How much do YOU tip when service is bad?

Last weekend I went out to dinner with my Mom and her boyfriend and my boyfriend and my cousin. We went to a busy restaurant that we'd been to a million times before - it's known for its amazing seafood and down-to-earth style. Wood paneling, fishing theme, very classic New England style. We ordered - nothing weird or fancy, everything was straight off the menu.

It took over an hour to get our food, and we were furious. I know you're wondering - is an hour really that long??

The table next to us turned over THREE TIMES before we were served - that means THREE groups of people sat down, ordered, ate and LEFT THE RESTAURANT before we'd even eaten. The manager picked up the tab for our appetizers, but we were left with the bill for the entrees. We believe that the delay was a team effort -- first the waitress forgot to put our order in, then the kitchen lost it, then the manager got involved but didn't make sure we got our food. The waitress said it was a "little bit of everyone's fault."

We had a debate at the table over how much of a tip was fair, and settled on 12%. How much of a tip would YOU have left?

Cheers, Lara

Comments

You left a tip after THAT????
I would have left nothing. A tip is payment for good service. Bad service=no tip.

I would not have left any tip. I hate how waiters just assume they're getting 15 or 20% no matter what.

I bet I know what "seafood restaurant" you and family went to...I along with several other people refuse to eat at "That Restaurant" ever again, because we have had the same unexcusable service from the waiter to the kitchen staff, to the Manager making excuses...So I do not leave any tip at all..what I do is have a nice talk with the manager and of course they take a little of the bill but thats still no excuse...even the women's restrooms are extremly small..only 2 stalls for such a large restaurant...I have once wrote a letter to the corporate office to tell them of my experience, they sent me free meal coupons, I gave them to someone who still loves to eat there regarless of their bad service, I must admit, their shrimp and craplegs are very good though...bad service is still no excuse. I refuse to give any tip for bad or slow service.

I am in what I call a "secret fight" with about five local restaurants because of nonesense like this.

No tip is actually less insulting than a small tip. Give her a pile of change and then she will get that you were insulted by the service. ALTHOUGH sometimes you can tell that they are just having a bad day, then you leave them a big tip if they did their best!

$0.00 - that's what I would have tipped, because that is what they deserved. There's no excuse for that kind of service.

i can't believe how many people wouldn't leave any money at all! Waitstaff make $2.13 per hour. We depend on tips to pay our bills! Most waiters bust their asses trying to give the best service they know how to. Unfortunately, we aren't robots- occasionally even the waiters make mistakes. Even when the waiter does make a particularly serious mistake, give the benefit of the doubt that they were still doing their best. The waiter still had to do all the work of waiting on the table, and no one should ever work for free.

With service that bad I would leave a $1 tip. I hate not tipping and I try to be very generous but if the service is that bad you have to let them know you were upset and show it as well. But I always look at the circumstance, if the service from the waitr(ess) was bad, she/he will know. If the resturant was bad, the manager will know.

In regards to waiters not working for free, you said it yourself you've made $2.13 and hopefully if the job was done correctly, other patrons left you a tip as well.

You can bend over backward to give the best food and service to the hardest to please person, then you can give the same servive to someone who is friendly and kind. 99% of the time it's the nice people who tip the most. If you recieve poor service it is your right to not tip much but do everyone a favour and speak to the manager about it rather than just complain about it to everyone else, and hopefully it doesn't continue. Also, please don't take it out on the server if the chef or another staff member is being a dick.

I developed a latex allergy after working with food service. I also became intolerant to chocolate, tomatoes, anything citrus, MSG and some wheat products. WBR LeoP

I developed a latex allergy after working with food service. I also became intolerant to chocolate, tomatoes, anything citrus, MSG and some wheat products. WBR LeoP

"How much of a tip would YOU have left?"

I would have left ZERO. If she would have WENT IN ORDER by IMMEDIATELY went to put the order in after she got your order, she wouldn't have forgotten. In other words, not only was she letting other customers CUT in front of your order by not going IMMEDIATELY to go put in the order into the computer, but she also forgot to put the order into the computer. I would like to know if she even apologized? I would expect a PROFUSE apology, for her to ASK the manager to comp the ENTIRE meal for waiting that long. Why do you think she should get a tip for that? If you were that upset about it, WHY did you leave a tip? You will probably say because you felt bad not leaving anything. In my opinion, a tip is a REWARD. If you mess up big time, you should get BIG TIME penalized.

awaitress
"Even when the waiter does make a particularly serious mistake, give the benefit of the doubt that they were still doing their best."

Doing your best would be GOING IN ORDER OF ARRIVAL.

Let's talk about a less flagrant example, say the server had to be reminded of a refill or condiment. If you don't leave any tip, the server will not know whether you were upset and refusing to tip or whether there was a sneaky theft involved (by a busser, fellow server, or even another from your own group...).