Re: Stiffing
 

I'm a decent tipper, but I've only stiffed someone once. My friends and I went to eat, and the waitress screwed up two of our three orders. She only came by our table twice (once for our orders, and once to drop off the check), and she was obviously trying to just leave work as soon as possible. When she dropped off the check, I told her, "This is the worst service I've ever received," but she just shrugged her shoulders and gave an insincere apology. Our bill was about $40, and we left her a 9 cent tip with a note at the bottom that said, "You're not worth a dime."

Re: Stiffing
 

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that chick from the office is so [censored] smokin

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QFT [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

Re: Stiffing
 

boris,

agree that asking if you want singles is super stupid.

in general, i agree with you about waitstaff. check service is almost always better if waitstaff have to ring it out themselves, or if an owner / manager type is at the register.

but i have also worked in restaurants where waiters didn't really have that kind of push over the kitchen, and if they had tried to be complete hardasses the kitchen would just laugh. i cut them a little slack for kitchen errors, but i never want to see a waiter actively blame the kitchen for something. say sorry and fix it, i don't care whose fault it is.

Re: Stiffing
 

[ QUOTE ]
I'm a decent tipper, but I've only stiffed someone once. My friends and I went to eat, and the waitress screwed up two of our three orders. She only came by our table twice (once for our orders, and once to drop off the check), and she was obviously trying to just leave work as soon as possible. When she dropped off the check, I told her, "This is the worst service I've ever received," but she just shrugged her shoulders and gave an insincere apology. Our bill was about $40, and we left her a 9 cent tip with a note at the bottom that said, "You're not worth a dime."

[/ QUOTE ]
lol

Re: Stiffing
 

The only custom title Vyse deserves is also six letters and starts with "B". I just threw up in my mouth seeing him get that for throwing the easy Reservoir Dogs tipping quote out there.

Bars: once overcame a lot of internal turmoil and stiffed a really unfriendly waitress from whom I bought a single $6 beer but who was really rude to our group for a couple of hours because we were playing bar shuffleboard and apparently in her way. The place wasn't even that crowded, she was just being a bitch. I made sure that she knew that I stiffed her before I left. Was really pissed but like I said, it was hard for me to do for some reason.

Cabs: actually, it was on my way to the 2+2 happy hour in LA a couple of months ago that the cabbie pulled the "no change" bit. First he charged a ridiculous flat fee for like 1.5 miles ($12, I think) then I decided to pay on the way, which was smart, because when he said he didn't have change I made him pull into a convenience store and get some. Still "tipped" him $3 to an even $15, he gave me some sob story about how they had just raised the minimum charge from $10 to $12 and it was cutting into his profits. Whatever buddy.

Re: Stiffing
 

[ QUOTE ]

The only custom title Vyse deserves is six letters and starts with "B". I just threw up in my mouth seeing him get that for throwing the easy Reservoir Dogs tipping quote out there.

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bastrd?

feel free to change it, you're a mod

Re: Stiffing
 

The last time I stiffed someone, it was my waitress at BJ's who took 20 minutes to bring my check. Doesn't sound that bad, but I spent the entire 20 minutes watching her sit in a customer's booth chatting it up. When she finally came and picked up the check, she opened the bifold and asked if I needed any change, which is kind of rude but also kind of funny because I put the exact total in cash, coins and all.

Re: Stiffing
 

My girlfriend and I had dinner in a cheapo place in Istanbul, and on the bottom of the menu there was some very small writing in Turkish, with '10%' and one of the words resembling 'service'.

When the time came to pay our bill, the waiter/owner showed us the list of what we ordered, totaled up, and a line marked '20%' that was added to it. I pointed at it and gave him a WTF look, and he said 'we have 20 service fee'. The amount wasn't very significant, but it pissed me off, especially because the menu was still there lying right in front of me. I said 'in the menu it says 10'.

The bastard actually replied 'no, no, in menu is written 20!'. I just put my finger under the '10%', said 'ten' in Turkish, and stared him down. He came back with the crappiest old low-denomination bills he could find for change. One was actually torn in half.

So yeah, no tip.

Re: Stiffing
 

I used to wait tables (for background). Some things for me:

1. I definitely tip based on the server's performance. I start around 15-20% and work my way up/down from there.

2. No-no's include: Not refilling my soda before I hit bottom, forgetting something they said they'd bring me, making me wait too long for them to pick/return my credit card when paying the bill.

3. I never tip on the quality of the food, unless they bring out something wrong. Like if I order steak and potatoes and instead I get steak and steamed veggies - that's the server's fault because they should have checked to make sure it got made right before they brought it to me.

4. For really bad service - based on my experience - a very small tip is worse than a straight stiff. With no tip at all, there's a possibility that the tip was just forgotten or something. If a small tip is left (like $0.45), the server knows you didn't forget.

5. For really bad service, I'll sometimes make a note of what was so bad on my bill/check in the hopes that a manager/owner will see it.

Re: Stiffing
 

I had the worst service of my entire life a few weeks ago at Enid's in Williamsburg. Our (hot) hipster brunch waitress clearly hated being reduced to waiting tables and put incredibly little effort into doing her job. After waiting 20 minutes for the check, I seriously considered leaving nothing, or ten percent, or whatever on the $40 check, but still left $6, b/c I've worked in food service forever and am pathologically incapable of stiffing someone or even tipping under 15%. In retrospect, she could have hit me in the head with a ballpeen hammer and I would have still tipped 15%. It's a sickness...