Tipping Etiquette

It is customary here in Canada to give a 15% tip for service at a sit-down restaurant. It's also customary to tip a small amount (50 cents or so) to a barista who serves you your morning cup of Joe. In some countries the tip is included in the final bill, although most follow this same rule of thumb. Although receiving tips is important to the waiters/waitresses, your tip should reflect the level of service you received. Most food service workers are paid below minimum wage, because they are suppose to earn extra tips. A lot of people tip 15% regardless or whether they received good service or not and a lot of food service workers expect it regardless of the service the provide. Preparing and serving a meal is a team effort so sometimes when you receive bad service it could be a number of things going wrong behind the scenes.

I believe as a customer of a restaurant tips should be subject to the service you receive. Too often are we expected to give the standard tip when we receive terrible service. Often waiters will forget your water because it doesn't add to the final bill and therefore is not going to inflate their tip. This is just awful service and should be rewarded accordingly.

Therefore, if you felt you received good service from an attentive waiter than an appropriate tip would be 15% or more. However, if you felt that:

1) You were ignored
2) It took forever for the bill to arrive
3) The water never came
4) There was some other service deficiency

than your tip should reflect that. So if the waiter was having a bad day and was grumpy, or something went wrong behind the scenes, should this kind of terrible service still be rewarded?

Please leave comments about the food service experiences you have had and whether or not you believe that the percentage you tip should reflect the level of service you received. If you have experience working the in the food service industry please leave a comment on what you think should be an appropriate tip when recieving sub par service.

Here is a video from http://www.howdini.com/ about tipping: