TALKING TIPPING
Readers check in on good & bad
Dear John: I’ve had conversations about tipping with so many of my friends.
I am a notoriously good tipper, and I try to get my friends to do the same thing. I tell them that many servers have to tip out the bus people or prep people.
Just like you, I rarely get bad service, and if it is a food issue, it’s out of the server’s hands and beyond their control. I don’t punish them if my food isn’t cooked right. Kevin
Dear Kevin: You don’t have to convince anybody of anything. In life all you need to do is what seems right to you. Overtip if you can afford it. That extra dollar or two probably means a whole lot more to the person getting the tip than to the person giving it. Mangia, and don’t worry about others.
Dear John: Here is an experience I had with tipping a few months back.
We have a favorite restaurant that the wife and I like, and when figuring out the tip one night, for whatever reason, I did not take into account a discount that they had offered us for an anniversary dinner.
After arriving back home I took the receipt and looked at it one more time because I had a nagging feeling that something was not quite right. I realized that I tipped only on what they charged, not on what the actual value was if I had to pay without the discount.
I felt so bad that the next day I drove back to the restaurant with a handwritten note placed in a card which also contained the extra $8 I would normally have tipped along with an additional $20 for being a jerk.
When we next saw our server, she was just getting off her shift but insisted on staying on to take care of us because she never had a person do what I had done with the note. She told me that she has that note taped onto her dresser mirror, where she can look at it every day because it gives her such a warm feeling.
I just wanted to share this with you. George & Pam
Dear George and Pam: Nice job. You made a whole lot of waiters and waitresses feel more appreciated, even if they didn’t have the luck to serve you.
And you did remind me of one thing: Whatever size tip you give should always be on the full price of the meal, not on the price after discounts or coupons.
The restaurant owner is the one giving you the discount; the wait staff shouldn’t have to participate in that generosity.
Dear John: The idea of tipping based on the size of the bill is absolutely insane.
If my wife and I go to lunch at a diner and order a burger at $8.99 and a tuna sandwich at $7.99 plus two coffees at $2.50 each, the bill without tax is $19.48. A tip of 18 percent is $3.50.
If instead, we order two salmon fillets at $21.50 each and two coffees at $2.50, the bill becomes $48. A tip of 18 percent is $8.64.
So we have one tip of $3.50 vs $8.64 for the exact same amount of work. Not one iota of additional work was performed, and the tip more than doubles. That is absolutely insane. Pay the wait staff a proper wage and get rid of tipping. Aubrey.
Dear Aubrey: A very interesting way to look at it.
But of course, restaurants aren’t going to pay workers any better. Traditions like tipping are hard to end.
If you can afford two salmon fillets for lunch, then you can afford the extra six-buck tip.
The better way to solve the problem is to eat at home. And tell the diner owner why you are no longer eating there at the end of your last meal.
Everyone will get a good laugh.