@ServiceAward

Maybe it sounded worse than it was...but my point was, if you requiring me to tip 20% or 25% and the service was beneath that, then I'm not going to allow for margin of error. Meaning if one of the questions was "were you offered another drink (alcohol) when your glass was 25% full" i would let it slide if it was 10-20% full when asked because they still asked, but not in the case where I'm forced to tip well beyond the service level received.

I am more lenient and allow for slight margin of error 99% of my shops. But in this one instance where the MSC was forcing me to tip excessively, then I made sure to nit pick all the things that did not exactly match what was required on the shop.

What I think is wild is the subminimum wage that's allowed for workers under the age of 20 for anywhere from the first 90-180 days of "training". Perfectly legal to pay a 19 year old $4.25/hr. Oh, there's also a disabled workers wage where you can pay less than minimum wage, too.

I recently saw a Confero shop that required the shopper to tip 20%.

On a buffet shop!

Some of ya'll a really this upset that the people who serve you...working while you're butt is sitting there having fun (don't @ me you know what I mean), are getting a bit more? Cheap so and so's. If paying the wait staff pisses you off so much don't go out. The staff will be much happier to not have cheap-skates around.

The staff won't have jobs! As is currently being seen in cities like Chicago where insane fees are added to the bill and then high tipping percentages are expected. Servers are fighting for hours.... (per conversation with a server at STK who begged for a good Google review as that is how hours are determined)
And no, this wasn't a shop....

@weatherman2111 wrote:

Some of ya'll a really this upset that the people who serve you...working while you're butt is sitting there having fun (don't @ me you know what I mean), are getting a bit more? Cheap so and so's. If paying the wait staff pisses you off so much don't go out. The staff will be much happier to not have cheap-skates around.

California is dealing with this since making fast food workers mandated $20 per hour. These are not tipped positions at McD, etc. But unskilled labor being paid $20 per hour? Guess what, most are WORSE off now. They get less hours and some lose benefits because they have been reduced to part time work. So while Newsom and his clowns in CA govt think they are trying to help, they continue to make things worse.

Govt interference in the free market is rarely a good thing. There are times govt needs to step in, but generally govt is not your friend and does not provide solutions. The business world provides solutions. The govt creates problems.

And btw...i don't care about the tipping part...I will tip $100 if you will reimburse me for it. But don't expect me to tip exorbitantly if I have to come out of pocket to do so. If you are NOT going to cover it and make me go over max reimbursement, I'm going to not be happy about it. It is still my choice to accept the shop or not.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/06/2024 04:28PM by hbbigdaddy.

Do we not still have an unwritten rule for keeping politics out of the MS conversations?

That said, mystery shoppers complaining about regulation not being required is funny. Our pay rate is literally the result of free market economics, and the business world showing how much it cares about us and respects our work.

@SteveSoCal

Not really making it political (but I guess cuz I mentioned a politician by name I might have). I'm not advocating for democratic or republican policies. I'm only stating that a "good intention" by some does NOT solve problems. The business world solves problems. Most bureaucrats lack real world business experience. Amazon found a way to get people the items they need/want without leaving their house and sometimes it can arrive the same day. It became wildly popular with people because they saw a need and addressed. There certainly is a need for USPS to have better, quicker service times. But they don't and wont because the USPS is not really a business.

@viv0412 wrote:

The staff won't have jobs! As is currently being seen in cities like Chicago where insane fees are added to the bill and then high tipping percentages are expected. Servers are fighting for hours.... (per conversation with a server at STK who begged for a good Google review as that is how hours are determined)
And no, this wasn't a shop....

@weatherman2111 wrote:

Some of ya'll a really this upset that the people who serve you...working while you're butt is sitting there having fun (don't @ me you know what I mean), are getting a bit more? Cheap so and so's. If paying the wait staff pisses you off so much don't go out. The staff will be much happier to not have cheap-skates around.

That's because STK sucks. They're trying again out here and no one has liked the place.

The world has decided that 20% is the new 15%. I don’t know how, when or why but 20% is now the baseline.

I agree that servers always want and sometimes appreciate bigger tips but I also agree that they need to earn them with efficiency, schmooze etc.

Just saw the churrascaria (big chain with Texas in it's name) with 15% tip guideline. They specifically state 15% PRE TAX. You can tip more, but they won't reimburse beyond that amount.

Doesn't make sense that percentages would increase. As costs increase, tips increase even with the same percentage.

@hbbigdaddy wrote:

Just saw the churrascaria (big chain with Texas in it's name) with 15% tip guideline. They specifically state 15% PRE TAX. You can tip more, but they won't reimburse beyond that amount.

15% makes sense at the churrascaria because it's somewhere between a buffet (10% average) and full service.

And agreed that the increase in food pricing should cover any required tip increases. Most servers a mid-level and up restaurants in my neighborhood are bringing in six figures. While that's a baseline for 'just getting by' and central Los Angeles, I don't feel like the serving staff are suffering and need additional financial incentives to work. Qualified servers are fighting for positions in those restaurants...

@hbbigdaddy wrote:

California is dealing with this since making fast food workers mandated $20 per hour. These are not tipped positions at McD, etc. But unskilled labor being paid $20 per hour? Guess what, most are WORSE off now. They get less hours and some lose benefits because they have been reduced to part time work.

Correct. This hurt small businesses a lot, since even though they are not required to pay $20 / hour, they can't find anyone to work for less than $20 since they can get that and more at FF now.

@Morledzep wrote:

I feel for servers. Their Federal minimum wage is $2.13 per hour. I will ALWAYS tip, doesn't matter what the quality of the service is. Everybody has bad days, and if a tip brightens their day, then I've made a difference. If the service is exceptional, I'll ask the server who gets the tips. If they are subject to tip sharing (which is illegal), I'll slip them a $20 so that no one can see, and I'll put a 10% tip on the check. I don't much care if the restaurant thinks I'm cheap..

Mystery shopping is different. I'll do the required tip on the check, and if the server does an exceptional job, I'll hand them some cash too (happened once at a Red Lobster that also did tip sharing). But so far, mystery shopped restaurants, like Outback, aren't training their servers and they just don't know what they are supposed to be doing for the customers.

If you make zero tips in a pay period the employer must pay the server the prevailing minimum wage for the state, not $2.13. Tips supplement the hourly minimum wage the employer is to pay.

If they get shamed into tipping, they won't go out. Then less business and money for the server. Many people are forgoing full service establishments now.

@weatherman2111 wrote:

Some of ya'll a really this upset that the people who serve you...working while you're butt is sitting there having fun (don't @ me you know what I mean), are getting a bit more? Cheap so and so's. If paying the wait staff pisses you off so much don't go out. The staff will be much happier to not have cheap-skates around.

They are also taking orders with AI. The people in California aren't smart enough to figure that out...

@BayShopper22 wrote:

@hbbigdaddy wrote:

California is dealing with this since making fast food workers mandated $20 per hour. These are not tipped positions at McD, etc. But unskilled labor being paid $20 per hour? Guess what, most are WORSE off now. They get less hours and some lose benefits because they have been reduced to part time work.

Correct. This hurt small businesses a lot, since even though they are not required to pay $20 / hour, they can't find anyone to work for less than $20 since they can get that and more at FF now.

I just came across a screen where when buying a GC at a fast food place, the tipping screen popped up. The coders are lazy and not coding to bypass for gift card purchases. It's so irritating for a customer to have to go thru extra steps. Now that I'm typing this, I'm getting fired up and might send corporate an email about this and tell them how their competitors do not do this.

I guess my work around would be to pay cash, but i like them credit card rewards!!!

But the nonsense is getting out of hand. It's now like these American companies that are making you press 1 for English. I get that they have customers who might speak other languages, but English should be the DEFAULT in this country. Why do I have to select English. Let the people who what a different language have to make a selection. I highly doubt if I called a company headquartered in another country, that they are making the natives select the native language to proceed.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/08/2024 06:40PM by hbbigdaddy.

Tangential tipping complaint: for the first time on a mystery shop, saw the final charge on my CC and the bill total is $20 above what it was in reality. So, I guess someone decided their large mandatory tip wasn't enough? What a frustrating experience. Wondering if I should let the MSC know.

I will be calling the restaurant to get it corrected.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/08/2024 06:52PM by olympia tennenbaum.

@olympia tennenbaum wrote:

Tangential tipping complaint: for the first time on a mystery shop, saw the final charge on my CC and the bill total is $20 above what it was in reality. So, I guess someone decided their large mandatory tip wasn't enough? What a frustrating experience. Wondering if I should let the MSC know.

I will be calling the restaurant to get it corrected.

I've experienced this on two rare occasions. One was a long time ago back in the late 90's. My friend was charged by an extra $5 on the tip. She didn't care, but it was the principle. She got it resolved through the restaurant.

The second was during a shop last year. The bartender entered a tip of around $10 more. I also had a picture of the receipt where I wrote down the tip. I thought about calling the restaurant, but I never got to it.

@Okie wrote:

@olympia tennenbaum wrote:

Tangential tipping complaint: for the first time on a mystery shop, saw the final charge on my CC and the bill total is $20 above what it was in reality. So, I guess someone decided their large mandatory tip wasn't enough? What a frustrating experience. Wondering if I should let the MSC know.

I will be calling the restaurant to get it corrected.

I've experienced this on two rare occasions. One was a long time ago back in the late 90's. My friend was charged by an extra $5 on the tip. She didn't care, but it was the principle. She got it resolved through the restaurant.

The second was during a shop last year. The bartender entered a tip of around $10 more. I also had a picture of the receipt where I wrote down the tip. I thought about calling the restaurant, but I never got to it.

Yeah. I’m irked about it. There were many issues throughout the experience and this is like the cherry on top. Oh well, it’ll get resolved one way or another.

On the off chance the restaurant doesn’t resolve it, the credit card company will be glad to take care of it.

Had it happen once many, many years ago. I reported it to the MSC and the owner himself called me to get it resolved. He handled it with restaurant and they provided a cockamamie excuse about the waitress accidentally entering the incorrect amount...I call BS, but it was reimbursed with a sincere apology. I think it happens quite often in hopes that customers don't check or don't care. They probably make out quite well until caught.

@MsJudi wrote:

Had it happen once many, many years ago. I reported it to the MSC and the owner himself called me to get it resolved. He handled it with restaurant and they provided a cockamamie excuse about the waitress accidentally entering the incorrect amount...I call BS, but it was reimbursed with a sincere apology. I think it happens quite often in hopes that customers don't check or don't care. They probably make out quite well until caught.

I wrote out the tip amount clearly and also the total clearly so it wasn't like I just wrote the total with an unclear number mix up.

I half feel like contacting the MSC just so they would know that this kind of thing could potentially be happening to others. I also don't feel like being too memorable for the restaurant or the MSC though either. Luckily, this is a first.

I wonder if we use letters instead of numbers if that would help. You cannot change the wording of three into eight. But you can easily make a 3 look like an 8 when using numbers.

I cannot say this has happened to me, or I have NOT noticed, but maybe i will use the words tonight when tipping. It should still be valid.

just an example

total $40.23
tip FIVE DOLLARS AND 77 CENTS
total $46.00.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/08/2024 09:57PM by hbbigdaddy.

Back in the day, I was taught to write it like a check. Fill up the whole field. Write the cents in small numbers with a line underneath, so people can't forge the decimal into a comma and what not. Then cross out the remaining space. I don't go to those lengths anymore, but I do write the amount in a way, so that if someone were to forge it, it would look oddly suspicious.

Since we're talking about tipping...

I went to a concert (Black Stone Cherry, if anybody's wondering) last night in Austin, and I took an Uber to and from. The first lady was nice, nothing wrong there at all. After she dropped me off, I left her the suggested 15% tip (the ride was $23.) The guy who took me home, well....his car was nice (from what I could tell - it was dark) and seemed newer (it had a huge display screen like what they put in a Tesla), but the interior smelled REALLY bad. I mean, 'roll the window down and hang your head out like a dog' bad. When Uber sent me an email afterward to add a tip on the $19 ride, the amount that was recommended wasn't a percentage but rather $1. I feel bad for leaving that amount, but then I also feel like making sure your car isn't rank on the inside is a basic thing a rideshare driver should be doing. (Maybe Cool can back me up on that statement.)

Thoughts? What would y'all have done?

@drdoggie00 ....could have been the driver that smelled bad. I've had that!

Usually Uber suggests $1, $3, $5 to me. Might depend on the app or a driver preference.

Tipping with Uber will affect your rating, BTW. If you are regularly stiffing drivers, you may find it harder to get a ride in the future....

I may have ordered Uber Eats around 500 times, but have only completed one Uber ride on my own. For Uber Eats, I will always tip. My one Uber ride, this was over four years ago right before the pandemic. It was a ride to the dealership to pickup my car that had been towed earlier in the day for service. I enjoyed the conversation, as he told me a similar experience with his car having to going to the shop and how he does Uber on the side. I may have rounded up on the suggested tip. I do remember rating him as high as I could. Opening the Uber App, I see a 5.00 rating for myself.

I had brunch today (not a shop) and the suggested tip was 30%. While the service was decent, I was annoyed by this and self calculated my own tip of 15%. 30% is crazy... unless the server saved my life from choking.

I remember back in the late 90s, i went to a Lake Tahoe diner/cafe (in the casino) after skiing for the day. Was there with 2 buddies. One had money and the other did not. The one who did not brought a loaf of bread and jar of peanut butter on the trip in his suitcase so he could make PBJ sandwiches while on the slopes. He didn't really have extra money to spend. BTW he didn't bring this into the cafe. Just to clarify, it was in the room.

Anyways, we are at cafe and he orders something for like $2 or $3 and wants to live a tip of 15%. So he counted it out exactly and left and headed back to the room. My other buddy was like WTF? They didn't know each other, but I had to explain the behavior.

My point is that percentage is not always a rule. If I go out for Monday Night Football and sit there for 3 hours of the game and only spend $10, I'm tipping more than 15 or 20% since I occupied a table for 3 hours and probably ran the server ragged with my soda refills. Also when I'm in Vegas and get comped on a meal, I might leave more because it didn't cost me anything. But if it's crap service, I won't leave extra. i agree 30% for a brunch that probably cost a decent amount is absurd.

It's almost getting to the point where I want to order takeout when not doing a shop so I do not feel like I have to tip. I do not tip for walk-up service unless something extraordinary occurs.