Paul M. Cook wrote:
> "Peter Aitken" > wrote in message
> m...
>> "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?
>
>
> The whole 15% tipping thing has got to go. I mean think about it.
> You go into a restaurant and you order the grilled lobster with a
> filet mignon and a bottle of their best wine. Now if instead you had
> ordered the Cobb salad and an iced tea you would have put the
> waitperson though absolutely no extra effort to serve you. Their
> effort is not a reflection of the price of the meal. So why should
> they get a substantially larger tip just because you ordered a more
> expensive meal?
>
> Paul

Obviously you've never worked in a restaurant. The salad doesn't make
itself. And I can guarauntee the line cook isn't making that salad, nor the
chef at the back of the line.

Heh, yes, the waitress puts your salad together. He/she also brews the tea
you are drinking and the brews the coffee, too. Refills those ketchup
bottles (it's called marrying ketchup); rolls that silverware in those neat
little bundles in linen. Thankfully, we didn't t have to wash the
silverware or wash the linen we spent an hour rolliing the silverware in. I
used get extra money by offering to roll silverware. It's a tedious job but
for an extra $20 bucks, why not?

Jill