Another Tipping Pet Peeve

[katerkat]

Most places that have a jar, I don't tip. I do tip at my favorite coffee stand, because the barista is the best! She remembers me, my son, asks us about our day and plans, and suggests new drinks to try. The stand has a punch card, 10th drink free up to $3- I just hit my tenth drink and instead of the 16-ounce $3 once, she gave me a 24-ounce and gave me my first punch on the second row as well. She rocks and she gets tips.

 

[disneydancer1969]

i haven't seen them (then again i haven't been anywhere but out to dinner since miley was born)
but still that is very strange.

 

[perdidobay]

thanks for posting that, singingpixie -- I was just about to go on and say something like that myself!

It seems doubtful to me that any of the rest of you have ever worked in counter service, or been in a situation where you got to "choose" (the term that Kandeebunny used) between a job working behind a counter at a coffeehouse and a job at Walmart, or, for that matter, ever tried to support yourself (and perhaps pay for tuition or perhaps support a child) on minimum wage.

The point of a tip jar is that it is completely optional -- no customer is required to tip, and no customer will be treated badly because he/she doesn't tip. (So for those of you who are upset by tip jars, just go ahead and "choose" not to tip when you buy your coffee/ice cream/etc at an establishment at which servers "choose" to work.)

Tips are often given for especially excellent service; the existence of tip jars tends to enhance the overall quality of service, since servers never know whether or not they will be tipped. Tips increase a server's wage, and therefore increase their job satisfaction and desire to please their customers. An individual customer thereofre (whether he/she tips or not) *benefits* from the existence of a tip jar.

Well, I don't know if you are speaking to me and my reply, but as someone who has worked behind a counter all her life, fast food and retail, I stand behind my answer......

and when I hear the reasoning that " my pay is terrible", I'm sorry, it doesn't fly with me.
I always gave excellent customer service, because that was what the store expected of me. And THAT should be the reason for good service, not a possible tip.

Whatever happened to pride in good service?

 

[N.Bailey]

I waited tables when I was younger, so I know how hard waiters/waitresses work. I consider myself to be an excellent tipper!! Anyway, when we were at Disney during one trip (on a food plan) tips were included. I always leave more of a tip, BUT, this one waiter folded our bill in a way to hide the gratuity that was on the check so we wouldn't see it. Yeah, like people buy a food plan and don't know a certain % is automatically added. Then, to think people are stupid enough to not wonder why you folded the check the way you did?

He wasn't that great of a waiter, but he wasn't bad either. I was just a little put off by it all. IMO, he'd do better if he'd become a better waiter instead of spending his time trying to fraud his customers!!!

 

[N.Bailey]

I just wanted to add about the tip jars, I really don't see many in my area. What I do see however is lots of jars everywhere with a child's picture on them asking for a donation to help the parents pay for a certain surgery or medical bills. I always put money into them and I am grateful that stores allow these jars.

 

[JR6ooo4]

Ask for a tip for yourself. Tell them you were a good customer and it's expected.

We had a guy at work ask the beggars before they had a chance to ask him. It totaly through them off. But the way he dressed it kind of looked like he needed it.

Mikeeeee

 

[Honu]

Tipping is always optional. If someone is giving me great service I'm happy to tip for it. If they aren't, I don't. Handing over the coin change from my purchase or a dollar won't break me and it just might help the person behind the counter.

 

[taximomfor4]

I just wanted to add about the tip jars, I really don't see many in my area. What I do see however is lots of jars everywhere with a child's picture on them asking for a donation to help the parents pay for a certain surgery or medical bills. I always put money into them and I am grateful that stores allow these jars.

At some tip-jar places (if I get a complex coffee-drink at Starbucks or whatever), I may or may not drop my change into the tip jar. But I saw a money-jar of a different sort at our grocery store's gas station yesterday:

It was BIG jar, with quite a bit of change inside. On it was a plea for more change -- "So and so has had a warrant issued for her arrest. She volunteers for such and such charity periodically, and was just about to get a new job. Please, drop some change in the jar to help her raise Bail Money. "

HUH?!!!!!!!??????????

Beth

 

[DISUNC]

Gotta love the tip jar at the Dunkin Donuts drive-thru...

DD has TIP jars ALL over the Store!

Sit down service...Tipping YES!
Counter service.....Tipping NO!

 

[dwheatl]

At Starbuck's, if I ask for the "middle size" and they don't say, "You mean 'grande'", or if I ask for light and they don't ask me if I want whipped cream on it, I give a tip. Intelligence deserves to be rewarded.

 

[azgal81]

Tip jars are tacky. I don't put anything in them.

 

[themarquis]

Well, I don't know if you are speaking to me and my reply, but as someone who has worked behind a counter all her life, fast food and retail, I stand behind my answer......

and when I hear the reasoning that " my pay is terrible", I'm sorry, it doesn't fly with me.
I always gave excellent customer service, because that was what the store expected of me. And THAT should be the reason for good service, not a possible tip.

Whatever happened to pride in good service?

it was a bit rash of me to assume none of you had ever worked retail -- I apologize. And I DO agree with you that good customer service *should* be a given.

However, let's think about this: if some particular Employee "Joe" makes 6 dollars an hour to try to put himself through college or whatever (or just put food on his table) and therefore earns approximately 800 dollars per month with no benefits, how happy, cheerful, and "excited" about providing good customer service would Joe be? Perhaps Joe lives in semi-rural Arkansas and his rent is 300 dollars per month -- Joe might be reasonably happy. (assuming Joe doesn't ever get sick and need health care). Perhaps Joe lives in Northern California and his rent is 600 dollars per month -- Joe will not be very happy. Joe could try to cut costs somehow -- subsist solely on Ramen, live in a one room apartment with four other people, etc, but living this kind of way would probably make him even more unhappy. An unhappy person is going to have a really hard time getting up at, oh, let's say 4:30 every morning to open the coffeeshop at 6, be on his aching feet all day, deal possibly with rude customers and cruel supervisors, and make "3/4 caf, half skim, half an extra shot of tiramisu, no whip, light on the syrup, extra hot" mochas all day (and I speak here from personal experience) and *still* provide excellent customer service.

Now there might be some "joe"s in this world who can do this, because they are just great people, naturally happy, with an excellent (perhaps suicidal) work ethic, etc. But the vast majority of "joes" cannot do this. Therefore, a coffeeshop will be pretty darn hard-pressed to find enough "joes" to employ (who won't leave after 2 weeks or who just escaped from federal prison, that is).

The coffeeshop COULD increase its prices and pass all of the earnings off to the employees.... ha ... yeah right. (by the way, I once worked in a coffeeshop in which they didn't allow us to have a tip jar, not because customers would be turned off by it, but because they believed that extra .25 cents would be spent on more expensive drinks or other goods in the store, thereby increasing the corporation's profit) OR ... they could allow their employees to place a canister at the register to collect the small pocket change of customers who voluntarily wish to donate.

By doing so, Joe might earn up to 200 dollars more per month (again, speaking from experience) which bumps his monthly income barely above the federal poverty level IF he provides excellent service, all without inconveniencing customers or cutting into the coffeeshop's profit margin. When the coffeeshop needs to hire new employees, they can pick and choose from Joes who are excellent baristas with good work ethics; their competitor down the street which doesn't allow a tip jar will be stuck with Joes who are 14 years old or just escaped from prison. Which coffeeshop do you think you would receive excellent customer service from?

 

[Cool-Beans]

Tip jars for coat check are fine.

Taco Bell, though? I don't think so.

A guy held the door to the parking garage open for people exiting the Indians game. Had a bit jar on a chair under a huge sign that said, "What the Hell, I NEED a BEER!" Tons of folks threw money in (including us)...that guy made out like a bandit.

 

[southernbohemian]

I tip at coffeehouses if I'm going to be staying around for a while since the workers will have to clean up a table when I leave, not just make my very simple hot tea. I would never tip at a Taco Bell (what?!?) or a drive-thru. Most other counter services depend on how helpful the server was and what kind of change I got back.

I was a server for years and have two big pet peeves about tipping:

First is for the tippers - just because someone else brought your food to your table does not mean that I dropped the ball. Most restaurants expect you to run hot food out to whatever table it is going to, not just to your own. I have heard this given several times as an excuse for bad tipping - you tip on the service itself. If your server disappeared for 45 minutes and someone else did EVERYTHING for you, tip that person personally and don't leave anything for your designated server. But otherwise tip on the overall service.

Second is for the servers - I hate people who try to manipulate the tip you will give them by how they bring back your change. Do you really think that if you only give me $20s and $10s back that I will be forced to tip you $10 on my $20 total bill? I love making them make another trip to give me the correct change.

I think working on a tip-based salary should be compulsory for everyone. There would be a lot more patience (and unwillingness to tip for bad service) across the board.

 

[deekaypee]

I tip lots of folks: hair stylists, wait staff, bartenders, luggage handlers, housekeeping, door attendants, delivery drivers, newspaper carriers, cabbies. I also provide tokens of appreciation to folks with whom I interect with regularly: holiday gifts to my stylist, apartment maintenance staff, and my department's support staff. If folks can't accept tips, then I try provide them with tokens of appreciation--cookies for my mail carrier, for example. It's part of who I am, for better or worse. Maybe I've had enough service jobs, maybe I'm shoring up good karma, I don't know.

This means that I also tend to put money in tip jars. But even I find some requests--lobbying--for tips a bit excessive and, well, tacky. I don't mind the understated tip jar near the cash register with a neutral label. But all the cutesy phrases....why? I'm much less inclined to tip in those situations, even as I recognize that seems to be splitting an arbitrary hair. And as much as I know that certain low-paying, especially seasonal jobs, would benefit from tipping, I feel somewhat ambivalent about tipping the ice-cream truck driver, the Dairy Queen workers, temp. workers for UPS during the Christmas season. I'm not sure why. And I do not tip workers at fast-food restaurants.

Generally, though, I'm willing to put money in these tip jars in recognition of excellent service, although I certainly don't feel as compelled to do so like I do when, for instance, I dine at a sit-down restaurant. For example, one of my local coffee shops has a tip jar with one of those obtrusive tip labels, but I tend to tip those baristas. Why? Because of their service AND their relationship with me, a regular. They remember my preference for extra-hot coffee. That says something to me, and I choose to recognize it not only with "thank yous" and chitchat, but with a tip.

That said, I also don't automatically tip anyone. For instance, the tip jar at the coffee shop is right next to the cash register. But I don't tip anyone until after I've received my drink. I will return to the register and tip after I've received appropriate service. Which leads me to my question: WHEN do you tip at such places, if you do so?

 

[N.Bailey]

At some tip-jar places (if I get a complex coffee-drink at Starbucks or whatever), I may or may not drop my change into the tip jar. But I saw a money-jar of a different sort at our grocery store's gas station yesterday:

It was BIG jar, with quite a bit of change inside. On it was a plea for more change -- "So and so has had a warrant issued for her arrest. She volunteers for such and such charity periodically, and was just about to get a new job. Please, drop some change in the jar to help her raise Bail Money. "

HUH?!!!!!!!??????????

Beth

That's definitely a new twist. I doubt I'd have put much in that jar.

 

[bgirldeb]

But I saw a money-jar of a different sort at our grocery store's gas station yesterday:

It was BIG jar, with quite a bit of change inside. On it was a plea for more change -- "So and so has had a warrant issued for her arrest. She volunteers for such and such charity periodically, and was just about to get a new job. Please, drop some change in the jar to help her raise Bail Money. "

HUH?!!!!!!!??????????

Beth

I'd be tempted to drop a piece of paper in with a random "tip" about how to cope in jail/prison, or maybe a link to this site:

http://www.wikihow.com/Deal-With-Being-in-Prison

 

[disneyfav4ever]

I don't mind places having tip jars. What I do mind, and this has happened to me a couple times, is when I'm asked if I want my change, or how much of my chage do I want back. WTH! I hate when they do that, and never leave a tip then.

 

[Stacerita]

Ask for a tip for yourself. Tell them you were a good customer and it's expected.

 

[RayaniFoxmur]

I actually worked in an ice cream stand once that had a tipping jar. It wasn't because it was there to make extra money though, believe you me. We were only paid 3.19 an hour, and he got away with it too because he claimed we were a tipped position.

NO ONE ever tipped anything in those cups. It was supposed to make up the difference to minimum wage, and it didn't. And he never paid the difference then, he claimed well we had tip cups!

I was 13 at the time and stupid, but once my mom figured out what was going on she made me quit. But it kinda put some perspective on some of those tip cups for me! I try to at least put a few quarters in if I have them.