RANT RANT RANT-poor service at dinner
- Thread starter ame
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Tipping in Australia isn''t mandatory as wages in the service industry are considered to be adequate (whether or not this is true I don''t know because I don''t work in service industry). That being the case I only ever tip waiters, taxi drivers, etc when I have received excellent service.
I remember when we were in America, we dined at Mickey Mantles(????) or something like that. We rounded up the bill with a tip - which would have been about 9.5%. We were tourists and didn''t know of the customary 10% tip rule and as we got up to leave, the waitress got in our way and demanded ''WASN''T THE SERVICE GOOD ENOUGH!'' Well excuuuuuuusse me for not knowing every single custom whilst being on holidays. If she had been nice about it, we would added a few extra dollars onto the paying tray thingo and apologised. Instead, she was a reall $%&*! about it that we basically told her to get rooted, pushed our way past her and stormed out.
I remember when we were in America, we dined at Mickey Mantles(????) or something like that. We rounded up the bill with a tip - which would have been about 9.5%. We were tourists and didn''t know of the customary 10% tip rule and as we got up to leave, the waitress got in our way and demanded ''WASN''T THE SERVICE GOOD ENOUGH!'' Well excuuuuuuusse me for not knowing every single custom whilst being on holidays. If she had been nice about it, we would added a few extra dollars onto the paying tray thingo and apologised. Instead, she was a reall $%&*! about it that we basically told her to get rooted, pushed our way past her and stormed out.
jenwill
Brilliant_Rock
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Yeah, tipping in countries not your own is tricky. I always felt weird when I went to Europe or Australia on business and didn''t leave a tip...massive guilt at underpaying!
If my service is beyond terrible, I will probably tip poorly, but otherwise 15% is given for even moderate service. Really good service gets 20ish%.
I worked in as a food server for about 11 years, and I realized that many people don''t realize where all of that tip money goes- I finally had to explain to my non-server friends and family that 10% was nto acceptable for decent service. They all just figured that it was ''extra'' that went straight into the servers pocket. I explained that at least here in my area, at a moderate restaurant that has a hostess, busboy, bartender, and foodrunner (which is everything from a TGIF to the very poshest), the server has to give each of those people a % of their sales.
So, in easy math numbers:
If I sold $1000 in a night. I made 15% in tips= $150. I have to give my busperson 3% (150-30= 120), and then give 1% each to my bartender and foodrunner (120-10-10= 100), and at about 50% of the restaurants the hostess also (100-10=90). I have 9% of my original 15% left. Oh, but the restaurant (if they have more than 10 employees) is required to report the servers total sales to the IRS. The IRS then assumes that said server made ~8% of their sales in tips...and automatically taxes them on it- along with social security. My original $150 has now turned into $90, and I am in a 23% tax bracket. That means I owe the IRS ~$21. Down to $69. I worked for a 7 hour shift. That means I made just under $10/hour. You say- but wait, what about their hourly? Many servers have a $0 paycheck and owe taxes at the end of the year because their entire hourly paycheck gets eaten up by the reported tip taxes- and then they owe money at the end of the year becase there wasn''t enough in hourly earnings to pay those taxes.
This was surprising to many of my friends and family, and definitely influenced the way they tip. I made good money waiting tables, but would get frustrated by those that would leave 10%- and THANK me for the great service! Or those that would take the cost of any alcohol out of their tab before figuring out the tip- I got taxed on that alcohol they drank, so bascially I just paid for them to have a drink!
I do agree there is really no excuse for horrible service just due to inattentiveness, but I will give breaks to less than stellar service if I notice that said server got slammed (more than 3 new tables given in a 5 minute period- which often happens if it is a busy night, they just had a big table leave that then got separated into 3/4 tables), or that all of the food is coming slowly out of the kitchen to the whole restaurant...while I may not go back to that pearticular restaurant, the server is not at fault for a slow kitchen, and they will still get taxed on my meal.
So, long drawn out way to say that I totally understand being from somewhere else and not knowing the customs of the area, but for those who live in the US and eat out...a little food for thought!
If my service is beyond terrible, I will probably tip poorly, but otherwise 15% is given for even moderate service. Really good service gets 20ish%.
I worked in as a food server for about 11 years, and I realized that many people don''t realize where all of that tip money goes- I finally had to explain to my non-server friends and family that 10% was nto acceptable for decent service. They all just figured that it was ''extra'' that went straight into the servers pocket. I explained that at least here in my area, at a moderate restaurant that has a hostess, busboy, bartender, and foodrunner (which is everything from a TGIF to the very poshest), the server has to give each of those people a % of their sales.
So, in easy math numbers:
If I sold $1000 in a night. I made 15% in tips= $150. I have to give my busperson 3% (150-30= 120), and then give 1% each to my bartender and foodrunner (120-10-10= 100), and at about 50% of the restaurants the hostess also (100-10=90). I have 9% of my original 15% left. Oh, but the restaurant (if they have more than 10 employees) is required to report the servers total sales to the IRS. The IRS then assumes that said server made ~8% of their sales in tips...and automatically taxes them on it- along with social security. My original $150 has now turned into $90, and I am in a 23% tax bracket. That means I owe the IRS ~$21. Down to $69. I worked for a 7 hour shift. That means I made just under $10/hour. You say- but wait, what about their hourly? Many servers have a $0 paycheck and owe taxes at the end of the year because their entire hourly paycheck gets eaten up by the reported tip taxes- and then they owe money at the end of the year becase there wasn''t enough in hourly earnings to pay those taxes.
This was surprising to many of my friends and family, and definitely influenced the way they tip. I made good money waiting tables, but would get frustrated by those that would leave 10%- and THANK me for the great service! Or those that would take the cost of any alcohol out of their tab before figuring out the tip- I got taxed on that alcohol they drank, so bascially I just paid for them to have a drink!
I do agree there is really no excuse for horrible service just due to inattentiveness, but I will give breaks to less than stellar service if I notice that said server got slammed (more than 3 new tables given in a 5 minute period- which often happens if it is a busy night, they just had a big table leave that then got separated into 3/4 tables), or that all of the food is coming slowly out of the kitchen to the whole restaurant...while I may not go back to that pearticular restaurant, the server is not at fault for a slow kitchen, and they will still get taxed on my meal.
So, long drawn out way to say that I totally understand being from somewhere else and not knowing the customs of the area, but for those who live in the US and eat out...a little food for thought!
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