Are you a good tipper? Are there times when you won't tip?

@blueskies (1186)
United States
January 15, 2007 6:54pm CST
I think I'm a good tipper. If the server does a good job and has a cheerful demeanor, I'll tip 20%, maybe a bit more if the restaurant is busy. Other than restaurants, I'm sometimes confused as to when and how much I should tip. For example, do you tip at the beauty parlor? How do you know how much? How about if someone delivers flowers to your home? Do you tip the groomer for your dog's shampoo and trim?
36 people like this
133 responses
@misskatonic (3723)
• United States
16 Jan 07
I think I tip pretty well. I don't bother working out percentages, but I always leave at least five dollars. Unless the service is horrible. I used to be a waitress myself, so I know how much they rely on tips to make up their pay. I don't really go to beauty parlors or anything, so I don't know what the tipping ettiquitte is.
6 people like this
• Singapore
16 Jan 07
I notice sometmes the tips collected does not go to the person itself. Some restaurants (SINGAPORE) practised distributing the tips collected evenly among the full-time staff as a form of incentive every month. That defeats the purpose of rewarding the waiter/waitress of the great service. As i used to work as a waiter too, i understand the importance of tipping. tip only when the service is good. dont u agree?
5 people like this
@reinydawn (11643)
• United States
16 Jan 07
Yes, sometimes the waitperson has to "share" their tips. You will notice nowadays the the person who originally took your order does not always bring you your food, refills on drinks and other things. Your waiter/waitress has to share the tips with those people. They also have to "tip out" the host/hostess and the bus people.
4 people like this
@judyt00 (3497)
• Canada
17 Jan 07
and more and more the manager or owner!
3 people like this
@villageanne (8553)
• United States
16 Jan 07
My daughter worked as a waitress to help with her college expenses. I too worked as a waitress when I was younger. I think everyone should have to be a waiter or waitress just to see how one gets treated. They dont make much money. In fact it is usually under the min wage. Way under! I do try to tip well but if I dont get good service, I will not tip at all. One time and this did only happen one time. We never did receive our drinks. Never. We were brought our meals from someone other than our waitress and the only time we saw our waitress is when she took our order. We got tired of waiting after we finished out meal taht we just got up and went up to explain to the cashier that we wanted to leave but had not recieved our bill. The manager came out and gave us our meals for free but needless to say we neve went back to that restaurant again. I do tip the person at the beauty shop. Usually $5.00 I have never been delivered flowers. BOO HOO I groom my own puppy. Many people do not tip at all anymore. It is sad. Service would be better if the person knew the tip depended on it.
6 people like this
• United States
16 Jan 07
I would say we are pretty good tippers. We usually tip the 20% or more. Depending. There are really never times we don't tip, we usually just tip then VERY low to show how much we disliked the service. Sometimes we just leave a penny, which is a super insult. As for other places besides restuarants, I am never sure what to tip or how to either. I just usually guess and hope for the best.
6 people like this
@Judobird (88)
16 Jan 07
I think that waiters/waitresses need the extra money to boost their pay, and therefore i will generally tip at least 10% of the bill if it was an average service..if greater then average then I will tip more. If the service was poor I will generally leave a really riduculously small tip as I find it more insulting for someone to leave say 20p (sorry I am english) then nothing at all.
6 people like this
@devideddi (1435)
• United States
16 Jan 07
I tip good at restaurants. If service is not good I leave nothing. Service is very important. If I did not want to be waited on with good service I would stay at home and eat. Other place I tip is when bagboy takes groceries to my car and loads them for me. I used to watch my moma do that when I was a little girl.
@nibory (177)
• United States
16 Jan 07
All of the grocery stores in our area have signs saying that tipping is not allowed. Therefore, I never let a bag boy help me with my groceries to the car because I feel bad about not tipping. A couple of times, when I have accepted the offer of help, I tried to tip. One young man took it, and other didn't.
@wesker311 (508)
• Philippines
16 Jan 07
i dont tip when they have service charge but for those restaurants that doesnt include service charge on their bill of course i will give a tip! when i go to salons i would give a tip. just to show my appreciation for making a good job!
5 people like this
@lonewolfnan (4366)
• Canada
16 Jan 07
I do tip if the service is at least adequete.I am always willing to give the benefit of the doubt to the waiter/waitress,but there have been times when the order has been wrong,the attitude needed adjusting,or the food has been VERY bad. Although it is usually unintentional,I find that it usually works out to about a 20% tip.
@kittykatzz (1132)
• United States
16 Jan 07
i think i typically tip really well...as i have small children at my table more often than not.. i try to take into account whos pickin up any mess left behind.. even if it a small tab i still leave at least 5-6 dollars..even bad service i still leave something.. if someone does a bad job it doesnt mean they deserve to NOT get paid.. forthe rest of us if we do a bad job at work (unless your in sales!lol) you still get paid.. just risk being fired.. i have brought lousy service to the attention of the server before, not to the manager as id hate to get someone fired.. but more on a person to person level.. as far as the beauty parlor or salon.. i usually give my lady in the $10 range ( i have pretty long hair).. dont have a dog, but i HAVE always wondered what is good to tip delivery persons like pizza and chinese food!..lol.. dominos literally right across the street but i still have them deliver cuz my son loves the "car withthe signs" !! lol
3 people like this
@rachelcaron (1679)
• United States
16 Jan 07
I am a good tipper. I always tip around 15-20%. There has never been a time when I didn't tip someone. there are sometimes when I'm not sure if you are supposed to tip or not. I tip at the beauty parlor (15-20%). If someone delivers something to my door that is a gift I don't tip, but if it is something I ordered like pizza, I will tip. Now, I don't tip the dog groomers. Am I supposed to? We just go to Petsmart to get that done.
• United States
24 Jan 07
Wow, I didn't realize that one was expected to tip the dog groomer either! Our dog groomer charges so much already that to tip would really make the cost astronomical.
2 people like this
@blueskies (1186)
• United States
16 Jan 07
I've had people tell me that you are supposed to tip the groomer. I guess it makes sense when you think of it as a beauty parlor for your dogs....
1 person likes this
• United States
17 Feb 07
I worked at Petsmart as a dog bather. We didn't get tips all the time, but on the rare occasion we did it was really nice. You also seem to pay a little more attention the the puppies whose mommy and daddy tip (not saying I neglected the others, it was just a brighter day when I saw a tipper coming in).
• United States
16 Jan 07
Since I spent most of my life working as a waitress or cocktail server I am a good tipper. I tip very well unless the service is just terrible. I do tip when I get my hair done, usually only a couple of bucks. I also tip when I take my pets into the groomers, the same about a couple of bucks. I have never tipped for having flowers delivered though. I don't know why, maybe it is just the shock of getting the flowers in the first place. I think that a 20% tip is good when going out as most servers only have to pay 10% for their sales this means that they will actually get some for their pockets.
@plantit1 (297)
• United States
16 Jan 07
I'm glad your a good tipper. I also am. Being a server myself I know how difficult and stressful that job really is. No matter how you feel or what is going on at home, you have to go in there and put on a smile and act kind to everyone. Even the rude and ungrateful patrons. It can be quite difficult at times. As far as tipping others, yes I always tip the hairdresser at least 20%, and the pizza delivery person.
3 people like this
@tholitz (1127)
• Philippines
16 Jan 07
for me,it depend on the service that they gave and extend to you, i usually give tips to my barber, but mostly those people that do my car (repair, wash, etc.)
3 people like this
@sweetee (420)
• Australia
16 Jan 07
We don't tip in Australia. Though i mean if i go to a restaurant i leave some change for them - but not everywhere.. They don't expect it either..
3 people like this
• United States
16 Jan 07
I have a card that I keep in my wallet to make sure I tip enough. It has always driven me crazy that my mother doesn't tip well. I will tip 20% if someone does their job properly, as in, doesn't keep us waiting forever to get our cups refilled or to take our order. I have had extremely bad service and not tipped very much. It's very hard for me to do that though because who knows what kind of day they are having and I know that most people who are waitstaff are not doing it because they just love waiting on people. My sister was a waitress and struggled financially so I always keep in mind that they get paid 2.15 an hour and whatever someone is generous enough to leave them.
3 people like this
@shawnasie (389)
• United States
23 Jan 07
I used to be a server so I know how they feel if they are not tipped well. I usually tip 9-10% for a bad server, 10-15% for a good server, and 20% for a great server. They are not paid minimum wage so they need to get something to live off, even if they aren't that good. It irritates me when a person gives less than 5% for a tip. I figure that if one does this he is probably unaware of what a server earns per hour. Most servers only earn $2.13 /hr. It isn't that much so we all should be kind in our tipping.
• United States
23 Jan 07
I forgot to answer the last part of your question. I do tip at hair salons and spas. I feel that 5-10% is a good tip for that kind of service. I have not faced the other situations you named so I am unsure if or how I would tip then.
2 people like this
@reinydawn (11643)
• United States
16 Jan 07
As long as the service is at least OK, I tip at least 15%. I have left 100% tip once - we had AWESOME service!!! I waited tables many moons ago so I can usually tell when the waitperson is not the problem - the cooks, bartender or something else. As for people thinking a waitstaff's wages should be raised so they don't have to tip... The US Wage and Hour regulates the wages. Tipped employees have a lower minimum wage rate than non-tipped employees. This keeps the cost of your meal down. If waitstaff were paid $10/hr your steak and potato would be $40 instead of $15 to cover the wages. Just think what would happen to the cost of your meal at Dennys if the waitress that worked there for 20 years made $20/hr because she got a raise every year. I don't see many people waiting an hour for a grand slam at those prices...
• United States
16 Jan 07
I think I am a good tipper as well. I like to give 20 percent and if it is busier than normal I do give more too. I normally will tip a delivery person 2 dollars, but if im in a restaurant and am being waited on then i give the 20 percent. The largest tip I gave was 100 dollars. I thought it was a 10 though. The waitress gave me a hug and I didnt know why until I got home. lol. Best of luck to you!
3 people like this
• United States
16 Jan 07
I usually tip my waiters about 20% if they do a good job, and about 12% if they do a below average job. They work hard, and it is very rare that I am truly displeased with just the waiter. I know that it is usually not their fault for some of the slow service. I usually go ahead and give my barber a tip in the form of letting him keep the change. That has more to do with me going to a one-person barber shop, and being friends with my barber though. I'm also somewhat confused as when to tip and when not to tip. I don't think that I would tip for a flower delivery, in the same way that I wouldn't tip the UPS carieer. I would tip the pizza delivery guy though, so I'm not sure what logic controls me there. I will tell you one thing though, I never tip at fast food restaurants when they leave the tip jar out. I do all of the major serving when I go to eat there. They just pass the food out, and I know that they should be making minimum wage (As opposed to waiters who essentially depend on tips).
2 people like this
@blueskies (1186)
• United States
16 Jan 07
Oh that's a pet peeve of mine. Why should I tip the barista at Starbucks or the counterperson at Burger King when they make minimum wage or above? Legally, they aren't supposed to accept tips unless they make a waitress' wage. If they accept them anyway, they are supposed to declare them on their taxes, just like a waitress has to.
• United States
16 Jan 07
This is a hard one. At restraunts if we get good service I'll tip 25%, if it's not so good-- I'll tip way less. I used to help my friend out at her tanning Salon and I had asked her, her perspective on this and she said that if you are providing a service to someone ie- doing nails, pedicures, haircuts etc. you should tip.. if someone is just buying products--like packages of tans etc. you wouldn't tip. So, yes I do tip my hairdresser, but only $2 because I never have her do anything to my hair etc. & I live in a very small town.
3 people like this
@wojtlis (51)
• United States
16 Jan 07
I would say 99% of the time I tip very well. A few of my friends are waitresses and they need this money to live decently. If the waitress does a good job has our drinks filled before they are empty and all that good stuff its 20% plus, my hairdresser gets 20%, the valet for my car gets at least $5 depending how cold it is. Now if the waitress cant remember that I am having an adult drink and that my child is having a sprite then her tip is going to go WAY down. Dont laugh this just happened recently. She put the drinks in the wrong place I was none to happy. If the valet brings back my car and the front end is ripped off no tip. If the hair lady is to color my hair blonde and it comes out pink no tip. In the end its all or nothing for me. Just a rule I stick by to make the service providers night a bit better.