Tipping by percentage never made much sense to me. I order a coffee at a diner, the waitress only gets a 42 cent tip? She should get more if she has to carry a plate of food? She checks on me the same amount. That’s a five dollar tip at least.
Hahah in my country she gets a wage for that shit
Not only that but that waitress at a diner is probably providing a hell of a lot better service than that bartender where I have to wave money just to get served
OH MY GOD! They tried to scam you out of a whole $1.49!!!
Don’t care. Round up to ten, you greedy cardboard cutout of a person.
Give 20% tip. Get called greedy. America is truly a sight to behold.
Tip your fellow workers. Agitate for companies to pay their workers a living wage, but in the meantime - tip your comrades.
Customer pays for product/service, and it’s the employer’s job the pay the employees. What the employer needs for this is his/her job to include in the price.
You WRITE the tip amount on the receipt? How does the payment terminal know how much to take?
The transaction remains open until the end of the shift. At the end of the shift, the checks are closed out with the updated tip amount included in the final charge.
Going back to the picture…thanks, now I have to confirm the restaurants math is correct and I’m bad at math.
The quick way I was taught to eyeball it is to shift the decimal over one place to the left in the total, and double it. That’s 20%. In this case $30.53 > $3.053 > $6.106 ~ $6.10
My coworkers would always tell me that when I worked in restaurants, but I never really figured it out with my A.D.D. brain and being distracted with serving customers. Now that I see it written out, that is helpful!
It’s entered manually, usually at the end of the shift. It’s standard for most, if not all restaurants in the United States
In Canada they just bring you the payment machine and it asks the percent you want to tip. There is a physical bill but its only used by the server to know what to enter really
That’s because everything needs a pin, if you pay cash this still works this way. USA only started using pins around covid time iirc and it’s still not universal.
You tip in Canada? I was hoping this sad culture was limited to usa.
It is sadly a part of canadian restaurant culture but not seen as mandatory. Canadian service workers are regulated to be paid at least minimum wage.
Companies mostly use tipping here as an excuse for the wages to not come out of their own pockets. If tips received equal or exceed minimum wage then they don’t have to fork out the cash. If the employee only made $10hr in tips then the employer fills in the rest.
Because of this, I mostly refuse to tip. I’m not going to subsidise a restaurant paying their employees. If you can’t afford to pay people you shouldn’t be in business.
Asterisk: there is such a thing as “minimum wage for tipped workers”, which is lower than the normal minimum wage. At least in some provinces.
For instance, in Quebec, the normal minimum wage is $16.10 per hour, but for tipped workers, it’s $12.90$.
And yes, my reaction to this is also “what the fuck”.
Here in the states, the minimum for tipped workers is $2.13. Also, the federal minimum wage for nontip is $7.25. And they wonder why we can’t afford McDonald’s over here.
Thanks for the clarification. I totally forgot it isn’t federally regulated.
There are also student wages which allow you to pay students under 18 even lower wages. Fun stuff!
Unfortunately…
Same in most of the world. Sucks that these machines brought tipping to places it didn’t exist before. Used to be only shitty tourist trap restaurants asked for tips in Stockholm. Now all the machines do.
Remember kids. Never tip, ever.
It’s getting to be less common. A lot of newer/trendier places are giving their wait-staff tablets (which are also handling ordering, seating status, etc), or at least portable payment terminals.
Some of the big established chains have kiosks at the table where you can order apps/drinks directly, pay, play games.
I’ve also been to several places that’ll put a QR code on the receipt for payment. They may also have their menu online that you can get from a QR on the table. As an added bonus that usually means their online menu is actually kept up to date.
The server has to manually enter it.
Here’s their bullshit workflow:
- Print the check
- Customer reviews it
- Credit card is given to the server
- Card is swiped/authorized at the POS
- Server returns with the receipts
- Customer then writes in the tip amount and signs on the merchant copy
- Server takes the signed receipt and enters the tip amount back at the POS
For whatever reason, the USA keeps using their signature, when the technology for pay at the table has been around for decades.
Meanwhile, chip & PIN has been standard everywhere in Canada for the last decade, with some businesses using it for almost another decade prior to that. Mexico wasn’t far behind either, so it’s absolutely possible to adopt better methods.
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And they still tipped?
My tip would have been 0 right there and would have included a complaint with police
I was going to say I would have calculated out and either an even lower option and written it in and then tipped that 😂
Highly doubt the server was being malicious. They aren’t putting that on the receipt. It’s a shitty thing for sure but it’s unlikely that server had anything to do with it.
Then you’re assuming a clear pattern of fraud, not just one server cheating. That’s bigger than just not tipping
True but still more likely. These things are built into the POS and it’s unlikely that a server can alter them, and my admittedly limited experience with the industry still convinced me that if you want to find a scumbag in a restaurant it’s 4 times more likely to be management than servers.
For sure, that’s the whole reason for being willing to tip. Employees asre most likely to be scammed and at least tipping makes it right for one subset of those
Restaurant tries to scam customers, yet they still give a 20% tip?
Pretty sure the waitress wasn’t the one who fucked with the register. Probably the restaurant trying to ensure they don’t have to pay the difference if the tips come up short and leave the staff below minimum wage.
I feels like reasoning like this is why it would never end.
Shafting the waitress is not going to end it either. Most people wouldn’t notice this, so they’d still keep doing it if you didn’t tip.
The play here is to tip the waitress in cash if possible and slam the establishment on every review site.
If the worker or anyone else not gonna unionise or protest the government for a better minimum wages, then the culture gonna continue. Slammin and jammin the establishment will do absolutely nothing, as with all non-disruptive protest.
I swear tipping is fetishized by american.
stop tipping so waitstaff finds another job and restaurants that don’t pay enough go out of business
ezpz
It’s logical, it’s not the wait staff’s fault. You’re correct though that it’s an endless circle, with the only solution being that everyone stops supporting places that don’t pay employees well. Which means don’t go to any US restaurants, or any retail. There is the bigger endless circle, trying to get the masses to all participate in such a boycott.
You think place like that distributes tips honestly?
The “I’m just doing my job” defence. Nice.
Are you comparing the waitress not proofreading the math on a preprinted receipt (arguably not their job) to soldiers actively committing war crimes?
No. Soldiers are very much protected from such orders in most countries. They can’t be held responsible for refusing to follow an illegal order.
I mostly hear the argument from civilians helping their employer commit crime.
The solution is to never step foot in the restaurant again not punish the server.
Thank you! I am just one server do not punish me because you hate the tipping culture of America! Don’t like it, like you said, don’t go to a damn restaurant then! Easy peasy!
Don’t punish another person for your thoughts, feelings, etc about the situation of tipping, it’s not their fault, it’s yours for not tipping them because “you don’t agree” then go to damn McDonald’s!
I’ve never worked as a server but I did date one long ago who said something to the effect, “that $5 means more to her than you” and while I was not nearly as financially stable back then, that idea has stuck with me.
An extra isn’t going to make or break my day but it could make someone else’s day.
Another way I’ve been thinking about this is how for a brief moment you someone’s “boss.” If you’ve ever complained about unfair compensation what does it say about you that you’re using than brief moment of power to be what you hate.
Yep, that’s a solid 0% for me
Yeah that restaurant owner will certainly learn from the fact that they don’t legally have to pay their servers minimum wage and you still paid the owner what they would have gotten whether or not the server got a tip
As another commenter said, in this situation pay the server in cash, and then review the restaurant badly everywhere you can
They also paid it on the tax. Supposed to figure off the subtotal
“Fuck you restaurant for trying to scam me, now I’ll only pay the correct 20% extra on top of my bill”
Tipping is a holdover from slavery. It’s a way to control service workers.
This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t tip people who rely on tips, it means the system is fucking broken by design.
Tips are a big reason I stopped going out. Everybody wants one.
Every single time I see a fucking Square cash register… One of these motherfuckers:
Every single time I see that piece of shit, I know I’m about to hear the “it’s just going to ask you a few questions” line. And those “few questions” will be asking me to tip 25 goddamned percent on something that I’ve never tipped for before.
When I see they have made a “mistake” like this. I don’t correct it… I make my own mistake and give a smaller tip than i would have
Yep, this is highway to a $1 tip from me.
But that depends on the business. The $1 tip would only be for a chain company where I know the employees are making at least normal minimum wage and the tips are just a tip on top.
Yes punish the server for the restaurant’s crimes. A story as old as tipped wages.
Also, you’re supposed to tip on the subtotal.
Not saying this isn’t real and completely scummy, but sometimes the tip is calculated before discounts, gift cards, and whatnot. I always tip based on what our total order was even if what we paid was less. If this is truly trying to fudge the numbers to take advantage of people then that’s shitty.
It looks like the percentages are based of a total of $37.95, so it’s possible there was a discount included that made their total closer to $30.
Maybe a comp’d desert (or app) that’s ~$8 ?
Always tip on the subtotal. If your server worked their ass off for your table but you had a coupon for, let’s say, 50% off 2 entrees and a birthday dessert, that’s just devalued their effort by about $50.
Also, the tipping culture is broken, and this is bonkers.
I came from a tipping-optional culture and worked foodservice. If I got good tips, they went back into the bar at the end of the shift, or into my savings jar at home. It was never make-or-break on whether I got to pay rent or not.
tip what is appropriate regardless of the bill
there’s no reason for somebody to get $10 more because I bought the premium beer instead of what’s on special
Does the waiter work much harder to bring a lobster than a Mac and cheese? Tips are dumb in general, but if anything they should be based on time, not food price. And they should be called a wage while we’re at it. At it should be enough to live decently.
The tip is not their salary, it’s an optional gratuity. It doesn’t devalue shit. They should get paid a living wage, and that’s it. That or you better stop being a hypocrite and start tipping tech support as well.
My only exception to the “pre-discount” price is when places have a “buy 1 get 1” deal and they try to make you tip based on that, but the single item price is way overpriced because of it. Happens around me a lot where they’re like 3pack tacos, buy 1 get 1 $21, like yeah that’s great price for 6 small tacos, but I wouldn’t be paying $21 for 3 tacos, so I’m not gonna tip whatever crazy amount for a bill that “would have been” $75 or something for some tacos and a drink. Granted these are usually carry out orders, but don’t try to artificially inflate my bill to get better tips because you discounted it to a lower price.
Edit before people give me flak: I still tip fairly, but if a place tries to give me some “your bill was 100$, but we discounted it to 20$ that’ll be a 20$ tip though” they can fuck off. I’ll tip right, but don’t try to guilt trip me with a discount when you know I wouldn’t be here at all of it wasn’t for the discount.
Is that usd? A great price for 6 small tacos is 6 bucks, 21 is ridiculous.
Also, the restaurant probably has no control over those numbers. The software might give them a Yes/No option on showing suggested tips or not at best.
I’m (NOT) living in America. 🎶
Must be wunderbar
That would be a reason not to give a tip.
It’s probably basing the tip on a pre discount amount.
The writer is proud of doing math but should be ashamed of their critical thinking and ego.
Did you just make up a scenario and then try to shame them for not using the critical thinking you just invented?
That’s usually the way the tip calculator works and the top of the receipt is missing.
What’s more likely a computer screwed up a percentage, a company screwed the customer for the benefit of the employee or the calculator is following common tipping convention.
Like I said critical thinking.
That would be a reason to throw hands (okay, I’d consider it for a second and then calm down but still!), and I’d definitely leave without paying, nvm the tip, lol. You’d be lucky if I didn’t scream cause I randomly found a cockroach in my coffee or something. 🤷
Karen? That you?
How sketchy has to be the scam so it justifies just leaving without paying?
Some scams i have encounter:
- added 3 pints per customer
- added things we didnt ask for (when asked about it, they said something on the lines “we forgot to charge that on another table, someone has to pay for it”
- menu prices weren’t up to date
“we forgot to charge that on another table, someone has to pay for it”
Da fuq?
I haven’t seen this. Name and shame this place?
It was some bar forgotten by god in Villa Ballester, Argentina. The place is called Basta Pablo.
Strangely enough, the place survived the pandemic and is still open. Maybe people just don’t care. Reading at the bad reviews, it wasn’t an isolated case.
I went to a restaurant recently with my wife for our anniversary. Had great reviews on Google Maps above 4.5 stars. Yes I know this should not be the only indicator of a good experience, but the food sounded good and it was in a neighborhood we don’t often go to. Something new.
When we got the bill, the server came to us and skipped past the food prices to the tip screen immediately. That should have been my red flag to stop and ask why she did that, but I didn’t. I tipped 20%, then later found out that they already included that in the bill. So I tipped 20% on top of the total that already included 20%. Needless to say I won’t be going back.
I would have gone back and not left until I had both 20%s in my hand. Call the police? Please do!
Do a review on Google maps, and TripAdvisor, if you are in a touristy city. Warn the world, and put the ownership on notice.
Oh we did
Also consider complaining to the secretary of state perhaps? Idk, it’s not city tax revenue so not likely, but it’s still fraud. But I would definitely consider a chargeback. This is just like in the old days when managers or severs would scribble in a different tip and total on the merchant copy.
This seems like it is probably more of a server issue, and not a restaurant issue. The server has learned how to increase their tips, I doubt that’s company policy. This is Management’s problem to solve, not the government’s.
This is bad logic. Every industry has a thousand things they solve by regulation to establish a sane baseline that you experience every day mistaking this hard won normalcy for a self occurring default.
The behavior that is described is actually fraud and if you consider across just this one employees year it probably is thousands of dollars in fraud. It would be normal to report such to the city government which reports such to the business which in turn fires the server and trains the rest not to defraud customers.
This is one server, in one restaurant, not an industry-wide issue. Expecting some kind of regulatory remedy over an anecdotal issue is not the answer. I’m not a right-winger by any means, but even I know that the government isn’t the solution to anything. There already is a law against this, so the local gendarmes are as far as this needs to go.
Remember when your mom told you “Don’t make a Federal case out of it?” This is the kind of thing she was talking about, literally.
It actually already does cover it. He’s tricking folks into tipping twice by failing to disclose that they have already tipped. It’s simple fraud.
I call and complain for crap like this all the time now. I make sure to let them know I bitch to all my friends and coworkers about it too.
My latest crusade is restaurants that put 4% service fees to help pay for people’s health insurance. Just raise the price on the individual items on the menu. Making me math out what you are actually charging like that is bullshit.
Smart businesses know that the key is “customer retention” and they don’t screw you. Dumb businesses operate on “one and done”. “We’ll screw them and they probably will never come back”
It wasn’t the business that did this. It was the server looking for a one time bonus.
