Tipping in Great Britain (or more specifically, England).

[GreyLord]

So, hear me out, as this relates directly to RPGs.

I recently bought a few RPG books from a company that I'm pretty certain is operated mainly from the UK, and specifically in England. I believe I know who the owners (knowing who they are and knowing them personally are two different things, I do not know the owners, just who they are) are and they are English.

So, as I went to buy them, there was the "opportunity" given to leave a tip. It wasn't a demand, but it was there.

It was a bit of a head twister, as tipping is more of a US thing, and this thing where you tip for anything and everything is almost definitely a US thing...or so I thought.

These were RPG books. I don't think I've even been asked to tip for RPG books at FLGS's in the US yet (maybe they have some that do there as well)?

Is this a thing in the UK or Great Britain, or England?

Have any of you been given the opportunity to leave a tip as you buy RPG books or similar or related items recently?

Was I supposed to? I was unaware that this was a thing in the UK these days. I thought it odd that there was even a chance to?

Have people demanded to be given the "opportunity" to do so?

It's just, very weird to me. I'm rather old I suppose, so perhaps I should not be surprised by culture and society changing, but this is the first time I have had this happen in anything related to RPG buying.

Am I supposed to leave a tip now? How much is appropriate if I am supposed to do so? How much is polite?

This company operates in the US as well, perhaps it's influenced by something that has gone on there? I spent over 300 £ there, so it may have had to be a sizeable tip I suppose. I'm just not sure what I was supposed to do (and to be clear, there was no pressure to do so, it was just that there was the opportunity given to leave a tip if so desired).

 

[Morrus]

No, tipping for retail purchases is not something I’ve ever encountered here. Sometimes a charity request, but not a tip.

Tipping for food services is becoming more common here these days, but that’s a different topic.

Did you leave the tip?

 

[MarkB]

Yeah, never seen that in the UK outside of restaurant purchases or taxi fares, either online or in-person

 

[aco175]

Did the guy ask several question to get you feel and likes before offering several selections to help hand select this as a gift and wrap it with a bow? No, then there was no service that warranted a tip. I have seen newer card machines that has like 3 screens about tip and amount before you can cast out. Cash baby!

 

[Ryujin]

Tipping, especially online, has gotten weird over the last few years. It's gone from something that you give to people when they tend to your needs over an extended period of time, to something that's somehow expected for shovelling something across the counter to you. And online I've seen it on sites that already take a cut of whatever money they're transferring to a third party, anyway. For instance if you give any money via GoFundMe, they add a place to 'tip' at pay-out. They're already taking something like 3% of any donation, to cover operating costs.

 

[MarkB]

Tipping, especially online, has gotten weird over the last few years. It's gone from something that you give to people when they tend to your needs over an extended period of time, to something that's somehow expected for shovelling something across the counter to you. And online I've seen it on sites that already take a cut of whatever money they're transferring to a third party, anyway. For instance if you give any money via GoFundMe, they add a place to 'tip' at pay-out. They're already taking something like 3% of any donation, to cover operating costs.

Also many companies will use one of the various generic transactional portals that are available these days to plug into an existing website, and while they can be customised to fit, it'd be easy to leave a tipping option enabled even if it's not appropriate to your industry or location, either accidentally or because, hey, extra revenue.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

So, hear me out, as this relates directly to RPGs.

I recently bought a few RPG books from a company that I'm pretty certain is operated mainly from the UK, and specifically in England. I believe I know who the owners (knowing who they are and knowing them personally are two different things, I do not know the owners, just who they are) are and they are English.

So, as I went to buy them, there was the "opportunity" given to leave a tip. It wasn't a demand, but it was there.

It was a bit of a head twister, as tipping is more of a US thing, and this thing where you tip for anything and everything is almost definitely a US thing...or so I thought.

These were RPG books. I don't think I've even been asked to tip for RPG books at FLGS's in the US yet (maybe they have some that do there as well)?

Is this a thing in the UK or Great Britain, or England?

Have any of you been given the opportunity to leave a tip as you buy RPG books or similar or related items recently?

Was I supposed to? I was unaware that this was a thing in the UK these days. I thought it odd that there was even a chance to?

Have people demanded to be given the "opportunity" to do so?

It's just, very weird to me. I'm rather old I suppose, so perhaps I should not be surprised by culture and society changing, but this is the first time I have had this happen in anything related to RPG buying.

Am I supposed to leave a tip now? How much is appropriate if I am supposed to do so? How much is polite?

This company operates in the US as well, perhaps it's influenced by something that has gone on there? I spent over 300 £ there, so it may have had to be a sizeable tip I suppose. I'm just not sure what I was supposed to do (and to be clear, there was no pressure to do so, it was just that there was the opportunity given to leave a tip if so desired).

This is something very odd and not normal for Britain nor England.

In Britain there are basically two places you usually tip - when you are served or delivered food, and when you take a taxi. In the former case the "default" tip (often added as a "service charge" for larger parties, in which case you don't really need to also tip though maybe you do shove a fiver or a tenner under the plate so your server specifically gets it) is 12.5%, but most people would round up or down to 10% or 15%, and with taxis, 10% is normal (according to my mum, a woman who has taken literally thousands of taxi trips in her lifetime, so I find her to be a very credible source on this).

During the pandemic a lot of places got payment technology which had the option to allow people to tip (because it wasn't designed for a specific use-case, but rather could be used in a variety of situations), and frankly rather greedily in many cases just turned it on, chancing that some people might feel awkward enough that they'd leave a tip even when they shouldn't. We've even had some stuff like landlords trying to get renters to tip, which is frankly "let them eat cake"-type laughable insanity. Anyone who is selling you goods or renting you stuff or the like and offers the "opportunity" to tip is frankly a chancer and should be regarded askance.

 

[sevenbastard]

I'm 'Merican and I have never seen tipping for a retail purchase. Only in food or on a service like a haircut, valet, taxi/rideshare, ect.

But also tipping culture is getting weird.

 

[payn]

I've never been asked to tip for a retail purchase and I live in the U.S. However, as folks have moved more and more to card transfer methods, technology has been built with templates that just ask for a tip option on any and every purchase. I assume its out of expediency but businesses are not going to complain (even though their customers are starting to.)

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I assume its out of expediency but businesses are not going to complain (even though their customers are starting to.)

It is put in as an option that the business can turn on or not, at least in the software I've seen (but I can't imagine it's different in any other software). The software I saw (sorry, forget the name it was sooooo generic) it was off by default too.

So for my money, anyone who has this on is absolutely a chancer.