Quote:
Originally Posted by redwitch
foxy, these were notes left in one week, in one restaurant to one server -- my daughter in TV. Some of her co-workers have gotten similar notes. It's not a majority but tips have definitely dropped since Darden started posted suggested tips.
Whether a server today gets a 30% or nothing tip, the tab is figured as if the server received an 18% tip for income tax purposes. Also, the 18% figure is used to determine how much the server OWES the hostess, the bus boy, the bar back, the bartender, basically everyone but the manager and the kitchen workers. So, more than once a server has had to pay out more than s/he has made that shift. If a customer stiffs the restaurant, the server is not allowed to stop the customer from leaving but is required to pay the drink or dinner tab in most restaurants. If a customer adds Crystal Light (or similar product) to a glass of water, the server has to pay for the "lemonade" that was not put on the tab. To say these practices are obscene is putting it mildly. To add mean-spirited, nasty notes on top of this is well beyond the pale to my mind.
|
Off topic, but about the Crystal Light thingy... If restaurants were sophisticated enough to provide a beverage on their menu, other than water, that was sugar-free, caffeine free and not alcohol, they may reduce a good number of Crystal Light sneaks. There are people out there unable to imbide, drink caffeine or lots of sugar, I'm one.
I don't bring Crystal Light to restaurants because of the "horrors" of this action known to mankind. But it's a long hour to hour and a half when out with friends as they enjoy their cocktail, beer or caffeinated soda during dinner or after golf and one can only sip ice water. Suggestions to restaurants to offer this selection appears to fall on deaf ears so I for one would happily pay for a quality sugar-free beverage if it were offered. Instead, I drink ice water. Why isn't that choice available? Okay, I've vented.
(BTW, fast food restaurants more readily provide the Crystal Light type beverages.)