Have you ever seen the movie Reservoir Dogs? It's a movie by Quentin Tarantino...before Pulp Fiction...anyways, there is an exchange that always stuck with me at the very beginning of the movie between the guys and Mr. Pink (played by the brilliant Steve Buscemi).
In the exchange, Joe (the head honcho), and the rest of the crew, where having a casual breakfast at a little Diner. Joe received the check, and asked that the crew pick up the tip. One by one the guys ponied up their greenbacks, except for the smug Mr. Pink.
Mr. Pink says he doesn't believe in tipping.
"I don't tip because society says I gotta. I tip when somebody
deserves a tip. When somebody really puts forth an effort, they
deserve a little something extra. But this tipping automatically,
that shit's for the birds. As far as I'm concerned, they're just
doin their job. "
He goes on to say, basically, some jobs are deemed tip worthy (i.e. waitresses) and some are not (i.e. McDonalds). They both serve you food.
This got Becky and me thinking. Why do we feel inclined to leave the same tip, regardless of the service? When is it acceptable not to tip, if at all?
We eat out...a lot. We go to some fairly nice places. We know how much 15% is. But, we don't know why we should feel obligated to leave that, when the service wasn't there. So, we developed a system.
THE PERFECT $5.00
Before you go all googlie-mooglie thinking $5 is a cheap tip, consider this: Our meals hardly ever surpass $20. $5 would, in the case of a $20 meal, be 20%. A fine tip by any standards.
Ok, so here's the plan. We start with five One dollar bills, layed out in a row at the back of the booth...so the server can plainly see. Then we deduct a Dollar if the server fails on any of the following tasks...
1. 2 MINUTE RULE: If someone isn't at the table in two minutes to either get your drinks, get your order, or tell you they will be with you in a minute (and actually come back in a decent time period)...$1 Deduction.
2. 5 MINUTE RULE: If you don't have your drinks at the table within five minutes of sitting down...$1 Deduction (at this time, orders should be taken)
3. If at any time during the meal, your drink becomes empty...$1 Deduction PER OFFENSE. This should never happen...unless you drink it down before the server is out of sight, in which case, you drink too fast and should pay him/her an extra dollar cause they have to work even harder!! SLOTH!! We don't drink very fast, so the cup should be kept with drink.
4. If I have to stop the waitress and ask her to refill my drink...$1 Deduction.
5. If the server asks me if I would like a refill...and I'm drinking water...$1 Deduction. (Water is FREE, fill my glass!! Soda doesn't really cost that much more...like .00008th of a cent per glass, but I won't penalize for that...usually.)
There are other smalls things that could add up...none of these warrants a $1 Deduction by themselves...
1. The waitress tries to take a plate before I am finished, without asking if I'm finished.
2. The main course comes before the salad.
3. The server takes your order, and refills the drinks, but the hostess/other servers get your drink order, brings your food, takes your dishes, etc. (A personal pet peeve)
4. If the meal is cooked wrong, it's not the server's fault...but they should be returning with the manager.
5. Server spills water on the table when refilling the drinks and doesn't at least bring back a napkin to help mop it up.
I'm sure I'm missing some, but that is a pretty comprehensive list. When all is said and done...the remaining Dollars stay for the tip. It's not a fool-proof method, but it works rather well.
5 comments:
If you are at a four/five star restaurant - which in your area might be Maisonette in Cincinnati or Restaurant at the Canterbury Hotel in Indianapolis maybe you could expect the type service you demand. Other wise I sure would like to know where these "fairly nice places" are that you can get two meals for $20 bucks.
I'm definately not talking 4 or 5 star eateries here...but I'm also not talking McDonalds. I'm speaking, like I said, about fairly nice places...your Outback, Olive Garden, Applebee's type places. I consider these to be rather nice, non-wallet-busting places, where we always eat for $20 or less. Considering we normally don't go for the appetizers, and we don't buy alcohol...$20 is about right.
Oh, and, yes...at these places, I do expect that kind of service. Keeping my drink filled shouldn't be reserved for 5 star places.
Yeah your right, I was just havin' fun with you. But then getting good service that would be like expecting people to actually want to provide customer service... and I don't think that mind set really exists much of any place anymore, sad to say.
Yeah, you're probably right about the service. A lot of times the people just don't cut it. It's hard to feel sympathetic about giving a good tip, if the tip isn't warranted. Some tip just to tip...I perfer giving credit where credit is due.
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