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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Poor tipper - okay to refuse service?
http://www.wxii12.com/news/22648863/detail.html
Summary:
This woman was a repeat customer and one day the restaurant added 18% to her bill (she was with two other people). The menu states 15% will be added for parties of 6 or more. She paid the 18% at the time. Next time she went back they told her if she wanted to eat there she would be charged 18%. The restaurant claims she is a poor tipper and the servers do not want to work her table. She thinks she is being treated unfairly.
Thoughts?
Re: Poor tipper - okay to refuse service?
It's my understanding that establishments can refuse service to whomever they want. It's up to their own discretion.
This seems like a silly reason to do so. She can't be the only bad tipper they have. I'm wondering if there are some other issues about this particular customer. Maybe she's just obnoxious and demanding and they'd rather tell her that she's a bad tipper than tell her the truth.
I think the woman just outed herself as a poor tipper, so servers everywhere beware!
Seriously though, a restaurant can refuse anyone service. If this woman received good service and didn't tip...and this happened repeatedly, then I say good for the restaurant! If she can afford to go out and eat, then she should, at the very least, pay a 15% gratuity.
When I was in college, I worked in this really nice hotel as a cocktail waitress in the bar. We weren't assigned tables, we could pretty much go up to anyone we wanted. We always avoided this couple who liked to sit in the back and get their fat asses waited on. You'd serve them all night, they'd never have to get up and go to the bar...and they wouldn't tip. We finally avoided eye contact with them and never waited on them.
Agreed.
I worked at Wolfgang Puck in FL and there was a couple (ironically, also a pair of lazy fat assses who never got up for ANYTHING) who ate at the restaurant every Thursday night. They always left the worst tips... I'm talking 5% on a good day. It was awful. Once, they even left their spare change as a tip and nothing else. They were eating $60 to $100 meals too.
Eventually, most of the staff refused to wait on them and they ended up going across the street to Cheesecake Factory.
Waiters and waitresses make minimal money hourly... sometimes 80% of their income is tips... I think it's really rude to low-ball them, especially when they give you good service.
The whole premise behind tipping, is that it's optional and a reward, for good service.
I didn't read the article but if they couldn't approach her respectfully about the reasons she was not tipping then they shouldn't have taken action to just add the gratuity.
If I were her, I would never frequent a place so disrespectful with a lack of good customer service.
exactly, 715.
I admit, I don't tip well if service is sub par. Take last week for example. I was at a local pizza place and DH ordered a beer and I ordered a salad before our meals. My salad never came, his beer never came. He wasn't busy, he was watching TV in the bar the whole time and kept joking with other employees. He never once came to refill our drinks. i.e. he didn't get a 15-20% tip! For good service, outstanding service and when they go above and beyond, they get a good tip.
I also agree with this. If she was being charge 18%, complaining about it, and STILL paying it after she complained, why the heck would she even go back there? I would never continue to go to a restaurant that I felt treated me poorly.
And, as far as tipping being optional... that is very true. It is optional. I strongly believe that you can't really know what it's like unless you actually WORK in the restaurant business. People who are in the biz are usually great tippers because they know what it's like to make $3.00 and hour and to rely mostly on your tips.
It is optional to tip, but it's also the owner of the restaurant's right to NOT do business with her, and if it's bad enough where the servers and chefs are refusing to cater to her... it's just my opinion that this lady is probably a MAJOR b*tch to wait on... especially since this has been an established company for the last 13 years.
I tend to agree with AT on this one. It sounds like this guest was a semi-frequent customer--someone that went there enough for everyone to remember her--and enough for everyone to remember that she is a terrible tipper. I agree that a tip is really an optional thing, but I have seen several examples of guests receiving exceptional food and service that leave nothing but the spare change from their meal--in most cases less than a dollar. In the same city in which this story takes place.
I do think that the owner maybe should have addressed their guest before deciding to charge her 18%--as in, after a meal in which she did receive good food and service and she left a crappy tip, address the woman before she leaves. "Was there something not to your liking? Most of our servers receive anywhere from 12-20% gratuity and yours fell well below that--I just want to see if there is something you were displeased with?" And if she didn't have a good response (many that we addressed didn't), then inform her the next time she comes in, that an automatic 15-18% will be added onto her bill. I don't see anything wrong with what the owner did, though I do think there may have been a way to peacefully rectify the situation. (then again, I also know that a lot of times people are unreasonable, so who knows--maybe the owner DID try to address her before and that was just left out of the report.)