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The Fake $10 Tip Has Gone Mainstream


Alecto

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I think that this is one of the worse things about tipping with tracts. Because of the tax thing, it is basically robbing the server.

I tend to think that this happens more often in lower end restaurants like Perkins and Denny's. I doubt that it is done much in higher end restaurants.

I also think it happens often in those restaurants.

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My dear departed mother's family owned a bar back before I was born. Mom raised me to tip well out of respect for how difficult working at a restaurant can be. Even when we pay with a credit card we leave a cash tip for the server. It's just the decent thing to do.

Tricking someone into thinking you've left them a nice tip only to have it turn out to be a tract is a very unkind thing to do, and if I saw someone do that, I would be very tempted to punch their teeth out.

I also do that too, if I pay with a debit or credit card. Last year I got a one of those chain emails about suggestions for random acts of kindness for Christmas time and one of the suggestions is to overtip a server. On Christmas Eve last year, my boyfriend was flying in that night from a business trip. I spent Christmas Eve alone for the most part. I decided to eat at a restaurant near the airport and I decided to leave behind a $10 tip. I was glad I got that email and if I ever eat out again on a holiday, I will overtip.

Jon Acuff at SCL wrote about this a few years back and some people left pissed off comments

http://www.jonacuff.com/stuffchristians ... h-a-tract/

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I also think it happens often in those restaurants.

Back when I worked at Bill Knapp's (it was a not-all-night Dennys, known for birthday cakes and our customers were young families and old people) it happened a lot. Of course, so did using the coupon to get the meal amount down to $3 and so tipping $0.30. :roll:

I had an obnoxious fundie pastor at that time who gets some brownie points for pointing out to people that *IF* they felt the need to leave a fake $20 tract, they sure as hell better leave a *REAL* $20 on the table too.

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It's 'captive audience' syndrome. They are a bunch of cowards. They KNOW the wait staff is very unlikely to be able to say anything back, and then they can wander off and brag to their friends about what a good Christian they are. ` I've worked in retail for years, and every once in a while you get some dick who starts in on the 'is Jesus Christ your personal savior' bit (or politics) because they know you can't say anything negative back without risking loosing your job. it's a safe bet for them, and they get to stroke their own ego's.

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Back when I worked at Bill Knapp's (it was a not-all-night Dennys, known for birthday cakes and our customers were young families and old people) it happened a lot. Of course, so did using the coupon to get the meal amount down to $3 and so tipping $0.30. :roll:

If I get a particularly cheap meal I'll tip a higher percentage. For instance, I once split a £7.50 pizza with a friend and we both drank tap water, but we paid a 20-25% tip on it.

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I also do that too, if I pay with a debit or credit card. Last year I got a one of those chain emails about suggestions for random acts of kindness for Christmas time and one of the suggestions is to overtip a server. On Christmas Eve last year, my boyfriend was flying in that night from a business trip. I spent Christmas Eve alone for the most part. I decided to eat at a restaurant near the airport and I decided to leave behind a $10 tip. I was glad I got that email and if I ever eat out again on a holiday, I will overtip.

Jon Acuff at SCL wrote about this a few years back and some people left pissed off comments

http://www.jonacuff.com/stuffchristians ... h-a-tract/

I always put the tip on the debit card. Don't the servers get the tip regardless? We tip twenty percent so if this is a problem, I want to know so that I can change my habits.

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what people need to understand:

1- this is extremely rude and upnoxious. fake $10-bills as much as the anti-abortion cards. who says their beliefs are better than other peoples' beliefs, or lack thereof? what would they say if the card was "atheism. see the truth NOW" or something like that?

2- this is gonna make for more atheists, if anything. because christians might reconsider their beliefs after finding out with what kind of people they have to share them.

3-you can NOT make other believe something you want them to believe. stuff like that needs to come from within.

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it's funny because some of my friends who think they have really good manners still go with the 10%-tipping-rule and then they explain to me it's "american style" because we don't usually tip that much (by far).

they are usually very irritated when i educate them on 20% being the norm more than ten.

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I always put the tip on the debit card. Don't the servers get the tip regardless? We tip twenty percent so if this is a problem, I want to know so that I can change my habits.

I don't think it is a problem and the servers do get the tips. The reason I leave a cash tip is more because I'm really used to doing it, even though I don't use cash to pay for meals.

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I always put the tip on the debit card. Don't the servers get the tip regardless? We tip twenty percent so if this is a problem, I want to know so that I can change my habits.

This is not a problem. Yes, the server gets the tip. In most restaurants, credit/debit card tips go on the server's paycheck. Cash tips go home with the server the same day/evening. Either way, they get it.

If it is a restaurant (like Bob Evans or Cracker Barrel, etc) where you pay the cashier instead of the server taking your card, they may not know immediately who left what in the way of tips.

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If I ever go to America I will leave a big tip if I go to a restaurant. Along with details of how to join a union.

I am not aware of any unionized restaurant employees in the US. (There may be some; I just don't know of any).

Restaurant employees are greatly taking unfair advantage of, and this includes, actually may be even worse, the people in the "management" positions. Someday, maybe I will elaborate; can't right now. My son-in-law is a restaurant "manager"; it would take a book to write it all down, what he and his family are dealing with right now.

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My problem with leaving a cash tip is that I don't know how much I will spend at the restaurant. I have no idea what 20% will be until I get the bill.

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What a terrible unchristian thing to do. Waitstaff in so many states do not make minimum wage; they can be paid as little as 2.03 per hour and really depend on their tips.

That's ridiculous, at that level it's wage slavery. In this country a 21 year old waitress would be paid a minimum of £6 (about $9.5) an hour, and more likely something around £8 ($12.5). I know some people who have got in trouble for not tipping in America, because over here you only do so for something extra good. I would if I was in America because I know the situation, but at the same time I don't think it should be up to me to choose whether or not the server can afford to eat dinner that evening.

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I always put the tip on the debit card. Don't the servers get the tip regardless? We tip twenty percent so if this is a problem, I want to know so that I can change my habits.

I think in some restaurants if you leave a cash tip it goes directly to the server you had but a card tip goes to a pool that's divided up, so if you want to tip extra because you think the person did a particularly good job, it's probably better to leave it on the table.

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I think in some restaurants if you leave a cash tip it goes directly to the server you had but a card tip goes to a pool that's divided up, so if you want to tip extra because you think the person did a particularly good job, it's probably better to leave it on the table.

Some restaurants do require servers to "tip out" a % to bussers and bar tenders. This is usually a % of the check totals and is one more way a server can go in the hole if people do not tip. Tip outs or tip sharing is not related to whether the tip is cash or credit/debit card; it is, however, easier for a server to lie and hide part of cash tips. (Because of this, tax law requires "reported" tips to at least equal a certain % of the total amount of the checks. This is tracked by the restaurants' software programs).

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When I do restaurant work these days, I only work in fine-dining. That's because I have a *lot* of experience in the field, and I am older than the average waiter. In fine-dining, waiters are typically paid with a weekly check that includes credit card tips, minus tip-outs. I have worked in restaurants where these tip-outs are as high as 42 percent of a waiter's tips. Not unusual, and usually worth it, if support staff is good.

In these places, front-of-house generally prefer credit card tips, because the paycheck totals are higher. This helps if a person is trying to establish credit, buy a house/car, etc.

At "casual dining" or "casual fine-dining" places, waiters get cash at the end of each shift, and that is why you'll see so many college students and the like working at those places. Ready, instant cash is wonderful for lots of people. I like it, too, but, IMO, "pool-houses" keep people honest and tend to promote teamwork.

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Some restaurants do require servers to "tip out" a % to bussers and bar tenders. This is usually a % of the check totals and is one more way a server can go in the hole if people do not tip. Tip outs or tip sharing is not related to whether the tip is cash or credit/debit card; it is, however, easier for a server to lie and hide part of cash tips. (Because of this, tax law requires "reported" tips to at least equal a certain % of the total amount of the checks. This is tracked by the restaurants' software programs).

That's actually one of the reasons I tend to tip on the card...

I was a busser.

I got screwed by horrid waitresses. cards left me a papertrail.

The entire thing is just screwy.

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I just saw the other day in a restaurant an official sign that said a waiter had to make a min. of minimum wage an hour. If a waitress didn't make enough in tips plus what she gets paid an hour, the restaurant is supposed to make up for it but I am pretty sure that is largely isgnored.

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I just saw the other day in a restaurant an official sign that said a waiter had to make a min. of minimum wage an hour. If a waitress didn't make enough in tips plus what she gets paid an hour, the restaurant is supposed to make up for it but I am pretty sure that is largely isgnored.

way back when, the restaurant would 'make it right'...and pay the difference.

But you had to pay back into the pool the next time you made MORE than min. wage.

So, sure, they 'loaned' you that money, but it wasn't exactly helpful.

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i waited tables for years in college (er, and after...).

i was paid 2.63/hour, plus tips.

regardless of how much i ACTUALLY made in tips on any given shift, i was taxed on 10% of my total sales AND i had to "tip out" a standard % of my sales to bussers, bar, and expeditors.

Those tax amounts and tip-out amounts had nothing to do with how much i actually made in tips...there were all a percentage of sales. I usually did okay (it was a mid to upper-range restaurant), but there were a LOT of folks who truly seemed to believe that it was the proper thing to tip a dollar per person. (which it may have been, 40 years ago, when $1 per person really was 15-20% of the tab).

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The whole "punishment for working on the Sabbath" thing is ridiculous. If they don't want people working on the Sabbath, how about not patronizing places that are open on Sunday. If you want to go out to eat after church, somebody has to be at work on Sunday. You can't have it both ways.

I always make sure to leave a good tip. I tend to go out to eat with big groups of noisy college students, and I want to make sure the waiters know we're not cheap assholes just because we're young. If I had some desire to leave tracts, I would leave them in addition to the tip.

ETA: I just want to say that not all low-tippers are religious nuts or cheapskates. Some people, like my dad, just don't understand that things cost more now than they did in 1975. My mom is always having to remind him that no, 10% is not an adequate tip.

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Generally if you put your tip on a card and the server is the cashier, the tip money is deducted from any cash the server has taken in for meals at the end of the night when they cash out. I seem to remember somehow reconciling the charge slip to reflect the tip either on the pos or the charge/debit authorizing machine.

Also, in California I was paid minimum wage and taxed on 8% of sales to compensate for tips, which was deducted from my paycheck.

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When I worked as a waitress, the business I worked for would make up for our tips to minimum wage. However, if they had to do it more than three times then we would be fired, as they would assume we were lousy waitresses (instead of working in a small town in Oklahoma). So if we didn't make enough tips to make minimum wage, we 'lied up' to prevent being written up for having a bad night.

From what I have heard, some restaurants are charged fees to change the credit card, and they pass those fees along to servers, so I try to tip cash. I never go out or order in unless I can tip at least 25%, which is my own personal rule and partially due to superstition involving Tip Karma.

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it's funny because some of my friends who think they have really good manners still go with the 10%-tipping-rule and then they explain to me it's "american style" because we don't usually tip that much (by far).

Uhhhh, really? That's so gauche. 20% all the way.

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