Derek Jeter, Bad Mexican, and the Surprise Omelet

I have to say, I will always remember the day I did not leave any tip at all, not even a cent, it was in Paris, It was raining all day and i was tired so I decided to go to the movies early evening, on Champs Elysée, there was one of the best films I remember, 37,2 le matin, I got in the theater and all lights were closed and a guy with a flash light was getting people seated, (at least 15 min before even the ads were showing, strange but it used to be that way), the guy was not even bothering to look if people were seated where he was pointing for me to go sit, the seats were all taken so I said to the guy can you light up somewhere where there are free seats, and all he cared about showing his hand was a tip, has I was not giving him a tip, he started insulting me, knowing from my accent in French that I was French Canadian. So I replied instantly, that in Canada we were intelligent and we opened the lights so that people could decide where to sit, and if I wanted to sit on someones lap I would chose whom I would sit on…. People were hysterical and clapping , laughing, the guy got so mad he never came back in our section.

I was very happy that things turned out great afterward, because I still remember it after 20 years. and it is actually a good memory.

My husband and I have always left a 20 percent if we receive good service, which pretty much the case most of the time. But to this day (and we laugh about often…now) we didn’t leave one at all!! Years ago we were driving from Virginia to California and of course stopped along the way at random places to eat. We especially like to find a great breakfast, not fast food, before our longdays journey and came across a nice ma & pa type restaurant that was fairly crowded at 5:00 in the morning…must have good food and service. Wrong! Oh, the food was good, but here’s where the waitress lost her tip…my husband was a little more than half way through his meal, sat his fork down on the edge, not top, of his plate to drink some coffee and the waitress came rushing over to take his plate away, rudely without asking, and no way was he finished being 6’5 and hungry…he told her he wasn’t done. She said that’s fine, but I need your fork…we ran out and need it for another customer…could you use your spoon to finish your meal?? Of course he said NO after just about choking on his coffee! We both sat there stunned!! And how GROSS if you think about it for a minute! Needless to say, we didn’t leave a tip. Hmmm…I wonder if they’re still in business?

Hey Joel,
The only time I ever felt like not leaving a tip was when we had my son Robb
and his lovely bride to be’s rehersal dinner at a local fancy restarant. Not only did we have 40 folks there for dinner and the sevice was awful,but my neice and I didn’t get our filets until after everyone else which we had to ask for. We also had to send our dinners back twice because the steaks were raw. So my bill came to around $1800.00 So you could understand why I wouldn’t want to tip them. When I complained to the owner she offered me a $25.00 gift certificate and I told that wouldn’t be necessary because I wouldn’t be coming back.

I don’t remember a time when it was bad enough I didn’t tip… but I *do* remember a story my husband tells. One time very early in our marriage, he was employed at a McDonald’s. I believe it was a Sunday morning. They were short staffed as it was, and that particular day, he was working front, the manager was working drive through, and the fellow in the back… well, I can’t say that he was working much at all… One irate customer threw a cheeseburger at my husband. Needless to say, that was his last day on that job. He quit and never looked back.

p.s. – re the omelet – we used to do something like that too, only mixing shredded cheddar and salsa into the eggs then cook :-) It doesn’t get much simpler than that.

When I moved to england the culture is not to leave tips in general. You just have to pay for what you ordered. And generally the service at the restaurants is always good, you get it within a reasonable time and you get what you ordered! Its surprising to read those stories from american posters about getting served the wrong stuff and getting it served way too late.

Having grown up in a family who always hideously undertipped, I always make sure to leave SOMETHING as a tip, mostly because I know that waiters are dependent on tips, and their salaries are quite a bit below minimum wage. That doesn’t mean that I won’t leave a below average tip for below average service, but usually I’ll let them know, either talking to management or leaving a message in a suggestion box, if they have one.
A lot of times waiters will assume if you leave NO tip at all, that either:
A) You’re cheap, or
B) You’re an ass.
Make sure the message is crystal clear if the service is bad. Simply leaving no tip at all looks bad on you as much as on them.

~ I’m going to try this Mexican omelete. I love Mexican food and wouldn’t mind spicing up my usual scrambled eggs with ketchup tradition!

I usually leave 15-20% tip when the waiter/waitress at least tries to do a good job but if they’re a total slacker then I’ll cut it way back.

I was randomly thinking that someone should make an iPhone app that automatically gives you a fixed tip percentage based on the quality of service.

I mean stuff can always go wrong, wherever, whenever. In many countries, so I take that back from my previous comment. I now remember an incident that happened to me but it was on a flight service. An older male sat next to me got treated really rude by one of the air hosts. I freaked out.
He got a sandwhich but it was too cold, so the host snatched it from him in a very rude way. and came back with another sandwich. The old man ate his sandwich and drank his coffee and they were now collecting any rubbish etc. He put his cup out to be collected and the air host kept ignoring him on purpose, walked past him etc. I was also asking to get served but he ignored me too. He would come by walking down the aisle and I’d say ‘excuse me’ and he would just walk past!!!! I knew he did that because he had issues with the older man sitting next to me. But at one point I freaked out and shouted at th guy. I went ‘hey you, you, why do you keep ignoring me’. He goes ‘don’t speak to me like that’. I said why are you then ignoring me and treating that old man sat next to me in the most rude way ever. A manager comes along and has a discussion with the older man and tells him the waiter is ready to apologise. I then start speaking to the old man and befriending him etc. The situation got a lot more complex as I was waving a cup nervously when I was telling the waiter to come by and stop ignoring us and some of hte milk in it ended up on another passenger’s face. So I had to apologise to him and explain the whole situation, he was not happy about it and I felt very embarassed.

Some people are just really unprofessional! They don’t have the complexity to be decent even in their work environment. I would not have liked that person to lose his job, he might have been stressed etc. All of the staff looked stressed on that flight. Its just when you are managing any business one mock up, usually made by the seniors or by some abnormal circumstance leads to lots of disatisfaction among many of the employees and can lead to some incidents. same with restaurants etc. Well BA is a safe company to fly with anyway!

I lived in Canada for many years. A few years ago I moved back to Europe. Poor service is standard and tips never come close to North America regardless.
Some restaurants have a cover charge which is described as the privilege of having a cloth tablecloth on the table. That traslates into that it doesn’t mean it’s a tip. Some claim, on the menu, that there will be a 75 cent charge if orders don’t amount to $10 a person. I’m using $$ but $10 translates into about $US35. When the bill arrived we were FIVE CENTS short of the $10. Eight of us were each charged the 75cents cover charge. Needless to say, we never went back. the service wasn’t that good and it was mostly the family of the owners who were serving that night. Tip, of course none.

I always leave something. My mom taught me, “Two wrongs don’t make a right.” I “try” to rise above the situation (I used to be a “grab ’em by the throat and get in their face” type person; I’m better now [smile]). I try to remember that they might be having a horrid day, have some horrible personal issue, be new on the job, or something along that line. If it was really, really bad service and seems more along the “inept” line rather than having a bad day line – which is rare – I do lodge a complaint with the manager or fill out a suggestion form.

I remember one time I didn’t tip because the waiter took forever, then got the order wrong, and was pissed when I asked her to go take it back and bring back the food I ordered lol.

What’s the worst time you had Joel (if there is a worse one then this time)?

About three years ago in one of my favorite places, the whole family, six of us, were having Sunday lunch. It was not only that the service was bad i.e. we had to beg for our drinks, she got half the orders wrong, etc., but the attitude was rotten.
When I got the check I printed an asterisk in the tip line, and behind I wrote: “If you don’t enjoy your work, please feel free to pursue something else. But please don’t ruin our day out.”

I usually give a tip even if its not the 20% rule like in the US.
But sometimes the service and the food is so bad i order the manager.
The worst situation was when i visited my dad in switzerland and i stayed in this 5* hotel where a friend of my dad is manager.
So i sat there in the morning in a small nice pavillion in a lake and my butter tasted some kind of rancid so i pleased the server to bring me a new piece of butter.
This guy took the butter, tasted it and said: NO the butter is ok! and put it back on my table.
At this point my brain just shut down, i took the table and threw it through the window in the lake (And i’m not the biggest guy). This guy was so scared that he just ran. I walked right to my dads friend and he fired the guy but i mean come on its butter!!! not lobster and even then you serve a new on if the customer say its not ok.. or am i wrong?
in the end i payed the window and the table but they never forget this story and it became a running gag.
I still stay there and they still give me a room hahahaha.

wishes from germany Björn

Service is key in any business. If I owned the restaurant I wouldn’t expect you to tip and possible not even pay for your meal. The key to any business success is customer service. If you can’t perform than why are you in business.

I hate how tips are now a God-given right that is expected no matter what. If I give a tip it’s out my own generosity and appreciation of the service, if the service sux why should I encourage them to suck by still leaving a tip? I think if waiters know that they won’t get a tip for doing a sucky job they’ll work at it and do a better job. Bad food, however, isn’t the waiters fault so I still tip them if the problem was with the food not the service.

I don’t recall not leaving a tip at all. I have never been in the food industry but I can only imagine what a stressful job it is. Generally any issues I’ve had aren’t really the person serving the table, but rather a slow kitchen or understaffing.

What drives me crazy is having a waiter or waitress who is TOO attentive and won’t let you just relax and enjoy your food and your company.

Ironically, I went to a Mexican restaurant this weekend (on my cheat day of course) and had the most fabulous food, margaritas (I know I know) and pleasant service. And the tip reflected it.

Kathleen

I once had service that was so bad I decided to leave a penny for a tip. I filled up a glass of water and placed the shiny penny in it. I then covered the glass with the plastic menu and slid the glass off up side down on the table. The penny was beautiful and I am sure the waitress enjoyed the mess when she grabbed the glass. I left before the fun but enjoyed the thought.

Bad service and bad food don’t deserve tips, but my father went one step further. He had a card that said “If you receive more than one of these, you need to rethink your career choice.” and would leave that instead of the tip.

My mom and I went to a highly recommended Chinese restaurant for lunch. The service was terrible and the food wasn’t much better. I tried to cut the server some slack because it was a fairly new restaurant but he was very unattentive and when asked for something, very slow to respond. When it was time to pay the bill, the server waited at the table!!! I was fairly certain it was to make sure I would leave a tip. No, I did not. It’s the only time I’ve ever done that intentionally.

Joel,

Don’t get me started on this one… believe it or not part of my Thesis in college talked about the history of tipping and why Americans (in general) don’t do it properly (it’s a reward for good service, not something that is automatic or expected)… but b/c people will generally leave a tip regardless of service, servers tend to give average (bad) service… look at that, you got me started LOL.

Me personally, I go extreme in both directions… you give great service, you’ll get a great tip (well over 20%). Really bad service… no tip for you.

~Chris

P.S. If there was only a way you could actually make them pay you for not delivering the beer on time…

Hi Joel,
I have been to restaurants and received bad service. It was tempting not to leave a tip. However, I thought about the fact that I’m not responsible for what others do, but I am responsible for what I do. So I left a tip anyway (maybe not as big as I would have if the service was good). Now, they’re the ones who have to give in account of their actions to God and not me.
Thanks,
Joy

Sounds like an interesting day but I’ve been a server for about 5 years and never have I considered to have given service such as the one you received at that place. Yet I have still been “stiffed” before with no tip. Yet also where I live is a very unprogressive city so that plays a major factor in it.

NO! Even if the service were the worst I would leave a small tip–maybe 15% because you never know what is going on at the business or with the waitstaff. What I do is ask for the manager–be more proactive Joel! If you spoke with a manager I bet you would have gotten FREE beer and a big apology.

Bad service should always = $0 tip. Most companies go out of business if this is not caught by Management and corrected. A good friend of mine owns a very successful restaurant chain here in Canada (where service is usually much worse than in the US as there is less competition for jobs) he not only checks receipts for comments like this but calls the patrons back with a gift certificate for the amount spent if sincere. If the server has repeat comments they are shown the door.