I feel like there may be some missing information. For example, if the customer had a coupon or other discount. The tip should be a percentage of the total before the discount. If they’re “adjusting” to tip less- based on the post-coupon price, fuck them.
Tipping, specifically in the original context of restaurants, I will still do, simply because the government needs to change the minimum wage so that servers are included. They’re currently a protected group that is allowed to be paid far less than minimum wage, and they are supposed to make up the difference in tips.
In every other context, wow me and I’ll tip you, otherwise, don’t expect shit.
If you did your job as you are expected to do, then I don’t see why I need to tip.
It was always a dumb idea to pay servers LESS because they got tips. There was a time when tips were mostly cash and you didn’t have to claim them as income. But now that advantage is almost completely gone. And we should just end tipping. If you go out and don’t like the service then don’t go back. Just like it works with any other business.
whenever I see a “suggested tip for your inconvenience” I feel the urge to research (aka google) their reported earnings for the last economical year, calculate their profit margin and write that in the tip line and to pay their employees better instead of trying to shift the costs onto the customers with scammy guilty conscience. Fuck establishments like that, especially those who are then trying to conceive you ONTOP of the already bs tips
The whole tip thing is a scam to begin with.
If your employees rely on tips to meet months end, your business model is shit.
This may be anecdotal, but I ran into this exact same issue a few weeks ago. The suggested 20% was significantly higher than the 20% on the bill. It took me a little bit to figure out, but we were at the restaurant for a steak special and happy hour. The 20% tip was for the non-special price. For example, the steak and two sides special was $18, but the normal price was $28. The drinks were $5 but the normal price was $8. So the suggested tip was 20% of $36, not 20% of $23. These aren’t the exact numbers, and there were two of us, but you get the idea. The POS/Tip suggestion is setup so the servers don’t get the shit end of the stick when the restaurant is doing a deal/special. I’m not sure I fully agree with it, and I have my own beef with tipping culture in general, but I’m just looking to explain what might be seen in OP’s photo.
I don’t know if Groupon is still a thing, but at its peak there were posts online on a regular basis from wait staff who got stiffed, because customers would tip based on the balance they owed after the 90%+ discount Groupon voucher.
Understood, but not my problem. If it says 20%, it should be 20%. For trying to pull shit like this it is going to be a 0% from me.
It’s not hard to include a disclaimer tip prices based on full price if that’s the case to avoid looking bad.
It was probably the percentage BEFORE a discount was given… just because a discount happens doesn’t mean you should skip out on the tip of a server… example, you have a $100 bill with a $50 discount, you DO NOT TIP ON THE DISCOUNT, you tip on THE TOTAL bill of service. You still all got the same amount of food and service, so stop with this short tipping staff!
Can’t afford a tip then don’t fucking go to a damn restaurant! I make more as a server with half the hours than when I was a full time teacher! America is fucked but don’t fuck fellow people over because you can’t comprehend the tipping culture and are a cheap POS!
In your experience what percentage of people tipped $0 or far less than 20%?
The problem is that because of the way it’s written, it ends up being misleading.
If there was a simple disclaimer like “tip based on non-discounted prices”, it would’ve been fine.
I agree but also, that’s common sense… just because your bill was discounted doesn’t mean you discount my tip, you still got all the food and great service, so wtf! I don’t get how people are still confused, tipping in America has been a thing for decades!
You’re right. Not sure why you’d be down voted, other than if people found your conclusion a bit heavy.
This may be a “hot take” but the service staff is employed by the restaurant, not me. It’s not my job to pay the employees of the restaurant. It’s the owners and employers job to pay the staff. I want to know the price of the thing I’m buying when I order it, not after taxes are added and in some places a “cost of living” fee on top of that. Them to expect the customer to pay even more on top of all the extra bs fees the house charges instead of just increasing the price of the food. No thanks
Tipping is a holdover from slavery. It’s a way to control service workers.
This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t tip people who rely on tips, it means the system is fucking broken by design.
Tips are a big reason I stopped going out. Everybody wants one.
Every single time I see a fucking Square cash register… One of these motherfuckers:
Every single time I see that piece of shit, I know I’m about to hear the “it’s just going to ask you a few questions” line. And those “few questions” will be asking me to tip 25 goddamned percent on something that I’ve never tipped for before.
Fuck tips. 0 tips. Pay your people.
I’m all for refusing to tip, but be up-front about it. Let the server know ahead of time that you won’t be tipping. Hell, let the manager (or if it’s a smaller place, the owner) know too, so you can actually get your opinion heard by someone who may be able to effect change. Make it clear that your refusal to tip is not a reflection of the server, but a protest against tipping culture.
Hell, while talking to the manager, you should also ask if they require servers to tip out the back-of-house staff. If you’re refusing to tip, it’s entirely possible that your server is losing money on your order, because they’re required to pay the kitchen a percentage of your bill. If the server is required to tip out, be clear that you want your bill excluded from the tip out, since you’re refusing to tip based on strongly held personal beliefs. If the manager protests or says it isn’t possible (it is possible, but they’ll lie to try to get you to tip), then they can serve you personally.
You’ll still get served, but it’ll be with the level of service that the waiter thinks you should get, rather than with the level of service that you think you deserve. If you’re going to refuse to tip, at least take the mask off and be honest so your server can do the same.
If you’re willing to do that, then more power to you. Believe it or not, many servers will be chill about it, and treat you the same as any other customer. Especially if you’re there when it’s slow, and they don’t need to tip out the back of house staff. They’re not losing any money by serving you, and they aren’t super busy so they have no reason to ignore you. But if you’re afraid to be honest because you might get worse service, then you’re just a scab who is leeching from the tipping culture and only hurting the working class.
You pay for the service of being waited on… don’t want to tip… then go to McDonald’s! wtf! 🤬
Is there an option to pick up my own food at the counter? I’d gladly do it.
Yes, it’s call take out. But still employees have to put the order together, bag it, and ensure everything is 100%, so def should tip them something!
Do you tip for the service for customer tech support or similar customer facing industries as well?
No, your comment is asinine and completely irrelevant, when you call tech support for example, Apple or AT&T, you are already paying their damn salaries with the bill you pay each month (plus they get paid more an hr-duh).
You don’t pay my salary when you come in dine at my table for hours and eat like $200 worth of food and provide NO tip! You occupied my table knowing others could come in and give me a better tips, that’s the difference!! You clearly haven’t worked in the food industry before.
It’s not a “service”. All I want from the staff is to tell them what I want to order and to bring the food. That’s all. I don’t see what extra “service” I’m supposedly paying for
I like prompt refills. I’m happy to tip for that.
the restaurant pays for their staff… should you pay for having a table and chair too? staff is a basic requirement of a restaurant
Welcome to America where tipping culture is a thing, don’t like it, get take out and fuck off!
Wait so you get scammed but still give 20% tips? This would be an automatic 0% tip
Yeah, what’s likely happening here is that the Tip numbers were told to calculated off the subtotal intentionally. So say you buy a “happy hour” drink and it is $3 instead of $6, they tip is calculated before the “discount”.
Their machine could have actually been wrong, but using a total before discounts seems more likely.
On the surface, I can understand this. It’s not the server’s fault that they got the happy hour rush when everything is 50% off. If anything, they had to work harder because it was busier. Why punish them for that extra work with lower tip calculations? The drinks aren’t any easier or faster to pour just because they’re half off. It should at least be transparent, but I at least understand the reasoning.
What does bug me is when the tip calculations are based on the after-tax total. Fuck that, I’m already getting taxed 10% on this, you don’t need your 18% calculated from that extra 10%.
I’ll meet you half way, we’ll not suggest you pay tips on taxes, but you will pay a $2.99 dining room fee to use our facilities. You can avoid this by doing pick up with a $1.99 convenience fee.
You think the wait staff setup the machine to do math wrong?
yes?
No, that would be the owner or the manager. The best thing to do is never go back and tell everyone you can that they try to rip people off.
Holding the owner responsible for their actions? Sorry chief best I can do is scream at the meakest looking waiter I can find until the police escort me out.
No because I live in Australia where the govt forces restaurants to Pauly their staff in full.
Wow must be cool living somewhere completely irrelevant to this post!
If only, the tipping crap is trying to leak in here.
we’re in a section called “shitpost” and you’re complaining about quality? also - its related by “tips”, but maybe you just wanted to practise your sarcasm.
Pauly must be busy.
OH MY GOD! They tried to scam you out of a whole $1.49!!!
Don’t care. Round up to ten, you greedy cardboard cutout of a person.
Give 20% tip. Get called greedy. America is truly a sight to behold.
Tip your fellow workers. Agitate for companies to pay their workers a living wage, but in the meantime - tip your comrades.
Tipping by percentage never made much sense to me. I order a coffee at a diner, the waitress only gets a 42 cent tip? She should get more if she has to carry a plate of food? She checks on me the same amount. That’s a five dollar tip at least.
Hahah in my country she gets a wage for that shit
Not only that but that waitress at a diner is probably providing a hell of a lot better service than that bartender where I have to wave money just to get served
I have yet to encounter an automatic tip calculation that doesn’t base the tip on the total bill including taxes. It’s a pretty infuriating cash grab. Not only am I directly having to pay an employee’s wages so the restaurant doesn’t have to, I’m having to tip the government, too? (Yeah, I know the government doesn’t get the tip)
I’ve seen auto-calculated tip of all combinations of with/without tax, with/without percent discount, and with/without individual item discounts.
I wish tipping would end, by mandating a living wage for all workers from the chef to the diskwasher and including all the waitstaff and everyone else in both the front and the back. But, until it does, I try to be generous with my tips, but also kind to people that can’t or are simply tired of “tipflation”.
Not saying this isn’t real and completely scummy, but sometimes the tip is calculated before discounts, gift cards, and whatnot. I always tip based on what our total order was even if what we paid was less. If this is truly trying to fudge the numbers to take advantage of people then that’s shitty.
Also, the restaurant probably has no control over those numbers. The software might give them a Yes/No option on showing suggested tips or not at best.
My only exception to the “pre-discount” price is when places have a “buy 1 get 1” deal and they try to make you tip based on that, but the single item price is way overpriced because of it. Happens around me a lot where they’re like 3pack tacos, buy 1 get 1 $21, like yeah that’s great price for 6 small tacos, but I wouldn’t be paying $21 for 3 tacos, so I’m not gonna tip whatever crazy amount for a bill that “would have been” $75 or something for some tacos and a drink. Granted these are usually carry out orders, but don’t try to artificially inflate my bill to get better tips because you discounted it to a lower price.
Edit before people give me flak: I still tip fairly, but if a place tries to give me some “your bill was 100$, but we discounted it to 20$ that’ll be a 20$ tip though” they can fuck off. I’ll tip right, but don’t try to guilt trip me with a discount when you know I wouldn’t be here at all of it wasn’t for the discount.
Is that usd? A great price for 6 small tacos is 6 bucks, 21 is ridiculous.
It looks like the percentages are based of a total of $37.95, so it’s possible there was a discount included that made their total closer to $30.
Maybe a comp’d desert (or app) that’s ~$8 ?
Always tip on the subtotal. If your server worked their ass off for your table but you had a coupon for, let’s say, 50% off 2 entrees and a birthday dessert, that’s just devalued their effort by about $50.
Also, the tipping culture is broken, and this is bonkers.
I came from a tipping-optional culture and worked foodservice. If I got good tips, they went back into the bar at the end of the shift, or into my savings jar at home. It was never make-or-break on whether I got to pay rent or not.
The tip is not their salary, it’s an optional gratuity. It doesn’t devalue shit. They should get paid a living wage, and that’s it. That or you better stop being a hypocrite and start tipping tech support as well.
Does the waiter work much harder to bring a lobster than a Mac and cheese? Tips are dumb in general, but if anything they should be based on time, not food price. And they should be called a wage while we’re at it. At it should be enough to live decently.
tip what is appropriate regardless of the bill
there’s no reason for somebody to get $10 more because I bought the premium beer instead of what’s on special