Food & Drink

Ever get chased by waiters for tip?

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  • Aug 26th, 2013 1:42 am
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Sep 24, 2005
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reallyme wrote: You heard correctly. The way it works in anywhere from 2-5% of the days sales is paid out to the house( owner). That percentage is split between the kitchen and support staff (busboys and dishwashers) as well as to management ( but only in rare cases). So assuming you tip 15% of your bill to the waitress, up to one third she has to pay out. If you only tip her 5% she has to pay it all to the house. If you tip nothing, then that comes out of her pocket.

one place i worked, the payout to the kitchen was calculated from total SALES, not total gratuity. so if you sold $500 dollars worth of food during your shift for your tables, you paid out a percentage from that. the owner didn't get anything. it was just for the kitchen staff.
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Jun 29, 2010
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reallyme wrote: You heard correctly. The way it works in anywhere from 2-5% of the days sales is paid out to the house( owner). That percentage is split between the kitchen and support staff (busboys and dishwashers) as well as to management ( but only in rare cases). So assuming you tip 15% of your bill to the waitress, up to one third she has to pay out. If you only tip her 5% she has to pay it all to the house. If you tip nothing, then that comes out of her pocket.

Splitting a % of the tips I can see. The server paying out when there is no tip is hard to believe.
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ShoNuff2 wrote: Splitting a % of the tips I can see. The server paying out when there is no tip is hard to believe.

well, with the system used in a place i worked, that scenario is possible, even though i've never seen it happen. because you paid out according to your total sales, not from the tip, if your tip was very low that day, you could potentially leave with less than what you came in with. i like the system though. when tips are pooled together, there'll always be an eyhol that tries to steal the tip before it goes into the jar.
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May 15, 2008
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Swarez99 wrote: I'll break the trend and do a story about a non-Chinease Restaurant.

A few years back four of us went to Swiss Chalet, and our waitress had friends in the restaurant also eating. She spent our entire meal talking to her friends.
She forgot to bring someone's Salad, didn't bring the Chalet sauce and we had to ask several times for refills on drinks. This was happening at a few tables, and we could hear other people complaining about service and how she was never around.

Our Bill was $58 something like that and we left $60, and when we were leaving one of my friends said "Enjoy the tip"
She saw it and was "That's it?"
Friend replied "Next time work when you are at work"

A guy at a table in our section was like "Don't expect better from us"

So hopefully she got the point. I Bartended and waited through university and know half ass service when I see it and will tip accordingly.

I had a similar episode at Swiss Chalet around 2 years ago in Markham (Woodbine and Denison).

The food was at a snails pace. Service was horrible. I can see the servers in the kitchen arguing. We left ZERO tip. That's how bad it was.
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Jun 26, 2011
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ippon wrote: one place i worked, the payout to the kitchen was calculated from total SALES, not total gratuity. so if you sold $500 dollars worth of food during your shift for your tables, you paid out a percentage from that. the owner didn't get anything. it was just for the kitchen staff.

I did mean on total sales. I was just breaking it down as it applied to an individual. I spent my twenties working in restaurants and only ran across one that took a cut for the house so it is rare. Yes, it is usually split between the support staff.
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Sep 22, 2008
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reallyme wrote: You heard correctly. The way it works in anywhere from 2-5% of the days sales is paid out to the house( owner). That percentage is split between the kitchen and support staff (busboys and dishwashers) as well as to management ( but only in rare cases). So assuming you tip 15% of your bill to the waitress, up to one third she has to pay out. If you only tip her 5% she has to pay it all to the house. If you tip nothing, then that comes out of her pocket.


To be working in a place like this must be very bad. I'm surprised there is nothing illegal what the house is doing.
isn't waiter and waitress paid less than minimum wage and then the tips is part of their income? how does the house categorize the 5% tips they take from the servers?
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Jun 11, 2007
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Yes I did but that was 15 years ago and in a Japanese AYCE restaurant. I thought the service was not good so I did not leave full 10%.
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packardbell wrote: To be working in a place like this must be very bad. I'm surprised there is nothing illegal what the house is doing.
isn't waiter and waitress paid less than minimum wage and then the tips is part of their income? how does the house categorize the 5% tips they take from the servers?

This is very standard practice The money goes to all the other support staff who work their asses off and don't receive tips (bus boy, hostess, maybe kitchen staff, etc etc). It isn't the house stealing money from the waiter, it is an agreement so the waiter shares some tips with the other guys who aren't as lucky to get tips but make the jobs of the waiter easier.
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Feb 20, 2007
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NeverNeverLand
I was in Canegie Deli in NYC....waiter brings our sandwiches broken apart, didn't come back to see how things were going, dropped a piece of meat on my friend when serving him the sandwich. We decided to leave only 10% (knowing NYC is 15%). I was at the counter paying....he comes out and taps my shoulder and
Him: "you only left me 10%!"
Me: "yeah"
Him: "well in NYC, its 15%"
Me: "Well, in NYC the sandwiches come assembled properly without meat flying on people"

He tried to embarrass me in front of a long line up...but I didn't care.
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Mar 8, 2009
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I was at Brasaii on King St in Toronto with 3 other people. The bill came out and my buddy and I shared it. We tipped a little more than 15%. After dinner we're on the patio with friends and the waiter comes up to us freaking out calling my buddy cheap and telling him he didn't need his lousy tip. I watched my friend count the money and according to the waiter there was $20 less than what we know we left him. We think he dropped it or something.

Another time I was paying a bill at Turtle Jacks and I asked the waitress to break a $10 bill she gave me. I wasn't about to over tip and you know they always give larger bills thinking you're going to leave it behind. When I asked for her to break it, she ripped it in half in front of my friends! She took it back and gave me 2 fives. I left nothing after that.
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Andex wrote: I was at Brasaii on King St in Toronto with 3 other people. The bill came out and my buddy and I shared it. We tipped a little more than 15%. After dinner we're on the patio with friends and the waiter comes up to us freaking out calling my buddy cheap and telling him he didn't need his lousy tip. I watched my friend count the money and according to the waiter there was $20 less than what we know we left him. We think he dropped it or something.

Another time I was paying a bill at Turtle Jacks and I asked the waitress to break a $10 bill she gave me. I wasn't about to over tip and you know they always give larger bills thinking you're going to leave it behind. When I asked for her to break it, she ripped it in half in front of my friends! She took it back and gave me 2 fives. I left nothing after that.

wow. that's a good one. wow...
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Jan 21, 2008
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family outing at mandarin, we left 15% but the waiter didn't count properly & thought we didn't tip. he tells us "the total doesn't include tip", we tell him to recount the money, then he apologizes embarassingly.

at jack astors & jarvis & dundas I believe, many yrs ago, on a $18 bill including taxes, i give 2 $20 bills & ask the waiter to break the second $20 bill so I can tip him (wanted to tip more than $2). He brings me back a $10 bill & 2 $5 bills, so basically he assumed I was gonna tip him at least $7 on a $18 bill. When I asked him to break the $5 bill into some change, as he walked away he made a snarky remark to another waitress about how he couldn't believe I was asking for change on the $5 bill. Keep in mind he had already taken $2 for himself & was counting on at least another $5. he had such a sense of entitlement, as if i was being unreasonable or cheap. i decided to take the change from the $5 bill & not tip him any more.
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Jun 15, 2007
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packardbell wrote: At the end i gave him another 5 bucks and told him take it or leave it and for sure i will not come back.
yeah, you got owned

the whole "mandatory tip crap" is a joke
even more when they literally chase you down a block for their $5



Andex wrote: When I asked for her to break it, she ripped it in half in front of my friends! She took it back and gave me 2 fives. I left nothing after that.
surprised if she still works there


service is important, customers must feel comfortable... customers are always more important than a waiters ******** "tipping code"
you dont like that, get out of this industry
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Sep 6, 2006
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Yes have been chased, and just told them straight in their face they don't deserve more than the $0.01 I left in the tray.
Done this in all types of restaurants if I felt the service was horrible.
15% isn't the law, 10% isn't the law, 5% isn't the law, the law is 0%.
It's up to you.


On the flipside, if service has been good, I'll easily go over 15-20%.
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Dec 28, 2005
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If they ever chase me demanding more tips, I would thank them for reminding me that I overpaid, and take back the original tips.

In HK, waiters would be so thankful of you even when you pay like 1% tips, ie. few $HKD on a few hundred $HKD meal. I don't know why people here come up with 10-25% "rules".
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gamer123 wrote: If they ever chase me demanding more tips, I would thank them for reminding me that I overpaid, and take back the original tips.

In HK, waiters would be so thankful of you even when you pay like 1% tips, ie. few $HKD on a few hundred $HKD meal. I don't know why people here come up with 10-25% "rules".



What are the average wages of waitstaff in HK?

You realize that most waiters make less than minimum wage, and rely on tips to make up their salary.
I'm in favour of waiters making minimum wage or more, and Canadians not having to fish for tips at every restaurant. It would be like Australia, where the tips are included in the price of the meal.
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originalnutta wrote: It would be like Australia, where the tips are included in the price of the meal.

amen to that.
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Jul 7, 2011
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My sister went to a restaurant in Montreal about 2 years ago. When it came time to pay, the debit machine said 'pourboire' (tip in French). My sister speaks French, but is from Moncton, New Brunswick, where the French isn't as 'proper' as it is in Quebec, so she had no idea what it meant, so she didn't leave anything. The waitress flipped at her, grabbed her debit and made her pay a tip as another transaction.
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May 10, 2010
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We were eating in china town last year at rolsan and they were super slow which is not like them. We were seated in the back and no one approached us until we waived them down... we then received the wrong meal but the waiter dropped the dishes at our table so fast that we didn’t even have an opportunity to stop him and tell him that they made the mistake!

It took another 10-15 minutes for us to waive him down again and then another 15 min to get our correct order... no water, no follow up, no service... we tipped 36 cents... he came outside the restaurant to give us back the 36 cents trying to be a smart as* so we took the change and said that was the fastest you moved the entire time... I had to stop my buddy from throwing him into traffic. The waiter made a dash back inside when my buddy got out of the car to see what his problem was LOL

I make it a point to ensure my tip reflects the service provided. This false sense of entitlement is a joke. I don’t want to make a generalization but my experience is that waiters think a tip is mandatory even if they treat you like shi*…
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Sep 21, 2005
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Markham
You don't really need to pay tip in France, they chased my gf and I and gave us the money back. How strange. Is it a myth that you don't pay for tip at Korean restaurants? My korean friend told me years back.

Scenario:
Most restaurants provide bread prior to your appetizers, and entree. If a restaurant decides to start a pay-for-bread policy (Mo***te Bistro), will you leave them a tip?

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