Stiffing
 

I stiffed the wait staff twice in the past week and felt pretty good about it both times.

The first time was at Miyake's where I had this for lunch


The waiter was kind of a punk but that didn't bother me. What bothered the heck out of me was having to wait 10 minutes to pay my bill because the cashier took a break. My bill was $14.75 and all I had was a $20. When the cashier gets done being a lazy worthless [censored], he asks me if I want my change in one dollar bills. I was still going to leave a tip until he asked that question.

Then this past weekend I had breakfast at Costeaux .

The restaurant looked good from the outside. It was what you would expect from downtown Healdsburg, CA. This is a place with lots of groovy rich California people, tourists and homosexuals. I don't have anything against any of these groups. I'm just painting a picture of the atmosphere at this place. Anyways, the restaurant was filthy. The service sucked. It took them 15 minutes to get a cup of coffee in front of me. I had to ask for a refill (total BS, IMO). Our food took forever and tasted just OK. The place was not particularly busy. As a former food service worker I was not at all impressed by the effort from Team Costeaux. I felt good stiffing those clowns also.

Re: Stiffing
 

My mother is a waitress and I always try to be forgiving when it comes to problems with the waitstaff, but there has been occasion that I've left small or no tip. Of course, since I'm in my early 20s, when i do this, I feel like I'm just propagating the same stereotypes about bad tipping young people that leads to some of the bad service in the first place.

I never stiff them based off the quality of the food, but if they take forever, are unapologetic, etc. then I have no problem stiffing them.

Re: Stiffing
 

FWIW I have found that the quality of service I receive has gotten better as I've gotten older.

Re: Stiffing
 

i don't know if i would stiff the first guy if it's the cashier's fault and not the server. staff who don't work for tips sometimes don't care about screwing over the waitstaff, sucks when that happens.

the only time i have ever totally stiffed somebody was at a bar / restaurant in a fairly seedy part of cancun when we got stranded there during hurricane ivan a few years back. lousy service the whole time, and then they ignored us for like twenty minutes while we tried to get the bill. place wasn't even crowded. i flagged a guy down and asked for it and still didn't get it. we guessed the price (erring on the side of lowball), left it mostly in change, and bounced.

i worked in the restaurant industry for a long time so i am pretty forgiving, especially when i go to a place a lot. i'm finding that it doesn't matter that much in NYC though like it does in small towns, they just don't care as much here and they aren't likely to remember you.

Re: Stiffing
 

I've never stiffed in a restaurant, but I've given really small tips (like 5%) in situations like the one you described where the guy just disappeared for like 15 minutes when we were trying to pay the check and get out of there. That [censored] is infuriating.

Only time I recall totally stiffing anyone was a cabbie in AC who drove me from the Borgata to the Taj, meter was like $10.50 and I had $9 in ones and all the rest of my money in $20s and $100s. I hand the guy a $20, he says he doesn't have any change (lol), I take the 20 back, give him the $9 and leave. I felt a little bad, but wtf, I'm not tipping you $9.50 for a 5-minute cab ride because you're either lying about having change or too dumb to carry it.

Re: Stiffing
 

[ QUOTE ]
FWIW I have found that the quality of service I receive has gotten better as I've gotten older.

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Agree. My tolerance for poor service has shrunk to near zero. There are several poker dealers that will never get a tip and I'm a one casino man who logs a lot of hours. Food service, no biggie, I just won't ever go back.

When it comes to consumer f-ups I know exactly which buttons to push, just how much noise to make and what authority to appeal to. I get my way most all the time, public sphere excluded. No leverage is possible with public employees unless you are connected.

Re: Stiffing
 

[ QUOTE ]
I've never stiffed in a restaurant, but I've given really small tips (like 5%) in situations like the one you described where the guy just disappeared for like 15 minutes when we were trying to pay the check and get out of there. That [censored] is infuriating.


[/ QUOTE ]

My wife and I were eating in the coffee shop at one of the casinos in South Lake Tahoe a couple of years ago. Sometime before the food was on the table, the server went DB Cooper on us, as in, didn't check back after a couple of minutes (a different server had actually brought the food out) and we were sitting around for a good 15 minutes waiting for the check.

Finally, we went to the cashier, who had no idea where the check was, and what to charge us. I told her exactly what we had, but for some reason she didn't just write up a duplicate tag. Anyway, Houdini comes rolling up out of the back and my wife insists on paying the bill, signing a CC slip for a $0.17 tip right in front of the guy.

Re: Stiffing
 

I don't really care whose fault it is when something is not right in a restaurant. If the overall package is great, a place where I would LOVE to come back -- that means food, service and stmosphere -- then I will gladly leave big tips, up to equal to the meal depending on how much I have on me. But I don't tip for merely decent service, which is 99% of places, so I almost never tip.

Re: Stiffing
 

[ QUOTE ]
I've never stiffed in a restaurant, but I've given really small tips (like 5%) in situations like the one you described where the guy just disappeared for like 15 minutes when we were trying to pay the check and get out of there. That [censored] is infuriating.

Only time I ever recall stiffing anyone was a cabbie in AC who drove me from the Borgata to the Taj, meter was like $10.50 and I had $9 in ones and all the rest of my money in $20s and $100s. I hand the guy a $20, he says he doesn't have any change (lol), I take the 20 back, give him the $9 and leave. I felt a little bad, but wtf, I'm not tipping you $9.50 for a 5-minute cab ride because you're either lying about having change or too dumb to carry it.

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Aren't cabbies supposed to carry a certain amount of change by law?

Re: Stiffing
 

[ QUOTE ]
I don't really care whose fault it is when something is not right in a restaurant. If the overall package is great, a place where I would LOVE to come back -- that means food, service and stmosphere -- then I will gladly leave big tips, up to equal to the meal depending on how much I have on me. But I don't tip for merely decent service, which is 99% of places, so I almost never tip.

[/ QUOTE ]

wow, coming from you this doesn't surprise me at all.