Ah yes, this type of thing tend to have it's own quirkly little battles everyonceinaw
hile. To the right is a picture of a college couple, Leslie Pope and John Wagner, who refused to pay a tip for bad service at the Lehigh Pub in Bethlehem, PA. Their reward is being put into handcuffs and sent to jail for theft. What a lovely bunch of human beings at the Lehigh Pub they are, but as I thought about it, the college couple was wrong as well, but not in a way most might think I explain about it.
I have always had a system with gratuity when it comes to the food service industry. It used to be I started with a 15 percent gratuity and went up and down depending on service. Usually the server's tip stayed at the 15 percent line because it was the service to be expected and nothing above and beyond what they were supposed to do. But there were times that gratuity fell below the average 15 percent. Around Y2K I decided to up the average to 20 percent as I felt that's what the economy at the time called for, and it seemed others were doing the same, however, I have gone to restaurants where they imposed this 18 percent gratuity on their bill. It didn't matter what you were going to do, that tip was already on the bill. I was upset with this fact, for one, we should not be imposed with a tip we MUST pay, and two, it was idignant to the servers. At the restaurant in question, I always asked them not to put it onto our bill so that they could get a bigger tip. If we had to pay a mandatory tip, that's where it was going to stay. Apparently in some restaurants it's policy to do that. At that particular restaurant it is unfair to their waiters and waitresses because they worked their ass off and deserved more than a standard 18 percent. But since the madatory gratuity is imposed, that's what we pay; period.
Which brings me back to our college couple. The big mistake they did was tell the bartender that they were not going to pay their gratuity at all. They should have been more discreet about it; here's how.
When bad service happens, I use my own personal trickle down effect. Granted I have to admit, this also accounts to my current mood at the time, and yes, I am a guy so a pretty girl immediately lightens my mood greatly. But when I start noticing trouble, it drops to fifteen and may stay there. When ignorance sets in it tends to fall to ten percent. This stems to waiting for an irregular about of time for our order, or drinks and silverware, or they are obviously tending to the more local crowd. That's all in good, but you are representing your establishment and if you want the visiting patron to talk well about your place we shouldn't be treated any differently. After ten, it fall by two, such as eight, six and four. By this point I am usually about to blow a gasget or have a fucking cow but I still tend to keep my comments to myself. If I really have to get the attention to the manager or someone else. After four percent it usually would go down by ones, but this is more a judgment call at this point. The key to letting a server know they were useless matter of DNA is not to stiff them on the tip, which is the mistake our couple made. Not only did they stiff on the tip, they told the bartender; no, no, no. You leave a tip like one or two pennies and if you really feel upset you hide them. Me, I would prominently leave my penny in plain sight and leave a comment with the manager in charge, anonymously of course. Don't ever let them know you are not going to leave a tip, epecially if you are not done eating yet.
Since my ire is up about this, I shall tell you all a story about a stupid waitress. This is one that stay well into my mind, and for you Cammies out there, this happened at ICC y2k in Cleveland. To this day I will NOT eat in that hotel's restaurant.
My girlfriend (who now is my wife) and I sat down to have a much deserving lunch on that Friday to sort of relax and not have something that was fast food and with the server everything went well. She was cordial and quick, making sure everything was in order and that we were satisfied. I know, this isn't starting like a story from hell, but wait for it. After being there for roughly 45 minutes my GF had to leave for a coordinator's meeting that she was almost late in being there. Since I had a storyteller's meeting, but it wasn't for another hour, I stayed back and waiting for the bill to arrive. She left and I sat there and waited...and waited...and waited. Thirty minutes gone by and no bill and by this time my pop was saturated by the melting ice so now it's watered down Coke. Thirty more minutes and I would be late for my own meeting. The restaurant was not really busy and there were plenty of servers to keep up with the flow. I waved down my server after the third attempt to request my bill as she told me it will be a couple more minutes while she serves other guests. She wasn't busy and I was sitting there for over thirty minutes. Around forty minutes I talked to the hostess about the same problem as well as other waitresses as they told me that I must wait until my server brings me the bill. By this time I had stated that they were making me late for a meeting and that I must recieve my bill now to pay them because I had to leave at that moment. Ten minutes later I finally recieved the bill and not even an apology or a fuck you from this broad.
Here reward for her behavior? One penny! My wife would put down two pennies because the service would not have been worth two cents of her time. It was something she learned from her father.
hile. To the right is a picture of a college couple, Leslie Pope and John Wagner, who refused to pay a tip for bad service at the Lehigh Pub in Bethlehem, PA. Their reward is being put into handcuffs and sent to jail for theft. What a lovely bunch of human beings at the Lehigh Pub they are, but as I thought about it, the college couple was wrong as well, but not in a way most might think I explain about it.I have always had a system with gratuity when it comes to the food service industry. It used to be I started with a 15 percent gratuity and went up and down depending on service. Usually the server's tip stayed at the 15 percent line because it was the service to be expected and nothing above and beyond what they were supposed to do. But there were times that gratuity fell below the average 15 percent. Around Y2K I decided to up the average to 20 percent as I felt that's what the economy at the time called for, and it seemed others were doing the same, however, I have gone to restaurants where they imposed this 18 percent gratuity on their bill. It didn't matter what you were going to do, that tip was already on the bill. I was upset with this fact, for one, we should not be imposed with a tip we MUST pay, and two, it was idignant to the servers. At the restaurant in question, I always asked them not to put it onto our bill so that they could get a bigger tip. If we had to pay a mandatory tip, that's where it was going to stay. Apparently in some restaurants it's policy to do that. At that particular restaurant it is unfair to their waiters and waitresses because they worked their ass off and deserved more than a standard 18 percent. But since the madatory gratuity is imposed, that's what we pay; period.
Which brings me back to our college couple. The big mistake they did was tell the bartender that they were not going to pay their gratuity at all. They should have been more discreet about it; here's how.
When bad service happens, I use my own personal trickle down effect. Granted I have to admit, this also accounts to my current mood at the time, and yes, I am a guy so a pretty girl immediately lightens my mood greatly. But when I start noticing trouble, it drops to fifteen and may stay there. When ignorance sets in it tends to fall to ten percent. This stems to waiting for an irregular about of time for our order, or drinks and silverware, or they are obviously tending to the more local crowd. That's all in good, but you are representing your establishment and if you want the visiting patron to talk well about your place we shouldn't be treated any differently. After ten, it fall by two, such as eight, six and four. By this point I am usually about to blow a gasget or have a fucking cow but I still tend to keep my comments to myself. If I really have to get the attention to the manager or someone else. After four percent it usually would go down by ones, but this is more a judgment call at this point. The key to letting a server know they were useless matter of DNA is not to stiff them on the tip, which is the mistake our couple made. Not only did they stiff on the tip, they told the bartender; no, no, no. You leave a tip like one or two pennies and if you really feel upset you hide them. Me, I would prominently leave my penny in plain sight and leave a comment with the manager in charge, anonymously of course. Don't ever let them know you are not going to leave a tip, epecially if you are not done eating yet.
Since my ire is up about this, I shall tell you all a story about a stupid waitress. This is one that stay well into my mind, and for you Cammies out there, this happened at ICC y2k in Cleveland. To this day I will NOT eat in that hotel's restaurant.
My girlfriend (who now is my wife) and I sat down to have a much deserving lunch on that Friday to sort of relax and not have something that was fast food and with the server everything went well. She was cordial and quick, making sure everything was in order and that we were satisfied. I know, this isn't starting like a story from hell, but wait for it. After being there for roughly 45 minutes my GF had to leave for a coordinator's meeting that she was almost late in being there. Since I had a storyteller's meeting, but it wasn't for another hour, I stayed back and waiting for the bill to arrive. She left and I sat there and waited...and waited...and waited. Thirty minutes gone by and no bill and by this time my pop was saturated by the melting ice so now it's watered down Coke. Thirty more minutes and I would be late for my own meeting. The restaurant was not really busy and there were plenty of servers to keep up with the flow. I waved down my server after the third attempt to request my bill as she told me it will be a couple more minutes while she serves other guests. She wasn't busy and I was sitting there for over thirty minutes. Around forty minutes I talked to the hostess about the same problem as well as other waitresses as they told me that I must wait until my server brings me the bill. By this time I had stated that they were making me late for a meeting and that I must recieve my bill now to pay them because I had to leave at that moment. Ten minutes later I finally recieved the bill and not even an apology or a fuck you from this broad.
Here reward for her behavior? One penny! My wife would put down two pennies because the service would not have been worth two cents of her time. It was something she learned from her father.
Yes there are other factors I put into my determination, such as how busy the restaurant is and how well staffed it is, I'm not ignorant in that. There are also times that servers forget, they are human after all, not machines, liken to a fast food joint forgetting how to prepare your meal or putting certain items into your bag. They can only do so much, the consumer has to be attentive as well.
So I guess a new lesson is that, even though you paid for your food, if you don't pay the 18 percent gratuity at the Lehigh Pub in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania you'll be hauled away by the police for theft. Lesson to patrons; don't give your business to the Lehigh Pub ever again. There is no level of apology to fix that action shown to the public.
H.R. Green, 19th of November, 2009, 6:19 p.m. Burtchville, MI
So I guess a new lesson is that, even though you paid for your food, if you don't pay the 18 percent gratuity at the Lehigh Pub in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania you'll be hauled away by the police for theft. Lesson to patrons; don't give your business to the Lehigh Pub ever again. There is no level of apology to fix that action shown to the public.
H.R. Green, 19th of November, 2009, 6:19 p.m. Burtchville, MI
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