Oct 18th 2010, 21:03:18
A couple major issues with this guy's arguments that tipping is becoming equated to bribery:
"Example 1: Because of a delay out of Melbourne to Los Angeles, I missed the connecting flight to New York.
Someone I happened to know on the flight went to the American Airlines desk, explained his problem and put his passport on the counter, a $20 note peeping out of the pages.
The AA clerk pocketed the money and gave my friend a business-class ticket to New York.
I waited another four hours for a Delta Airlines flight.
That was clearly a bribe, not a tip."
- Of course it was! What kind of idiot would think otherwise??? Giving someone $20 BEFORE they do anything for you, with the sole intent of getting them to do something for you is a bribe. This example seems utterly irrelevant.
"Example 2: After the first night in my five-star Washington hotel my room was serviced but my bed was not made up. I could have complained, but instead the next morning I left $2 on the pillow.
The room was magnificently serviced, the bed made with clean sheets and a complimentary bowl of fruit left on the coffee table."
The first question I would have, and which he clearly didn't consider to ask - Was it even the same hotel employee that made up his room both times? Hotel staff do not have regular rounds, nor schedules. There is a very good chance his room was cleaned by two entirely different people with two entirely different levels of work ethic.
Also, he SHOULD have complained. Receiving poor service is not a compulsory reason to leave a tip - it is a reason to notify a manager that the employee is not performing their job duties properly. By leaving $2 (assuming the answer to the above question is yes), he has done nothing but encourage poor work ethic in that employee.
"Example 3: At an elegant flufftail party I asked for a glass of champagne.
"Sorry,'' said the lady behind the bar, "there's no more champagne.'' I dropped two $1 notes on the bar.
Within two minutes the girl came over and gave me a glass of champagne."
- I see this all the time at events. It's not that his $2 suddenly made the champagne appear, it's more likely that someone went to the cellar, grabbed a couple of extra bottles of champagne because they had run out, and the bartender remembered he had asked for some and had it sent over.
"In some cases, restaurants automatically include a 15 per cent tip on your credit-card bill. Never mind how good or bad the service was."
- I have never once encountered this, and I have eaten in all levels of restaurants all over the world. If it happens, it's rare situations.
With that said, there IS a related and growing trend in the service industry which mildly disturbs me. This is the trend of including staff gratuities in event pricing. I see it in event halls, with caterers, and even in travelling bartenders. The reason it's done though, is that some people are too cheap, too drunk, or just too forgetful to remember to tip their service staff. Of course there is the rare occasion where a gratuity really hasn't been earned - but I know very few companies who have any longevity in the industry who have regular occasions like that.
The rest of his examples are superfluous, and incomplete, and I suspect made up off the top of his head.
All in all, this article strikes me as being written by someone who is trying to convince themselves that they are taking the moral high ground over evil America, not actually raising a relevant point.
Crap article, crap arguments, cheap mother fluffer who better not stiff me on a tip.
