"D.Currie" > wrote in message
...
> We went out to dinner tonight to a local place. When it came time to pay,
> I needed the waitress to make change so I could tip her. She came back
> with a five and a ten, and muttered something about "sorry, no change."
> Grrr. Five bucks was less than 15 percent, but even though she wasn't a
> spectacular waitress, I didn't want to leave that little. We go to this
> place often, and we've had this waitress before. But the full $10 was more
> than 20 percent and that bugged me. Half of me was thinking she was just a
> little too dumb to understand that I needed the singles for the tip, but
> the other half of me was thinking that she was pushing me to make the
> choice between the $5 and the $10 and figuring she'd get the better tip.
>
> Considering I specifically asked her to make change, I was more annoyed
> than when a server has come back with just big bills. The smart ones will
> usually break at least one of the bills down so you've got a ten, a five,
> and singles instead of a twenty, but sometimes they just come back with
> the change in whatever form is easiest. But I don't think I've ever asked
> someone to make change and had them say there was none.
>
> I did some waitressing when I was a teenager, and one of the things I
> learned early was that you made sure the customer had good change to leave
> a tip.
>
> In this case, DH went to the cash register and got change. Didn't seem to
> be a shortage there. Next time we go there, I'll make sure I've got the
> right change for tipping.
>

You are too kind. A tip is supposed to reflect the overall service. With the
waitress either ignoring your request or intentionally jerking you around in
hopes of a larger tip, you would have been 110% justified in leaving the
smallish tip. If behaving like she did does not have any consequences, why
will she ever stop?


--
Peter Aitken
Visit my recipe and kitchen myths page at www.pgacon.com/cooking.htm