Tipping For Bad Service

My guest ordered a double espresso but received a single. My omlette was supposed to come with salsa but didn't. If the waitress had checked to make sure everything was okay, these issues would have been easily rectified. I also could have told her that she forgot to bring the salad dressing. But after, she served the food, she never returned.

Nonetheless, the omlette was delicious; I saved a few calories by eating dry veggies and the espresso, I am told, was good and strong.

At one point, despite all the negative factors surrounding my dining experience, I was a great tipper. Dropping 20% irregardless of service was part of the homage I paid to the lifelong familyhood of servers. It’s like a restaurant law that always governs your life— since you know the business you must tip.

As servers and ex-servers, we think back to days when we were slammed, meaning we had too many tables or tables that were real attention suckers. Sometimes it happens. You will be responsible for serving people who simply don’t get the best service because you are truly unable to provide it.

The dining experience above was not one of those occasions. The server was friendly, but she was lackadaisical as many South Africans appear to be to customer-service obsessed foreigners.

This is a South African issue because I am in South Africa experiencing this problem on a regular basis, but it happens in America and France and many other places. No matter where, no matter why, my response was usually the same— give a good tip no matter what.

I even used to encourage others to be overly sympathetic. Consider all the possible reasons why things didn’t turn out like you wanted. Servers go through a lot you know.

Now, I no longer make those arguments because I think people like me may actually be doing more damage than good.

Yes, there are occasions when you get a truly hard and dedicated worker who is overwhelmed by circumstances beyond her control. I trust this will be obvious when that is the case. And that person should be rewarded.

However, lots of times you get servers who are just waiting to get whatever they get from you when you are done. They are preoccupied with the boyfriend’s text messages or co-worker gossip or they just don’t value their jobs. Giving these people undeserved tips effectively means three things.

One: You are giving away money. In what other instances, do you pay for services not rendered?

Two: You are promoting bad service. Will that server treat the next customer better if she has been rewarded for poor performance?

Three: Servers and ex-servers tip the best for some of the worst service. Do our stints in food service mean we should be sentenced to a life of whatever service we get at the highest cost?

I don’t believe in leaving nothing if you get something. So yes, I say, always tip. But please think before you leave liberal amounts of cash for poor service. I no longer get wads of cash every day. I work hard for what I earn. When I order a double anything, I want it to be goddamn double. And you should want the same.

But when you tip 20% for getting a single, you are doing a disservice, because I may sit down after you and you will have given the OK for that server to screw up my order and expect to be compensated for it. And believe me, that’s not how the deal is going down anymore.