Change and Tipping

[sheganican]

My dad gets pissed at me for the stupidist things. He's a pennypincher.

July 4th, 2009
My dad was driving me to a friends house for a party, we stopped by a fireworks tent and my dad dropped me off to pick up some explosives. I picked up some assorted stuff and threw them in a basket. I gave the basket to the check-out lady, she counted up the total to be $14.56. I pulled out three five-dollar bills of my own money and handed them to her. I didn't feel like hanging around for my 44 cents to i said "keep the change" and walked back to the car.
On the way to my friend's house, my "tipping" came up in our conversation. He immediately became irritated and proceeded to comment on my stupidity and lack of understanding about "tipping". He was aware that it was just 44 cents and that it was my 44 cents.

I think it's ridiculous for my dad to get so frustrated over this. Your thoughts?

[capt_weasle]

I always figured tipping was nice, but never really appreciated it until I got in the food business. Since then I tip when I can, even when service isn't that great (I just tip poorly then). Of course you shouldn't give away a lot - it all depends upon service. Unless you're Johnny Depp and you like to give away $4,000 tips.

[squibbles]

When is it appropriate to tip? Do you tip everyone?
Even the guy at the counter of a servo after filling your tank?

I'm going to die in America. ,__,

[capt_weasle]

Personally I don't tip everyone. Usually tipping is reserved for when you go out to eat and you have a waiter.

[Tunco]

Tipping is ok.



If used properly.

[Ampersand]

I'll tip anyone once, but usually, it's just the tip.

Seriously, though. Tipping is fine - I usually overtip my servers, delivery men, and/or callgirls. Sometimes, I'll throw some extra money at someone just as a random act of kindness.

[SlappyMcGee]

If I forget to tip someone or feel bad, I convert the money I would have tipped into pennies, and flood the sewers with them.

[Pixon]

If I like the food at a restaurant, or the service was good, then I'll tip.

[t̷s͢uk̕a͡t͜ư]

Every time I get coffee at Starbucks (which is usually twice a day, sometimes more), I drop all the coins they give as part of my change into the tip jar. If the service is unusually excellent, I'll put in a bill or two. There's a Starbucks near my work in which all the employees now know me by name and when to expect me. They're the only coffee shop that's gotten me to drop a $5 into the tip jar.
Otherwise, like Blizz, I tend to overtip in diners. Every now and again, maybe once every few months, I'll eat at a steakhouse and tip exactly 50%. I consider that one of my random acts of kindness.

Here's some fun hearsay, though:
A friend of mine was telling me about a time he was at a Denny's waiting for his girlfriend, a waitress there, to get off work. He was sitting near a bunch of assholes who were making loud misogynistic and racist conversation (e.g. why they wouldn't vote for Obama "because [they] don't want a monkey running the nation"). When they brought up the bill, my friend's girlfriend, the waitress who served them, was at the register to ring them out. She noticed that he had left the "Tip" part of the receipt blank, and so she asked, "did you want to leave a tip?" (I've been asked that plenty of times before when I've forgotten to fill it out.) He replied with, "I don't believe in tipping." She asked why he didn't, and he said -- again, right to the waitress who served him -- that he thinks the service should earn the tip and that customary tipping is stupid. She just looked back at him stunned and said, "for jobs that get regular tips, they're legally allowed to pay us less than minimum wage. I live on those tips." He didn't have anything to say to that, but still refused to tip.
If I'd been that friend of mine, I'd probably have lost it. I hate people who "don't believe in tipping."

[otters~1]

I always figured tipping was nice, but never really appreciated it until I got in the food business.

QFE

[Atilla]

I don't generally tip. Of course, in my country tipping is not customary, and restaurants are expected to pay their service staff a decent wage.

[T3chno]

The economy is baaaaad man.


Nah, I usually tip. <3 tip calculator on my phone.

[Rose]

I always tip. If it's at a restaurant, I'll usually tip 20%; otherwise, I just put any coins I get for my change into the tip jar.

[t̷s͢uk̕a͡t͜ư]

Nah, I usually tip. <3 tip calculator on my phone.

Oh my God, are you serious? Tip calculators have to be the most ridiculous inventions ever made.
Take your meal price, move the decimal over by one, and approximately double it, fudging it so that you end up paying some amount rounded to whole dollars. Shit is not difficult, and solvable faster than you can get your phone, unlock it, find the app, and punch in the numbers.

[Tunco]

Nah, I usually tip. <3 tip calculator on my phone.

Oh my God, are you serious? Tip calculators have to be the most ridiculous inventions ever made.
Take your meal price, move the decimal over by one, and approximately double it, fudging it so that you end up paying some amount rounded to whole dollars. Shit is not difficult, and solvable faster than you can get your phone, unlock it, find the app, and punch in the numbers.

It's a funny paranoia. :)

[t̷s͢uk̕a͡t͜ư]

Nah, I usually tip. <3 tip calculator on my phone.

Oh my God, are you serious? Tip calculators have to be the most ridiculous inventions ever made.
Take your meal price, move the decimal over by one, and approximately double it, fudging it so that you end up paying some amount rounded to whole dollars. Shit is not difficult, and solvable faster than you can get your phone, unlock it, find the app, and punch in the numbers.

Huh, I usually tip ~15%. But I'm poor.

So move the dot over one place and then add roughly half. For example, if your bill is $12.34 at Denny's, your brain should go $12.34 -> $1.23 -> a bit less than $2.00 tip -> your total bill should be between $14 and $15 with tip, depending on how generous you feel.

[T3chno]

Nah, I usually tip. <3 tip calculator on my phone.

Oh my God, are you serious? Tip calculators have to be the most ridiculous inventions ever made.
Take your meal price, move the decimal over by one, and approximately double it, fudging it so that you end up paying some amount rounded to whole dollars. Shit is not difficult, and solvable faster than you can get your phone, unlock it, find the app, and punch in the numbers.

It gets tedious when there's more than one person.

[t̷s͢uk̕a͡t͜ư]

Nah, I usually tip. <3 tip calculator on my phone.

Oh my God, are you serious? Tip calculators have to be the most ridiculous inventions ever made.
Take your meal price, move the decimal over by one, and approximately double it, fudging it so that you end up paying some amount rounded to whole dollars. Shit is not difficult, and solvable faster than you can get your phone, unlock it, find the app, and punch in the numbers.

It gets tedious when there's more than one person.

I can't see why that'd be. The most tedious times I've had figuring out tipping in a group is when there were people who didn't know how to tackle the problem trying to direct everyone anyway. The next time you eat out with a group and someone does that, tell him to shut the fuck up and sit down.
For the two ways of paying a group bill:
Separate Checks: Everyone takes a look at his own check and does this simple trick. Easy. The process is completely parallelized, so for each person, the problem is reduced to dining alone.
Communism: Whoever's closest to the bill but doesn't have Down's Syndrome moves the dot over and approximates a rounded amount. Then you just divide that by the number of people in your group. It's not hard.

Examples:
Separate Checks: Ignore everyone, because it's no different from dining alone. Figure out your tip as in my previous post and put down your share without worrying about anyone else.
Communism: Let's say you're eating with 7 people and your bill is $123.45. The closest non-retard picks up the bill and thinks $123.45 -> $12.34 -> $25 tip -> $150 to split. If he's innumerate, he briefly interrupts the table conversation with "hey, what's 150 divided by 7?" Then a member of your party who has passed elementary school math replies with "a bit over 21." So everyone throws in $22 and leaves. Simple. It's even easier if you're eating at one of those places that figures gratuity for you, because then it's just division following a rounding problem.

Like I said, this shit is not difficult.

[noops]

I would tip, if I could. Yeah, I know, I sound like a douche, but my family has this weird thing about a single person paying, and that single person being an adult. :/.

But yes, I do tip, since my mom's a part-time waitress, and she makes about $2/hour, so she basically lives on tips and things of the like. I'm not sure about other places, but that's how it is here. I think it's bullshit, but whatevs.

Whatevs.

[wedgie]

I think that my opinions on this are largely affected by my upbringing and location.
I get the impression that cusotmary tipping is far more common in the states. From hearing most of your opinions I understand that you average diner waitress isn't on a great wage and that tips contribute heavily to their overall wage, so customary tipping is just common practice. Here in the UK, my opinion is that tipping should be a result of the of quality service that you receive. I wouldn't say that I don't believe in customary tipping, but customary tipping just isn't what I naturally do.

A recent survey I found says that "For the third year running, Europeans have also voted Brits messy, bad tippers and most likely to complain."
So yeah, Brits are seen as bad tippers, but as I said before, I don't just naturally think to tip regardless of the service. Probably because that is just the way that I've been brought up. So you can understand how this makes Brits look like bad tippers when compared to people that naturally tip.

Now don't get me wrong, I do like to tip. It gives me a great sense of well being to make a nice gesture and give a nice tip. However, I strongly feel that this should be a reflection of the level of service that I receive. If someone just basically does their job, which they are already being paid for, then I don't feel that I should have to pay any extra. But if I get served by someone that puts in that extra bit of effort to give that better service then I would happily tip them, and usually at a much higher percentage than is considered 'necessary'.

My personal circumstances are also a big factor in this. Charity begins at home in my opinion. I work hard for my money so I should be able to spend it how I wish. Now if I had a lot of money then I would be more inclined to tip more regularly and at a higher amount because I 'can'.

[SlappyMcGee]

Fucking waitress I used to work with used to go and on about how she'd been working there longer than me but she made a dollar less then what I made. I'm all like, "Tips, bitch!" but she didn't follow.