we hand the wait staff our tip in cash and always approx. 25 % for dinner or food orders and 35% when just up to the bar for a beer or two. Bartenders and Wait staff have nothing, nothing to do with policy so don't blame them for you problems.

From a practical perspective, this raises a question of just how prevalent this problem is. You included three examples of rather tacky customer comments in lieu of tips. Are there others? How many? Over what period of time? This thread is beginning to sound as if this is a problem of epidemic proportions. Is it possible that all this commentary is being spent on just a few isolated issues over a period of time? If that's the case we should not be condemning Darden for doing what many Restaurants have done for many years nor should we be assuming that the predominance of Restaurant patrons are cheap bas---ds who won't tip. Bottom line is that tipping should be proportionate to the level of service delivered and the manner in which it's being delivered. The alternative of course is to eliminate tipping, raise servers wages and add the additional cost to the price of meals. In this scenario, diners won't be able to brag about what generous tippers they are and will resort to condemnation of the establishment because their prices are to high.

Well Foxy, who knows if it is happening a LOT?. Even a little is danged cheating and stealing in my book.

It is my experience here in The Villages after six years, that we have the best servers overall that I have ever encountered. If I were one of them, I would be already arrested because I would not have the patience to survive the attitude of many of the customers that they have to deal with, including some of my friends.

I see these folks as doing a job that requires a lot of careful listening and a lot of lip buttoning and extreme agility and leads to varicose veins and much teeth gritting.

I do NOT blame THEM, if the cook undercooked the fish or overcooked the hamburger. I see them working every day and try to remember what 20 percent figures up to be and if I can't do it right, I try to round it off to a little bit more.

They are working, the magic word to me, and they are putting up with people who were NOT all born and raised in Ohio and were NOT all taught to have good manners and patience and taught they were not superior to ANYONE.

I feel for your daughter RedWitch and if these notes continue, we will have to gather the girls posse once again, load up our super soakers, and hunt down these cheap critters.

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.

What if a server put a note on the customer's plate "I only make $4 and hour, so I ate your food"

[B]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.

What?? Now Olive Garden has lemonade police ? How do they know if you put something in FREE water?? I would think the server is the only person to notice, so are you saying she pays out of her pocket?? Makes no sense.

If I'm not mistaken forcing the servers to pay for customers that skip out on their bill is illegal in most states. Your daughter and her co-workers should file a complaint.

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. :beer3: (BTW, fast food restaurants more readily provide the Crystal Light type beverages.)

I certainly agree with this. This behavior is just ignorant. My daughter has been a server in the past also, the stories she has told are upsetting. They work so hard only to be slighted so many times. If you can afford to eat out, you can afford to leave an appropriate tip. If you can't you should keep your sorry self at home.

I mean really, who do you think you are getting over on?? The teenager who has to work to buy her/his own things, the single mom, the young man or woman putting themselves through school. Or the older woman/man whose income doesn't stretch far enough at the end of the month.

There is nothing worse, in my opinion, than a cheapskate. Makes you wonder if these are the people who also take all the sugar packets off the table and take them home????

Sorry, I just stepped off the soapbox. Just having seen my daughter so upset just sends me over the edge.

I really don't care that darden is a national chain-----I said that I cannot believe this is happening in the village----

how about unsweetened iced tea.......99 percent of all the restaurants in the villages have unsweetened ice tea

Ice tea is a caffeinated beverage.

I don't understand the Crystal Light thing. The server will gladly put a lemon wedge in your water. I assume that the wedge is meant to flavor the water vs serving as a garnish. I've been told that if you put the lemon slice between your thumb and index finger and squeeze, lemon juice will be forced out of the wedge and into the water. I conjecture that if one then adds a packet of sugar or sweetener, which is also provided by the restaurant, that one would have a glass of lemonade.

As for tipping, I usually over tip. If, however, the server has somehow concluded that charm and over bubbly personality are substitutes for good service, a different outcome will likely occur.

Re the Crystal Light thing -- if the manager goes by a table and sees the colored water, the server pays for the drink if not on the ticket, at least they do at this OG.

I'm a Cokehead. Won't drink anything else. If you serve Pepsi, I'm not drinking it nor am I drinking water. I always have Coke with me -- think it's become my trademark. If I'm in a restaurant that doesn't serve Coke, I simply ask for a glass of ice, ask the server to charge me for a soda and pour my own Coke. The restaurant gets its money, I get my Coke. Has worked well so far.

Seems like Crystal Light folks or those who think it is okay to squeeze a lemon and add sugar so they don't have to pay for a beverage could do the same thing -- explain they can't/won't drink the beverages offered but will pay for a glass of water and add their own flavoring.

These jerks have been around forever...just used different methodology. I once worked in a bar and a private club....bar during the day, club at night. I would often have the same customers at both places. They would tip very little (if at all) at the bar, and very generously at the club. Guess they didn't need to impress anyone at the bar.

Later, when I started bowling and traveling to tournaments, we had one gal that would not tip when we went out to eat. Another, who had been a waitress as well, and I would tip enough to cover hers. You can often tell who has and has not had to rely on tips at some point in their lives just by the way they do or don't tip.

Red, I respect your opinion but totally disagree. I want to be able to purchase my beverage at the restaurant. I don't want to have to mix my beverage in front of the group and then explain what I am doing waitress and instruct her how to charge it on my bill. I'm out to have fun, ya know!

:pepper2:

This is way off the OP'S subject but they do make decaf Tea but don't usually have it in restaurants here.

OP, it's a shame for customers to write notes as you described and then refuse to tip good service. Some of the customers were probably angered by the "tip suggestions" but instead of writing notes and punishing their Server they should speak to the Management. Like its been mentioned---they are cowards.

If I am still here I will make very sure that you don't. ) We eat out much more living here then we did previously and it amazes me to see what servers have to put up with in general. They deserve to be treated as well as they treat their customers.

Right on Cathy! If you can't afford the meal AND the tip, stay home and eat a ham sandwich!:agree:

It is terrible how some people can be so cheap!!!!!!Does any one realize that a waiter or waitress is paid just over $4.00 per hour Not the min. wage
This is due to the fact that they receive tips-- I know other countries outside the USA do not believe in tipping--The way I feel is you are in the USA so do as we do and do not leave the poor waiter without their tips--
You should be ashamed of yourself!

Susan

I always tip 20%, but I have always wondered why restaurants don't pay their employees what every other service industry pays their employees so they can earn a decent living. Why does the consumer have to subsidize their income. Don't restaurants make a good profit?

I think it would be a huge mistake to eliminate tipping and pay only a higher than minimum hourly wage. Tipping is immediate and direct feedback a customer gives about the server's job performance. Tipping INCENTIVIZES the server to do more for the customer than just appear to take the order and slap down the drinks and food and then leave.....leaving the customer without cutlery when he just got a steak, without a drink refill, or having the steak be too raw and nobody comes back to correct things.

Tipping also allows the server to develop "regulars" who come back and ask for him/her, and that is a good chance for young servers to see how to grow a business, or kill one with laziness and doing only the bare minimum.

This work is one of the best ways to learn how free enterprise works and how commissioned sales can become a career for a person who is motivated....and courteous......and hustles to please the customer.

We would need then to apply that principle to every minimum or slightly above minimum wage earner. Those employees would only need to do a good job if they would reap a great tip, ie: sales assistants in stores, checkers at the grocery stores, yard people, babysitters and on and on goes the list.

These employees whose wages are tipped based, are having their job performance rated and graded by all different personality types in order to earn a decent wage and it is the strangest thing to me.

Pay the servers an appropriate wage and fire them if they don't do a good job, like every other employment. Why all the games for adequate compensation?

Ilovetv: Unfortunately, many people don't know the restaurant business and how the business operates. When I was a bit older and left home, my mother worked as a cook in a Popular Mom & Pop restaurant in my home town so I use to hear About some of the "inner workings" of the restaurant business. Interesting---but discussion perhaps for another Thread.

Suffice it to say that Servers and Cooks are some of the most unappreciated workers in our economy IMHO. I have little respect for someone who doesn't tip their Server according to the service they receive.

And many of us have worked as servers and remember all the of the other duties we had in addition to serving which may have included a financial responsibility for broken or missing items from a service.

Even a good day with tips wouldn't be much if someone decided to lift a beer stein or two and and the servers were held responsible. Hopefully, that policy has been changed.

This is the most disgusting thing I have ever heard from tipping! What is wrong with people?

First of all if you don't want to leave a tip I like the idea of "stay home & eat a ham sandwich"

Seriously tho, do you think the waiter knows if they receive 15, 20 or 25%, I don't think they do the math as they hand out the tabs.

they jam it in their pocket.

It's up to us to be fair, I also like to leave cash for the tip if using a CC.

Which leads me to another ? how do they keep trac of what they are owed on CC tips and when do they receive the money.

This is where dining at a restaurant is different from eating fast food in McDonalds or in the car at Wendy's parking lot.

At the fast food place, once the tray or paper sack of food is handed over the counter or out the drive-thru window, that employee is done with the customer. Not so in a dining establishment where constant interaction between server and customer is required, and the server must pay close attention to their orders pending at the bar and in the kitchen, and getting everything entered into the computer for accurate ordering and billing, while paying close, gracious attention to their customers......

This kind of service is largely a multi-tasking balancing act and an art, not a production-line process (a robotic arm could be used to open the window and hand the bagged McDonald's order out the drive thru window to the person in the car).

Restaurant servers are constantly interacting with and have to rely on:
- kitchen staff (moody, histrionic chefs, and the cooks who don't show up);
- bartenders who are busy schmoozing their bar patrons and are supposed to fill the server's orders too;
- busboys in their first job at age 16 who have never cleared dishes or cleaned a table at home before;
- hostesses who can load up your section suddenly with 6 tables full of demanding cheapskates with bratty, screaming kids, while the pet (suck-up) server gets the well-mannered singles and couples that are regulars that leave outstanding tips; and with
- the customers at his/her tables.

With all that going on, the server needs incentives to smile and stay courteous and gracious, and to keep the customer at the top of the list of whom to be patient and gracious with. Tipping is a good way to incentivize the server to put the customer first and keep the customer from having ANY idea of what kind of clamor is going on behind the scenes in the kitchen and outside the back door where smoke breaks are being taken by cooks while your customer has been waiting for their entree for 30 or 40 minutes.

Being a good server takes a huge skill set and exemplary people skills!

Thus, pay a decent wage. Why subject these people to the whims of others and what they MAY receive in tips.

We always tip for good service and a bigger tip (over 20%) for great service. I can remember twice that I left less than 10% due to horrible, horrible service t not in TV. My wife had advised me to leave nothing but I can't do that. Here's a thought....when we stay two nights plus in a hotel, we always tip the housekeeper. Now that can be a tough and unrewarding job for some.

This posting makes me feel sad to find out there are people who punish servers for their distasteful mentality. Hopefully, they are in the minority and don't frequent our restaurants too often. If they can't afford to add a fair gratuity to their bill they shouldn't be eating out.

A granddaughter was working as a server in an upscale steak house in Austin, Texas, during her senior year in college. She came home with some real horror stories about undertipping. One of her associates served a group a dinner that came to over $200 and was left a $5.00 tip.

The granddaughter, who is attractive, intelligent and attentive generally does exceptionally well on tips.

Where she worked there was a practice of sharing a portion of the tip income with the busboys.

For years I have tipped 20 percent of the check (including tax), rounded up to the next dollar. Usually if the check includes a pre-determined 18 percent "suggested" tip I just let it go at that. Just lazy I guess.

If the service is not attentive I tip 20 percent on the meal cost (not including tax) and don't round the amount up.

If the service is actually substandard I lower the tip, perhaps down to ten percent. Always mindful that tips are the principal source of income for the server, I consider ten percent the floor for my tipping.

I don't foresee any change to the tipping practices in the food service industry in our country no matter how much some people resent it.

If these customers have a political question or comment, they should be addressing these to their elected officials not to their server or restaurant.

Political comments in lieu of a tip! Seriously. At last, have these people no shame?

I wonder myself how people could do it? Do they truly NOT know that these hardworking people do not have a salary? Can they not place themselves in another persons shoes just for a minute? Have they stood on their feet for eight or nine hours until they ached?

Did no one in their family ever work as a server?

I don't know P. How can people be so unfeeling?

Dunno, but it's kind of ironic, isn't it? The people who turn up their noses at "the little people" are the real little people. Maybe it's some kind of latent self-hatred. :shrug:

Some things should be inherent. When one buys a car, one then has to purchase insurance, gas, repairs, etc.

Eating out is the same principle. Tipping is the American way. If you feel that you can't afford the tip, then don't eat out. I personally tip about 25%, but will go higher for a good server. At most of our local restaurants, I have a favorite server and will ask for him/her. As Kathie I said previously, you are remembered and will always receive good service. We go to karoake @ Bonifay each Monday and always have the same server who immediately brings us our favorite beverage as soon as we walk in. Same for Cody's ,the Waterfront and City Fire. I enjoy a trouble-free meal and believe that the server should be rewarded accordingly.

I know what you mean my daughter is a server at Magnolia Oyster bar. She shucks buckets of oysters and gets 50 cent tip. I always tip over 20% to make up for all the cheapskates who dont. Servers get paid 3 to 4 $ an hour. They work real hard. Please tip your servers! No more notes too! That is just rude and you are punishing a hard working person.:rant-rave::rant-rave:

Redwitch has brought up an interesting topic. I would like to see any documentation that the IRS assumes an 18% tip. Everything I have ever read gives a much lower number. IRS publication for 2013 gives an 8% tip rate as acceptable before any additional allocation is added to the servers' reported tips and even allows it to be as low as 2% with documentation to the IRS.

"You must allocate tips among employees who receive them if the total tips reported to you during any payroll period are less than 8% (or the approved lower rate) of this
establishment's gross receipts for that period.
Generally, the amount allocated is the difference between the total tips reported by employees and 8% (or the lower rate) of the gross receipts, other than nonallocable receipts.
Lower rate. You (or a majority of the employees) may request a lower rate (but not lower than 2%) by submitting a petition to:
Internal Revenue Service
National Tip Reporting Compliance"

It is also illegal for a restaurant to take the cost of a dine and dash from the server's pay. This is federal law so local rules wouldn't apply

After A Dine-And-Dash, Is It Legal For A Restaurant To Take Money From A Waiter’s Tips?

And Gracie, just for you.. a story about dine and dash happening too often in OHIO

Saddling Servers With Customers' Unpaid Tabs Is Illegal by Connie Schultz on Creators.com - A Syndicate Of Talent

I can't comment on other practices like crystal lite, or broken glasses although this information from the Department of Labor suggests that for minimum wage workers no such deduction would be legal
http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs16.pdf

And a blog by a Florida lawyer on restaurant employee law
Florida Restaurant Law: Walkouts – Who Is Responsible For Paying The Check?

Of course what is legal or ethical versus the real world of working as a server might be different. This is a fire at will state with minimal employee protections. So while it may be illegal to "ask" the server to pay, the restaurant could legally fire you for no reason required at any time. I would love to know which local restaurants force their servers to pay for the dine and ditch fiends or for broken plates etc. It would likely alter my dining choices. Just as retail stores calculate the additional cost of shoplifters and breakage into their charges so I believe would a restaurant in their initial meal pricing.

I'm all for servers being tipped fairly because I did it for years. I don't doubt the servers here have received some nasty notes, but especially when "Treyvon justice" is mentioned, I think it is a Hot Button that sparks an absolute foaming-at-the-mouth frenzy much larger than the incidents that have actually occurred with that particular message.

Until there is documented proof of this happening numerous times, I don't think we should assume it is the norm.

I do believe some cranky old f*rts would resent their retirement funds dwindling in comparison to what they THINK a server earns, looking at the total price of a meal once they've bought drinks, appetizers, entrees, and desserts.