Bad Tips

Dinner is unfortunately over. Two entries, two drinks, and one dessert later it is time to pay the bill. While the price of food is not mentally negotiable at this point, the tip is. Have you ever left a bad tip at a restaurant? I have. In fact, there are some restaurants I know I will never be able to go back to because of the poor tips I have left. It is not that I am cheap; I appreciate what my waitress/waiter does for me and I especially appreciate the fact they depend on my tip economically. What I do not appreciate are those that think the tip is something they do not have to work for. The following are circumstances I believe it is OK to leave a poor tip:

1) More than one person is taking care of you. If I have a different person take my order, a different person deliver my food, and another person ask if I need anything else, who exactly am I leaving the tip for?

2) Service from someone who obviously has other priorities. I do not intend to leave a stellar tip for someone who is more concerned with their plans after work, the conversations they are missing out on with their co-workers, or their friends and family who have come to visit.

3) Non-personable service. You've had this kind of service before; your server is either incredibly rude/impatient/apathetic/biased against people your age and is not afraid to wear their personally traits on their sleeve. On top of those with a poor personality, those with no personality fall into this category; the server who can not make eye contact and the one who simply is not good at talking with others. Part of your night out is the atmosphere created by your server, and in these circumstances, they simply do not deserve a tip.

4) Servers who do not point out price traps to the customer. A perfect example of this occurred to me tonight. After enjoying a fabulous meal at a tremendous price, my bill came back with two entries priced about 50% higher than expected. The reason? The four leaves of lettuce strewn on a plate and called a salad apparently cost roughly $6.50 each. Obviously my waitress knew this would have been valuable information for me as I was ordering. Of course I could have confirmed that salads were free with entrees as I assumed, but if this waitress wanted a good tip, how much trouble would it have been to point out something that obviously has come up in conversations with other customers before?

Just my thoughts on the concept of tipping.

Until we meet again, goodbye!