Suggested tip amounts are a new thing to me because I don’t eat out very often. I was treated to dinner for my early birthday present and received a bill with suggested tip amounts.
The receipt actually said Suggested tip amounts are provided for your convenience. The thing that really got to me was that the suggested tip amounts began at 15%! Now I went ahead and calculated the tips and they calculated the amount on the pre-tax portion of the bill.
I generally tip 10% (go ahead and throw stones at me now) but I do it on the post tax amount. I just look at the last line and move the decimal point over because that is easy for me. I was not the one paying the bill but that is what I would have done if I had to swipe my credit card.
The person who paid also left a tip in cash which I totally disagree with. The reasoning was that sometimes the waitstaff do not get tips that are left on credit cards. I always leave the tip on the credit card because that is my record that I tipped and I will not aid anyone in avoiding reporting their income by leaving cash.
At the end of the day everyone will make different decisions and some people may like the suggested tip amounts. I did not care to have that on my receipt and I will continue to tip the way that works for me. I completely disagree with the tip amount being based on the cost of the food….if I had ordered a less expensive meal the waitress would still have had to walk to the table the same number of times!
How do you tip and what do you think about the suggested tip amounts being included for your convenience?
We always tip pretty generously (around 30%), and that has a lot to do with that fact that we usually eat at the same restaurants all the time and we usually get great service (they usually remember our exact meal without us even having to say anything, quality is always great, and so on).
I will say that with some restaurants, when a customer pays with credit, usually the restaurant owner/manager takes a bigger percentage and gives less to the waitstaff (because of credit card fees and so on), so I usually like to tip with cash.
Thanks for your input on this. I still believe in having a paper trail for tips as I worked in a restaurant and personally saw people NOT reporting their tips and they made more than those of us who were paid hourly. I rarely go out to eat…I definitely go for my birthday and that is about it.