tipping for bad service at a restaurant

[ridgerunner]

Originally Posted By: bigmike
Hey, I realize my great grandfather shouldn't have done what he did. Nevertheless, I doubt many of you know how the good ole boy system worked back then in that area of the state. He owned most everything, including the only septic business, waste water plants, the only power plant, well drilling and pump service business, and most other blue collar businesses.

He didn't get that from someone else's money either, but rather by getting starved out in Indiana during the depression and selling his farms to move down to Florida.

He was a hard worker and expected one thing from his employees - to do the same. Nobody goes to a restaurant to do their own cooking or serving.


Yes, I believe he was a very hard worker or he would not have built up the business he did. I'm sure he didn't whine about not getting tips. I'm sure word got around quickly about his incident with the glass and that he got great service not because of that incident but rather because of the businesses he owned. BTW the good ole boy network is very much alive here where I live to this day! If I were in the diner when this happened I probly would have laughed my arse off and thought it was very funny what he did. If I were the owner of the diner...not so funny. Gotta shake things up a bit from time to time I understand that, but U must be willing to make ammends in the aftermath too or the good ole boy network will bite ya back sooner or later.

 

[Hermann]

About every two months we frequent a moderatly expensive establishment. Our bill for two is usually about $100 without tip. This amount does not include alcohol. The service is always fantastic. We ususally tip about 18-20% to the nearest dollar.

About once a year the food comes out not so good. One visit about a year ago, our food was really bad. We asked to see the managing parter. He thanked us for letting us know. And to our surprise right on the spot he gave us our meal free, plus $75 in gift certificates. Seems it does pay to be polite and promptly notify when there is a problem. We were so overwhelmed by this gesture, that we gave our gift certificates to a charity auction event. We later found out that the certificates sold for nearly double the face value.

After a recent experience at On the Border where our server ignored us totally, delivered our food without breaking stride, and waited forever for our check, which never came. After waiting 15 minutes we just got up and left and never paid. No the place was not busy. We got the usual smile and thank you at the door, and no one followed us out the door. We sat in the car for few minutes to see if anyone would confront us, hoping to speak to the managing partner, and no one ever showed up.

Just goes to show that you can win just by taking matters into your own hands.

 

[saberz]

If service is lousy, I do not tip. By lousy, I mean horrible(waitress, order from the kitchen etc).

I refuse to eat at Outback, Lonestar or any chain restaurant as they all happen to be duds. really bad experiences, and a really bad experience with Chakra on valentines day(Paramus NJ).

Going onto a subpar service(not the worst, but not good), the rule of $5 comes into play. $5 bucks no matter what unless its over $100. Then its $10. If service is all star, I have no problem tipping big(30%).

Only twice in my life have I done the 30%, once at Red Robin(always good service) and another at a real steakhouse. Can't remember if it was Arthur's or Steve's.

 

[PandaBear]

Originally Posted By: Hermann


After a recent experience at On the Border where our server ignored us totally, delivered our food without breaking stride, and waited forever for our check, which never came. After waiting 15 minutes we just got up and left and never paid. No the place was not busy. We got the usual smile and thank you at the door, and no one followed us out the door. We sat in the car for few minutes to see if anyone would confront us, hoping to speak to the managing partner, and no one ever showed up.

Just goes to show that you can win just by taking matters into your own hands.


Stealing a free meal brings you down to the level of ghetto trash and I'd not consider it "winning", especially with the risk of getting arrested.

Bad service doesn't justify you not paying the bill if you have eaten the food. Not tipping however is reasonable.

 

[Hermann]

Panda,

I assure you we gave the server every chance to bring us a check. We made eye contact, looked at him several times. He was only working on two tables. Most of the time he was outside the patio door smoking. And my 800+ credit score should assure you that I am not Ghetto trash. We even waited in the parking lot for at least 5 minutes to hopefully meet the manager. It is not something that I have done before but the GF and I felt it was warranted. We are regular patrons at this OTB and we are the ones who felt like we were being treated as Ghetto trash as you say. And it felt like a win after you were treated like Ghetto trash as you say.

 

[aquariuscsm]

Originally Posted By: Hermann
After a recent experience at On the Border where our server ignored us totally, delivered our food without breaking stride, and waited forever for our check, which never came. After waiting 15 minutes we just got up and left and never paid. No the place was not busy. We got the usual smile and thank you at the door, and no one followed us out the door. We sat in the car for few minutes to see if anyone would confront us, hoping to speak to the managing partner, and no one ever showed up.

Just goes to show that you can win just by taking matters into your own hands.


That`s awesome! You have no idea how VERY close I came to doing that one time at this discusting Italian mom and pop clip-joint here where I live. We sat for probably 30 min before a waiter came to our table. We ordered our drinks (iced tea and Coke). Another 30+ min and finally our drinks come. Waiter doesn`t even make eye contact with us or even utter a simple "hello". Entrees were $30+ a piece. I wanted to add chicken to a fettuchine alfredo and his response was,"We can`t do that because everything is pre-packaged the way it comes".....$30+ for a frozed,pre-packed,microwaved TV dinner??????? I`d rather have gone to McDonalds! The tables were so close that we kept bumping into the people sitting next to us,and was so wobbly my gf spilled her soda. Waiter was a complete d-head when he brought her a new one. He NEVER once came back to our table during the entire meal. I had to walk back to the kitchen to asertain as to where our check was when we were ready to leave.

I was contemplating on doing a few things:

Putting $5 on the table to cover the cost of our drinks and walk out.

Go look for the mgr and demand a decent server.

Worst case,ask the server what the [censored] his problem was!


BUT,it was our Valentine`s Day dinner and I totally kept my cool because I didn`t want to ruin her Valentine`s Day. And to top it all off,it was the day after V-Day because we both had to work on the actual holiday so it wasn`t like the place was swamped with holiday goers.

TOTALLY unacceptable and I`d steer anyone and everyone away from this deplorable place.

 

[Turk]

10% for lousy service, 20-30% for really good service.

 

[Spazdog]

Originally Posted By: Anies


Only twice in my life have I done the 30%, once at Red Robin(always good service)...


The service has always been really good at Red Robin.

The food isn't all that, But the service has always been exceptional. I don't know how a chain that size has been that consistant with the quality of their service but kudos to them for doing so. (and a 25% tip to my waitperson every time)

 

[65cuda]

I've only had to leave a place once for not getting service. In this case we got the drinks and then waited and waited and waited. Finally I told the wife we were leaving to go where we could get service. Went to the counter to pay for our drinks and the manager said he would go check on things. He came back a while later and said the meal would be right out. I told him it didn't matter, they had their chance and I was going right out the door after paying for the drinks. So he said there would be no charge and hoped that we would come back to give them a second chance.

 

[Cristobal]

I think you did the right thing, Hermann. Sometimes the waiter or waitress is a disgruntled person trying to hurt the boss; there is nothing wrong with refusing to be a pawn in the game.

I once took my family to a Beatty, Nevada steakhouse where there were few customers, at least five staff people (they were all young adults or teenagers) and we were totally ignored. We got up and left. A few months later I noticed the place had gone out of business. I asked some locals about it. It turned out that the place was owned by a local doctor who was the Grand Poobah in those parts, and known to be a pompous, abusive expletive deleted. The staff were all his kids, and he had ordered them to work there without pay. Naturally they took it out on the customers. No one else in the town wanted to work for the guy. The building has since been torn down.

 

[91344George]

Originally Posted By: PandaBear


Stealing a free meal brings you down to the level of ghetto trash and I'd not consider it "winning", especially with the risk of getting arrested.

Bad service doesn't justify you not paying the bill if you have eaten the food. Not tipping however is reasonable.


I agree, unless you did NOT eat any of the food served an effort should be made to pay before you leave on YOUR part.

I've met plenty of well heeled, monied people that are rich trash with no manners ethics, or integrity, actually most of the "trash" I meet are comfortably wealthy.

 

[Hermann]

We did it mostly because we were being treated like Ghetto trash, and I hope the server had to pay the bill. I am tired of the "I don't give a bleep world" we live in these days. And if Americans would quit accepting being treated like this, the world would be a much better place to live in.

 

[PF52]

Originally Posted By: Hermann

After a recent experience at On the Border where our server ignored us totally, delivered our food without breaking stride, and waited forever for our check, which never came. After waiting 15 minutes we just got up and left and never paid.


I would have done the same, although I probably would have waited longer than 15 minutes.

Actually, it almost happened to my dad and I at Chili's. After delivering our food, our waitress completely disappeared. We never saw her again. We were long since done eating and no one ever brought the check. We waited and waited and eventually stood up and put our coats on, thinking that would bring her out of hiding, or at least attract someone's attention. No such luck. Finally, we went up to the hostess's station and she was able to summon a manager to get us a bill, which took another 15 minutes for them to come up with and print. It sure seemed like a lot of effort and waiting on our part just to stay honest; if it happens again we'll just leave.

 

[CROWNVIC4LIFE]

Originally Posted By: Hermann


After a recent experience at On the Border where our server ignored us totally, delivered our food without breaking stride, and waited forever for our check, which never came. After waiting 15 minutes we just got up and left and never paid. No the place was not busy. We got the usual smile and thank you at the door, and no one followed us out the door. We sat in the car for few minutes to see if anyone would confront us, hoping to speak to the managing partner, and no one ever showed up.

Just goes to show that you can win just by taking matters into your own hands.


If you do that in Miami-Dade or Broward County there is a very good chance you will be cuffed and stuffed in back of a patrol car with a cage..It happens all the time down here.

 

[opus1]

We came close to walking without paying at a Denny's once. Long story short, the waitress was apparently having a very bad day as we weren't the only table complaining We'd been there almost 2 hours, on lunch break from work (thank goodness we were salaried). Long story short we got tired of trying to find the waitress to give us our bill so we went to the manager and explained the situation and told him that we were willing to pay for our meals, but he needed to come up with the bill right now or we were walking.

He did, we paid, and never went back. Made sure everyone at work knew about the situation too so that they could make an informed choice on whether to go back.

And, yes, we all worked an hour of OT to make up for the long lunch....

 

[expat]

I did it once, I had to wait and call for EVERYTHING. After calling and waiting for a bill, I put my phone # on the bill and addressed a note "To the manager. I had to wait to be seated, I waited for a Menu, I waited to be served, I waited for this bill.
YOU will wait to get paid"
I never did get a phone call.

 

[PandaBear]

Originally Posted By: expat
I did it once, I had to wait and call for EVERYTHING. After calling and waiting for a bill, I put my phone # on the bill and addressed a note "To the manager. I had to wait to be seated, I waited for a Menu, I waited to be served, I waited for this bill.
YOU will wait to get paid"
I never did get a phone call.


Well done, this is a way to get out of this situation without being a ghetto or wealthy trash.

 

[Hermann]

This is the last comment I will Make as I realize Panda is a troll of sorts. I am neither wealthy or Ghetto Trash. We were tired of being treated like do-do.

 

[91344George]

Originally Posted By: Hermann
This is the last comment I will Make as I realize Panda is a troll of sorts. I am neither wealthy or Ghetto Trash. We were tired of being treated like do-do.


That's understandable, BUT did you write to the corporate HQ of the restaurant explaining what happened? If you don't like being treated the way you were you need to TELL the people that can change that. That would be the owner of the establishment (not the manager) or the CEO of the company that owns the chain.

 

[bigmike]

I thought he did tell them, by simply not going back and spending money there. Am I missing something? Since when is it our civic duty to explain how crummy someone's service based business is?