@Eric: It sounds like you have a very good policy on tipping. If there’s something I knew for certain was the waitress’s fault, I’d consider tipping less (although, even then, with the prevalence of pooling tips, I’d be a bit reluctant to hurt the income of the hard-working wait staff).

@Joe: It’s worth remembering tipping and the importance thereof. To say nothing of generosity in general.

@MJ: Double tipping is a serious risk, now that many restaurants add tips to group bills ‘for your convenience’. It’s something you need to keep an eye on to avoid double-tipping.

Many years ago, a 10-year-old boy walked up to the counter of a soda shop and climbed onto a stool. He caught the eye of the waitress and asked, “How much is an ice cream sundae?”
“Fifty cents,” the waitress replied. The boy reached into his pockets, pulled out a handful of change, and began counting. The waitress frowned impatiently. After all, she had other customers to wait on.
The boy squinted up at the waitress. “How much is a dish of plain ice cream?” he asked. The waitress sighed and rolled her eyes. “Thirty-five cents,” she said with a note of irritation.
Again, the boy counted his coins. At last, he said, “I’ll have the plain ice cream, please.” He put a quarter and two nickels on the counter. The waitress took the coins, brought the ice cream, and walked away.
About ten minutes later, she returned and found the ice cream dish empty. The boy was gone. She picked up the empty dish—then swallowed hard.
There on the counter, next to the wet spot where the dish had been, were two nickels and five pennies. The boy had had enough for a sundae, but he had ordered plain ice cream so he could leave her a tip.
- source: Mr. Little John’s Secrets to a Lifetime of Success

@1milchallenge: I’m definitely envious of your non-tipping culture; I’d be much happier (albeit, with a bit less to write about) if tipping weren’t part of the culture here in the US. If you are in the US, you get used to calculating the tip in most of the common tipping situations (or find guides to how much to tip are pretty common).

@Jackie: It does seem to be all but assumed that you will leave a tip, as part of the cost of going out. You’re like me; I try to tip better (in excess of fifteen percent or so) if the service is great, and I have a personal rule about leaving at least three dollars for a tip, even it means giving a thirty percent tip on a low cost meal.

@PureFi: That seems to be the consensus view; nobody seems to be taking the ‘you can leave nothing as a tip if the service is horrible’ position. (Not that I blame them; it’s bad enough to insult one waitress, I wouldn’t want to have every waiter, waitress, and other restaurant worker (to say nothing of everyone who used to work in a restaurant, which seems like most of the population) to plot revenge against me.) Here’s hoping this post inspires people to be a bit more generous with their tipping.

We do tip for exceptional service if we want to, but no one expects you to.

It did do my head in when we visited the USA as to what amount to tip. It woudl be hard knowing how much to tip all the time.
.-= 1milchallenge´s last blog ..What sellers should do from a buyers point of view =-.

Say the convention disappeared tomorrow. Someone rich would start giving a little extra and we’d be off again.

Then again, some tipping doesn’t seem to ‘catch’. I hated having to tip anyone who went near my bags in the US when I was a callow 20-something – here in the UK we’d never tip hotel staff like that. And yet we do tip waiting staff.
.-= Monevator´s last blog ..Weekend reading: Revolting taxes =-.