Tipflation?!?!

**The SnowShow** · 06-08-2023, 10:30 PM

How about when the staff working a Starbucks drive through sticks the credit card scanner and they say “this will ask you a question and then swipe your card” and the question is how much to tip. It’s gotten so weird.

**Cisco Kid** · 06-08-2023, 10:31 PM

Originally Posted by skaredshtles

Or... you know... vacation in Europe where you don't need to deal with this utter horseshit of a system.

How's the service over there? Does the waitsaff make more over there. Are the waiters and bus boys teenagers, single people, or imported? I don't know.

I tip 15-20%. I'm not rich but tip better than a lot of the rich people I know. Maybe that's why I'm not rich.

**rideit** · 06-08-2023, 10:35 PM

The world will never be free of the heavy yoke of imperialism until ratchet drivers are metric, too.
REBEL

**Rideski** · 06-08-2023, 10:59 PM

The part that gets me is that the tipped service minimum wage jumped from $2.25 to $10.63p/h, and then the prices of the food jumped 15% , but we're still supposed to tip extra 5-10% vs pre-apocalypse.

**gravitylover** · 06-08-2023, 11:51 PM

The whole thing is bullshit. Tip is based on service, no service (to go or counter service)- no tip, mediocre - 15% and really good gets maybe 20 and always pre-tax. I recently got called out on the pre-tax thing and said "oh wait, give me back the receipt" and tore it up so they had to give me a new one. They got nothing the second time.

**warthog** · 06-09-2023, 03:59 AM

Originally Posted by BmillsSkier

We ordered a birthday cake for our son recently that had quite a bit of stuff going on with it. When we called to confirm the order a week out the girl on the phone (not a manager) could not have been more difficult, telling us no cake had been ordered and they don’t do the type of cakes that we did order.

We said, well, I have an email confirmation and my card has been charged so we should get to the bottom of this.

She persisted that we were calling the wrong bakery as they don’t do that. We read the name on the email invoice and she said yeah, she works here. Confused we asked to speak to someone in charge.

Got a call back that afternoon from the same girl that said we were right and that they had the order. No big deal just happy to have it settled. Then she says, we’re going to charge your card the balance today “how much do you want to tip, we suggest 25%”.

The wife said, that’s ok, we’ll pay when we pick it up next week and tip then.

Glad we didn’t as they forgot the order completely when we showed up to get it. Ended up taking someone else’s cake and modifying it which means someone who probably paid and tipped 25% in advance got screwed too.

The icing was ok but the cake was dry as shit. Would not buy again.

Shoulda just done the Publix cake. They haven't let me down yet, sometimes extremely last minute too.

**warthog** · 06-09-2023, 04:09 AM

You know that first time you saw the panhandler by the stoplight, or sitting on Pearl St? Remember feeling bad? Maybe you gave them some change? Remember seeing them for the 40th time and just cruising by no problem?
Remember the guy on Pearl St that could tell you shit about your town if you just gave him the zip? Or that amazing juggler, or the incredible Devil Stick Phish tour douche? Those guys earned your change.

That is how I am getting about tipping.

**BmillsSkier** · 06-09-2023, 05:24 AM

Originally Posted by warthog

Shoulda just done the Publix cake. They haven't let me down yet, sometimes extremely last minute too.

Publix cake is good cake.

What can I say, kids are kinda spoiled these days.

**Vt-Freeheel** · 06-09-2023, 05:36 AM

Originally Posted by warthog

You know that first time you saw the panhandler by the stoplight, or sitting on Pearl St? Remember feeling bad? Maybe you gave them some change? Remember seeing them for the 40th time and just cruising by no problem?
Remember the guy on Pearl St that could tell you shit about your town if you just gave him the zip? Or that amazing juggler, or the incredible Devil Stick Phish tour douche? Those guys earned your change.

That is how I am getting about tipping.

And stores tipping the clarinet guy to move to the next block?

**Peruvian** · 06-09-2023, 05:39 AM

Originally Posted by Cisco Kid

How's the service over there? Does the waitsaff make more over there. Are the waiters and bus boys teenagers, single people, or imported? I don't know.

I tip 15-20%. I'm not rich but tip better than a lot of the rich people I know. Maybe that's why I'm not rich.

I just got back from a week in France. The waitstaff at every cafe, resto, etc. were simply excellent. We ate 4 course meals almost every night. We would order all courses up front and they would bring it out as it was prepared for the table. It gave a much more relaxed feel to each meal as there wasn't the constant, 'is everything okay...do you need anything else' barrage of questions to upsell the bill when our mouths were full. I noticed that the dinner restaurants essentially had one seating between 7:30-8pm and the tables never turned over during the evening. I can't say how much the wait staff made but they were mostly above 25 years old and seemed to be enjoying their work.

**gaijin** · 06-09-2023, 06:03 AM

This is one of those reverse culture things that I experience when I visit stateside.

It just leaves me dumbfounded. I don’t know how to respond. I pretend I know. But I fucking hate it.

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**nickwm21** · 06-09-2023, 06:20 AM

Pre-pandemic a lot of the nicer restaurants in Seattle were charging more or charging a service fee and removed the tip box from the receipt…. but some went back to their old ways post pandemic when they were trying to staff back up….

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**schindlerpiste** · 06-09-2023, 06:24 AM

It's strange that the delivery people, who used to be tipped, are no longer getting tips. Currently, my UPS, FedEx and DHL guy just leave the package by the door and bolt. OTOH, I get asked for tips when I pick up takeout, buy something at a bodega, pet shop, or convenience store. The "expectation" is insane. Unless I am overtaken by a spendthrift mood, I tip only bartenders and food servers. As a society, we need to learn how to either say no, or just ignore presumption.

**nickwm21** · 06-09-2023, 06:48 AM

Yup.

If I could snap my fingers and change US tip culture.

- Remove the “required tip” for food service.
- Normalize occasionally / rare tipping for any service workers when they go way above and beyond.

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**Elkhound Odin** · 06-09-2023, 07:02 AM

The additional "service" fee tacked on to the bottom of the check is what pisses me off more than the auto fill tablet tip field. At least I can select "other" on the tablet. You can't get out of the "service" fee bullshit.

**nickwm21** · 06-09-2023, 07:05 AM

If there is a service fee, don’t tip. Simple.

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**Danno** · 06-09-2023, 07:06 AM

Originally Posted by warthog

You know that first time you saw the panhandler by the stoplight, or sitting on Pearl St? Remember feeling bad? Maybe you gave them some change? Remember seeing them for the 40th time and just cruising by no problem?
Remember the guy on Pearl St that could tell you shit about your town if you just gave him the zip? Or that amazing juggler, or the incredible Devil Stick Phish tour douche? Those guys earned your change.

That is how I am getting about tipping.

I think zip code man is still around.

**Bunion 2020** · 06-09-2023, 07:31 AM

If I am going out for a sit down dinner I understand that tipping is currently a part of the equation. Same with going to a bar for drinks. Other than that, fuck right off. And the day will come when the equation changes and tipping becomes purely optional for the former two.

And furthermore, WTF is with the request to give to an organization I have never heard of when I check out at the grocery store? If it was the local Food Bank? Sure I will donate 10% of what I spent, otherwise.

**riser4** · 06-09-2023, 07:40 AM

Originally Posted by Vt-Freeheel

And stores tipping the clarinet guy to move to the next block?

RIP Clarinet Guy.

**Woodsy** · 06-09-2023, 07:55 AM

Originally Posted by Elkhound Odin

The additional "service" fee tacked on to the bottom of the check is what pisses me off more than the auto fill tablet tip field. At least I can select "other" on the tablet. You can't get out of the "service" fee bullshit.

ALSO often times this doesn't all go to the staff.

**Pinned** · 06-09-2023, 07:58 AM

Originally Posted by Woodsy

If you can't tip, don't go out. Don't go on vacation.

If all these places paid these tipped positions $20+ an hour you couldn't afford to go there.

Housekeepers make a decent wage and you should still tip them.

If the price is listed in total on the menu I can quickly determine if I want to pay it. Most places in the world don't do tips but service industry can expect a higher quality of life than they can afford here in the US. I'd prefer to just be told what it's going to cost up front.

The mandatory 20% service charge places are the worst though - just mark up all the food prices by 20%. While we're at it, can we just get the mobile credit card terminals already like the rest of the world?

**Dexter Rutecki** · 06-09-2023, 10:04 AM

Originally Posted by Woodsy

If you can't tip, don't go out. Don't go on vacation.

Yeah, I've heard this forever from certain tipped workers, but using the same logic the response should be if you can't afford to live on your untipped wage get a better job.

Tipping has expanded to all sorts of things that never used to be tipped, and the standard for some reason has moved from 15% (in NYC the easy approximation for figuring a tip was always to just double the tax, which was 8%) to 20+, even as prices have gone up (which of course means 15% itself is that much more than it used to be). It's bullshit for business owners, many of whom are now more profitable than ever, to shift payment of workers to people who are often less able to subsidize the workers--inflation these days is actually way less about supply chain/raw material costs than profit taking.

Was very happy to eat at a place the other night that doesn't do tips--they pay significantly more than other restaurants so their workers don't need to be dependent on tips. And somehow their prices were pretty much in line with other places where you would ordinarily add an extra 18 or 20% to your bill, so go figure. Pretty easy for me to understand why people are fed up, much as I sympathize with underpaid service industry types.

**Dexter Rutecki** · 06-09-2023, 10:07 AM

Originally Posted by BmillsSkier

Publix cake is good cake.

Pubic cake, wtf is wrong with you people.

**AdironRider** · 06-09-2023, 10:16 AM

Local joint two doors down from me has the ipad deal gets a round up tip to the nearest 5, so a 21 dollar take out is getting an extra 4 bucks. They know my kid and I by name and give him free cannolis from time to time, so it is justified in my mind as going above and beyond.

Another place the town over has suggested tip options when you pay with those handheld card machines that start at 22% and go up to 35%. 35% percent gets a stern fuck off from me and I make them only put in 15 just for having the gall to ask, and after getting shit last time I'm not going back.