I usually do it as a "Please don't spit in my food" tax.

Damn Straight!

I used to tip at Cold Stone when my buddy worked there. It was great making him have to sing, haha.

Excellent post!

However, the full tax amount in BC is 12.5%. I don't tip 25% unless it's a huge party or the service is very exceptional.

if im feelin rich, maybe

Wow! 12.5% is rough! Where I am now it's just 7.25%.
15-20 is the % I would say to shoot for.

You mentioned huge parties and that made me remember something else.
If you have a large party and the restaurant tacks on a mandatory tip, Uncle Sam considers that amount to be part of the bill and servers are not required to claim it, the restaurant is. Uncle Sam considers tips to be obligatory in nature only, so by making tip mandatory it no longer qualifies.
Not helpful for us consumers, but if you are a server and wait on a big party with a forced tip, that tidbit of info could save you some $$! :)

at a fast food joint? never..

Ugh mandatory tips! Can't stand those :(

This is when you can expect the shittiest service. They're getting their tip no matter what.

You're lucky if you get drinks refilled more than once.

I've had waitstaff ask why they weren't tipped ON TOP of the mandatory included amount. Maybe people don't read their bills and just tip on the total, regardless.

Oh, I'm sure that happens all the time.

this post just goes to prove out retarded tipping is.

There should be no RULES for tipping.

I don't think you could say there are 'rules' for tipping. I think a better description would be 'expectations'.

This is a more difficult concept to explain, but I will do my best.

Servers 'expect' to get a tip from you because that is what the majority of the other customers do, not because there is some rule that says you have to.
They 'expect' to get a tip because it is common knowledge that servers make less than the minimum wage. ( Now, this one may not be true of everyone, but you will be hard pressed to find a majority of people who aren't aware of this. )

It's the same logic you as a consumer uses when you go to a restaurant.
You 'expect' to get friendly service.
You 'expect' to not have to ask for a refill before your glass is empty.
You 'expect' to get your food in a timely manner.

Not to bust anyone's bubble, but a servers responsibilities are very simple.
Their job is find out what the customer wants and relay that information to the kitchen.
Anything beyond that will vary from place to place, some restaurants have additional staff to handle drink refills or bring your food to you, some have the server handle that.

The point being is that the door swings both ways. There aren't rules that say the server has to smile or be friendly. There aren't rules to make the server ensure your glass is never empty or your order arrives "on time".

Now before you go and get into a huff and say that isn't true, hear me out!

I'm sure any place you go to the business will have policies that deal with staff-client interactions and the expectations of the staff from the business's perspective.

Here is where we get to the bottom-line, real truth of it. Money. It's all about the money.
I don't know if you are a surfer or a webmaster, but if you are a webmaster, you should fully understand what I am saying:

If you go to a restaurant (or any business for that matter) and your 'expectations' are not met they way you think they should be, you take your money somewhere else. If you get bad service you probably won't go back. If you complain to management, they aren't going to try to make it right because they like you, they going to try to make it right because they want your money. I believe in the adult industry this is known as "member retention".

That said, any policies the business may have in place will really only matter so far as to get your money. I'm sure you've seen the notice just about everywhere that states the business has the right to refuse service to anyone. Believe it or not, this includes customers who do not tip.

Before you say bullshit, I should tell you that I have seen this happen in real life. It was only one time ever, but there were customers who came in regularly and one time they were forcibly removed from restaurant by police after they freaked out because every staff member in the restaurant refused to wait on them. The reason no one wanted to help them? Because they were **high-maintenance and had never once left a tip.

I'm kind of getting off topic but what I am trying to say is that there really are no 'rules' per se, it's just expectations and perceptions. It's all about greasing the machine and the grease in this case is money.

I would make the argument that if you want to have any rules about tipping, then this is the rule you should have:

If you can't leave a tip, then you should stay at home and cook your own food.

Said it before I'll say it again. I think it should be illegal for one industry to pay less base wage than state and federal minimums, on the expectation that the consumer will make up the difference. And that the taxes will all work out perfectly somehow (ona wing and a prayer).

In my world, the only thing that'd change is restaurants would have to pay the same mandated minimum wage as everyone else. Period. Tips would NOT be affected, they would be given freely as they are now. But hold restaurants to a legal base wage. If some restaurants fail because of it, then frankly thats tough bananas. This would also make nonsense like "mandatory tip" obsolete (it's an oxymoron anyway).

Actually, this does exist already. It's known as 'amount-to-meet guarantee', which basically means that the restaurant can pay it's servers less than minimum wage, however if that servers pay plus actual tips do not equal at least minimum wage then the restaurant is required to pay the server the difference to "meet the amount' of the current minimum wage.

The policies of most restaurants is to force it's servers to report a specific % of sales, regardless of whether they actually made that amount in tips or not. This is where people who stiff servers actually screw over the server, because even if you don't tip, the server is going to be forced to say you did tip them and then pay for it out of their own pocket.

I'm glad to hear that. Thats new to me :)

I've worked (in ye olden days) for minimum wage or commission whichever is more. But accepting tips was utterly forbidden. When my sales would slack off because I was helping people fix their damn electronics, I'd get scolded for being too nice and "wasting time" helping customers.

What a world.

With links to free tube sites, I guess ... as a tip :winkwink:

"Tip threads" on GFY always get the views going...

I cook at home and bring my food to work if I am out of my office almost 100% of the time. On the rare occasions I eat out I tip if it is a sit down restaurant or delivery, otherwise no way.