Episode 169 : Proper Customer Service

The second half of our two-parter, Tony talks about *his* time away from the podcast. Then William talks about Wonder Woman again. Then we get into good, practical knowledge… the importance of tipping. Enjoy!

 

QUESTIONS:

In episode 162, Tony asserts he’s a good tipper. What’s your definition of being a good tipper? 

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6 Responses to Episode 169 : Proper Customer Service

  1. jas says:

    I tip about the same as you guys. I always leave 20%–sometimes a bit more. I hadn’t thought about having a minimum before; it’s been more like if 20% is only 2 or 3 bucks I think, wow, that’s a small amount of money, and leave more.

    My Mom was a waitress and then a bartender most of the time I was growing up so I know what a bit about what it’s like for the person living on tips. I know in countries like Australia, the “no-tipping” goes along with everyone (including wait staff) getting a decent minimum wage (close to $17/hour). In the US, minimum wage for wait staff varies a lot state by state. Some states require you get at least the state minimum wage. Some states require that you only get the federal minimum wage ($2.13/hour). Some states have some formula that subtracts tips. Department of Labor has this chart showing the differences: http://www.dol.gov/whd/state/tipped.htm.

  2. Craig says:

    Generally I’ll tip about 10% in restaurants but I don’t feel obliged to tip, unlike what seems to have become the case in the US (from ny experience). As Jas said here in the UK staff have to be paid a decent minimum wage before tips are included. When staff are relying on tips to make their minimum wage (let alone a decent one) that’s not a tip, it’s the owner / manager / company playing the system. Tips originated from staff going beyond what was expected of them, not for just doing their job so to me it’s not acceptable for them to be part of the core wage.

  3. SirGuido says:

    Here in the US I am pretty positive the standard for tipping is 15%. I say this based on the many wait staffers I know. I tip 20%+ almost always. A recent outing with friends took me to a Texas Roadhouse where all 8 of us sat down to a meal to celebrate a birthday. I was without my wife on this trip and had a meal that came to roughly $20. Because we were a large party, and because I was pretty sure one of the party would probably not tip(he’s cheap), I actually tipped $8 on a $20 bill. Turns out I was right about the el cheapo in our party as he complained 3 days later that he had $3 added to his bill mysteriously. Obviously the auto gratuity for large parties as no one else had that issue(i.e. those that actually tipped).

    People that don’t tip piss me off.

  4. Beth says:

    I usually tip between 15-18% depending on service. I think of tipping as tangible feedback for how well the server did in their job. If I order a large water and you bring me a tiny one and never refill it (same goes for soft drinks), the tip goes down. (and yes, I realize water is usually free so it’s not going into the total cost of my bill), but it is also good customer service to not leave customers thirsty). If the food takes a long time, I usually don’t hold this against the server, unless they have ignored us completely in the interim, or have come by numerous times to tell us it’s almost ready (which, if you’ve said that more than once, is likely not true). I think I have not tipped at all on occasion (I believe the most recent time the restaurant was sparsely populated and it took half an hour for us to place our order, and another hour and a half for our food to come.)

    I will also ask for the bill to be adjusted if it isn’t correct. Like in Tony’s story, if the ribs hadn’t come at all, but did show up on my bill, I’d ask for them to be removed.

    Does that make me a bad customer, or a good consumer (or both)?

  5. Mark says:

    William has at least 30 open glitches.

    Videos of the Magical Talking Hat? MADNESS!

    Wedding: Aww, that’s lovely.

    Skyrim: Stealth punch? Eh, I preferred to use bows. I don’t remember if I had mods installed specifically for archery; but with a maxed out archery skill tree and a high sneak, near the end of the game I could one-shot kill just about anything (giants would take 2-4 shots, dragons more).

    Shampoo: Wow … that was a new level of … something.

    Monuments Men: Yeah, I remember seeing the trailers thinking it could be interesting but then all the reviews were terrible.

    Princess Bride, Spoilers: If somebody is worried about spoilers for that movie; they deserve to have it spoiled.
    Princess Bride, Albino: Of course he’s only knocked out; don’t be silly.

    Failed Wonder Woman Pilot: Ugh.

    Tipping: I was raised to tip 10-15%. These days I tend default to 20%, partly because I’ve since learned how little waiters tend to make as a base wage. One of the best tips I’ve ever left was $20 on a $45 bill. It was a Texas Roadhouse competitor. The place was packed and we were eating in the “bar section”. I swear our waitress had magical powers; I know I drank my tea but I never saw our glasses never fell below half empty but we never saw her refill them. Likewise the complementary bread with sweet butter just appeared on the table and our food was there crazy quick, especially for how busy the place was.

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