Service Tipping

There has been much debate about tipping.  Some believe, as I do, that tipping is for added service.  Subsidizing a waiter/waitress because the restaurant doesn’t pay well is not the responsibility of the customer.  Discussing this with my wife this morning, she told me about a situation with a Taxi driver.  She took a Taxi to LaGuardia Airport from the train station and when she exited the cab, she gave what she felt was a reasonable tip.  The driver very loudly, and for everyone to hear, said uncomplimentary things to her.  She took off her shoe and hit him over the head.  (At that time she wore spiked shoes). The crowd roared laughing.  
You didn’t mess with my wife then, and she is still not one to trifle with even today.

Abe,

I agree about tipping being for special service.

Back when I was a National Sales manager I was planning an annual sales meeting one year and got in an argument with the manager at a restaurant where I wanted to hold a dinner. He said there would be an automatic 15% gratuity added to whatever charges we encored. I said I would determine the gratuity based on the service. He wouldn’t give in, I booked the meeting at a restaurant that agreed…I ended up giving a 20% plus. I’m sure he said something to his staff beforehand because they busted their butts all night.

I have never tipped a taxi in my life, unless I had luggage and they came to the curb and got it and held the door.

I have never tipped a delivery driver…flowers, fedex, etc. I probably got charged extra for the delivery in the first place.

There are some perks to being an “old grouch”

Today the lines are blurred, and I'm not sure who expects tip. Restaurant servers are a given, but who else?

Abe, your wife sounds like a character who does what everyone would like to do.

She is that, Brenda. In the past when I considered moving up the corporate ladder, I didn't see my wife as an asset. She was too honest. She would never wear a false smile. If she didn’t like you, you knew it. When I had my own company and considered candidates for a key position in the company, I always took the candidate out to dinner along with my wife. She had a sixth sense and could spot a phony. It had little to do what the candidate said. She was always right in her judgment of people. Sixth Sense is the title of a recent book by Don Stephens. It is something that cannot be explained, but it is real.