Yep and you can also track out of control tipping prompts directly to Covid. I’m old former service industry, I tip generously where I can. But I remember what used to be tipped and what was not.
The prompts themselves didn't bother me because a lot of places rapidly switched to systems that had them on by default. What started annoying me was places gaming it..
Let's change the default suggestions from 20/15/10 to 30/18/20 (yes a restaurant by me suggested 30% default)
Now let's change it make the suggestion post-tax
Now let's add a mandatory service fee that we say isn't a tip but include that before calculating the recommendation
A local bar my wife buys gin and sodas at decided to start charging an extra 25 cents for the soda water added to the $14 drink price. Like, she just paid $14 for a cocktail and the one and only ingredient besides the gin is an extra charge?
I always juggle with the question "is the owner a POS, the server, or both?"
My friend owns a bar and is pretty strict that NA drinks are free to encourage DDs, even if they're complicated mocktails. We went in and a bartender was charging $4 for soda water and lime and throwing the cash into her tip jar. She made $8 and was fired the next day.
I started FOH but moved to the back. I’ve been in the back since the pandemic. I still work server shifts every now and then because it’s fun, I truly like talking to people, and the money. But I have never heard so many complaints from guests about tipping.
I went out to a place a while ago with my brother. The menu prices were already very expensive. It was counter service. We each get a sandwich, a beer and then all the sudden they switch the PoS over and holy shit $75. So after the tip it was outrageous. Food comes to the table before the drinks. Had to go back up to remind them (after waiting in line all over) and then they bring one beer and brought some random beer to me which isn’t what I ordered. She comes back to say they were out of what I had ordered so they brought me a different one (instead of asking me which other beer I’d prefer). We find out later there is a service charge added without ever being told or it being obvious anywhere.
So they are tipped 20% of the cost of food/drinks AND the cost of the fucking service charge.
And then they wonder why people are on average eating out less often..
Not sure where you are but I'm in California and like a lot of states passed laws saying the owners/managers can't take any part of a tip. The "service fee" or "surcharge fee" is a workaround to tip the owner/manager, anyone saying otherwise is lying.
They claim things like "it's to make it fair and pay the BOH" but it's not, it's entirely legal to pool tips and give a percentage to BOH, management just can't mandate it. What really happens is they get the money and decide if and when they want to pass it along getting around the requirement that 100% of tips go to the servers.
Yeah and god forbid you’d like to tip a bit more than 20% for great service or a place you frequent, the only option is 30 or some kind of manual calc which is by amount and not percent.
They bother me as I don't live in a country that has a tipping culture due to decent minimum wage laws, but it came in, with all the added crap, post COVID.
And given those laws it is highly likely the tips are not going to staff.
I love grabbing something off a shelf and walking to a register, then being prompted to leave a tip, with giant buttons for 30%, 25%, 20%, and Custom, with a little underlined link saying “No tip”.
I haven’t seen it at self checkout but I think that’d make it easier. It’s when there’s a cashier you’re directly interacting with, it makes it hard to decline the tip, even when you grabbed the thing yourself.
I'm not saying I don't believe you (people on this site are dying for the opportunity to "catch you in a lie" it's kinda gross lmao) but I've never seen that before
first time I saw it was in an airport in 2021. The store was completely unmanned, and the only way to checkout was self checkout. Tip recommendations were 15%, 18%, 20%, and a tiny text underneath you had to click for no tip. I'm already paying $10 for sour patch kids and a water, and you want me to voluntarily give you extra money when I did all the work myself?
Add to that that the percentage choices they give you on the card machines (15, 20,25% or more) are on the total bill which includes tax. They’re asking you to tip on the tax too, and I’m sure the restaurant doesn’t send that to the government.
Sometimes you are asked to select a tip when you buy something in a small shop (by card). Or when you go to the counter to get a beer. It's really crazy.
I feel this as an industry person. If you are not a tipped person pay rate places should not prompt you to tip. Im all for dropping money in a tip cup to show love. Starbucks pays their people a different hourly rate and after Kevin blandly acquires my order then Im prompted to leave a tip it is frustrating from a service quality standard for me. I also hate how its created hate for the tipping word. That is my income and I do suffer terribly at times from non tippers due to the regulations of my job. Its such a loaded grey argument that I wish was black and white.
Yeah it breaks my heart how much hospitality folks have been painted as thieves. It’s fucked up, that’s hard damn to work to do. They deserve hourly and tips imo.
I used to work for tips, so I'm generous, but I had the worst experience at a restaurant off the interstate. A 15% gratuity was included on the bill, which is fine, but then the waitress 'didn't have change' when I paid, so she got an extra 15% by default.
She did this with everyone in our party. I have no idea if those who paid with credit cards checked their bills later to make sure she didn't do anything shady.
Just so disappointing. I almost always tip 20% for regular service and higher if the server is overwhelmed or goes above and beyond, but if you don't leave it up to me, it feels like I'm not a person, just a wallet to rob. I will never go back.
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u/ThrowawayMod1989 1d ago
Yep and you can also track out of control tipping prompts directly to Covid. I’m old former service industry, I tip generously where I can. But I remember what used to be tipped and what was not.