Hypothetical Management Decision re: non-tipping patron of restaurant

[Brad1970]

gra·tu·ity: something given voluntarily or beyond obligation usually for some service; especially : tip

[ceczar]

i wonder how the rise of online reviews has affected management's likely course of action in these cases. it doesn't take much effort for a vindictive customer to fill up menupages and citysearch with some pretty bad reviews. a lot of people, in our demographic for sure, at least in nyc, rely on menupages pretty heavily for reviews when picking restaurants.

[Oski]

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gra·tu·ity: something given voluntarily or beyond obligation usually for some service; especially : tip

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con·ven·tion:...

a customary practice, rule, method, etc.;

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[Brad1970]

Here's a tip: don't eat yellow snow

[AbreuTime]

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Random note: My parents used the same coupon (had 2 and they were expiring) at a different Bennigans, 5 miles down the road, on the same night and ran up a bill closer to $40, no autograt.

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What are you pissed off about? First, these coupons always say there's a gratuity included, so it shouldn't have surprised you. Second, when you don't add the grat in these situations, I'd say half the time you wind up getting tipped on the discounted amount. The fact that you're a good tipper is nice, but irrelevant to the waitron trying not to get screwed.

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He's probably offended because the waitstaff assumed (based on some combination of race, dress, or most likely: age) that he was a cheapskate and likely to stiff on tip. The "evidence," and what likely contributed to the anger/offensiveness, was his parents' meal that was not autograt. It wasn't a policy; it was an isolated pricing decision based on what he looked like (discrimination, in a way).

[mosdef]

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Big parties are exponentially more difficult and time-consuming to serve than smaller ones.

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i don't think this is true. it wouldn't surprise me if the returns to scale aren't significant, but i'd be shocked if it was on average more difficult to serve a table of 12 than 3 tables of 4.

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This is totally true. Big parties, are 10x harder to wait on: harder to get people's attention, harder logistically, harder to make sure the kitchen gets everything right, etc.

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Is it harder to serve one table with 10 people or 5 tables of 2 people?

[doppelganger]

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Here's a tip: don't eat yellow snow

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Or fry bacon naked.

[CalledDownLight]

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If I was the customer and I got autogratted without being in a party of 6, I would essentially feel like you were trying to steal from me.

I never add an additional tip when I get autogratted for large parties anyway. I [censored] loathe the autograt.

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I agree. I hate the autograt and never leave additional tip. The thing is, I typically leave 20-25% when there is no autograt.

[Dids]

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I obviously understand it. I just dislike it. Were I running an establishment, it's not a choice I'd make. Because they've made a choice to do something I don't like, they're likely getting 2% less than normal.

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Well, if you understand it, it seems strangely spiteful not to leave that extra 2%, assuming the service was good. Because you'd understand that the autograt is not aimed at you, the clued-in 20% tipper, but at bad tippers, and particularly, bad tippers en masse. It's just an insurance policy to protect a server who devotes a disproportionate amount of time and energy to one table.



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I wouldn't really disagree that it's spiteful. I just really enjoy spite.

[Golden_Rhino]

It would be ridiculous of a manager/owner to kick a customer out. If he is so concerned about his employees salaries he can give them a raise. I always tip, but in the end it is not mandatory. If it was mandatory it would be part of the price.