Britpick Question

[amberfocus]

What's the deal on tipping?  Do you tip the bartender?  Or is tipping just a no go in Britain (I think I read that somewhere)?

Comments

[draconin.livejournal.com]

The difference in Australia and, I think, in the UK too is that a server's wage is NOT calculated on the basis that a large portion of it is going to be made up of tips. We tend to tip rarely in Australia and generally in return for unusually good service, not as a simple expectation. Certainly that image you see in movies of hotel servants/bus boys routinely & blatantly holding out their hand for a tip after simply delivering your bags to your room would NOT happen here. In fact if anyone tried that on me (*expecting* a tip and being so brazen about it that they refused to leave the room and held their hand out) I'd put in an official complaint to their boss! Unfortunately this is slowly changing in Australia (as with many other things) under the influence of Hollywood and I've noticed that people are tending to routinely tip more. I don't think this is a good thing and resist it. To me, as I said, you tip when someone does something you *notice*, not just when they're doing their job!! I do understand though that this is different in the US where they don't get paid enough without the tips, so when I was over there I made an effort to tip as expected.
ETD: When I was in Orlando I went out to an expensive steak restaurant. I was very unimpressed with both the service and the meal and did not tip at all. When they brought out the slip to pay by credit card I left the gratuity box unticked, leaving the bill as it was. I was extremely angry to find back in Australia that they had added a 25%!!!! tip to the total without my permission (on a bill that was already over $100 for one person) and appealed against it with the credit card company. Unfortunately the difficulty was that I wasn't claiming that it wasn't a legit bill, just that they'd overcharged and nothing happened. I'm still very angry about it though.

[julisana.livejournal.com]

In the future, when in america, strike a line through the tip field or put a 0 in there. Some places assume an empty tip field means that you just didn't add it on to the total value of the meal and will "fill it out for you". Which is complete bullshit, but it happens.

If you expressly mark the field as 0, it leaves no room for question.

[corusca.livejournal.com]

I live in Orlando - out of curiosity, where was this? So I know not to frequent :)

[draconin.livejournal.com]

Oh, good Lord! We're talking twelve years ago now so even if I could remember their name they're probably not still around or under the same management.

No, don't worry: I liked Orlando - mainly I must admit due my being a space nut and going to Kennedy Space Centre being the pilgrimage of a life time. :-) I got to touch a moon rock!!!!! :-D

[corusca.livejournal.com]

Ohhh okay, haha.

Despite living here for almost 3 years, I've yet to go out to Kennedy Space Center! I WOULD like to touch a moon rock though...hmn....

[corusca.livejournal.com]

Also, on behalf of my city, I'm sorry. Unfortunately service tends to suffer when the servers know that you're not going to become a regular :-/