Makes perfect sense. I think this is a better approach. It's better to just tell people you can't do any more deliveries than to demand a big tip. If I called to order and was threatened to tip big, I would just cancel the order and wouldn't order there again.

The fact that people get angry bc you answer the phone after close is just proof that people are stupid and irrational.

I think that post (not mine, the one quoted) is the best post in this thread!

This

To all you pizza joints not wanting to take orders or answer the phone with 30 mins to go before closing

How about putting a damn auto message on your phone advising you are closed and what hrs you take orders from

It should be standard

We do! People will still keep calling. Everyone thinks they are a special snowflake that deserves extra special service.

The pizza place by me says they are open until 3am, but when I call at 1:30 they say they are closed. Stick by your hours douchebags.

Everyone would be worse off if the cost of everything went up 20% and tipping wasn't necessary (the customers, servers, and the business owner)

i see no evidence that this is true.

quick scenario:

sit down at the bar of a kinda hipstery burger / bar joint. order a beer, a burger, and then wash it down with a tequila. been chatting with the bartender a bit and he gives me a nice tall pour. after, as he writes up the check, he says "why don't we just charge you for a cuervo." so the price goes from $15 down to like $7.

total bill w/ the tequila discount is $25. you leave...?

Seems to be working pretty well all over the world.

I guess I should provide a link as well (which isn't quite a direct rebutall to your claim, but it's not exactly tangential either. In any case, it's a decent read.)

Dont let it ring, just straight to the auto message and forget about it

Lol

This again,

Whole countrys run brilliantly without ridiculous forced tipping

You still can tip in these countries obviously but the service has to be crazy above and beyond and still wouldnt be expected

Seriously, they just go to the voicemail and hang up or leave a nasty message, then call right back, it doesn't help at all against the type of people I am talking about.

so without the discount bill would have been 33, you leave around 6 to make 39. He saved you $8, split that with him and leave 10.

Hey guys guess what, autogratting 18% on every check isn't the same as paying your waitstaff hourlys + increasing menu prices by 18%. If you're suggesting that every place should just autograt 18% and people would be free to tip on top of that, I am totally behind that and that would be an encouraging change.

Which is good incentive for the employee to continue to steal from his employer.

Ham on rye,

Leave $35.

Insofar as I can tell, it's only not the same in that there will be variance in everyone's wages.

You said:

Well, in this particular example, everything went up 18% and tipping wasn't allowed and everyone (the customers, servers, and the business owner) was better off, not worse off.

This wasn't allowed by the structure presented in the article (again though, the point wasn't the particulars of their structure).

An auto-grat is a forced tip. I'm in favor of this. Do you not understand the difference between an owner enforcing mandatory tipping rather than having to pay out higher wages and charge more for your food?

At the risk of looking foolish, I'll bite. What is the difference? Is it a tax thing?

Again, insofar as I can tell, it functions the same (aside from variance, and public perception). If a restaurant determines that an auto-grat of 18% (which is divided among all waiters and cooks alike, per the article) would, on average, pay everyone $10 an hour, then how is that different from increasing menu-prices 18% and paying everyone $10 an hour extra?

This is the only thing I can think of.

Sounds like Austria where the group I was with had to pay 15% over and above the bill for some sort of serving tax.

HoR,

What goof and mullen said. $25 + 20% tip = $30. Then split the $8 savings for $4 more, and leaving $34 is silly, so leave $35.

The 'auto-grat' has merit.

Standardizes the tips consumers have to pay. Definitely makes it easier to budget and so forth.

But shortfall of it is doesn't it lend itself to price gouging on the part of the employees where they jack the prices to obtain the better tip?

I'm thinking more in circumstances where there isn't a set price menu available to you but you depend on the word of the server behind the bar as to the correct price of what you're buying...

Tonight I went out for dinner with my fiance and her nephews who are little kids. Anyways I ordered a steak, kids ordered pizza and fries and she ordered fajita's.

They brought all of our food except for my fiances. I figured it was going to take a minute or two to grab the other plate.

10-15 minutes pass. The waiter comes over and asks if everything is ok. Im like like uhhh where is her food? And I asked for ketchup like 15 minutes ago. Hes like"the fajitas right? brb? couple minutes later he brings her food and the ketchup. We are pretty annoyed at this. I was going to ask to speak to the manager because this place was not busy at all. Like 5 or 6 other tables and I think he had one or two other tables.

For the next 20 minutes the waiter did not come back. The kids drinks were empty and so was mine for a good 15 minutes.

The guy was very nice and when he came back at the end of the meal he knew he ****ed up and was very uncomfortable.

The bill was $78. We gave him a $5 tip. If he was rude I would have left him a few pennies but because maybe he was new and you could tell he felt bad I still gave a little something. Enough to let him know he ****ed up.

I thought of not leaving anything at all.

6% tip sounds fair...

All,

This is the best stuff I've read re: tipping:

Original series: http://jayporter.com/dispatches/obse...rt-1-overview/

Related articles:
http://www.slate.com/articles/life/c...g_tipping.html
http://qz.com/113597/after-i-banned-...de-more-money/

Well, the tax thing is surely part of it. Serving is not exactly the most glamorous or respectable job but being able to only declare part of your tips at least makes it enticing for some normal people to keep doing it. It's sort of a built in wage increase that allows the server to make more and the owner to keep fixed costs low.

Autogratting 18% is good because that's average to better than average tip at most places. Basically everyone wins.

As far as paying staff hourly it's basically impossible to measure, I guess you could take yearly revenue and stuff but then you'd have to be constantly updating the hourly to reflect changes in business, etc. like who is going to want to work a slammed Saturday night shift when they can work a dead Tuesday lunch and make the same amount? It's a huge hassle for the staff/owners even if you could figure it out and that's why the guy chose to auto grat every check instead of raising everyone's hourly by a lot and jacking up his menu prices. It would suck for him to have 20% higher prices overnight and be overpriced compared to his competitors even if tip was built in because the general public are morons. JC Penney tried to just make everything $30 instead of being MSRP $100 and "70% OFF!!!!!" And they failed miserably despite being the same actual cost.

Pretty poor argument. "Hey guise, this way is better 'cause the employees can cheat on their taxes. Yay!"

In the example given, 18% was lower than their average tip, and it was still superior to regular tipping.

Wut? It doesn't have to be the exact same as what it would be if there was tipping. You set a fair wage, and go from there. You know, like in the majority of restaurants in the world.

You mean the exact same as any other job ever?