tipping bartenders

[kingGhost]

non tippers usually look for any excuse to not tip, i've seen. it's like "oh they forgot to give me a straw right away, NO TIP" - any excuse to hang on to those few precious dollars that will get them so very far.

very rarely do you go into a restaurant and get someone who is doing a bad job and doesn't care. if you go into places and have bad experiences often... maybe the problem is... you?

[apmje]

I don't need an excuse not to tip, I just simply don't.

I am just as hard up as the people serving me. So I got a bit of money recently and I am treating myself/family/girlfriend whatever to a drink! I'd tell them where to go.

Like it's been said though. UK things init.

[budsteq]

Maybe American bartenders who get all shitty about this should go work at McDonalds instead...

[wolf89]

non tippers usually look for any excuse to not tip, i've seen. it's like "oh they forgot to give me a straw right away, NO TIP" - any excuse to hang on to those few precious dollars that will get them so very far.

very rarely do you go into a restaurant and get someone who is doing a bad job and doesn't care. if you go into places and have bad experiences often... maybe the problem is... you?

The fuck are you drinking at a bar that comes with a straw?


And no I never go many places where they do a bad job. That's how it should be. They don't need a tip just for doing a standard job.

Walk in. Go to the bar. They pull a pint. Cash over. Bosh. Standard. That's it. Nothing fancy.

You go in for a big session. Buying a lot from them. Friendly banter with them all night. Get them a pint at the end or give a tip. That's it.

Do you tip at the bar in a club also?

[drokkr]

Good thread.

If I'm on a session or whatever and the barperson is looking after us. We will will look after them. Simple as that. Pooping into a bar for a quick drink and having to tip? I don't think so. Tips should be earned not expected in my book.

[ruckus49]

i was a waiter before. yeah you get paid less than minimum wage, but waiters/bartenders often make a few hundred on a good weekend night. compare that to the 8-12 dollars an hour the cooks are making who are working just as hard. being a server is competitive and a highly desired position in certain establishments because you are compensated very well for doing an unskilled job.

[kidshuffle]

Well the way people have described it makes it sound mandatory in a way. People shouldn't do a lousy job because you didn't tip

No one ever said it was mandatory. You just look like a cock if you got good service and don't tip well.

i was a waiter before. yeah you get paid less than minimum wage, but waiters/bartenders often make a few hundred on a good weekend night. compare that to the 8-12 dollars an hour the cooks are making who are working just as hard. being a server is competitive and a highly desired position in certain establishments because you are compensated very well for doing an unskilled job.

Cooks (here, at least), get a certain percentage of the tips, or get paid like $10-$15 an hour.

[kidshuffle]

The fuck are you drinking at a bar that comes with a straw?


Do you tip at the bar in a club also?

1) Probably a high ball.

2) If you're getting good service, why not?


edit: Like really, I can understand not wanting to give a tip for bad service. But why is everyone on the anti-tipping notion? Why is it so wrong?

[wolf89]

Tipping at a club?

where it takes all fucking night to get served and all they do is choose someone at random pull a pint then put cash in the till? Fuck off

Especially as it's not like they even try pay attention to who's at the bar first. Just go to whoever. There's no such thing as good service at a club when it's a busy ass place. Just waiting and them getting you shit and moving on. Don't deserve dick for that. May as well start tipping people at drive through windows

[kidshuffle]

Thats what we call bad service, no tip is really deserved there. Thats why I said, if you're getting good service (and yes, at clubs it is possible), then why not?

You're not saying why you're against tipping. You're only saying why you're against tipping for bad service.

[wolf89]

I'm not against tipping. Just tipping being close to compulsory

Say I go weatherspoons. Chain pub. Beer not kept especially well. Impersonal service. Would never tip

I would only ever tip after a big night at a nice small place where the barman actually makes any difference. Even then it's unlikely less they've really been outstanding in any way.

Or I go some bar really super popular with all the students like Cuba or what ever down here. Same thing, service can be fine but it's still just them opening a bottle then taking money.

From the sounds of it in the US you're expected to tip. becomes meaningless. Here if I was to tip at a pub it would mean I'd genuinely had very good reason to and if I didn't tip I'd still get good service.

[kidshuffle]

It (should) increase the degree of service though. Lets be frank, a club really isn't that good of service for the most part. I'm probably just throwing the change from my drink into the jar. If I have to wait a long time, theres no tip.

Anywhere else though, it pretty much is motivation for the server to work harder. I can see why you'd see it as getting meaningless...but I guess you kinda have to see it in effect.

[LA_Boxers]

I also would like to know this: How many of you who say "why should I tip, get higher wages..."(while yes, I agree, Servers should get higher wages) have been a server/bartender before?

I was a barman. I got paid a wage. I could earn tips on top of this, which lead me being nicer and trying harder. If I got tips I got them.....if I didnt I didnt. I do think minimum wage should be minimum wage tho. It does sound like a shitty system of including things that are not guarenteed.


I will tip somebody if I think they have tried harder than just doing what they have to do, as they should be doing that anyway.

[LA_Boxers]

From the sounds of it in the US you're expected to tip. becomes meaningless. Here if I was to tip at a pub it would mean I'd genuinely had very good reason to and if I didn't tip I'd still get good service.

This.

Its literally just paying the barmans wage directly to him/her, rather than rewarding good service which is what it should be.


Also people should have the option of leaving a tip for the barman at the end of the night/session. You shouldnt have to tip every round in order to get decent (/satisfactory) service the whole night.

[kidshuffle]

Also people should have the option of leaving a tip for the barman at the end of the night/session. You shouldnt have to tip every round in order to get decent (/satisfactory) service the whole night.

Any place where you can have a tab, the tip is always just left at the end. So pretty much anywhere, minus the big night clubs.

I was a barman. I got paid a wage. I could earn tips on top of this, which lead me being nicer and trying harder. If I got tips I got them.....if I didnt I didnt. I do think minimum wage should be minimum wage tho. It does sound like a shitty system of including things that are not guarenteed.

Yeah, and I think I'd actually seen you mention this earlier in the thread too. As a bartender in a restaurant/lounge, thats how I roll too. However, I make more than minimum, and get a percentage of the servers tips. But at the end of the day, we all have to put in the effort and good service together.
And it is quite the shitty system for servers over here, I don't think theres a whole lot of argument on that lol.

[slothrop]

I'll generally do what's standard where I am at the time.

But a system where the price includes service, people get paid sensibly, and it's optional to leave a bit extra if the person serving you has done something particularly skillful (making cocktails or whatever) or been particularly helpful does seem a lot more sensible than underpaying them and having the customers give them money directly provided the do a vaguely adequate job. If I get a beer in a pub, I'd expect putting it in a glass and giving it to me to be included in the price.

[bluntiot]

Always fucking tip! Bartenders remember your face and you will occasionally get the hook up for being generous. This especially goes for drink tickets.

[capo ultra]

I think the reason why most UK guys here don't understand the concept of bar tipping is that the literal extent of a bar person's job is to simply pull a pint whereas it seems like bartenders in the US seem to put a lot more effort into it, bring your drink over, conversation, asking if you would like another drink as you are finishing, taking care of group requests etc.

we tip at restaurants because we get this type of service, but it rarely happens in a bar, the only way that happens in a bar is If you book a table for like a hundred pounds or something and they call it VIP, I would gladly pay a couple of pound for this kind of service

Am I right or do barpeople literally get tipped all night for just pulling a pint?

[south3rn]

most people in the US would tip for beer service only. i generally do $1 per beer, but if someone is drinking Bud Light or Miller or something cheap it might be $1 for every 2 or 3 beers. if you don't tip at all, regardless of what you buy, it's bad form.

[wolf89]

So you tip someone for just opening a bottle then? That's all they have to do to get a tip?