[paladin]

tipping can be seen as insulting in some areas.. france was one of these places

[Morgoth]

paladin;256813 said:

tipping can be seen as insulting in some areas.. france was one of these places

your nationality is an insult in france

I understand it being more important to tip in the us were minimum salaries are awfull, but why people expect tip no matter what is still beyond me.

I was at a resturant in Chicago that added a 15% tip to the basic bill. That really pissed me off. If you want my money, earn it

[Mulliman]

Well "Europe" is a pretty vague word for generalizations. Different countries have different tipping cultures.

[ch'arlz]

my daughter works in a restaurant here in the u.s. to help pay for her car insurance. people in for lunch tip very poorly, whilst people in the evening are generally more generous. when i was a teenager many moons ago, 10 percent was expected if the table had actual tablecloth and napkins. anything higher was for good service. that's escalated today to 20 percent.

[Menandore]

I spent a year of uni in canada and I can remember the first day there we all went into town for a drink and when I went to the bar to order I was so confused. I couldn't understand for the life of me why everyone else was leaving money on the bar. I actually had to ask someone I was with what they were doing. It never even occured to me that you would tip bar staff. Although it is quite an important point that in a british pub or club you never get table service. Never. You go to the bar and order and take the drinks to the table yourself. That's just how it is. For table service I wouldn't mind leaving a tip. Well, a small tip. Maybe.

The thing is, it is the employer's duty to pay their staff. The employer, not the customer. It's been said already and I agree, you tip waiters to encourage good service. You are essentially paying the bill for the food and giving a tip if you recieved good service with it. I was out last week with a couple of friends. The service was awful. We ordered three meals and were brought two plus a whole list of things they did wrong. Did we tip them the usual 10%? Did we hell, they got nothing.

As for hotels, well I've never really stayed in a hotel where they've carried the bags to your room so it's never really been an issue for me. Cabbies, I'll sometimes round up the fare, sometimes not, depends on what mood I'm in.

$8/hour is quite low but it's not that much below minimum wage. Here it's somewhere around £5-6 I think ($10-12). But what's the cost of living like in the US? What sort of rent are you paying etc? Last I remember petrol for one thing was dirt cheap. Clothes too. Don't know about food and booze.

[Optimus Prime]

Wow thanks for all the responses guys.

Fascinating.

So from what I'm gathering....

1. Tipping is very different from here in the US
2. Service workers get a higher wage
3. Hotel workers are not usually tipped.
4. Tipping is offensive in France? :eek:
5. Europeans hate Americans (j/k)

@Menandore---Rent here in San Diego is expensive. A crappy, 1 room studio can be 1000 dollars a month. I pay 800 but I got a deal from a guy I work with

[Menandore]

@Xander - 800 a month where I live is nonexistent without sharing or living in a shithole. Here for a studio you're looking at probably 1000 minimum, more likely 1200-1300. In the city centre it's just silly money, like 2000+. I have to admit though the rest of the country is far more reasonable and if you go to scotland it's very cheap, like 1200 for a nice 2bed flat in one of the nicest areas of edinburgh. I'd be surprised though if the cost of living was as high in america as it is here. A german friend of mine refers to us as "rip-off britain".

[Optimus Prime]

Isn't all pretty much the same though?

If minimum wage where you live is 12-13 dollars...and here it is 8 dollars...then the rent isn't that different.

1000 a month here gets you a shitty apartment. I got an AMAZING deal because the guy I work with is retired and doesn't need the money. The Apartment I'm living in should be rented out for around 1400-1600 a month at least.

[Menandore]

that's my point though. By the time you factor in the lower living costs, in real terms your hotel/bar/restaurant staff aren't getting any worse paid than here so why the demand for tips even when service is bad?

[Optimus Prime]

You'll have to actually crunch the numbers. Find out what people in the service industry make and then we can figure it out. I've been told by a friend from ireland that the bellmen in hotels there make about double what they do here.

[caladanbrood]

Aye, and you've got stuff like petrol, which is now over £1 per litre, whereas it's only like $1 in the US, no?

[Astra]

Morgoth;256818 said:

I was at a resturant in Chicago that added a 15% tip to the basic bill. That really pissed me off. If you want my money, earn it

Heh. I experienced the same bout of madness 2 week ago. We went to see a show in London, then we went to a Cuban restaurant (my wife had a moment of nostalgia after Christams holidays). When we got a bill, it included 12% for tips with a note which stated that if we were not satisfied with the service we could claim the tips back. My wife asked me not to do it because the waitress was a nice girl and my wife didn't want waitress's boss to get mad at her...will I go to this restaraunt again or advise anyone else to visit? Never.

[Optimus Prime]

caladanbrood;256866 said:

Aye, and you've got stuff like petrol, which is now over £1 per litre, whereas it's only like $1 in the US, no?

I have no idea what you are talking about. Fuel? per litre? Remember we don't use the same measurements (because we're stupid) so I have no idea what that means and am too lazy to look it up.

Gas right now where I live is well over 3 dollars per gallon. Jesus...I remember when I was 16 and had my first car. Gas was like 65 cents.

[paladin]

Morgoth;256818 said:

your nationality is an insult in france

i was actually treated very well in france. im built like a football player and i got "wow! big american football player! you are so strong!" etc etc. then again, i have other friends that will go to europe and claim to be canadian, wont wear denim(because its indicative of an american?), etc.

Xander said:

Wow thanks for all the responses guys.

Fascinating.

So from what I'm gathering....

1. Tipping is very different from here in the US
2. Service workers get a higher wage
3. Hotel workers are not usually tipped.
4. Tipping is offensive in France? :eek:
5. Europeans hate Americans (j/k)

as far as hotel workers, ill tip the concierge or bellman. not the desk worker though.

as far as tips in france, i believe its already factored into the price of everything and i think its unexpected. so when you do it they're like "huh?". but this was a while back, so maybe im just being stupid and remembering wrong. just seems like something i remember learning first hand and in my french culture classes

[Hume]

Aussies dont tip.

They are already getting paid 'x' amount anyway. Why should I be a small part of their salary?

[Kalahinen]

Tipping is almost unheard of in Finland. We hardly ever even let anyone 'keep the change' (to save us the effort of handling some coins)...and no-one expects you to.

[Lost Marine]

I tip everywhere I go, I even tip homeless people for doing such a good job at being dirty and crazy.

As for the rent issue, I don't rent anymore, but I bought a 4 bedroom house with 3 bathrooms, 2 garages, and 2 Acres of land and my mortgage payment is only 1050 a month. So the price of living is definately lower where I am.

So ya'll should all move here and live in my empty bedrooms and we can have a Malazan commune just like the hippies, only nerdier.

[Aptorian]

Jesus christ that sounds cheap, but you don't live in a city or a suburb then? Cause that would be ridiculous.

[Obdigore]

I have walked out of a resteraunt and left a 1c tip for the fabulous drink service (there were 2 tables with people at them in the resteraunt, we waited for 45 minutes for EGGS AND FLIPPEN WAFFLES), and they never came...

Anyway, I generally tip 10-15%, more if its GREAT service, I was a waiter, I know how shitty they are paid here in the US, and I know what its like to get stiffed in tips because the person is a moron. When you get great tips from every single table you work with except from the 1 person that is in there almost daily, and always orders a milkshake (which we made from scratch thank you very much), and on 25$ in food, he leaves a quarter, no matter who waited on him.... How I longed to do nasty things to his food.

I mean, I don't tip at fast food resteraunts or anything... or buffets (they bring the drinks oh noes!), but I do if I sit down and order something... I admit I do tip less if I have a couple bottled beers then if they are making me a drink or something...

[Coco with marshmallows]

Xander;256944 said:

I have no idea what you are talking about. Fuel? per litre? Remember we don't use the same measurements (because we're stupid) so I have no idea what that means and am too lazy to look it up.

Gas right now where I live is well over 3 dollars per gallon. Jesus...I remember when I was 16 and had my first car. Gas was like 65 cents.

1 litre = 0.22 gallons. (or 4.55 litres per gallon)

£1per litre (minimum) = £4.55 per gallon

£1 = $1.95 at present.

british fuel price for one gallon = $8.87 approximately.

does that help?