Just felt a need to chime in on this one. I agree profusely with:
Originally Posted by Pielorinho
There are two honorable things to do in such a circumstance. The first is to engage in the transaction as expected, to tip at least 15%. The second is to let the wait-staff know, PRIOR TO BEING SEATED, that you plan to tip them according to some other standard, e.g., by rounding up to the nearest five amount. Do you do either of these things?
and
Originally Posted by takyris
Anyone who doesn't tip should really try a year or two in a profession in which tips are an expected part of your income. I know what it feels like to be on your feet all day, smiling despite whatever the hell is going on in your own life because you're in the service industry. I also know when somebody is trying and when somebody is phoning it in. I will quite happily drop 20% or more on somebody who's nice and helpful (20% is my default tip for good service), and I will also give the $0.25 tip to the person who jerks me around.
I always tip about 15-20% for servers and delivery people. For my bartender I tip about a buck per drink, depending on the price of the drink. If I pay for my $3.50 beer with a $5 bill, I'll leave the dollar and pocket the two quarters. After all, I don't want to wait too long when I need another drink, so I keep the bartender treating me like a top priority.
I once dated a girl who had a wallet card that showed 15% of every amount between $5 and $30 and would tip
exactly 15%, no matter what. She'd pull out her change purse and count pennies to leave the correct amount. I thought this was extremely cheesy and told her so. See, she never worked in food service, so thought she was getting ripped off by tipping. I worked in enough restaurants to know that tips are how servers pay the rent.
I acknowledge that I'm more generous than many people, but if I receive extremely poor service I will show my displeasure by tipping only 10-12%. Great service means a bigger tip, of course.
Since my wife and I usually only order out when we're too lazy to fix dinner, or the weather is rotten, or we've forgotten to take something out to thaw, I tend to round up rather than down when tipping. Heck, the delivery people are doing me a favor by bringing my food to me. If we order pizza for the game and I don't feel like the tip is enough, I'm genuinely embarrassed and will throw in an extra dollar or two.
And in the cosmic irony department: My wife just called. Since she forgot to pull the chicken out of the freezer this morning to thaw for dinner, she asked if I'd like to order out some pizza or Chinese delivery for dinner.