Should I be concerned about bad service due to the 18% thing?

[Pluto777]

We have a party of 6 (although 2 of us are toddlers 3 and 5 yrs old) but I ASSUME (am I right?) that this will be considered 6 people and thus get the automatic 18% tip added on. What worries me is that I keep hearing from guests that most waiters when they see groups of 6+ have very poor service (slower refills, stacking plates etc) since they automatically have a 'tip' that is not actually connected/based on the quality of service. In fact I will tip less for poor service and tip far more (even up to 30%+) if service is outstanding. While I understand Disney's concern for the hard working waitstaff to ensure they get compensated, I worry that as guests we will get poor service with no incentive for servers. Thoughts?

 

[hllb]

Other restaurants, outside of Disney do this too. It generally works just fine. Bad waitstaff is bad waitstaff and good waitstaff is good. A good one won't give you poor service just because they're guaranteed a tip. That doesn't mean you won't get a bad server either, but, they likely would have been bad either way.

 

[loves to dive]

It won't make a difference, as hllb pointed out bad service is bad service. If you service is so bad that you wouldn't have tipped 18% just ask to speak to the manager and get it adjusted, they will do it.

 

[Pluto777]

It won't make a difference, as hllb pointed out bad service is bad service. If you service is so bad that you wouldn't have tipped 18% just ask to speak to the manager and get it adjusted, they will do it.

Yeah, I thought of that, but it's retroactive and seems like a pretty nasty thing to do. I would certainly add on additionally for good service (and I encourage other DIS'ers to do the same so as to reward good service) but to actually take money out of someone they were counting on who is working seems overly cruel to me.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

I've been on Tables in Wonderland with the automatic 18% regardless of party size for years.

Does bad service happen? Sometimes, yes.

Should you be expecting bad service everywhere you go because the tip is already added? No. I don't know what guests you keep hearing this from, but I don't see it happening myself. Nor would I be certain that the guests you keep hearing it from have any actual knowledge that the "bad service" they experienced was the result of the auto tip. If you want to report getting bad service, then do so to management at the restaurant before you leave (not after you leave). Not sure I would count "slow to refill glasses" as "bad service," because it would have to be pretty abysmal service before I did that. and if the service was abysmal, then yes, I'd do it.

Not only that, but the larger the party, the more work they have to do.

 

[loves to dive]

Yeah, I thought of that, but it's retroactive and seems like a pretty nasty thing to do. I would certainly add on additionally for good service (and I encourage other DIS'ers to do the same so as to reward good service) but to actually take money out of someone they were counting on who is working seems overly cruel to me.

Not sure what the problem would be, if you thought the service was bad enough not to deserve a 18% tip then obviously the server wasn't doing the best they could.

 

[supersnoop]

If service is bad, speak to a manager. Give them an opportunity to fix it.

 

[Hopefully]

I agree with @MakiraMarlena. I don’t know who “all the guests “ you keep hearing this from are.
I believe it is an unfounded belief

 

[rwdavis2]

If you go in looking for bad service you may very well find it.

 

[bumbershoot]

Yeah, I thought of that, but it's retroactive and seems like a pretty nasty thing to do.

Speak to the server. Speak to the manager while you’re still there. Give the server a chance to fly right. If at the end it never did, explain to the manager what was happening. Reduce or eliminate the tip in that way, so the server and manager KNOW what happened.

There is nothing nasty about this.


We were at the “brewery” place at boardwalk with a big group and two TIW cards. Everyone at the table got great service except for my cousin. For some reason she was just tormented by the server. Wrong dressing, no drink, bad food, just everything that could go wrong with food service went wrong for her.

Her card was covering her family and our card was covering our family plus her mom. We paid as normal. She had spoken with the server and a bit with the manager, and when it never cleared up or changed at all, she got the manager over to talk about the autograt for her family’s bill.

The only thing that was nasty that day was how the server treated her. The server did NOT deserve a gratuity for my cousin’s bill.

Should you be expecting bad service everywhere you go because the tip is already added? No.

I don't know what guests you keep hearing this from, but I don't see it happening myself.

Nor would I be certain that the guests you keep hearing it from have any actual knowledge that the "bad service" they experienced was the result of the auto tip.

If you want to report getting bad service, then do so to management at the restaurant before you leave (not after you leave).

Not sure I would count "slow to refill glasses" as "bad service," because it would have to be pretty abysmal service before I did that. and if the service was abysmal, then yes, I'd do it.

Yes to each part of this. Many yesses.

 

[Disneylover99]

We've never had bad service when eating as a large party. It's been a non-issue for us.

 

[sponica]

We have a party of 6 (although 2 of us are toddlers 3 and 5 yrs old) but I ASSUME (am I right?) that this will be considered 6 people and thus get the automatic 18% tip added on. What worries me is that I keep hearing from guests that most waiters when they see groups of 6+ have very poor service (slower refills, stacking plates etc) since they automatically have a 'tip' that is not actually connected/based on the quality of service. In fact I will tip less for poor service and tip far more (even up to 30%+) if service is outstanding. While I understand Disney's concern for the hard working waitstaff to ensure they get compensated, I worry that as guests we will get poor service with no incentive for servers. Thoughts?

Other restaurants do it for large parties, it's partially so the wait staff doesn't get stiffed on the tip when someone can't do their math right and puts in 3 dollars instead of 6 (we all have that friend, don't deny it). I wouldn't worry about it too much, bad service is bad service whether there are 5 people there or 6 people there.

 

[scrapquitler]

We have a party of 6 (although 2 of us are toddlers 3 and 5 yrs old) but I ASSUME (am I right?) that this will be considered 6 people and thus get the automatic 18% tip added on. What worries me is that I keep hearing from guests that most waiters when they see groups of 6+ have very poor service (slower refills, stacking plates etc) since they automatically have a 'tip' that is not actually connected/based on the quality of service. In fact I will tip less for poor service and tip far more (even up to 30%+) if service is outstanding. While I understand Disney's concern for the hard working waitstaff to ensure they get compensated, I worry that as guests we will get poor service with no incentive for servers. Thoughts?

MOST restaurants (at least where I live) add the automatic 18% for groups of 6 or 8. If you have a lousy experience with a server who is giving you poor service, you speak to the manager about it and tell him that you want the tip adjusted (or better yet, talk to him before the meal is over so they have a chance to correct the problem). It's still not written in stone even though it is added automatically.

 

[Pluto777]

If you go in looking for bad service you may very well find it.

Great point.

 

[rg35]

We have never had this issue as a large party at WDW (or most anywhere, for that matter).

 

[elaine amj]

I was there in August for 2 weeks on DDP with a party of 7-8 including a toddler and my DH who often made special requests. We had great service pretty much everywhere. I'm trying to think now but cannot recall a restaurant with bad service.

 

[3gr8boys]

Any wait staff driven to work harder for a bigger % tip is also like to realize a customer may add to the 18% for great service....I wouldn't hesitate to add extra tip $ for a great experience.

 

[Pumbaa_]

I'm going to close this one