NYC restaurants sued over tipping practice

[Prunepicker]

I've never liked the idea of automatic tipping.

From CBS News via Yahoo!
Several New York City restaurants including Applebee’s, Olive Garden
and Red Lobster, are being named in a lawsuit over alleged deceptive
billing practices, "CBS This Morning" reports.

The network posted images of an Olive Garden check with a line for
an “automatic gratuity” of 18 percent added to the price of a meal,
as well as a place to add an additional tip, regardless of the number
of diners. An Applebee's check added a 17 percent automatic
gratuity, saying it was "payable at guest's discretion."

“They want to squeeze that extra little dollar that they can out of
everybody,” Evan Spencer, the lawyer who brought the $5.5 billion
class action lawsuit, told CBS, adding, “A tip and a gratuity are
exactly the same thing,”

[OKCTalker]

I always tip 20% or more (unless the service is epically awful), but I'd not want a tip imposed on me, even if it were less.

[bchris02]

I can't count how many times I've went for takeout Chinese food and they've asked for a tip. Is it correct practice to tip them?

[SoonerDave]

I can't count how many times I've went for takeout Chinese food and they've asked for a tip. Is it correct practice to tip them?

Only if you want to.

I never tip on whether anyone else thinks I should.

Most infuriating practice similar to that above was at the Furr's Bulk Food Warehouse in Moore, where the clerk asked me before I ate how much tip I wanted to leave. I said, "I'll tell you after I eat."

Never went back.

Went as a group to lunch once, and we were large enough to get an automatic 18% tip added. I paid cash, and the waiter asked, "Do you want change?" And I said, "yes." He seemed appropriately aggravated...

I have no problem tipping well for good service. I *do* have a problem with tipping "just because."

[Prunepicker]

A couple years ago there was a rash of waiters and waitresses keeping
the change without asking. Even at Sonic. I would ask for my change
and they'd be irritated. Then I'd tell the manager.

[bluedogok]

I liked it in Japan, no tipping there. If you do tip it is intended to serve a reminder that the person did not offer service up to your expectation.

[sooner88]

I liked it in Japan, no tipping there. If you do tip it is intended to serve a reminder that the person did not offer service up to your expectation.

That is the practice in most European countries as well. A tip is basically seen as an insult. Waiters/waitresses are paid a minimal amount per hour and expected to make that up in tip, but that is an amount that needs to be earned... not automatically assumed by the restaurant.

[Hawk405359]

It's not a tip if it's automatic. I hope the plaintiffs win this case.

[ctchandler]

In Great Britain, you don't tip in pubs, even when they deliver food to your table but you do tip in restaurants. Ten percent is a good tip.
C. T.

[SoonerDave]

A couple years ago there was a rash of waiters and waitresses keeping
the change without asking. Even at Sonic. I would ask for my change
and they'd be irritated. Then I'd tell the manager.

Many years ago, some friends and I were eating at a Norman restaurant - there were about six of us, as I recall. It was an odd circumstance wherein we all paid cash, but we all had chunky bills - like $20's, so we put down a total amount of cash that was *way* over the total. I don't remember the exact numbers (it was 20-25 years ago), but something like a $62 check for the six of us, and we put down something like four twenties. The waitress took the money and never came back.

One of our party asked her, "Could we have our change, please?" And the waitress replied, "Oh, you wanted change?" meaning she was presuming something just shy of a 30% tip (about $18 on a $60-ish check).

Ultimately, she did give us change.

Ultimately, we did leave a tip.

However....it was decidedly less than $18.

[RadicalModerate]

I always tip about 20%. I always tip the carhops at Sonic and Johnnie's Express a buck or two. I even leave a little something for the water-filler at a buffet like Kim Wah or KhaZana. I can see the point of adding something to the ticket of large groups to make up for any of the cheapskates in the bunch.

However . . .

Unless I specifically say, "Keep the change", I resent the idea of waiters and waitresses making that assumption.

The last time I remember running into that was at The Prohibition Room in the Gold Dome. I ordered a beer and paid cash rather than putting it on my AMEX card. When I questioned the bartender, he said, "Oh . . . You want your change. Old school." Believe it or not I still left a tip when I got ready to leave--after my second beer--rather than slapping the lisp off of the barkeep's face. Metaphorically speaking, of course.

[traxx]

I don't even like it when they ask "Would you like change?" Just assume that I do and pick your tip up after I leave the table. Asking if I want change just makes things awkward like asking a woman how much she weighs or how old she is.

Our society has gone tip crazy. Everyone wants a tip now. People who traditionally in the past weren't tipped. You see tip jars on the counters of so many businesses. People now want to be tipped for doing their job. It's down right ridiculous.