DC: If 'Initiative 77' passes, it may start the end of tipping at restaurants

[SNC]

A group of us went out to a hibachi style meal, my mother was footing the bill so I told her that I'd get the tip. So she covered the bill with a card at the counter while I, after leaving a 50 on the table ( I like to leave cash so they dont have to claim it if they dont want to), hit the head. I meet up with my mom at the front of the place and proceeded to leave when the manager\owner came up to her and basically accosted her on the sidewalk. He was yelling about how his people live off of tips and that if she didn't come back in and leave a tip he would call the cops, he was as rude as could be. I grabbed him by the collar and stopped his stupidness before it got any worse. I told him there was a $50 on the table for his staff and walked him over to the table hoping that it hadn't been cleared. I was glad to see it still there, I picked it up put it in my pocket and replaced it with a $5 bill, making sure the staff saw and heard why. My mother then called AMEx and refuted the charge on the way out. Had he not been an ass about it we would have just said that the tip was on the table and been done. So I'm of the mind that tips should be gotten rid of, but it will be impossible to pay servers enough hourly to cover what they will lose. I enjoy tipping good, and the staff that knows me give excellent service. My pizza guy loves us. he never leaves with less than $15 and there are only 4 minutes away with only 2 traffic lights between us.

 

[Genx87]

btw I didn't realize MN passed a similar law. Good to know! Will affect my tips going forward.

 

[SNC]

A retainer is not a tip.

It is if you dont use their services for the time that retainer was for. I have clients on retainer and I absolutely view there monthly retainer as a tip if I dont hear from them that month.

 

[Genx87]

It is if you dont use their services for the time that retainer was for. I have clients on retainer and I absolutely view there monthly retainer as a tip if I dont hear from them that month.

Retainer is not a tip. It is a payment to carve out time in a given time period. Whether they use or not is up to the person paying the retainer. And whether you view it as a tip or not it irrelevant to the very definition of the word.

 

[fskimospy]

It is if you dont use their services for the time that retainer was for. I have clients on retainer and I absolutely view there monthly retainer as a tip if I dont hear from them that month.

Paying someone a fee for on-demand access to their services is not a tip. If you pay for a gym membership and then don’t go to the gym you aren’t tipping them. Same if you sign up for a service contract for some equipment that ends up not needing service over the time period.

Similarly, I sincerely doubt a client says to themselves ‘man was that some good lawyering last month. Even though I have need for legal services this month I won’t use them because I want my lawyer to get a tip.’ Legal services on retainer are essentially prepaid fees to be used as needed, not deliberately not used as a reward for good service. It is not a tip.

 

[shortylickens]

OK, the initiative is for slowly increasing wages to minimum between now and 2026.

https://ballotpedia.org/Washington,..._Wage_Increase_for_Tipped_Workers_(June_2018)

So, dont start dancing in the streets just yet.

 

[purbeast0]

I got into a discussion with a couple people on Trip Advisor about tipping when going on snorkeling excursions. I've been on this same one 3 times in the Keys and I don't tip at all. I bring my own snorkel gear and get no extra help or anything from the crew. So they are literally doing nothing to make my experience better, and not that I blame them or anything, I simply don't need the help.

People were trying to tell me that I should still give a tip for the Captain getting me to the reef and back safely. I argue that the $35 I paid the company is for them to get me to the reef and back.

Now I've also been on snorkel trips in the Caribbean where it's all you can drink, they serve lunch, rope swings off the boat, and the crew is generally entertaining you while you are there. THOSE guys I tip because they enhance the trip by serving me alcohol, food, and making it an all around fun time outside of just snorkeling.

 

[SNC]

Retainer is not a tip. It is a payment to carve out time in a given time period. Whether they use or not is up to the person paying the retainer. And whether you view it as a tip or not it irrelevant to the very definition of the word.

Legal services on retainer are essentially prepaid fees to be used as needed, not deliberately not used as a reward for good service. It is not a tip.

I absolutely view there monthly retainer as a tip if I dont hear from them that month.

Lighten up guys I dont see there where I said that the definition should be changed. Re-read what I typed... I was talking about how I view it, not how you should. I have around 4k a year of unearned income, I view it as a tip, you dont have to.

 

[JEDI]

Initiative passed.

yup
https://wtop.com/local-politics-ele...cide-fate-of-minimum-wage-for-tipped-workers/

hopefully tipping now dies in a couple of years in the city!

 

[Gryz]

Isn't that how Europe does it? Pay them more, remove tipping as a custom? I can't remember exactly but I thought the practice there is to tip 5% (for good service) or not tip at all.

Europe is one country.
All people in Europe are the same.
All 741 million of them.
With the same customs, the same habits.
They all speak the same language after all.

And they all tip 5% in restaurants.

 

[UNCjigga]

Europe is one country.
All people in Europe are the same.
All 741 million of them.
With the same customs, the same habits.
They all speak the same language after all.

And they all tip 5% in restaurants.

Meh, fair enough. I based my assumption on my travels to France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Italy...small sample size I'll admit. But generally everything I read said you only tip a few Euro for exceptional service, and no one gave us dirty looks for not leaving tip for a "takeaway" breakfast or a quick lunch.

I wish I had more time to spend in Europe.

 

[Gryz]

I based my assumption on my travels to France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Italy...small sample size I'll admit. But generally everything I read said you only tip a few Euro for exceptional service

Even within that small sample size, behaviour is different.
I live in the Netherlands. For work I often go to Belgium. The Dutch are known to be "cheap". The Belgians say so. But to my surprise, it turns out Belgians hardly tip. Not in restaurants. Not in bars. Sometimes they do. Often they don't. Especially when in groups, nobody seems willing to tip. Maybe it is because prices in Belgian restaurants are higher than in NL. Beer and liquor in bars otoh, are cheaper in Belgium.

What I find weird in the US is that bills and tips are calculated very precise, to the cent. You buy a meal of $15.99 and a drink of $2.99. Together it's $18.98. Tax is e.g. 10.25% (wuth!?). So the bill is 1.1025 % $18.98 = $20.93. With 15% tip that comes to $24.06. And then people pay exactly $24.06 with their creditcard.

In my country, when the bill is 19.98 euros, we say "here's 20 euro. keep the change". If the bill is 21 euro, we'll say "here's 25 euro, keep the change". Tips are rounding off the prices. Sometimes it is a few percent. Sometimes it's 10% or more. If you tip more than that, personnel will look at you weirdly, and hope you creep never comes back.

and no one gave us dirty looks for not leaving tip for a "takeaway" breakfast or a quick lunch.

One place I never tip is at a fastfood restaurant. Or at a hotel. I only tip at restaurants and bars.

 

[spacejamz]

One place I never tip is at a fastfood restaurant. Or at a hotel. I only tip at restaurants and bars.

Do you tip if the restaurant/bar is in a hotel?

 

[Victorian Gray]

A group of us went out to a hibachi style meal, my mother was footing the bill so I told her that I'd get the tip. So she covered the bill with a card at the counter while I, after leaving a 50 on the table ( I like to leave cash so they dont have to claim it if they dont want to), hit the head. I meet up with my mom at the front of the place and proceeded to leave when the manager\owner came up to her and basically accosted her on the sidewalk. He was yelling about how his people live off of tips and that if she didn't come back in and leave a tip he would call the cops, he was as rude as could be. I grabbed him by the collar and stopped his stupidness before it got any worse. I told him there was a $50 on the table for his staff and walked him over to the table hoping that it hadn't been cleared. I was glad to see it still there, I picked it up put it in my pocket and replaced it with a $5 bill, making sure the staff saw and heard why. My mother then called AMEx and refuted the charge on the way out. Had he not been an ass about it we would have just said that the tip was on the table and been done. So I'm of the mind that tips should be gotten rid of, but it will be impossible to pay servers enough hourly to cover what they will lose. I enjoy tipping good, and the staff that knows me give excellent service. My pizza guy loves us. he never leaves with less than $15 and there are only 4 minutes away with only 2 traffic lights between us.

So, bottom line for this particular incident is that you punished the staff to make a point to the owner? Nicely done indeed.

 

[KMFJD]

A group of us went out to a hibachi style meal, my mother was footing the bill so I told her that I'd get the tip. So she covered the bill with a card at the counter while I, after leaving a 50 on the table ( I like to leave cash so they dont have to claim it if they dont want to), hit the head. I meet up with my mom at the front of the place and proceeded to leave when the manager\owner came up to her and basically accosted her on the sidewalk. He was yelling about how his people live off of tips and that if she didn't come back in and leave a tip he would call the cops, he was as rude as could be. I grabbed him by the collar and stopped his stupidness before it got any worse. I told him there was a $50 on the table for his staff and walked him over to the table hoping that it hadn't been cleared. I was glad to see it still there, I picked it up put it in my pocket and replaced it with a $5 bill, making sure the staff saw and heard why. My mother then called AMEx and refuted the charge on the way out. Had he not been an ass about it we would have just said that the tip was on the table and been done. So I'm of the mind that tips should be gotten rid of, but it will be impossible to pay servers enough hourly to cover what they will lose. I enjoy tipping good, and the staff that knows me give excellent service. My pizza guy loves us. he never leaves with less than $15 and there are only 4 minutes away with only 2 traffic lights between us.

So you assault the manager, steal the waitress tips and your mother commits credit card fraud because the manager was an asshole?

 

[kn51]

Makes for a helluva yelp review.

 

[Victorian Gray]

So you assault the manager, steal the waitress tips and your mother commits credit card fraud because the manager was an asshole?

But his pizza guy still loves him.

 

[Gryz]

Do you tip if the restaurant/bar is in a hotel?

No. I really dislike hotels. I only visited hotels on business-trips. Nowadays I don't do business-trips any more. If I did, I'd only sleep there. Not eat or drink.

 

[SNC]

So, bottom line for this particular incident is that you punished the staff to make a point to the owner? Nicely done indeed.

I guess you could look it that way, yes. But when a member of the staff behaves an as asshole... Just like I am sure you would never use my services, why is it that you would punish my employees because you dont like me?

 

[SNC]

So you assault the manager, steal the waitress tips and your mother commits credit card fraud because the manager was an asshole?

I'm sure you would just stand there while a guy was in your mother's face yelling and screaming, basicly blocking her from leaving. And fortunately AmEx allows for a refund of shitty service, it why its the only card I use.
And you might want to check the date, not all service related positions are female, or are you just a sexist jerk? I'll give an A+ for the conversion of my experience from one of shitty service and using the tools I have into one of me being the asshole aggressor.

 

[Victorian Gray]

I guess you could look it that way, yes. But when a member of the staff behaves an as asshole... Just like I am sure you would never use my services, why is it that you would punish my employees because you dont like me?

You stiffed people who did work for you. And apparently you were appreciative enough of their work to leave a healthy tip. A tip that you reneged on because you didn't like the attitude of their boss. It has nothing to do with me dude. It's what *you* actually did.

Upon reflection, it seems that the boss was an 'ass' because he was looking out for his staff because he thought that you hadn't appropriately tipped them. Now he was wrong and it sounds like he was terribly unpolitic about expressing that but still, you didn't 'punish' him, you punished the people who actually did the work for you. Well played indeed.

 

[SNC]

You stiffed people who did work for you. And apparently you were appreciative enough of their work to leave a healthy tip. A tip that you reneged on because you didn't like the attitude of their boss. It has nothing to do with me dude. It's what *you* actually did.

Upon reflection, it seems that the boss was an 'ass' because he was looking out for his staff because he thought that you hadn't appropriately tipped them. Now he was wrong and it sounds like he was terribly unpolitic about expressing that but still, you didn't 'punish' him, you punished the people who actually did the work for you. Well played indeed.

If you think the wait staff that got 'stiffed' didn't blast him after I left you are sadly mistaken based on their comments I heard while walking out. You may have handled it differently, I didn't. As for not looking the "attitude" of the boss, that is an extreme understatement. He blocked her movement in an attempt to stop her from leaving, he placed his hands on her and was yelling like a mad man, threatening to call the police. My first reaction was to throw him through the fucking window, but there were kids around so I thought I handled myself pretty well. You are free to disagree. If we get rid of tips this would never of happened, isn't that the point of this thread.

 

[KMFJD]

I'm sure you would just stand there while a guy was in your mother's face yelling and screaming, basicly blocking her from leaving. And fortunately AmEx allows for a refund of shitty service, it why its the only card I use.
And you might want to check the date, not all service related positions are female, or are you just a sexist jerk? I'll give an A+ for the conversion of my experience from one of shitty service and using the tools I have into one of me being the asshole aggressor.

lmao, keep on assaulting, stealing and committing fraud Billy Badass

 

[SNC]

lmao, keep on assaulting, stealing and committing fraud Billy Badass

It must be hard when all you have are insults and an inability to answer a question. I'm sure your mother would be proud to know you would stand by and let someone assault her. Perhaps she can commiserate with the waitresses, afterwards. Using a feature of a card is not fraud or theft, but you don't really care so long as you can call someone a name or two. I think the point of my post was to show how fucked up tipping has become, but continue to focus on my assholeness, I'm comfortable in it.

 

[KMFJD]

It must be hard when all you have are insults and an inability to answer a question. I'm sure your mother would be proud to know you would stand by and let someone assault her. Perhaps she can commiserate with the waitresses, afterwards. Using a feature of a card is not fraud or theft, but you don't really care so long as you can call someone a name or two. I think the point of my post was to show how fucked up tipping has become, but continue to focus on my assholeness, I'm comfortable in it.

I'm glad that you have finally accepted the fact that you also behaved like an asshole, we have reached an agreement finally.