Do you tip?

[Piemaster]

Generally yes, and as above around 10% but depends to some extent on change in pocket or if on a card how it rounds out to whole £'s.
Food servers and the like get tipped because a good service makes a meal better. They interact with you, and I don't mean in the "Do you want to go large with that?" scenarios.
We also tend to be a bit more generous in where the service and food has been markedly good and fairly certain we will revisit . The theory being we'll be remembered next time and service will just as attentive. The very best servers just seem to be there when you want them and fade into the background when you don't, something that doesn't seem to be appreciated enough.

 

[Pro Tour Punditry]

I have a wonderful anecdote about tipping.

 

[MossCommuter]

As Ian said, when it's deserved.

I bet none of us tip in pubs in England. And why should that be?

I refer the honourable poster to the post I made some moments ago

 

[ANT 666]

Postie gets eggs all through the year.

 

[martint235]

I once got a bit confused tipping. I'd been to France for a weekend away then flown to Frankfurt on the Weds for an interview. Had an hour or so to spare at the airport so had a couple of beers. For some reason I thought I was still in France so left a 10DM tip (exchange at the time was around £1 = 10F = 3DM). The waiter seemed happy.

 

[rualexander]

No, I never tip, doesn't make any sense applying it only to certain services. It's was never traditional to tip in any parts of Scotland where I have lived. It seems to have been something that has crept in over the last 20-30 years.
People are paid to do their jobs, tips shouldn't be expected.

 

[martint235]

No, I never tip, doesn't make any sense applying it only to certain services. It's was never traditional to tip in any parts of Scotland where I have lived. It seems to have been something that has crept in over the last 20-30 years.
People are paid to do their jobs, tips shouldn't be expected.

 

[slowmotion]

Nearly always 10% at least in restaurants unless the service has been spectacularly awful, which it rarely is these days. My daughter spent a few months on a zero-hours contract as an agency waitress. It was blooming hard work with unsociable hours on the absolute minimum legal pay rate. Tips made a big difference. BTW, it's worth paying the tip in cash because it stops any temptation by the management to snaffle some of it.

 

[Aperitif]

Nearly always 10% at least

You both tip a bit after a few pints...matter of record.

 

[PhilDawson8270]

No, I never tip, doesn't make any sense applying it only to certain services. It's was never traditional to tip in any parts of Scotland where I have lived. It seems to have been something that has crept in over the last 20-30 years.
People are paid to do their jobs, tips shouldn't be expected.

Then prices should be increased to cover the living cost of those who provide the service. At which point, people will complain that prices are going up.

 

[Vidor06]

We were out at a gig last night and had a bite to eat before the show. Service wa very good and helpful.A tip was definitely on the cards. However, when paying with the card machine I was asked to add a gratuity. I declined and left money on the table. I was unsure putting the gratuity on the card machine would end up with the waiter gettting the cash. Do restaurants routinely keep that cash or dole it out at the end of the day?
On another note, I worked in the bar trade for years when younger. If someone said 'take one for yourself', I would routinely have taken £1 of the change and this was always fine. Only if they said to take more would I have. 20p seems incredibly miserly, as a 'one for yourself'.

 

[PhilDawson8270]

Do restaurants routinely keep that cash or dole it out at the end of the day?

From experience of working as a Technical Manager in a venue that has a high end restaurant. Tips paid via card, or "service charge" are split amongst the staff as a ratio of their sales made, and based upon the shifts that they worked. Parts of it also go to back of house staff such as the chef's, and pot wash, who also work terrifically hard. But don't see any cash tips, all of the management team (and any salaried employee), are not contractually allowed to receive any payment, of any kind from "service charge" or gratuity paid on card.

 

[snorri]

I've just remembered a tipping story from my recent visit to Prague. We finished our meal and asked for the bill. 2,200 CZK.

I've only dined out twice in Cz, but on both occasions was asked half way though the meal if I would like a second beer. I declined but found that a second beer had been added to my bill regardless!!

 

[Milkfloat]

I travel abroad a lot, so keeping up with local custom can be tricky. In the UK I tip far more now than I did in my early years. A restaurant is a minimum of 10%, extra if service was exceptional, taxis are usually rounded up to a maximum of 10%, but I tend to walk a lot.

What winds me up most is assumed gratuity/tip on a bill. I hate it when an amount is added on for me. I know it is not the wait staff's fault, but I rarely give more than teh assumed amount, even if the service demands it.

 

[Dayvo]

I refer the honourable poster to the post I made some moments ago

Please, not so much of the honourable, if you don't mind!

Back home in the 80s in my local pub, it was normal to buy a round and ask the barman if he wanted a drink, too. Most of the time he'd decline, as in those day they used to be help themselves. Also the bar staff would be known to us so it was 'almost like buying a drink for a mate.

When I do go back and have a beer with my mates now, I don't know the bar staff and neither do they expect a drink from me. I've worked in pubs and sport club bars and never expected a tip.

Nice gesture if you do, but I don't.

I tip when I'm in India at the barbers, but when it costs £1.30 for a wet shave and a crew cut, plus a head and face massage, then a 50p tip is nothing for me, but a lot for them.