Hypothetical Management Decision re: non-tipping patron of restaurant

[rutang]

If a waiter ever autograts me, and it's not within a posted policy, they can expect a complaint to the manager, and 0% tip. I'd probably never return to the restaraunt either.

If I get autograt'ed within a posted policy, and I'm not made aware of it by the wait staff, I work tirelessly to make sure our party does not tip beyond the autograt.

that [censored] pisses me off. It's a hustle.

[The Dude]

As someone who has waited tables for a living and owned a restaurant:

Tips are optional. Some people leave great tips irregard of service quality, and some people leave bad/no tip. The correct attitude for a server to have is that they are "owed" a tip by the guests, they are "given" them. Be grateful for the tips that you get, and don't begrudge the tips that you don't.

The hostess rotating a regular through the different servers' sections is certainly appropriate.

[Claunchy]

To all those denouncing the autograt: Yeah, it sucks in principle and probably shouldn't exist, BUT. As a former waiter, nothing sucked more than waiting on some redneck's entire extended family for 3 hours only to get like 5 bucks. And it was pretty common, cuz from the perspective of a retard, why should someone get $30 (or whatever) just for waiting on one table?

[samsonite2100]

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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.


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they basically are stealing from you if they do that

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This happened to me the other night. The wife and I went out for dinner at Bennigans since we had a buy one meal with two drinks get a meal free coupon. We use it, bill came out to like $17.30 (should have been $14) after tax, it was like $22 before coupon. I see an autogratted charge for $3.30 at the bottom.

I understand why they did this, so the server gets tipped pre-coupon, but I always tip before and her service was exceptional and I was going to leave a $20 and call it a night. Instead I left nothing except the autograt because I was so pissed off about it. Server ended up losing out because of what I thought was company policy, do I feel bad about it, a little, but I should never get the autograt on a party of 2.

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.

[samsonite2100]

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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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Also, wtf do you loathe about the autograt? It's usually 17 or 18%, so it can't be that it's more than you want to leave, right? Do you understand the reason for it? Big parties are exponentially more difficult and time-consuming to serve than smaller ones. On top of that, have you noticed the tendency people have to turn into miserly math-retarded Communists in big groups? Everyone puts in what they think is right and, poof, 12%.

[bobman0330]

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To all those denouncing the autograt: Yeah, it sucks in principle and probably shouldn't exist, BUT. As a former waiter, nothing sucked more than waiting on some redneck's entire extended family for 3 hours only to get like 5 bucks.

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Paying a bunch of money so a restaurant can try to steal from you would probably be worse. It's never happened to me, but if some restaurant did try to autograt me outside of a posted policy, I'm not paying it and I'm not tipping.

[Dids]

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.

[samsonite2100]

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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.

That said, you can't autograt a single bad-tipping customer. If I were manager in this OP, I'd talk to them and find out what the problem is--and more likely than not, get replied to in an Australian or British accent.

[Victor]

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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.


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they basically are stealing from you if they do that

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they are costing themselves money if they do it to me since i tip more than the autograt.

[ceczar]

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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.

now, your other point is certainly valid and a good reason to institute an autograt. when splitting the bill, people often make huge mistakes when calculating their share of the bill, and these mistakes are almost always biased towards paying less (forgetting to add tax, forgetting about your share of that appetizer you split with a friend, etc).

that said, i really think the autograt should be 15% and not 18%. the few times i've seen a %20 autograt i've stiffed (left 15%, not 0) them out of principle.