Tip Ping

A couple of odd incidents occurred in the last couple days that involved an unusual clash between customers and servers.

The first one was at a bar close to campus. I purchase my first drink using my credit card. I wrote a one dollar tip for my five dollar drink. That's a 20 per cent tip, if we were to consider the "standard" tipping percentage. I was ready to order my second drink from the same server, when the server told me, even before I indicated my mode of payment, that, "to just let you know, in Quebec, when you make payments using credit cards, you don't pay for the taxes, but I do". So I'd have to make up for it using tips. In other words, he was telling me that I was not a generous tipper, and so I need to be one on my next payment. This struck me as odd by the obvious fact that I was being asked, in the most direct way possible, to tip more. The other fishy thing about the server's statement was the accuracy of the claim itself-- that he "pays the taxes." Usually at bars like that, the prices for drinks that you are told or are on the menu, are the exact amount that you pay (in addition to the universal tips, of course). So was the guy making that stuff up as a way of telling me to tip more? Either way, the simple fact that he directly suggested that I tip more was very irritating. The bar-setting and timing didn't encourage me to express my irritation, so I simply assured him that the taxes will be taken care of.

The second incident took place just this afternoon. I had lunch with a friend from the program at a place called Diana Cafe Restaurant. We were very satisfied with the setting of the restaurant and the food. We had lots of positive words to say about it throughout our entire stay, until my usually calm and collected friend started to speak in irritated tone and even cursing on our way out, after having paid his due using debit. What happened? Well, it turns out, our server demanded, in an even more explicit way, that my friend pays a tip of at least five dollars in addition to his $27 food and drink charges. This set my friend off to a mode of anger that erased all the good stuff that we had about the restaurant. It also made me pleased for having made a two dollar tip to the guy (had I been aware of the encounter before making my payment, it would have been zero dollars), but it raised a number of tipping questions: do we really have to tip?

At the expense of sounding like a cheap penny-pincher (I am not. I am just a student with a small pocket-- see my credit card use above), I have to also mention yet another tipping trouble that I had a few days back. This time, it wasn't the server who was the trouble, but another client. I made a remark to a client I had a small talk with at the counter that the server took too much time to take my order (because she was busy drinking and chattering with other clients) and so she didn't deserve more than what I left (a dollar and twenty five cents). This set the client off. She asked loudly and rather rhetorically, if that was how much I tipped where I am from. I told her may be not, but this tip was particularly "deserved" because the server did not serve me well. This set the woman even more on fire, and I gestured to add some money to the tip to see if she would calm down. Her friend told me that there was not point in doing that as the damage was already done and that I might as well save my money. So I did.

Strictly speaking, I don't see the point in tipping. The only reason I can think of that sort of justifies leaving a tip is the sense of guilt the consumer may feel for having treated the server/waitress, etc somewhat as a servant. Otherwise, what it is that we give extra money for? The server is doing exactly what they are paid to do: serve customers. Why do I have to give extra money to the bar tender that just took a few seconds to open a bottle of beer and hand it to me, and a few more seconds to give me the unnecessarily coin-rich change?


What about we look at it this way: this server is a hired person paid to do what they do: serve customers. By buying stuff at the location, the consumer is already contributing towards the server's job security. When the prices are set for the food, drink or other products, they are surely to include "service fees" that will go towards the server's wage. This is especially true at the heavily overpriced bars and restaurants that I've visited in Quebec City.

I never imagined that a supposedly voluntary act of rewarding a hired person would be taken so for granted to a level that it is explicitly demanded.