Would you leave a tip to a waiter/waitress if they were really lousy ?

Question

1 - No or slow drink refills ?
2 - I don't really care attitude ?
3 - General poor service and you can overhear them talking about the last guys poor tip ?

Answer 1

Nope. Tip is supposed to be for good service. I don't work for my womney to give it away to someone who feels they are entitled to it by being unprofessional.

Answer 2

As someone who has worked for tips in the past, I'd have to say no. When you go to work, you get paid to do a job, when they go to work, they get paid to do a job. If they aren't doing their job, why should they get paid?

It is the waiter/waitress's job to put on a smile, leave their personal life at home, and do a good job. It is not your job, as the customer, to care about how bad the last person they had was, or if their boyfriend broke up with them last night, or if they are hung over from too much partying. I know what it is like to have a horrible customer that you want to choke. When you get to the next customer, you need to smile, act like you're having a great day, and pretend whatever just happened, didnt happen.

You have to take into consideration though, how much of what happened was their fault. Was the restaurant really busy? Sometimes it takes a waitress a little longer to get your drink refill if they have 20 tables. However, if they had just a couple tables, there's no reason for it.

If your food comes out cold but everyone at your table has warm food, this is not the fault of the waitress, but the person preparing the food, as they didn't time it right, since the waitress brings out everyone's food at once. If everyone's food is cold, and you were watching the waitress flirt with a waiter for 20 minutes and the restaurant was practically empty... well, that's the waitress, not the cook.

Answer 3

I am a waitress at a very small and extremely busy diner....often we only have 1 to 2 cooks, no busboy and only one waitress working so I believe that if a waitress is really horrible and you can physically see her doing absolutely nothing, then she/he doesn't deserve a tip. But if it is anything like where I work, I sometimes can't cater to every body's needs exactly when they want me...I run my butt off as fast as I can for hours and I have customers complain, not want to pay because of the "bad service" and purposely make a huge mess at the table and throw change into the mess so I have to clean it off before being able to put it in my apron. I have had complete emotional breakdowns on a bad day when customers have thrown pennies on their dirty plates and I have to pick them out of eggs and food...it is horrible. All waitresses, except the ones that just sit and talk ignoring their customers, should get at least 15%. We only get paid a couple dollars an hour. Waitresses don't do it for fun, we have bills to pay just like everyone else. I am a great waitress, very attentive and just counting last week I was stiffed 5 times...something's wrong with that!

Answer 4

As a server myself, I may be a bit biased on this one. Lousy service certainly doesn't warrant the usual 20% tip, but I would never completely "stiff" the server.
I am usually one of the best servers at work and normally my tips reflect that. But everyone can have an off day. I have been late with refills, have had so many tables I am unable to give the attention my guests deserve, and occasionally I may make a mistake. When I encounter bad service elsewhere, I will leave 10% ish of the bill. If it's really bad, I will talk to the manager and or server about it and explain the 10%.
One should be wary of "stiffing" a server though, as we all talk about it when you leave. Your next visit (We DO Remember You!) may also be less than stellar as whoever your server is may know / remember the no tip incident and ENSURE that your service is no better - perhaps even worse!!
Now I am not condoning that behavior, because I know I can sometimes get great tips from known "bad tippers." It is, however, something I see everyday at work.

Answer 5

Yes, I would leave a small amount of change (pennies, maybe a nickle too!) on the table, this is supposed to be an insult to a waiter/waitress. This means that you thought their service was lousy.
Problem is that if they are union, they don't care how bad a service they give you, their "tude" is usually in the toilet! And no matter what we leave as a tip, they get tipped anyway because the other waiter/waitress's have to pool all the tips, then split the tips up and they all get their share. (places such as Denny's, Catlin's, Sherri's etc.) Best thing to do is stay away from these places to begin with!

Answer 6

I have been a waitrss for many years...and naturally, a good tipper. There are few things a server can do to force me to leave a bad tip. Number one...if the server acts as if I am a burden to them...like they don't want to wait on me. As a patron, I am the reason that you have your job!! You should be thankful that I am there! Also, when I am waiting for something, and I can clearly see the server having a casual conversation with a coworker, or just hanging out...

Most importantly..I will NOT leave a bad tip if I have to wait long for something. If you go out to eat, you know that you will be waiting for your dinner, drink, dessert, or whatever... If you do not have time to pass, go to McDonalds or stay home and cook. For example, If there are 2 bartenders, and 15 tables order drinks at the same time...Youre gonna have to wait your turn. If you wanted to staff enough bartenders to have one for every guest so nobody would ever have to wait...then your drinks would cost $100 each. Same goes for the kitchen.
So the main point of my story is please be patient when dining out. Servers really do alot of hard physical and mental work. And even if you cant afford to leave a big tip....please just be nice:)

Answer 7

Why do people have this strange idea that you should always tip?

Tips are there to reward good service, not drill in bad habits! You don't reward a dog for chewing up your sofa, so why would you tip a waiter for screwing up your order? They have a duty to check the order is correct BEFORE leaving the table. If they do check and something goes wrong then THEY should sort it out!

At least thats what I did when I was a waiter. And I got tips.

Oh and point 1 is only important if the restaurant actually gives the free refills. Some won't (most won't in the UK), so its not an automatic criteria.

Answer 8

I could post the same generic answer I've already posted a couple of times but I guess I'll change it up a bit this time.
Let's quickly break down a server's tip just for fun.
Assume your food and beverages total $40 at your favorite restaurant. If you tip 18%, you leave $7.20 as your tip. Out of that $7.20, you server's "tip-out" may look like this:
2% of sales goes to the busser(s) = $0.80
1.5% of sales goes to the bartender(s) = $0.60
1% of sales goes to the host staff = $0.40
This leaves your server with $5.40 as a tip. Of course, the tax man snatches away $1.50 to $2.00 of the top. In the end, your 18% tip ends up as about $4.00 in the server's pocket. This, of course, doesn't include the fairly widespread practice of taking the credit card company's service charge out of the tip as well if you used a credit card. Many restaurants will actually take the 3% to 4% credit card surcharge out of the tip before taxes and "tip-out".
All of these things add up to a simple answer. You ALWAYS leave a tip, unless the server did something to offend you personally. Don't make someone pay out of their pocket to serve you. If things are that bad, talk to a manager or take your business somewhere else.

Answer 9

Not leaving a tip makes you look like a bad person and the server will think that he/she did nothing wrong, only that your a horrible person. The server will also lose money off of your bill. They are required to pay 10% of their sales to taxes (at least everywhere I've personally know a server has) - so no matter how lousy they are - give them 10%. They will realize that you were completely unhappy with the service vs. assuming your just an asshole.

Answer 10

I always tip a server even if they were lousy, because I have been a waitress myself, and sometimes you just have a really bad day. I admit I do not generally tip them as much if they did a terrible job or didn't seem to care. That kind of lets them know that they were really off that day, or at least it always did for me.

Answer 11

They wouldn't get much of a tip.

IF the place was busy and she was running around like crazy I would take that into consideration.

Poor service does not deserve a tip if there is NO reason for the poor service.