Is it appropriate for restaurant servers to ask for tips? What would you do if you were asked to tip?

WhisperBlade: Is it appropriate for restaurant servers to ask for tips? What would you do if you were asked to tip?
Assuming you are in a restaurant with your friends, and you were paying the bill. You were a little sloppy and tipped less than usual. Instead of taking that tip, the employees ‘suggest’ that a 10% tip was more appropriate, implying, or asking, you to pay more tips.

Is this acceptable behavior from servers? What would you do?

Answers and Views:

Answer by W.T.C
If You Only payed like a dollar or two and you were rude or difficult than yes. But If Not then no.

Answer by Protect America from Republicans
depends which country you are in

in america, a 15% tip is expected for good service

if you tipped 5% then i see why the server asked but they are not supposed to

i always tip 15% unless it is awful service then i would tip much less and explain why

these people only make like 3 dollars an hour plus tips

Answer by tom4bucs
have never had it mentioned in any restaurant about my tipping

except when we got GREAT service and I left 20%
(the IRS figures 17-18%)
they were there to clean the table up as we walked away and
they acknowledged “Thank you – and come again!”

I assume my answer would be – I start at 10% – and the server makes or
breaks it on their own (and I have left less than 10%)

20 mins to get our drinks to the table
tea never refilled
appetizer arrived after the main course served (and nearly finished)
never saw them again until we got the bill

they got 5%

all the best

Answer by brian h
The server would never say that unless you and your group was a nightmare to deal with it. You were a little “sloppy”… sloppy enough to leave a tip of less than 10%.

Waiters and bartenders often have to stand up for themselves or they get walked all over by “sloppy” or just cheap customers. They make minimum wage, but much of that is taxed based on their sales… so tips are truly their only real income. And that tip doesn’t just go to them. They’ll have to split at least 30% of it with fellow employees.

As long as they approach it semi-respectfully… your group probably deserved to get called out.

Answer by Johnka
Absolutely not.

A tip is at the discretion of the purchaser. If someone asked for a bigger tip I would be inclined not to tip at all.

Answer by Wally Z
You didn’t mention what kind of service you received up to now.
I am trying to read into this a bit. Are you saying that you were sloppy and intentionally or unintentionally tipped him less than 10%? If it was unintentional, consider it that the server was really notifying you of the error, fix it and let it go. Many restaurants have a piece of paper they give with the check with a tip guide which is a bit more polite way of suggesting tip amounts. Personally 10% is indicating substandard service so you might want to decide what kind of service you really got. So in that case I would have a little talk with the manager before you left. z

Answer by sheena
I totally agree with Johnka

Answer by This is not here
That’s a pretty awful tip, if the server asks that you tip 10%…I mean 10% isn’t even good! If I tipped so poorly and didn’t realize it that the server had to remind me…I would feel embarassed because they did a good job, and I failed to recognize it…however if they did a poor job and reminded me about the tip, I would let them know exactly why.

Answer by Natasha
I don’t think it is appropriate to ask for tips. The customer chooses wheather the server is worthy of a tip or not. Some people dont have the money to give a tip and others are so selfish that they dont wanna give a tip. It is fair to say that if you were rude to the server and then they asked you for a tip. But other than that i think it is the customers decision and all.

Answer by Freakgirl
In the USA, a tip for decent service it 15-20%. But you never EVER ask for a tip, or more of a tip or comment on the tip or give a dirty look because of the tip. That was rude, and he should be fired. (I’ve served for a long time and have seen 2 people be fired for this).

Yesterday, I received two 10% tips. (frustrating as hell, one was actually scurrying out the door without looking at me- he KNEW he was wrong, but I smiled and said “Thanks for coming out) But I also received lots of generous ones. You take the good with the bad, and it averages out.

Maybe he thought you didn’t understand the whole idea of tipping, but it is NOT his place to tell you.

Answer by dude
I am concerned that you don’t know enough to tip more than 10% to begin with. You know the servers have to tip other employees like the busboys, hostesses, and bartenders based on their sales. They also have to pay taxes on their sales, not their actual tips. So if you had a big night and tipped the server unusually low, you could have had that server reaching into his pocket to pay other employees and Uncle Sam.

An average tip should start be at least 15% of the bill. The server was trying not to embarrass you by suggesting at least 10%.