How much do you tip?

[Prloko]

I'm on the "don't cheat the wait staff!" train up until tipping for carry-out came up. It's something that mystifies me, also. The majority of the work in maintaining a table is the errands back and forth when the first person needs a drink, then on the return trip, the second does now, then on the second trip back the third person realized they wanted additional something else...and so on. Or chatting up the children at a table when the parents are too busy in their own conversations to care their kids are annoying other guests. None of that is required for a carry-out order. When I waited tables, the front of house manager or owner took phone orders and handled checking and bagging the orders; they wanted the wait staff covering their tables, not reading a menu to someone.

As for valet...hubby and I dropped a $20 tip on valets this weekend. :willynilly: It was at a hotel, so pulling bag (we only had one - my massive "I'm not vacationing, I'm moving" bag) from the car, opening the door every time we entered or left during the weekend, and returning the car to us in the time it took us to check out (in the same condition and contents it was given), and loaded our bag back into the car. They were essentially multi-function doormen/bellhop/valets; I wondered if we under-tipped until I read this discussion!

Tipping has gone from a reward for above-and-beyond service, to a bribe to prevent vehicle damage/theft/ spit in your food. I once went with a group to Hardrock Cafe. I ordered the ridiculously priced burger. When the burger came, the french fries were obviously sitting under a heat lamp for hours and were disgusting. I called the server over and asked for fries that were fresh as the ones I received were obviously subpar. After the server took my plate away, my supervisor asks "why don't you just eat them? She'll probably spit in the new ones". When I replied, why the hell should I eat disgusting old food just to not bother my server? Why should she want to spit on my food for just giving me what I ordered? Does she order crappy food when she goes out?