I recently stumbled across this news article about annoying things customers do to waitresses. She lists off a pretty long list of complaints that includes things like paying with a credit card after saying you’ll pay cash and calling her waitress and waving at her. Most of them aren’t things a waitress should complain about. There are a couple valid ones (the ones about grabbing her, who actually does that?) but mostly it just seems like whining.
The Relay Team: She really gets angry if she has to make more than one trip for drinks? Sorry I don’t have a list of every drink my table wants for the entire night, I guess I’m a jerk.
The Flagger: She doesn’t want me to call her “waitress”, ok thats fine. But what am I supposed to do when you don’t respond to m’am or miss? You don’t want people to be obnoxious about getting your attention, but if you ignore our other tries you leave us no choice.
Max T. Out: Don’t hand me a credit card that could be declined? I obviously didn’t think it would be declined, since I tried to pay with it. On a few occasions, Visa has canceled my card because of “suspicious charges” without notifying me. Just politely tell me the card didn’t work and I’ll give you another one or cash.
Mr. Money Bags: I understand that waitresses get paid crappy hourly wages. I also understand that your job is not rocket science. Even with bad tips you’ll end up making more than minimum wage. I can see that you’re working at least 3 other tables during the same hour that I’m in the restaurant, even if they only tip 3 bucks each thats still well over minimum wage.
When I tip, I start at 15% and adjust up or down according to how good the service was. If it was good I’ll usually bump it to 20, if it was bad then I’ll drop it to 10. According to some waiter friends, I’m a cheapskate. I’ve had waiter friends tip RIDICULOUS amounts (100% tips) because “they know how it is.” I don’t really understand that logic. I know how it is to develop software, but I still don’t buy every single iPhone app I see just because I “know how it is.”
I’m curious about the case where gratuity is automatically added to my bill. It has alway bothered me when this happens because then I have no good way of telling the server how bad they are. There have also been plenty of times where the added tip was far lower than what I would give normally. (I’m probably always going to tip at least a dollar even if my bill is only $2.50) Am I expected to give more in these cases?
