Can we talk about TIPFLATION for a minute?

[tvguy]

To add to this...I just went out to eat and was charged 3% for using my credit card! Ugh! That's your fee for having a business; it shouldn't be mine to pay. I was really mad--everything is so expensive to begin with, and that was just icing on the cake.

Not unheard of around here. Fortunately, most places that charge it that I have been very good about posting notice all over their restaurants.
Some would argue they are just charging you for a service they are providing to you. Not unlike anything else. They will give you a glass of water for free, but charge you $2 for a soft drink. And why should the business, or cash paying customers subsidize your cash back rewards? I mean, with most cards you're going to get than 3% back so in the end it is costing you nothing.

 

[dvcgirl67]

Yeah but my bank reimburses me for those ATM charges that are not from their ATM up to a certain point per month

Checks aren't always free either for people to get from their bank. We have virtually nothing that we use checks for now and thus don't carry them. I still have checks though from my original box dating back to 2006 but I'd have to correct a lot of information on it (name, address), but new accounts nah we don't have checks around the house for it.

You carry change too for the cash for people?

Gotta make it as convenient as possible if you're going to use your reasoning.

Well, I haven't had any complaints about convenience since I started offering Venmo as an option for payment. And nobody has pushed back on the fee that Venmo charges me (that I charge them). The older customers are the check writers and/or cash payers. We don't carry change, but those who pay in cash almost always pay the exact amount. Occasionally a customer may ask for the change to be applied to the following week or month's bill depending on how we bill them. We occasionally get tips on a weekly, monthly or "one off" bill for a pet-sitting job, but for the most part they all do the tipping in December at the end of the year.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Well, I haven't had any complaints about convenience since I started offering Venmo as an option for payment. And nobody has pushed back on the fee that Venmo charges me (that I charge them). The older customers are the check writers and/or cash payers. We don't carry change, but those who pay in cash almost always pay the exact amount. Occasionally a customer may ask for the change to be applied to the following week or month's bill depending on how we bill them. We occasionally get tips on a weekly, monthly or "one off" bill for a pet-sitting job, but for the most part they all do the tipping in December at the end of the year.

I'm not saying people would complain, venmo, paypal, zelle, etc are all very commonplace. Just commenting tongue and cheek about your bank comment.

Yeah older customers def. do checks and cash. My mother-in-law writes checks for gifts lol although she did give me my b-day gift last month as cash. It's been a good IDK 10+ years since I've carried cash as a regular thing though.

I was just thinking about exact cash because of rates and such especially if it caused someone to have to go to the ATM to get cash they almost always are only given out in 20s.

I'm assuming you added venmo for a reason, my guess is as time goes on those other methods of cash and check are less common especially newer clients where the other methods are less convenient.

At least you have that flexibility for the bill part, that probably helps out for some people

 

[dvcgirl67]

I'm not saying people would complain, venmo, paypal, zelle, etc are all very commonplace. Just commenting tongue and cheek about your bank comment.

Yeah older customers def. do checks and cash. My mother-in-law writes checks for gifts lol although she did give me my b-day gift last month as cash. It's been a good IDK 10+ years since I've carried cash as a regular thing though.

I was just thinking about exact cash because of rates and such especially if it caused someone to have to go to the ATM to get cash they almost always are only given out in 20s.

I'm assuming you added venmo for a reason, my guess is as time goes on those other methods of cash and check are less common especially newer clients where the other methods are less convenient.

At least you have that flexibility for the bill part, that probably helps out for some people

Yeah…I added Venmo because lots began to ask for it. I get the convenience of it….use it myself and rarely write checks in our house. I just didn’t want to bother with credit cards. I’m a small enough operation….easily run my books with QuickBooks and my people then leave cash or check when we do our next visit/walk…or they Venmo me.

 

[Boopuff]

I just can't tip for a non-help position. I did my time in fast food, never got a tip. I also question if the tips are spread around the staff or the owner is just raking in extra cash. I also noticed a sneaky new charge some restaurants have a "service fee" this is not a tip, but to help the owner fund the insurance (in theory) and you tip on top of that fee. Another thing I noticed is that the party size for automatic tip has shrunk. I remember back when you'd have 10 and get the charge. Now many places start the auto-tip at 6! You have to watch your bills!

 

[focusondisney]

I just remembered that a restaurant here adds $1 per guest as a “kitchen appreciation fee”. They say tell the server if you want the fee removed. We rarely go there, my mom used to give us gift cards for there once in awhile. She passed away last year & we used the last of the gift cards she gave us last month. So it’s not someplace we’ll be patronizing again anytime soon.

 

[DisneyOnTap]

I went to Joffrey’s and learned that if you use your magic band, they will not slide that thing over to you and ask to tip.

 

[PPFlight75]

I just remembered that a restaurant here adds $1 per guest as a “kitchen appreciation fee”. They say tell the server if you want the fee removed. We rarely go there, my mom used to give us gift cards for there once in awhile. She passed away last year & we used the last of the gift cards she gave us last month. So it’s not someplace we’ll be patronizing again anytime soon.

We have a restaurant here that does that too. I can't remember the exact amout...maybe 2% for the kitchen. They very clearly have this on their website and in the restaurant. I would rather they pay them more and increase the price of dinner, but I would rather that happen for wait staff too. However, I know that is a complicated subject.

 

[gmi3804]

I went to Joffrey’s and learned that if you use your magic band, they will not slide that thing over to you and ask to tip.

The name MagicBand is finally accurate!

 

[whiteness]

So, IMO, the reason for "why not?" is that this continuous begging-for-unnecessary-tips may end-up backfiring, if more and more people start to experience "tip exhaustion" and start giving less and less tips overall.

I'm hopeful that the cynical over-reach of tip nagging will produce a backlash against tipping in enough people that is forces business owners to start paying their staff a fair wage and benefits to replace their lost tips.

I would just love it if, when it came time to pay my bill, the amount listed was exactly the amount I was actually expected to pay. And anything I chose to tip was an optional gift to folks that I honestly felt provided exceptional service. Rather than a semi-obligatory, undeclared fee to keep the establishment's employees out of poverty.

 

[mjkacmom]

I just can't tip for a non-help position. I did my time in fast food, never got a tip. I also question if the tips are spread around the staff or the owner is just raking in extra cash. I also noticed a sneaky new charge some restaurants have a "service fee" this is not a tip, but to help the owner fund the insurance (in theory) and you tip on top of that fee. Another thing I noticed is that the party size for automatic tip has shrunk. I remember back when you'd have 10 and get the charge. Now many places start the auto-tip at 6! You have to watch your bills!

I don’t remember the auto tip being 10, we are a family of 7 and almost always have been charged at least 15%.

 

[ronandannette]

We've encountered this at several restaurants recently. What really upset me is they don't tell you ahead of time that there is an additional charge for using a credit card. There are plenty of other places to eat so we no longer go to those restaurants.

I don’t think I’ve ever run into that, but there are quite a few mom-and-pop places that offer discounts for cash. I guess maybe they build the card fees into the prices and then (very fairly, IMO) discount them for customers who don’t actually incur the charges. This seems to be a more palatable (no pun intended) way to do it.

Well, for my pet-sitting/dog walking business I have never offered paying by credit card as an option, just cash and check until the last 4-5 years when I began getting requests for people to pay via Venmo. And so I do offer that, but I let them know that there's an additional 2% charge (it's actually 1.9% plus ten cents) if they'd like to pay that way and I've never had any push back. That's what venmo charges me and I don't feel like I should take a 2% hit when customers could pay me two other ways. Some people like the convenience, and most view it like an ATM charge from a bank that's not theirs. And I'm not their bank .

Just curious - in the States is there no way to electronically transfer money directly out of your bank accounts without a 3rd party service like Venmo or PayPal? Through Canadian banks it’s a simple matter of using a standard on-line banking function that transfers to anyone via email and the recipient deposits it the same way. No fees charged to either party. It’s so common here as to be ubiquitous.

I tip based on the level of interaction. If all I have to do is sit down and the staff takes care of everything from there - full tip. If I walk up to order + pay + retrieve food and then find a table - no tip. If the interaction is somewhere between these scenarios I will adjust accordingly.

What constitutes a full tip to you? We were out last night and I purposely paid close attention - the tip options on the machine was 20/25/30% and $Other. In order to not leave a tip you’d have to chose Other and manually enter $0.00.

 

[DefnotDLav]

I'm so over being asked to tip everywhere. I worked as a server through college. I feel that this has to hurt servers as people are rightfully fatigued from tipping.

I just don't understand how anyone should even be asked to tip a cashier. I usually succumb to guilt and do a custom $1. My wife is much stronger and never does. I feel like the corps need to just pony up and stop allowing this practice to continue. I'm working on hitting $0 moving forward lol.

 

[gmi3804]

 

[J-Dog]

41% want the restaurants to pay a fair wage and get rid of tipping, yet only 16% agree they would agree to pay more for their food if tipping was eliminated. Folks, tipping is here to stay. A lot of places here have started a credit card fee, just came back from brunch and they offered a 4% cash discount.

Uhhh...I don't think that there is a single post in this thread in which the poster stated that they want tipping to completely go away. People are sick of the tip-begging from places that don't traditionally ask for tipping.

I just remembered that a restaurant here adds $1 per guest as a “kitchen appreciation fee”. They say tell the server if you want the fee removed. We rarely go there, my mom used to give us gift cards for there once in awhile. She passed away last year & we used the last of the gift cards she gave us last month. So it’s not someplace we’ll be patronizing again anytime soon.

A restaurant in our town has this statement in tiny print on the bottom of the menu: "A 3% hospitality charge is added to all checks to benefit our kitchen team. This is not in lieu of a sever gratuity". This is ridiculous - just pay your kitchen staff a decent wage! I will not be patronizing that restaurant.

 

[focusondisney]

A restaurant in our town has this statement in tiny print on the bottom of the menu: "A 3% hospitality charge is added to all checks to benefit our kitchen team. This is not in lieu of a sever gratuity". This is ridiculous - just pay your kitchen staff a decent wage! I will not be patronizing that restaurant.

That’s where it is at the place I mentioned too, in small print on the bottom of the menu. I don’t think it’s anywhere in their website, except on the picture of the menu. What happened to servers “tipping out” the other employees? I think going forward, we’ll be deducting that kitchen amount from the tip we’d normally give.

 

[The Iron Giant]

I think that my dislike of the counter service tip is that typically you pay prior to any actual service being provided. I'd prefer to tip after my food has been provided to me so I can tip appropriately for the service I received if I choose. This would also eliminate the feeling of my food being held hostage if I don't leave a 30% tip when I ordered.

 

[ScottOKW2K]

What constitutes a full tip to you? We were out last night and I purposely paid close attention - the tip options on the machine was 20/25/30% and $Other. In order to not leave a tip you’d have to chose Other and manually enter $0.00.

Generally in the 15% to 20% range, and more if the server is very attentive.

 

[Moliphino]

Uhhh...I don't think that there is a single post in this thread in which the poster stated that they want tipping to completely go away. People are sick of the tip-begging from places that don't traditionally ask for tipping.

I would love it if expected tipping went away entirely. Pay people a living wage, customers can throw a few bucks down if they want to if service was above and beyond.

 

[SirDuff]

Just curious - in the States is there no way to electronically transfer money directly out of your bank accounts without a 3rd party service like Venmo or PayPal? Through Canadian banks it’s a simple matter of using a standard on-line banking function that transfers to anyone via email and the recipient deposits it the same way. No fees charged to either party. It’s so common here as to be ubiquitous.

Not always true. See CIBC for example where it is only free for some accounts and TD implies it isn't free to send for any type of account.

https://www.cibc.com/en/personal-banking/ways-to-bank/how-to/send-interac-e-transfer.html

https://www.tdcanadatrust.com/easyweb5/messages/tip_message3.jsp