A Tipping Question

[Joe Williams]

Twenty bucks would have been great.
Never met a dealer in a casino who ever did anything except take my money. Feel like one of them should meet me at the gas station and hand over cash in an envelope to me.

 

[gingerbread]

I ended up leaving a $10 tip. Might should've left $20, but I did the math wrong in my head and $20 felt like way too much.
$15 would've actually been my sweet spot -- if the bill had come I probably would've rounded the $65 total up to $80 -- but I only had $10 and $20 bills on me.

$10 is embarrassing. A restaurant you like and frequent screwed up, and went out of their way to make your night special -- AND FREE! Please go back with another $10 or even $20. The waitress likely had to give the hostess and the bus people AND the cooks/chefs part of her tip, so your $10 seems even more measly.
Signed,
An ex-waitress who still has nightmares about working in restaurants.

 

[Riptide]

$10 is embarrassing. A restaurant you like and frequent screwed up, and went out of their way to make your night special -- AND FREE! Please go back with another $10 or even $20. The waitress likely had to give the hostess and the bus people AND the cooks/chefs part of her tip, so your $10 seems even more measly.
Signed,
An ex-waitress who still has nightmares about working in restaurants.

Definitely.

In cases like this, think of what you would have spent, including tip. Then, since you ate for free, consider tipping 50 percent. You still save a bundle. At the least, tip 30 percent.

$10? Jesus, that's embarrassing. Not even a decent tip for the "top notch" meal you ate, even though the restaurant staff bent over backwards to make things right.

I would have tipped $30 or $40 here. That shows good faith in return.

 

[Batman]

$10 is embarrassing. A restaurant you like and frequent screwed up, and went out of their way to make your night special -- AND FREE! Please go back with another $10 or even $20. The waitress likely had to give the hostess and the bus people AND the cooks/chefs part of her tip, so your $10 seems even more measly.
Signed,
An ex-waitress who still has nightmares about working in restaurants.

So I'm supposed to drive across town, taking an hour out of my day, in the hopes that the waiter who served us is working that day, and beg for his forgiveness while giving him an extra $20? And that's if he even remembers us several days later?
fork. That.
Next time we go there, we'll throw a little extra into the tip. Otherwise it's a life lesson learned.
The Tip Nazis of this world are out of control.

 

[Batman]

Definitely.

In cases like this, think of what you would have spent, including tip. Then, since you ate for free, consider tipping 50 percent. You still save a bundle. At the least, tip 30 percent.

$10? Jesus, that's embarrassing. Not even a decent tip for the "top notch" meal you ate, even though the restaurant staff bent over backwards to make things right.

I would have tipped $30 or $40 here. That shows good faith in return.

Well, shirt. Why not just give him the whole $80 I would have spent? And maybe an extra $100 while I'm at it?

 

[JC]

So I'm supposed to drive across town, taking an hour out of my day, in the hopes that the waiter who served us is working that day, and beg for his forgiveness while giving him an extra $20? And that's if he even remembers us several days later?
fork. That.
Next time we go there, we'll throw a little extra into the tip. Otherwise it's a life lesson learned.
The Tip Nazis of this world are out of control.

You tipped ten whole bucks on a free meal. This is not Tip Nazis, this you being cheap.

 

[Riptide]

Well, shirt. Why not just give him the whole $80 I would have spent? And maybe an extra $100 while I'm at it?

Didn't say that. But you took the cheap way out.

 

[Batman]

You tipped ten whole bucks on a free meal. This is not Tip Nazis, this you being cheap.

The funny/annoying thing is, I'm usually a really good tipper. I grew up with parents who would've considered it a great deed to leave a $5 bill on the table on a $100 check, so I've spent years making karmic amends for that. It's not uncommon for me to tip 25 or 30 percent. I wasn't being cheap in this case. I obviously miscalculated.
That said, I'm not going back to grovel for forgiveness when the restaurant did what it felt it needed to do to make an aggrieved customer happy. They'll get my business again with no hard feelings about a potentially disastrous experience.

 

[Batman]

Didn't say that. But you took the cheap way out.

So what's the non-cheap way out? Rewarding them handsomely for screwing up?

 

[gingerbread]

So I'm supposed to drive across town, taking an hour out of my day, in the hopes that the waiter who served us is working that day, and beg for his forgiveness while giving him an extra $20? And that's if he even remembers us several days later?
fork. That.
Next time we go there, we'll throw a little extra into the tip. Otherwise it's a life lesson learned.
The Tip Nazis of this world are out of control.

Dude, YOU came on here, wrote about having dinner with your wife at an upscale restaurant, detailed for us the kitchen's mistake and how the restaurant graciously rectified it, and asked for opinions on how you should have tipped. In fact, you wrote: "So, what's the tipping etiquette in that situation? Do you tip like normal? Tip more? Less?"
Also, and I know you didn't ask, but no need to throw in "Nazis" just because you didn't like the answers that came forth.

 

[Riptide]

So what's the non-cheap way out? Rewarding them handsomely for screwing up?

You ever work in a restaurant? Mistakes happen sometimes. They worked hard to make things right for you.

You can tip 50 percent and still go home well-fed while saving a bundle anyway.

heck, tip 30 percent, I don't care. But you asked. If you have any class, you thank them for rebounding nicely.

 

[Batman]

Dude, YOU came on here, wrote about having dinner with your wife at an upscale restaurant, detailed for us the kitchen's mistake and how the restaurant graciously rectified it, and asked for opinions on how you should have tipped. In fact, you wrote: "So, what's the tipping etiquette in that situation? Do you tip like normal? Tip more? Less?"
Also, and I know you didn't ask, but no need to throw in "Nazis" just because you didn't like the answers that came forth.

So, obviously, I wasn't sure about the exact etiquette and was asking for clarification. I tipped some but wasn't sure if it was enough, which is why I was asking. It probably wasn't enough, in hindsight, but somewhere along the way it was suggested I should be "embarrassed" and drive across town to the restaurant -- from the sound of it, RIGHT THIS MINUTE!!! -- and give the waiter an extra tip a couple of days after the fact. It took an ugly turn the second I mentioned how much I did tip, even though I'm now realizing and admitting it was a bit low.

That's where the "Nazis" reference comes in. There is definitely a subset of people in this world, mostly former servers, for whom no tip is ever enough. They think we should be tipping everybody for everything, and preferably in insanely large amounts. I figured they'd eventually come out on this thread, because they do on every thread about tipping.
If it's just the word "Nazi" that offends you, get over it. It's a common reference.
Soup Nazi.
Grammar Nazi.
Etc.