This whole system is designed so that the public subsidizes poorly run businesses.
The only way to make it stop is to force such businesses through legislation to pay their employees more, and to do that you have to get past the “but my business will close / but they’ll replace us with AI / but the market says…” crowd.
Wasn’t there a comic going around about pro-laborer regulations throughout history, like, “giving them two days off each week will kill me,” “taking child laborers out of the mines will kill me,” “covering up all the giant exposed gears in the facility will kill me,” and so on?
They’ll be replaced with AI anyway if they keep demanding tips like that.
Shit like this results in an automatic “No Tip” from me.
I’ve started to do that. If I don’t see 10-20% options, I’ve started doing no tip–even if I would have tipped more.
It irks me.
They’d done some data analysis and I guess if you show higher percentages people just click them. So I am bringing it back to reality with my 0%.
Many people habitually click the lowest option, so they made the lowest option outrageously high. Fuck tips, I always go for a flat zero.
Custom tip > -100%
Bet this was at a pickup counter for a restaurant with no table service
I see them everywhere. The most insulting one was at sprinkles where I had to place order in the POS myself and the guy was just handing me a box from the shelf right behind him.
The most insulting one I’ve seen is at a self-serve convenience store in the Newark Airport. There is no staff that you ever interact with. Who does the tip go to? You for ringing yourself up?
I had a coffee vending machine in the airport asking for a tip. Incredible.
And that’s why I don’t feel guilty not tipping some places. What am I tipping for? Nothing.
If the tip starts at 30% I’m no-tipping and never returning
I’d hit no tip because I left a tip on the table for the waiter. Fuck the establishment getting a cut of the tip. I understand being in the waiters position though and if they wants to report that on their slip they can. I probably wouldn’t tho, I’ve had managers that told me not to worry about it but don’t bring it up with the owner.
At a bagel place I used to go to, the person behind the counter said not to bother leaving a tip on the machine because the owners just took that. I came back the next time with cash and a printout of the law that shows that is considered wage theft and the Department of Labor number to call.
There’s a custom button.
No tip is a better choice in this case.
Custom tip: 1 cent
Whenever those POS ask for a tip I always click “no tip” and I learned to not worry about what someone else will think. I felt pressured the first time, but I learned that nothing happens if you don’t give a tip. I believe those go straight to the owner anyway.
I still have some hangups about when I am in a restaurant and I still do tip as this is still expected. I just stopped going to restaurants, and I only end up there is someone drags me in.
I hate that whole tip cancer culture, which essentially exists to cheat me to think I’m paying less.
A surprising amount of those kiosks straight up abuse tipping culture simply as another form of payment. My wife has worked at two places where the money just goes to the owner and the employee never sees a tip. I’ve also been directly told the number of times that tips don’t go to the employees by the employees.
I don’t trust it. I only tip in cash if I do.
yep where I’m at they say they go to us but afaik we get the same amount either way. I hit no tip for customers now.
That’s illegal, FYI.
Could it be construed that you intended to tip the owners of the establishment rather than the employees?
Considering wage theft is the biggest kind of theft we have, I think it’s an unfortunate fact that many employers don’t particularly care what’s legal as long as you can’t practically retaliate.
Most places have laws against tipping to employees that don’t interact with customers in transaction. So owners, cooks, and managers legally can’t get tips.
Edit: But those laws probably aren’t followed at some establishments
It also exists to allow restaurant owners to outsource a decent chunk of payroll directly to the customer. Technically it also allows wait staff to make extra money as well.
The reason these payment devices default to asking for a tip (with the option to disable that feature hidden) is that they take a small percentage of every transaction made through them and it goes to the company that made the device.
If I walk in a pick something up, no tip.
Christ these comments are horrifying
A few fuckers tried this on me at a restaurant in Greece last year.
The proper reaction is not to click “no tip” then cower in case someone judges you.
The proper reaction is to click “no tip” then get on every fuckin review site you can find and every social media site the restaurant is on, and leave 1-star reviews for spoiling my fucking lunch by begging for money. Put the price I pay on the menu, or fuck off.
I’ll tip a max of 10% if I want to. That’s generous where I am
Fuck that, your whole point of hospitality is to make me feel comfortable, not uncomfortable.
If you don’t do this, you’re the reason it still happens.
Incidentally, was back in Greece this year and only got harassed for a tip once. Anecdotal but hey, felt like I made a difference
If the percentages look to large, I just hit no tip.
Yep, this is the quickest way to not get any tip.
I would never come back.
I saw one of these where the restaurant taped over the “no tip” button so you couldn’t push it. If you ever encounter that, add a custom tip and punch 0.00
Fuck them for that nonsense.
I’ve tipped zero at a sit down place because the waiter was an ass. (And I’m a generous tipper, because I’ve done the job and I can now afford to).
Tipping isn’t required.
My grandmother taught me to never tip $0 if the service is terrible, because the server will just assume you’re a cheap bastard who doesn’t tip. Instead, she would tip 2¢, because it sends a message.
My dad did that once, and the waitress followed him out to the parking lot and threw it at him. Which I always thought kind of showed she got the message, but didn’t learn the lesson.
So, literally “giving your two cents” about the service?
As a non-American, sometimes there threads are hilarious.
I mean I get it it’s not as simple as we sometimes mockingly make it out to be, but it is a gratuity, meaning something extra on top of a legally required amount.
So yeah, you’re very correct it isn’t required.
I mean is tipping truly legally mandatory anywhere in the US? I’m sure they could decide to not serve you again, but by law, is tipping truly required anywhere?
Most restaurants have a policy of requiring a tip for parties larger than a certain size. In that case, where the policy is known in advance, then it’s part of the bill, and I’d think you have to pay. Otherwise I think it would be treated like theft.
Service charge on the bill is imo a bit different from a tip, a gratuity.
But again, wouldn’t know, haven’t been.
Definitely not my expertise this subject.
No, but not tipping is a great way to ensure you’ll get crap service (and potentially tampered with food) if you ever go back.
Also, traditionally tipping was only for waitstaff, “fast” delivery drivers (think pizza delivery and same day couriers maybe), and certain specific one on one service scenarios (hair stylist, barber).
This expansion into other things is mostly because everyone is starting to use the same payment processing pads that have the tipping menu turned on by default and hard to disable, because the company making the processing pads takes a small percentage of every transaction. Combine that with opportunistic business owners figuring out they can pressure anxious people into tipping by just implying they should, and here we are.
No, but not tipping is a great way to
Just as I thought. I do understand the culture, I’ve just never been personally subjected to it. I would ofc tip in the US, but that’s one reason it’s not high up on my list of places I want to go to.
Well, traditionally it started out as a way to keep your slaves doing slave work without compensation while saying they’re not slaves anymore and definitely are getting paid through tips.
https://civilrightsdocs.info/pdf/minimumwage/History-Tipped-Minimum-Wage.pdf
I think there’s a lot of establishments that forget that tipping is not a mandate. It’s a courtesy and it should be based on your level of courtesy to the person that you are hoping to receive courtesy from. For me, no courtesy given, then you’re not getting that courtesy. Beyond that, the wait staff needs to be pissed off at the restaurant owner for not paying enough.
Only exception to that rule would be Dick’s Last Resort, but their schtick is being rude
Give them a horrible review and never go back. They deserve bankruptcy
Give them 0.01, just as a statement
Nothing is more of a statement than something
Nothing is just “I don’t want to give”. Nearly nothing is “I’m mocking you with a cent. This is how much I appreciated your service.”
Why stop there??!!
Custom: -100% 😎
-200%
There’s this nice Chinese restaurant near my place that doesn’t take tips. I go there once a week or so for takeout, largely inspired by the fact they don’t take tips.
Because in China, tipping is considered insulting. Like "Aww, poor restaurant needs extra money to function properly, here you go, little restaurant.
I am now Chinese.
50%??? Is this an app for millionaires??? I might leave 30% at a nice restaurant if I got exceptionally great service lol Asking for 50% is basically saying “please don’t ever eat here again” lol
Well it was inflation, so the tip percentages needed to be higher to account for it /s
I feel like the “/s” isn’t enough to express just how much that’s Not How This Works, 'cause there are some people who think that actually makes sense.
For those, I’ll spell it out: with anything based on a percentage, such as tipping, increases due to inflation are already built in. Inflating the percentage as well is multiplying the increase!
(This is also why “we need to increase the tax rate due to inflation” is also bullshit and any politician who says it is trying to pull one over on the public, by the way.)
I might leave 30% at a nice restaurant if I got exceptionally great service
Some ball fondling? Taint licking? The fuck kind of service warrants a 30%+ tip?! The majority of servers just take your order, bring you your plate and ask if there’s anything else you want (often annoyingly so in a pestering manner). If that’s your price then I might as well walk the few meters and grab the shit myself. And if it is the type of place where that isn’t possible, then that warrants tipping even less so if that service is straight up mandatory.
Tipflation
I can be a little sympathetic to the argument “this feature is built into our Point of Sale device, we didn’t ask for it”.
But 30/40/50% tip is not the default anywhere, that was done on purpose.
Can confirm I work with the setup of Toast on a daily basis, and you can set those default percentages manually. This was most definitely done on purpose, the defaults are not that high.
I can’t. They are computers and they can be programmed however the restaurant wants. Any default other than zero is unethical and predatory.
There is a military bar at the base I work, and currently operated by coworkers until they can hire staff. Their PoS System automatically pops up the tip, and they have to tell us every time that they legally can’t accept tips. So yeah, definitely default.
