Tip barbers except if you are getting your barnet done by the owner. Tip wait staff unless it's self-service - carvery style - if I'm doing the work then no tip required surely.
A story from a couple of months ago. We (party of 6 plus one kid) ate lunch at a restaurant which was part of a hotel in Northern Ireland. All very nice with pleasant staff. Paid the bill by card and left a tip approx 15% in cash on the table.
Following day I got a call from the owner of the hotel. She said the matter was somewhat delicate and I thought oh no, my card got declined or something. But no, one of the wait staff - the only one still on duty when we staggered out - saw that we had left cash (English notes not Norn Iron ones, so easily noticed) but that the money had gone AWOL. CCTV showed that the barman had cleared the table but had not put the tip in the pot. So, I confirmed I'd left BoE notes and she said she was not looking forward to the meeting she was going to have when the barman got into work. I guess he got sacked.
So, I suppose, now the new rules are in place I will probably add tips to the card payment. At least it should then make it to the staff tips pot. Really nicking from your fellow workers is beyond the pale isn't it.
Apparently in the restaurant business good food doesn’t compensate for bad service, but good service can compensate for bad food. There is however a legendary Chinese restaurant people go to because the staff are curt and authoritarian which they see as part of the experience.
Won Kei in Wardour Street? They are not as aggressive now, back in the day it was hilarious.
The restaurants I've been to recently have all increased their "voluntary" service charge to 12.5%. So unless the service was terrible I wouldn't feel comfortable asking them to remove it, but I certainly won't be tipping on top of the 12.5%.
I tip waiters but always check discreetly that they actually get it. If not I don't. I tip barbers a quid (on top of the £12 or £14 my haircut usually costs) so that they don't fuck me up next time I go in.
Apparently in the restaurant business good food doesn’t compensate for bad service, but good service can compensate for bad food. There is however a legendary Chinese restaurant people go to because the staff are curt and authoritarian which they see as part of the experience.
Won Kei in Wardour Street? They are not as aggressive now, back in the day it was hilarious.
Unless the food and service was terrible, I always tip in a restaurant - 10-15%. I much prefer the money going into a central pot to be shared out to all staff (not owners) and not just to the waiter who, however pleasant, is just delivering a product that has gone through a convoluted supply chain - cleaners, kitchen staff, chefs, washer uppers, buyers of the produce, bar staff and so on. The most important aspect for a restaurant is the food - not how it was ordered or placed on your table!
Barber gets a tip as well, and I'll always tip Black Cab drivers.
The good old Won Kei. Remember being in the Wong Kei many moons ago with my brother and we asked for coffee after the meal, which promptly came. About 20 minutes later we asked for two more coffees to which the waiter replied: “No, no! You fuck off now, we need table!”! Good times!
I always tip as long as service is good. We like Cote, but what Chippy has told us is outrageous. It would certainly put me off going back if it happened to me.
We bumped into them about 20mins later in the high st. They said they waited 45 minutes for their food, they weren't busy and stated they always have desserts, but didn't this time and go in their every few weeks.
They said they were unlikely to use this facility again. It was the one In Newbury.
Don’t pay workers what they’re worth because that can’t easily be defined. Pay workers enough to have a modest home and be able to meet their bills. Shocking concept I know, but that is my standpoint.
Barber - if I'm paying the operative directly for their service, they tell me how much it will cost, so I pay them that - if they think it's worth more they should ask for more, if I'm paying an establishment and the operative is an employee then a tip might make sense Waiting staff - have for years checked with them how much of the gratuities they receive, any doubt tip them personally in cash, so long as they've been decent. Mini cab drivers essentially make up the fare as they go along so get exactly what they ask for - at most, have quibbled/haggled/flat refused when the piss is royally taken. Hackney carriages with meters, the fare might get rounded up to save pissing about with small change, cabbies are well skilled in maximising the fare from the meter when the rank is quiet - "waiting time" and letting every bugger out in front of them at junctions. It's remarkable how quick/short the journey can be at peak times when the next fare is pretty much guaranteed. The fare for my once frequent journey from Dartford station to the Dartford end of Iron Mill Lane of about 2 and a quarter miles could vary by as much as a third without any serious holdups at all. Tips paid by card and the "service charge" stated on menus still have to get scalped for VAT before any can be distributed to operatives. Any amounts remitted to staff by the employer will be subject to tax and NI in the usual way Technically cash tips paid directly by us to operatives have always been taxable but how HMRC ever found out god knows, as if any waiter ever declared it! I used to do the tax returns for a few cabbies and their total takings were their headline income figure - before costs, virtually every penny was received in cash, theoretically that included 'tips'. Based on the fact that most of them tried to insist they weren't actually making any money over the cost of the diesel, they were all dimly trying a massive fiddle.
This new legislation is broadly well received but typically it is unlikely to be transformative for those it is supposed to help. It lacks any meaningful guidance as to how the gratuities are to be distributed, only that the employer has to share it out by the end of the month after the month it arose. E.g. we ate out on Sunday and were met by a maitre d', had our coats taken by a 2nd person, shown to our table by a third who also topped up our water through the meal, we were actually waited on by 2 staff and asked another at the end for our bill as all the people we recognised seemed to have gone off shift - from that lot who merits a share of the 13.5% "discretionary(!) service charge" and who at the restaurant chain is even likely to be monitoring the personnel to that level of sophistication. "Plate money" is common enough in restaurants - where does that fit in? All this before the reality that decent employers have probably been sharing something with their staff up to now and the bad bastards still won't pay any heed, these aren't widely unionised jobs are they.
Apparently in the restaurant business good food doesn’t compensate for bad service, but good service can compensate for bad food. There is however a legendary Chinese restaurant people go to because the staff are curt and authoritarian which they see as part of the experience.
Oh god is that place still going? Some of my workmates used to go there in the early 1990s under the impression they were being edgy.
I went there once but they weren't rude to me so I didn't tip.
I tip waiters but always check discreetly that they actually get it. If not I don't. I tip barbers a quid (on top of the £12 or £14 my haircut usually costs) so that they don't fuck me up next time I go in.
Blimey...your barber don't take no shit then...
With my hair I am one slip of the clippers away from social death.
E.g. we ate out on Sunday and were met by a maitre d', had our coats taken by a 2nd person, shown to our table by a third who also topped up our water through the meal, we were actually waited on by 2 staff and asked another at the end for our bill
Living in the States of course tipping for me is the norm. And we do have great service over here and that’s what we’re used to. 20% is the norm. The only problem is that it’s expected, but I’m ok with that as long as the service stays good which, in general, it does.
But, when I’m in the UK I only tip if the service is good and then it would probably be about 10% max. Because it’s all about expectations. I’m talking about tipping in restaurants. For barbers, taxis etc I think the tipping is along the same lines as the UK.
One of my old offices was just around the corner from the British Library and they got the occasional tourists come into the pub I drank in of a lunchtime. One of the bar staff there was American and as soon as she spotted a yank tourist, she'd be straight over there, offering table service etc as she knew she'd be getting a healthy tip out of them.
Just come back from the States where there are normally three suggestions for tips printed on your bill. They range between 18 - 25% of the total cost.
Eating out is expensive there without having to add another quarter of the total to the bill!
I went to Fenway Park to see the Red Sox in the summer. I queued to get my own can of beer out of the fridge, the person at the till charged me and opened the can. The card machine suggested a 20% tip for that transaction.
Comments
A story from a couple of months ago. We (party of 6 plus one kid) ate lunch at a restaurant which was part of a hotel in Northern Ireland. All very nice with pleasant staff. Paid the bill by card and left a tip approx 15% in cash on the table.
Following day I got a call from the owner of the hotel. She said the matter was somewhat delicate and I thought oh no, my card got declined or something. But no, one of the wait staff - the only one still on duty when we staggered out - saw that we had left cash (English notes not Norn Iron ones, so easily noticed) but that the money had gone AWOL. CCTV showed that the barman had cleared the table but had not put the tip in the pot. So, I confirmed I'd left BoE notes and she said she was not looking forward to the meeting she was going to have when the barman got into work. I guess he got sacked.
So, I suppose, now the new rules are in place I will probably add tips to the card payment. At least it should then make it to the staff tips pot. Really nicking from your fellow workers is beyond the pale isn't it.
So unless the service was terrible I wouldn't feel comfortable asking them to remove it, but I certainly won't be tipping on top of the 12.5%.
They said they were unlikely to use this facility again. It was the one In Newbury.
Shocking concept I know, but that is my standpoint.
Waiting staff - have for years checked with them how much of the gratuities they receive, any doubt tip them personally in cash, so long as they've been decent.
Mini cab drivers essentially make up the fare as they go along so get exactly what they ask for - at most, have quibbled/haggled/flat refused when the piss is royally taken.
Hackney carriages with meters, the fare might get rounded up to save pissing about with small change, cabbies are well skilled in maximising the fare from the meter when the rank is quiet - "waiting time" and letting every bugger out in front of them at junctions. It's remarkable how quick/short the journey can be at peak times when the next fare is pretty much guaranteed. The fare for my once frequent journey from Dartford station to the Dartford end of Iron Mill Lane of about 2 and a quarter miles could vary by as much as a third without any serious holdups at all.
Tips paid by card and the "service charge" stated on menus still have to get scalped for VAT before any can be distributed to operatives.
Any amounts remitted to staff by the employer will be subject to tax and NI in the usual way
Technically cash tips paid directly by us to operatives have always been taxable but how HMRC ever found out god knows, as if any waiter ever declared it!
I used to do the tax returns for a few cabbies and their total takings were their headline income figure - before costs, virtually every penny was received in cash, theoretically that included 'tips'. Based on the fact that most of them tried to insist they weren't actually making any money over the cost of the diesel, they were all dimly trying a massive fiddle.
This new legislation is broadly well received but typically it is unlikely to be transformative for those it is supposed to help. It lacks any meaningful guidance as to how the gratuities are to be distributed, only that the employer has to share it out by the end of the month after the month it arose.
E.g. we ate out on Sunday and were met by a maitre d', had our coats taken by a 2nd person, shown to our table by a third who also topped up our water through the meal, we were actually waited on by 2 staff and asked another at the end for our bill as all the people we recognised seemed to have gone off shift - from that lot who merits a share of the 13.5% "discretionary(!) service charge" and who at the restaurant chain is even likely to be monitoring the personnel to that level of sophistication.
"Plate money" is common enough in restaurants - where does that fit in?
All this before the reality that decent employers have probably been sharing something with their staff up to now and the bad bastards still won't pay any heed, these aren't widely unionised jobs are they.
I went there once but they weren't rude to me so I didn't tip.
Eating out is expensive there without having to add another quarter of the total to the bill!