggest leeway in compensating for situations like you mentioned. In most places, if you pay by debit or credit, the restaurant will take extra off from the server as a fee for the credit/debit useage.....server's get hosed in my opinion. The best way is to simply tip in cash, if the kitchen was particularly good during service, I would kick them an extra couple bucks from my pocket. If they were bad, I would keep the money to myself. At the end of the night ideally your server wants a ton of cash tips, and flat credit card/debit card statements, since it makes it easier to tip out etc..

But to be honest, it is an imperfect system, and the reality is that the server is the face of the restaurant, if your service is bad, for whatever reason (kitchen, drinks, poor server, etc.) the only one that pays at the end of the day is the server, everyone else gets their money regardless.

I call a bit of bullsh*t on this...

I worked as a server and bartender at a few places in University (Moxies, Outback Steakhouse) and have a fiance who worked at Earls and Joeys and there is no way that a restaurant is charging you for a customer using debit/credit.

Also there is no way that a server can hold back on a tip out if the kitchen was particularly bad. Sure you could hit them up with something extra if they were good, but there is no way of getting out of tipping out.

There is no difference for a server if you tip them in cash. They tip out a percentage of their sales, not a percentage of their tips.

[IliketoPuck]

Originally Posted by anyonebutedmonton

I call a bit of bullsh*t on this...

I worked as a server and bartender at a few places in University (Moxies, Outback Steakhouse) and have a fiance who worked at Earls and Joeys and there is no way that a restaurant is charging you for a customer using debit/credit.

There is no difference for a server if you tip them in cash. They tip out a percentage of their sales, not a percentage of their tips.

They do tip out a percentage of sales regardless of type of payment I agree. I can't remember the exact mechanic behind it but there was a slight difference between the amount you owed back based on whether or not it was cc/debit or straight cash. I wouldn't make it up man, you know that. Cash was always the best way to get paid, that is not really open for debate.

And as far as holding back tips...it was all in the way you rang food into the system. If you knew what you were doing you could get a rib dinner, potatoes and a beer for 10$.

[albertGQ]

Originally Posted by IliketoPuck

They do tip out a percentage of sales regardless of type of payment I agree. I can't remember the exact mechanic behind it but there was a slight difference between the amount you owed back based on whether or not it was cc/debit or straight cash. I wouldn't make it up man, you know that. Cash was always the best way to get paid, that is not really open for debate.

And as far as holding back tips...it was all in the way you rang food into the system. If you knew what you were doing you could get a rib dinner, potatoes and a beer for 10$.

Besides my point about being audited by the gov't, I can't see anyway a cash tip is more preferable

[IliketoPuck]

Basic example of why cash tips are more preferrable:

- all of your customers pay in cc or debit one night, you take home no tips and make $8.50 an hour for your troubles. Granted you eventually get the money back due to the -tipout but you get the idea.
- maybe its a preference thing, but I always preferred tips in cash over other forms.

[Phaneuf3]

Originally Posted by IliketoPuck

Basic example of why cash tips are more preferrable:

- all of your customers pay in cc or debit one night, you take home no tips and make $8.50 an hour for your troubles. Granted you eventually get the money back due to the -tipout but you get the idea.
- maybe its a preference thing, but I always preferred tips in cash over other forms.

So it becomes like any other job that has a regular payroll cycle?

[IliketoPuck]

I suppose so yea, except you get to evade the government for a large amount of the tips if that's what you choose to do.

[albertGQ]

Originally Posted by IliketoPuck

Basic example of why cash tips are more preferrable:

- all of your customers pay in cc or debit one night, you take home no tips and make $8.50 an hour for your troubles. Granted you eventually get the money back due to the -tipout but you get the idea.
- maybe its a preference thing, but I always preferred tips in cash over other forms.

That is false. Now I'm starting to think you make stuff up

So you're saying if a server makes $100 in CC tips for the night and $0 cash tips, he walks home with $0 in tips?

Dude. Think before you type

[IliketoPuck]

Albert, did you ever work at a restaurant as a server?

Here is how it works, or at least how it did where I worked.

Say you ring out $1200 in food/drinks for the evening, and everything is paid in CC/Debit. You do not get to take home tips that night unless someone has paid in cash. Anyone that pays in cash enables you to take home tips that night. So say you come in as the last table of the night, and have a $120 bill and pay it in cash, I take home that cash as part of my tips, and if that doesn't cover the total amount of tips I got from all my CC/Debit chits then I have a credit with the restaurant that gets applied the next time I cash out.

Dude. Think before you talk about something you obviously have no experience with. Dude.

[squiggs96]

Originally Posted by Eric Vail

I find it ridiculous that a retailer can just decide that the consumer should now be tipping at my business. Does that mean when I go to the Bay, and need help finding something, that I should now be giving the clerk a twoonie for the service. If a eat at the food court at a mall, should I be giving a janitor a twoonie for washing the floor? When I pay for my gas, does the cashier deserve 5% of my gas bill for ringing me through? When I buy a balloon for my kid at the dollar store, should I be tipping the person who fills the baloon with helium?

This is all stupid. I understand and appreciate tipping in restaurants. I think it is a good system to motivate the servers to give good service. I've been in France where this didn't go on and I don't know if I've ever had worse service.

Companies need to charge enough that they can afford to pay their staff. If they refuse to, then people should refuse to work there. I am not paying someone at a counter for passing me some take out chicken and taking my money just like I am not tipping at the grocery store or 7-11.

As someone who paid his way through university working in restaurants and surviving on tips, let me chime in. Restaurants pay servers minimum wage. If you don't want anyone to tip, then you wouldn't have any servers. In order to pay servers what they are worth, then they would raise the price of food and pass this amount on to the servers. You need to take into account a tip when dining in for your total, just like sales tax. If the service is crappy, leave a small amount. If the service is great, leave something extra. It's always, always, appreciated. The best servers make the most money. If tips aren't given at a place, you will have crappy service all the time.

[getbak]

Originally Posted by Ducay

Gah, makes me long for Australia's system:
-All posted prices include tax
-No pennies
-Tipping is still seen as a reward for extra service

I agree on the first 2 points. Since we're getting plastic money next year, maybe we can work towards the included GST and no pennies thing next.

I disagree with the third point. In Australia, you basically pay the same amount you would in Canada after tax and tip but the quality of service I experienced in Australia was horrible.

Originally Posted by FurnaceFace

GST is 5%, I take a look at the amount, do a quick "three times the tax is about ____" and tip that.

This is what I do. 3x the GST and round to the next dollar, usually.