Guest

Remember that the 140 dollar auto grat doesn't just go to the server. The bussers, bartenders, food runners all get tipped out of that. so the server could end up with far less than 18% which is the standard auto grat in Ma. I've seen many large parties forget to leave a tip at all, thinking that it was another guest who was covering the it. In other cases a party will take up half the dining room or a servers whole section without being able to get a single turn out of it, so in effect the only opportunity for the server to make money is from the one table which may or may not remember to tip. It is understandable to be upset at the quality of your food, but the kitchen staff is paid per hour and doesn't work for tips. To reduce the amount of your tip because your food was sub par or because it was delivered by food runners and your plates cleared by bussers is crass to say the least. And a quick note on the "top 12 expectations" of service. I always tip 20% regardless if a server knows my name or delivers my drink in less than one minute. Be serious. All of the industry people I know in Massachusetts do the same.

Guest

While I too agree that the tip is not solely the server's, (the bussers and bartenders get a chunk) it is important to keep in mind the premise of the initial post. Adding an automatic gratuity has BIG risks. In my years 10 years as a server and my subsequent 22 years as an owner I cannot recall an inordinate number of times when a server did not do better than the 18% add-on would have netted. This is a business of numbers and all servers everywhere would be better off to keep their attention focused on the guest rather than the tip. Judging a week's pay by the party or by the shift is unfair and unwise. Dividing the tips by the number of hours worked at the end of the week is the only way to access what you make. Win some, lose some... it's all part of the game.

Guest

I truly understand the policy of automatic gratuity for large tables. The key here is that the customer still retain the right to decrease or increase the amount if desired without any hassle whatsoever. Why two managers needed to be involved, I do not understand. Simply allow the customer to change the amount and move on. Insisting on forcing a customer to tip is short-sighted and foolish.

Guest

I recently ate at a "communal-run" restaurant where an 18% tip is added to all bills. A month earlier, the restaurant had moved into a larger space, and had hired a lot of new service staff -- but had clearly not fully trained the newbies. Our waiter, alas, was one of them, and although charming enough, had apparently been raised by wolves. He put in the order such that appetizers and main courses were delivered (by runners) all at once -- and had no idea he'd done anything wrong. (We didn't yell at him, but the manager -- hearing of our distress from the runners -- comped us to desserts.) This is a situation where a low tip may have helped him to wonder if he had, perhaps, done something wrong. Unfortunately, he still got his automatic 18%.

Guest

As a former server, bartender, manager and now restaurant owner I have a few thoughts on auto-grat. My first waiting job was with a Marriott property where the guest paid an 18% service charge on everything...their hotel room, food and beverage, golf... They were told that tipping was not necessary at any outlet and we were informed that if caught soliciting a tip we would be fired. I cannot believe I ever took the job but did and work my tail off for 3 years before the policy was changed to the traditional system. I did make $8/hr but I knew I could make 3 times that in a tipped situation. What I witnessed and what later changed the system was incentive. What incentive did I or any other server have to give anything other than average service, like the cooks my pay was the same whether the food or service was good or not. I know that there were times, hungover or tired, that I did not give quality service but I would like to believe that I exceeded my guests expectations. The policy at my place is if a party of 8 or more would like separate checks then the server has the option of adding the grat. If a party of 100 comes in and is willing to put everthing on one bill then they determine the tip. My reasoning is that separating checks for large parties is time consuming for the server and the guests never seem to understand that and will take it out on the server. I give the guest the option which they seem to appreciate. What I have never understood is why 10 or 12 friends can't take turns picking up the check, nothing is more aggrivating than customers bickering over a glass of tea or side of fries that they didn't have but is on their check. And of course, if a guest ever told me that they did not recieve service worthy of the auto-grat, I will take it off and my staff knows that. Jason Newsom Big Daddy's Grill

Jeffrey Summers (Hurst)

I really don’t understand why this issue and issues like it are made to be more complicated than they really are.

A tip is for service rendered – period. It is either below expectations, at expectations or exceeds expectations. You get compensated accordingly.

This will have nothing to do with how long I’ve been “in the business” and as such I should be more able to “feel your pain” for the “victimization” you feel from your choosing to be in this industry at your position. You will get tipped based only on how well you conduct my experience.

"Being in the business" is also no reason to subsidize poor and sometimes downright rude behavior. And whether or not the service was "usually" good or not or that some good or bad incident happened once to a cousin's friend 15 years ago is irrelevant.

An auto-gratuity is not a legally mandated payment demand for the guest - policy or not - Massachusetts or not - 18% or not. The only legal requirement is that if your house has an auto-gratuity policy, that you must enforce it consistently on all check sizes you post the notice about.

Provide my guests and I with a stellar experience and I’ll tip appropriately - and I’ll be the one who defines appropriately!

Amateurs continue to whine about this “problem” while pros just continue to provide outstanding service and make really great money.

Guest

I am a restaurant owner and my restaurant has been in my family for over 80 years. We have never added a gratuity to a check automatically for a certain number of guests. It's bad for business...period. When I go to a restaurant and see this on the menu it tells me that the service is not that good and it usually isn't. When you have to add this to your menu it shows you have no trust in your servers.

Guest

I am amazed that you do not have the right to remove a service charge in the US if the quality of it has been so lacking; in the UK, by law, you do not have to pay a service charge if you do not wish to, it can never be made compulsory even though it is displayed on the menu.

Guest

That last comment was not intended to be anonymous.

Richard, Earl of Bradford - Owner of Porters English Restaurant in London's Covent Garden and Vice Chairman of the Restaurant Association of Great Britain.

Guest

SERVICE TIP: Expectations & Remarkable Service

Well… BOB…

Your using the word “never” indicates you obviously have not worked a waiter station lately. In case you have not noticed, most restaurant operations are not of a $150+ per guest check average that affords the additional abundance of service staff (most paid at minimum wage less tip-credit) to meet your every whim.

Most chain operations are bottom-line driven, which is why shift managers often are required to run hourly sales reports to track sales verses cost comparisons. With the downturn economy, dramatic drop in restaurant sales, shocking increase in operating costs (and not just minimum wage), most waiters are working 2-4 more tables per station. The elevated demand of effectively serving more guests with the same resources falls into the business profile of, ‘law of diminishing returns”. More is not better. More is less. Over the years, the “table-pig” was looked at with contempt. Now having more tables than one can properly service is becoming the norm.

So by the numbers:

1. The are no labor dollars available to train staff on product knowledge.
2. My uniform is a t-shirt and jeans for the same reason in #1 above: $
3. Your timely greeting was delayed because the “do all” POS system just crashed and I couldn’t process the 4-separate checks for my customers (ahead of you) trying to get to the airport on time.
4. I know the world record for the 100-meter dash is under 10-seconds: It takes 20-seconds to ring in your order… it’s 35-meters round trip from you to the bar and a good bartender can make your drink in 30-seconds. Sorry I couldn’t break the “1-minute bar barrier”.
5. The appetizer order was late because it was “eaten” by the outdated printer (Again see #1: $)
6. Your refill didn’t come with a “fresh” glass because we cannot afford more stock of the cheap affordable glassware that breaks easily.
7. I’ll come to your table armed with a good attitude to inform you every 15-minutes that your order is taking much longer than expected so you can glare at me while I smile back at you.
8. I presented the check before you ordered dessert or an after dinner drink because my owner instructed me to as he needs to turn the table to generate the additional revenue to stay open and keep us both employed.
9. I disappeared after you paid your check because my manager was after me to get my side-work done and off his clock. I was costing him labor.
10. About those automatic refills that NEVER become an empty glass… BOB… you know we are engaged in a major war overseas, the southwest USA has major a threat of regional water shortage, Bennigan’s just closed 176-units putting thousands of people out of work.
11. Ten is enough.

I was disappointed in BOB’s latest blog. For whatever reason… he came elite, pompous, and pretentious.

BOB…
now that we’re such close friends and on a first name basis, you can call me Paul.

Paul Paz - www.WaitersWorld.com

Guest

“RULES are fine.... as long as they don't apply to me!”

Our industry has such a poor reputation for having so many jobs that cannot support individuals let alone families. "Nickel and diming" is a common characteristic of those of us in the industry no matter what your position.

Yes... waiters can make a living well beyond a "living wage". Would it help our industry image in staff recruitment and retention by reducing the earnings potiential of the only hourly class (tipped employees) that can make a descent income? The alternative is to marginalize tipped employees' and create a new restaurant industry image: NO hourly jobs in restaurants will provide income levels that will support a person to live independently.

It gets tiresome listening and arguing about tips. Owners complain about waiters who have that sense of “entitlement” when it comes to how much customers leave for a tip. But often operators suffer that same sense of “entitlement” for tips that the customers did not intend for the owners.

As far as all those undeclared tips: that is a shrinking concept with the advance of technology. That has confirmed with the elevated IRS audits of restaurant books and tipped staff followed with huge fines and penalties for both!

One only has to look back that the history of not declaring tips was the invention of restaurant owners. Remember the good old days when it was "understood" that the owner would never pay you more than minimum wage and reduce paid wages further with tip-credit laws? (Actually, that exists today.) The trade off was the employers would turn a blind-eye to ANY undeclared tips. In some instances, tipped employees had the choice of working off the clock at no wage just to get more floor time to earn tip income paid by the customers. It was revenue for the owners with no employment taxes. Their employees work for no wage but no taxes credited for tip income. Weren’t we all fat and happy then!

The owners change the dynamics in the early 1980’s when they made “a deal with the devil”, namely the IRS, by giving up undeclared tips in exchange for keeping the deductions for business meals and entertainment dining 100% deductible. But it blew up in their faces when the clever industry leadership, lawyers, and lawmakers missed the employers’ FICA tax liability on undeclared tips.

After years in the US court system and millions in attorney’s fees for the owners, both the owners and tipped employees got their butts kicked. Talk about karma!

How copper wire was invented? Restaurant owners and tipped employees fighting over a penny.

Like I said at the start of this post: “RULES are fine.... as long as they don't apply to me!”

Paul Paz – www.WaitersWorld.com

Guest

It blows my mind when management is so short sighted as to not see an opportunity to be the good guy. Policy Schmolicu! You make the rules so you are allowed to break them. Do whatever it takes to make this guy happy! He is reasonable in his disappointment. Grab the moment to be compassionate and make this guy proud of the industry he's also in!
Betsy Fischer, Restaurant Management/Culinary Arts Program, Santa Rosa Junior College

Guest

Solve the problem quickly by removing the the auto gratuity. Make him smile,
let him decide the gratuity.
The problem in the first place was the sever implementing the gratuity (this
is obvious).
Management can train an individual in do's and don't, then tell staff they
expect them to be an adult an act responsible. But the fact is expecting
that will only cause mishaps. Management must keep a close Eye on their
staff to insure the service is implemented exactly the way it is intended.
Absence of an authority figure is when thing go wrong. People tend to do as
little as possible as long as they can get away with it. There must be some
one in control at all times on the floor in order to execute the service
required by the business. Excellent service equals money for both severs and
business owners. Acceptable service equals less money for both and
unacceptable service, well you get the idea.
Thank you,
Tyra

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