My 'friend' that is a girl that I am talking to (pre-going out stage) works at a resturaunt and a group including myself and two of my friends ate there last night so that I could visit her and whatever, but she had already been cut for the night so we got a different waitress.
This waitress didn't take our drink orders nor bring them out, she did take our food orders but did not bring out the food, she walked by our table once and brought a coke refill but not refills for the two waters that were empty, she never came by the table again but to drop off the bill, and even then she didn't ask if we wanted anything else, just if the bill was together or seperate.
This waitress got a $0.37 tip on a ~$21 order, because I consider that to be really crappy service.
This is my opinion crappy service = crappy tip. I won't waiver from my stance b/c I've tipped 50%+ when the service was incredible. Even the last time we ate there the same girl got a ~30%. But I think this time my friend said hey that's my guy friend so the waitress thought it was like easy money.
Now my friend says it is really rude and unacceptable to do that and you should always tip 15% regardless.
So I want to collect opinions just to see what other people think. And I'm wondering if more people are like me.
And do you think I was wrong for doing what I did?
*Edit-just saw a similar thread, but I think this is a bit different.
Servers often don't bring your food out. If it's ready to go, your food should come out, not wait for your server to get back to the kitchen to get it. You'll get your food faster, fresher, and hotter this way.
Yeah, you should always tip at least 10% or so because otherwise you're basically stealing from the waitress:
Restaurants report a percentage (around 12%) of the gross sales for food and beverage to the IRS for their staff. This means that if you have a $200 food bill and $200 wine bill, the restaurant will report 12% of $400 or $48 as income to the server. In other words, the server has to pay tax on it whether you tip it or not. (http://www.findalink.net/tippingetiquette.php)
She didn't seem particularly helpful as a server. I agree with you that she should have gotten a crappy tip, but perhaps not nearly as crappy as what you left. While you could have hailed her to get more drinks when you needed them, the fact that she didn't notice this herself speaks of poor service to me.
Servers do need the money, but I wouldn't tip simply because I 'owe' it to someone to make up for their ****ty server wage. It's not hard to be a decent server so if someone fails to do even that I think you should tip according to how satisfied you were with their service. Maybe they'll get the hint, maybe they won't.
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