When should you tip a waiter or waitress?

[surviva316]

Assume that you will never eat in this location or have this waiter or waitress again, and assume that the tip size will be 15-20%.

For better or for worse (ie: for worse), the US's system is setup so that a 15-20% tip is a built-in price for any situation where you are waited on. As such, I don't ever tip less than 15% (not even sure how often I go that low) unless it's a situation where I would demand to get my money back, which is an extremely extremely extremely rare scenario.

The one time I can think of where I wished to not pay for my service is when our server refused to serve our friend who was in from the Netherlands when he showed his Dutch drivers license, then when his girlfriend's sister drove his American passport over (because, what the fuck, who carries their passport around just to go to a tavern), he was still refused service. This was such an embarrassing fiasco of service that we left immediately with our drinks unfinished, our food mostly uneaten, etc.

I don't go to restaurants to be a connoisseur of service, looking for every excuse to be like, "Sweeeet, looks like I don't need to pay for my dining experience." To be honest, I don't really think that any scenario where service was so palatable (pun intended) that you managed to stick around for long enough to get your food, eat it and pay for it, then I don't really think that your service was so unacceptable for it to not go paid for.

I mean, I'm sure there are exceptions, but I think pretty much 99% of the reasons people have for "I'm not paying for this service" are pretty bunk things that would not apply to any other situation in the world where you're paying for a goods or service, but because the price is implied instead of built-in, it's treated differently.

[rong]

I mean, I'm sure there are exceptions, but I think pretty much 99% of the reasons people have for "I'm not paying for this service" are pretty bunk things that would not apply to any other situation in the world where you're paying for a goods or service, but because the price is implied instead of built-in, it's treated differently.

You pay for the service in the price of the meal. That's why places that offer eat in or takeaway charge more to eat in.

I tip near enough 100% of the time if I'm waited on. But I think its Shit that its assumed and it should be the case that a tip is earned. It's not like they work there for free. There's plenty of other min wage jobs out there and some that involve serving food that don't get tipped (ie reservoir dogs) so a waiter taking my tip for granted is poor form and shouldn't be rewarded, but as society deems it appropriate that we tip I do so often because I'd feel like a complete ass hole if I didn't.

[surviva316]

You pay for the service in the price of the meal. That's why places that offer eat in or takeaway charge more to eat in.

I'm talking about in American dining situations where servers are not paid mentionable hourly wages. First off: even if the service is built into the price, that money doesn't go to the servers, and you are still responsible for paying the service (fucked up system, but it's how it works).

Second off: that is not why eat-in places cost more. Rent is a huge part of restaurant overhead, and eat-in places both need to be bigger and need to be in more convenient areas where rent tends to be much higher. Atmosphere considerations are another big part of restaurant overhead. All of the contemporary art on the walls, the cleaning service for the carpet your walking on, etc cost money. I realize that this doesn't all that much apply to Waffle House and the like but that's the exception to the rule, and I'm not sure it cost more to dine-in there than it would to order out from there anyway. It also takes (at least) twice as much management to manage eat-in places than when your only job is to cook food and take money from the people who are eating your food. The $2/hr that servers make doesn't have much to do with it.