Calgary Customer Service....what happened?

[FlamingLonghorn]

Originally Posted by Mr.Coffee

Awww... those 4 hours of "work" getting too hard to actually bring a guy a drink because he doesn't tip you after getting gutted with a ridiculous mark up on a drink that probably costs like 30 cents to make?

Before you go there, I don't (or at least I try my very best) go to clubs. When I do, I usually tip, but man you have to realise that people are spending a ridiculous amount just to be there.

Plus in a bar, you also should be a bit more sympathetic because people aren't expected to just tip the bartenders, but also the following:

1) Some person who TAKES MY MONEY AS COVER: I don't even think I need to get into how ridiculous this is. The fact that bars even charge cover is seriously a scam. I don't know what's worse, the fact that people don't feel their getting bent over by paying cover or the fact that the person feels they deserve a tip for extending their arm, pinching their thumb and index finger over your bill, and then placing the bill in a cash register.

2) Coat Check: Because Calgary can get to -40,people wear jackets. Hey! I guess that's the perfect opportunity to rip people off some more! And if you don't tip, I guess I don't go get you your jacket for like 30 minutes.

So seriously, I don't think you... or any servers for that matter... are going to get a lotof sympathy. Because for as many people like me that hate having to spend like $40 on tips for extremely menial tasks, there's two idiots willing to shell out cash.

Complaining about a low wage is ridiculous, because at the end of the day tips for an average server or bartender at an even moderately popular venue work out to AT LEAST $100 over a 4 hour shift, which is $25/hour...

to bring people food... or drinks... or take people's money.

Sorry but I think you should serve everybody equally, and then just take the money without expectations.

Well I don't know what you do for a living, but money talks. I am not going to give equal service to someone who doesn't pay for it. Just like if two companies laid the same contract in front of you to do the same job but one pays double. You would take the one that paid double. I work harder for the one that pays me I don't work hard for the one that doesn't. Also, my bar shifts are 8 hours long and I have to stay and clean 2 hours after close. Yes I do make $25 an hour, so what? I am a damn good bartender going on 4 years without a complaint.

This is a simple adage for everybody to live by:
If you can't afford to tip when you go out, don't go out. Stay home and eat/drink.

Oh and I don't want sympathy because I do make good money, but don't expect to get the same service if you don't spend the same amount of money....

[Mr.Coffee]

Originally Posted by Sowa

I make $4 an hour which is less than minimum wage....

Uhh well that's illegal, and I'd bring it up with your employer- because there's a reason its called "Minimum" wage.

[FlamingLonghorn]

Originally Posted by Mr.Coffee

Uhh well that's illegal, and I'd bring it up with your employer- because there's a reason its called "Minimum" wage.

Well I live in the US and it's not illegal here as long as your wage including tips averages out over minimum wage than its legal...

[Mr.Coffee]

Originally Posted by Sowa

Well I don't know what you do for a living, but money talks. I am not going to give equal service to someone who doesn't pay for it. Just like if two companies laid the same contract in front of you to do the same job but one pays double. You would take the one that paid double. I work harder for the one that pays me I don't work hard for the one that doesn't. Also, my bar shifts are 8 hours long and I have to stay and clean 2 hours after close. Yes I do make $25 an hour, so what? I am a damn good bartender going on 4 years without a complaint.

This is a simple adage for everybody to live by:
If you can't afford to tip when you go out, don't go out. Stay home and eat/drink.

Oh and I don't want sympathy because I do make good money, but don't expect to get the same service if you don't spend the same amount of money....

While I understand your logic perfectly, I've gotta say there have been numerous times that I've seen people get ignored and the bartender stand there not serving anyone,and it wasn't even because they weren't tipped! You may be an excellent bartender, and that's great. But there can be and are situations of entitlement, which is what I'm referring to moreso... and I kind of got that vibe from your original post.

[Nicole]

I just talked with my sister who made $500.00 in tips this weekend, from friday night to sunday night

[fredr123]

Originally Posted by Sowa

Well I don't know what you do for a living, but money talks. I am not going to give equal service to someone who doesn't pay for it. Just like if two companies laid the same contract in front of you to do the same job but one pays double. You would take the one that paid double. I work harder for the one that pays me I don't work hard for the one that doesn't. Also, my bar shifts are 8 hours long and I have to stay and clean 2 hours after close. Yes I do make $25 an hour, so what? I am a damn good bartender going on 4 years without a complaint.

I think the "hospitality" industry is a bit different than other service industries. There's not really any contract in place between you and your customers aside from the one that says flat coke and half an ounce of rum is $6.50. The tip, after the transaction, is basically equivalent to handing an ad-exec a bulging envelope of cash to sweeten the deal after the fact. In one case, you're a bartender and it's okay. In the other...

[FlamingLonghorn]

Originally Posted by fredr123

I think the "hospitality" industry is a bit different than other service industries. There's not really any contract in place between you and your customers aside from the one that says flat coke and half an ounce of rum is $6.50. The tip, after the transaction, is basically equivalent to handing an ad-exec a bulging envelope of cash to sweeten the deal after the fact. In one case, you're a bartender and it's okay. In the other...

Well, maybe things are different in the US than in Canada, I know they are different in a lot of European countries, because when I tipped over there people always looked at me funny and sometimes even tried to give the money back. In the US the hospitality industry makes their living off of tips. The tip is paying for services the $6.50 is for the product. If you don't pay for the services don't expect them to be any good that's all I am saying...

[fredr123]

Originally Posted by Nicole

I just talked with my sister who made $500.00 in tips this weekend, from friday night to sunday night

Does that include the hundy I left on the dresser?

[fredr123]

Originally Posted by Sowa

Well, maybe things are different in the US than in Canada, I know they are different in a lot of European countries, because when I tipped over there people always looked at me funny and sometimes even tried to give the money back. In the US the hospitality industry makes their living off of tips. The tip is paying for services the $6.50 is for the product. If you don't pay for the services don't expect them to be any good that's all I am saying...

But I paid for the product. $6.50. Which by all accounts and in most clubs, at least in Calgary, is a steep price considering all that water they use to make the liquor go further is pretty cheap. Now you're holding my damn drink ransom unless I pay you extra because your employer isn't giving you a cut of the small fortune he or she just extorted from us for booze?

[RougeUnderoos]

Originally Posted by fredr123

I think the "hospitality" industry is a bit different than other service industries. There's not really any contract in place between you and your customers aside from the one that says flat coke and half an ounce of rum is $6.50. The tip, after the transaction, is basically equivalent to handing an ad-exec a bulging envelope of cash to sweeten the deal after the fact. In one case, you're a bartender and it's okay. In the other...

Imagine how much that rum and coke would cost if they were paying the staff adult wages. A mouthbreathing teenager can make 15 bucks an hour at Tim Horton's. A competent adult who can actually run a bar would command at least double that in Calgary.

One way or the other, we'd be paying the staff something. If a bartender makes a wage of 30 bucks an hour and doesn't get tips, we'd be buying a 10 dollar drink.

[FlamingLonghorn]

Originally Posted by fredr123

But I paid for the product. $6.50. Which by all accounts and in most clubs, at least in Calgary, is a steep price considering all that water they use to make the liquor go further is pretty cheap. Now you're holding my damn drink ransom unless I pay you extra because your employer is giving you a cut of the small fortune he or she just extorted from us for booze?

No i'll give you your drink just know that it'll take a while to get the next one when I am done with all the patrons who pay for my services you can get your drinks.

[fredr123]

Originally Posted by RougeUnderoos

Imagine how much that rum and coke would cost if they were paying the staff adult wages. A mouthbreathing teenager can make 15 bucks an hour at Tim Horton's. A competent adult who can actually run a bar would command at least double that in Calgary.

One way or the other, we'd be paying the staff something. If a bartender makes a wage of 30 bucks an hour and doesn't get tips, we'd be buying a 10 dollar drink.

It just gets me that it's either me (the guy buying the double double) or the mouth breather behind the counter that have to make up the difference. It's never the owner of the joint who diggs in a little. He or she bathes in cash thanks to the thriving Alberta economy. I'm not saying Tim's or anyone else needs to be running a charity on my behalf but the solution to any increase in costs is to pass it along to me. Stupid capitalism.

[FlamingLonghorn]

Originally Posted by fredr123

Stupid capitalism.

In my experiences, drinking in a country with socialist leniences is much more expensive than the US...

[Nicole]

Originally Posted by fredr123

Does that include the hundy I left on the dresser?

Yeah probably, knowing her

[Julio]

Originally Posted by fredr123

But I paid for the product. $6.50. Which by all accounts and in most clubs, at least in Calgary, is a steep price considering all that water they use to make the liquor go further is pretty cheap. Now you're holding my damn drink ransom unless I pay you extra because your employer is giving you a cut of the small fortune he or she just extorted from us for booze?

So who are you accusing of breaking the law here?

[fredr123]

Originally Posted by Julio

So who are you accusing of breaking the law here?

Nobody's breaking the law unless this guy's only getting $4/hr in Calgary. Which he's not. I was using "extorted" and "ransom" in their overexaggerated dramatic senses.

Something irritates me about tipping, especially at a bar, in the same way a new pair of underwear that doesn't fit the same way as all your old reliable pairs irritates me. I've never had any problem giving a little something extra to people who do a bang up job. I think, getting back to one of the original tangents of the thread, that it's the expectation of a tip regardless of service quality that annoys many.

I would expect reasonably prompt service as a paying customer at any establishment. Obviously, as Sowa pointed out, this isn't the case. The people who make it worth his while to hustle get their drinks first. If he did a decent job getting my drink and did so in a reasonable time I probably would have tipped him anyway. But to expect to have to do that regardless of quality of service in order to get my drinks before the bar closes bugs me a little.

It also annoys me that Sowa's employer can get away with paying him such a low wage. Doing so increases the expectation of tips to make a meager wage and shifts the onus for wages onto the customer-server transaction rather than the employer-employee relationship.

But all this has been beat to death in the three previous pages in the thread...

[Julio]

What I meant by 'breaking the law' isn't the wage issue (and yes, the thing in the States where they can include tips as part of the wage and thus pay $4 an houris horrible), it's with you saying bars water down their drinks. If you think this is so, call the AGLC...it's a pretty serious offence to do that, and isn't something to just throw out and accuse people of.

[troutman]

Originally Posted by fredr123

It also annoys me that Sowa's employer can get away with paying him such a low wage. Doing so increases the expectation of tips to make a meager wage and shifts the onus for wages onto the customer-server transaction rather than the employer-employee relationship.

Service is worse in some parts of Europe where the tip is already built-in to the price. Those waiters have no motivation to do a good job when the tip is already guaranteed.

[FireFly]

Well, I actually had good service today! Went to Earls with a girlfriend for lunch today and had fantastic service, but that's just Earls for you... they expect nothing less. My Santa Fe chicken salad came without the chicken, and I got it for free! (Though we did spend $25 on drinks anyways!) I love liquid lunches... Back to work!

[jroc]

Originally Posted by FireFly

Well, I actually had good service today! Went to Earls with a girlfriend for lunch today and had fantastic service, but that's just Earls for you... they expect nothing less. My Santa Fe chicken salad came without the chicken, and I got it for free! (Though we did spend $25 on drinks anyways!) I love liquid lunches... Back to work!

I have definately noticed that lots of blondes work at Earles

haha how do you screw that one up?