Of course, this place has horrible customer service, so I’m not sure why they think they deserve a tip. Usually there is one adult working there and bunch of high school kids holding signs or deliverying the pizzas. The adult is the one that expects the tip and he has the worst customer service of anyone. The first time I went in there I was 9 months pregant (I literally gave birth two days later) and the guy was on the phone when I walked in and completely ignored me, and our order was done incorrectly. Needless to say it was awhile before we even ordered from there again. I would just let them lose our business, but there isn’t really another pizza place close by.

So really I feel like I shouldn’t have to tip at all! Though I give my 15%.

I should find out about that before I travel to different spots in U.S.

Some people tip on what means most to them. For instance, if I want a night off from cooking I don’t really care about the service. I’d be happy with take out. Maybe I should just get take out then…

Maybe in my single days…or if it were just my husband and myself I might have left. With the kids…Nah.

I got up and tried to dry off.. but was still rather damp and cold. The waiter tried to make a joke of it, but I explained I would not accept a joking “I’m sorry” as my evening was ruined and could I speak to the Manager. I explained to him this was a special night and it had been marred as I was sopping wet…that sorry wasnt good enough and I felt the Restaurant should do something in mitigation. We were given gift certificates for another meal.

I did leave 10% for the waiter….

Marti and Greg…. in many places the pay is far below regular minimum wage…In Virginia, they don’t have to pay you at all as long as your tips add up to minimum wage. Having worked my way through college for $2.13 and hour plus tips… tips are NOT optional unless I didn’t do my job. If you don’t like that, eat at home! please!

I still gave him just over 10%, but as I understand it, some people in this thread would think that is a grave sin. What sucks is that I personally feel he was inattentive towards us because we ordered relatively inexpensive dishes and drank water rather than spending $150 on our meal like some others surely did.

The rest of your post is just an elaborate justification for being cruel and cheap, and ignoring the social custom of where you live. Especially the three minute water refill routine. Jesus Christ on a pogo stick. I’m wondering if you inform your server of the hoops they will need jump through to be worthy of you thanking their manager while leaving no tip. I’m betting if you did, you’d get the crappy service you quite honestly deserve.

I’m sorry you had that experience. As a server I have a great respect for people dining alone, especially after I got a comment card from one customer. She wrote that with her fiance being Iraq, she always felt uncomfortable with having to dine out alone but that my kindness that evening had made her feel very comfortable. In all my years of serving, I have learned that I know nothing about my customers, if they are having a bad day etc. I try to treat them all as if they are having a bad day and I can make it just a little better for them.

@124

If you were in my section, you would never have an empty drink. I always bring a refill (if it free refills) when the drink is 3/4 empty.

And as a final note, to be a good waiter one has to to have some intelligence, awareness and sensitivity to the customer. People with these qualities expect to be paid well enough so they can pay their rent and live a life; so unless you would prefer to pay double or more for your meal so that the restaurants can pay good employees what they are worth, we have to rely on the tipping method. You are not going to get really good service for slave wages.

Also, I had to tip out the busboys and food runners, and pay taxes on estimated amount of the tip based on the price of the bill. So tipping based on the price of the bill is important because if you are at a nice restaurant (the one in Trent’s post sounds like a dive) that waiter is tipping out fellow workers and paying taxes based on the price of your meal.

We often get water to keep the price of our bill down, but I always tip for the service of having our water glasses refilled.

And I agree with the others that in this case, Trent you should have talked to the manager. This waitresses behavior was outrageous and not good for the restaurants business and a bad tip does clearly let a waiter know what their weak points are and how they can improve. If this was a cheap restaurant, she may have also just had had it with the cheapos wanting “perfect” service.

I’m only human, though, and if after all of this they were still actively rude or hostile—I just might be inclined to stoop to their level.

Over my last 15+ years in the workforce I have worked many, many jobs. I have worked as a waiter, cook, cable technician, dishwasher, pizza cook, parking lot cleaner, telemarketer, butcher block clerk at a grocery store, factory worker, assistant (paper shuffler), retail sales, retail stocking, etc… and I frequently got very close to the same wage at every job (between state minimum and 1.50 higher) and the only job I ever received tips for was as a waiter.

So explain to me how a waiter/server deserves to get tips when many of those jobs payed the same hourly wage and I worked MUCH harder to do them. I didn’t get tips to crawl under people’s homes, or to show up at 3:00 AM after a 12 hour day to get their internet back online (which was usually their fault anyway). I never got tips in retail, in fact the two jobs I worked in retail you were not allowed to take tips even if offered. It was a fireable offense, and they watched the video tapes daily.

Why should I tip when that same person probably wouldn’t tip me? What makes them better?

I will say, IF and ONLY IF I receive perfect service I will take the time to tell the manager/owner about the experiance. I consider perfect experiance to be: the server doesn’t make anybody at the table uncomfortable for any reason, our food arrives hot and correct, and (this one throws most people) my drink is never empty for more than 3 minutes (and I will time it). If you do those three things, I will take the time to thank you, and make sure your boss knows you did a great job. OCCASSIONALLY if somebody really blows me out of the water I will leave a tip, but I always hand it directly to them and thank them.

If you really piss me off I will always leave 2 pennies, just like my dad taught me over 20 years ago. I will probably also let your boss, and sometimes their boss, know just how bad you did.