At a recent lunch I went to one of my regular places. The waitress was busy flirting with the manager. It took over an hour to get finished with the slow service. I walked up to the waitress in front of the manager and told them that I had received HORRIBLE service and I was not happy about it. There would be no tip at all. She had not yet brought me my bill so I told them I did not appreciate being held hostage waiting for the bill.

I normally tip 20 to 25% for meals with good service. I don't go by a set percentage. If I go to a place that has a cheap breakfast I and not going to tip just $1. If we have a prime rib for dinner I am not going to tip 25$ just for someone to bring out my plate.

Anyplace that adds an automatic tip will get nothing extra from me.

My tipping habits are all over the chart. Bad service = no tip. Small town, hard working waitress, I might drop a $10 tip on a $6.00 hamburger and fries. My mom was a waitress in a local grill and many the morning I sat with her when she came home and helped her roll up the change she got in tips. We lived off of those tips. Yeah service help should get paid more, but they aren't and I'm not going to punish them for that.

Go visit countries where this is the case. :eek: You will quickly change your mind.

G

Spent many a night shooting pool and drinking beer at Akrey's. George Akrey was a good dude.

That he was.

At the St Elmo's steak house in Indy, (the best), many of their waiters make over $100,000 per year. Most have been there almost their entire life. But the service is the best. This is wages plus tips.

Back during the late 70s and one of the oil booms I dated a chick that was a cocktail waitress at one of the local trendy oily hangouts. She regularly got $100 tips. On several Friday nights she came home with a grand cash. She just bought new clothes and threw dirty clothes away.

Then the boom went bust and the place closed and she was back to the real world. She was totally broke.

Was this car wash in Beverly Hills? :)

Years ago, I watched a cool, weird movie called "Prehistoric Forest", I believe... One the wall of the restaurant there was a sign that said "Keep your Change, Tipping in UnAmerican" and I truly believe that!

Oops, it was "Petrified Forest"...

i waited tables for beer money in college. horrible job. it was brutal. i hated it. growing up in El Paso texas, the kind folks there felt that tipping was an option.

lessoned learned. knowing the job, i tend to tip well. i tip when some poor sap has to put my to-go order together. that is like the worst thing to have to do at a restaurant. i tip, and the person is always grateful.

things get confusing for me at places like hunting camps. how to tip a hunting guide or fishing guide is a mystery. last fishing trip..i gave the guide all my clothing and TEVAs..he looked like he was going to cry. this was in Mexico. he looked kickass in my TEVAs..he had six toes on each foot.

my last carwash experience..i didnt tip. someone cleaned out my coin box. i had about 10 bucks in quarters. the guy held the door open for me and i saw the coin box partially opened. i told the guy to get his share of the tip from the thief that cleaned me out. my fault for leaving the money there. i forgot.

I know what you mean vash, had the same thing happen. I had just, as in the night before, opened up a roll of quarters and dumped them in my change drawer once then took it to a car wash. They of course stole them all and I probably wouldn't have noticed except every one was gone and I knew there should be a lot more.

The manager said there was nothing he could do and offered a free car wash. I made sure I made a scene in front of 2 dozen customers that if he thought I was ever coming back he was out of his mind.

It works both ways I guess. i will not tip a lot or at all at dinner if the service is subpar. If the food is subpar, i usually tip the server but throw a fit for the manager.

I rarely go to a car wash, usually do it myself. i took my dad's truck to get washed at the local carwash and decided to tip if the guy drying it got all of the dripos off of it and really hit the rims to get the brake dust off. He did. Five bucks tip. The next day I took my new truck there. The same guy looks at me and says "two trucks?". He remembered me, cleaned the hell out of it, and got another five dollar tip. Total cost, $20. Anyone want to wash, vacuum, dry, put the black stuff on the tires, and clean the inside of my windows for $20?

A good tip at St. Elmo's is probably a bribe so the waiter does not bring them another shrimp cocktail. I love, love, love spicy foods and thought "Damn!" when I ate one of those!

Not sure about Indy, but in Fl it's not required for servers to claim 100% of their tips to the IRS. Or at least, that was the case when I worked in restaurants in college.

100k a year and you don't have to report all your earnings. Not too shabby.

I Miss that place I have never had a slight off evening there.

You will not find many places like it i have not.

Tips are earned good experience 20% Fair 15% Bad 0%

Go elsewhere or talk to their management. Don't they usually have a tip jar?

I wash my own car.
I tip myself.

Besides, I could use the exercise. Too many people sitting on their fat asses these days.

You guys are daring, no way I'm paying some minimum wage illegal to wash my car.

Some of the things that people tip for are insane. Pouring me an overpriced cup of coffee? Seriously? I consider myself to be a very generous tipper at restaurants, minimum 20% if the server does a good job. Right or wrong, I tend to be more prone to tip when I know the person that I'm tipping probably needs the money. My son and I had an excellent fly fishing guide when in CO, I gave him a big tip when we were done. Nice young guy, just married, just starting out in life and trying hard, he was very appreciative.