Instead, let's talk about tipping, since I haven't brought this up since December 2, 2008. This story now has me kind of confused:
If you're ordering in tonight and you live in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, watch out: Some vigilante bicycle delivery guy has set up a blog posting the names and addresses of people who give him crappy tips.
The Tumblr "≤15%: a bunch of shitty tips" is dedicated to outing bad tippers. One entry:
No tip [redacted address] last night, in middle of third monsoon of evening. elevator opens, i drip on floor, he laughs at me. i say 20 dollars, he says here's 20 dollars. [full name redacted]
This seems to be the art project of some dude named Larry Fox. Fox, a "20 year old designer and developer" told Gothamist that "I just got tired of all these big companies, these TV shows and movie sets giving us two or three dollar tips on a $90 order. The excuse is that 'we can't tip because that's what corporate says' is wrong. I find it disrespectful. And I wanted to make people aware of that." Sure, one entry is about Fox getting stiffed by the wardrobe department of the Good Wife, but a lot of these just seem to be like individual cheapskates.
Wait a minute. You're supposed to tip delivery people 15% or above? Fuck, have I been shorting delivery people for years now? I'm a solid 20-percenter in restaurants, but I've always operated under the assumption that you tip delivery people around 10% or so. Is that wrong? Delivery people are supposed to get 15% or more? And isn't it a lot less work to deliver something than to wait on a table for an hour?
Also, I really need an answer to this: How much do you tip when you pick up at the restaurant? I do this a fair amount and I'm always unsure. I usually end up tipping about 10% when I pick up. Sound good?
[OK, you can go back to reading about OBL now.]
I usually tip between 17% and 20% on delivery. I just figure, what's an extra dollar to me? (Note: this is why I will always be poor.) And I ALWAYS tip at least 20%, if not more, if it's raining outside.
ReplyDeleteAs far as picking up food, I usually leave a few bucks. Probably like 12-15%.
Here's my question for you.
When you are FORCED to valet your car in a parking garage, how much are you supposed to tip? When I park at the O'Farrell garage or this other garage on Union Street, I always give them a dollar or two. But when I park in the garages in SOMA (when I drive to work), I don't tip them anything. I'm not sure why...
Man, I can't believe I've been doing it wrong the whole time. I better send the guys at Thailand Restaurant 50 bucks.
ReplyDeleteI always go about $2-$3 for valets, whether it's forced valet or not.
(BTW, someone needs to adopt "forced valet" as a sexual position.)
My policy is: hand a fiver to the delivery guy. I had NEVER thought of a percentage at all, but I guess justified it by assuming it's the same amount of work to bring a little than bring a lot? Is this wrong? Not trying to start some terrible Michael Bauer-style troll baiting, since I'll just say right now that I am currently enjoying a day job as a server so I GET IT OKAY.
ReplyDeleteI am an embarrassing overtipper in restaurants (just ask the bf, but see above re: current day job) but am pretty miserly with pick-up/take-out. I know how much work goes in to packaging and keeping track of all those orders, and yeah, it sucks, but it's just worth a couple bucks, esp. since I'm easy to deal with and, well, nice.
I always make sure to personally tip anyone that's come to my table for a buffet or set menu thing or where you pay at the counter. Open bar bartenders get crazy tips because I want them to be my friends since they have the booze and I'm not paying for it anyway.
One thing I've been doing lately is tipping on the first night of a hotel stay since I have heard that managers assume that guests will tip on the last day and just come collect the tips themselves. Seems to make sense and maybe you'll get extra bars of crappy soap or something. (Yes, I apparently choose sketchy hotels but sometimes it just makes sense on a small island where you're going to be outside all day anyway and the only thing you care about is if the aircon works)
My latest quandary is how much to tip my scuba guides and boat captains, but I'm very okay with that, as it may be my favorite luxury problem to day...
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ReplyDelete