Banning Bad Tippers?

[IDrinkaRum]

Kanpai Japanese Steak and Seafood House in Winston-Salem bans a bad tipper

Monica Covington, a regular customer, at the Kanpai Jpanese Steak and Seafood House, was banned from ever eating there again because she was a bad tipper.

We can't keep continuing to serve her anymore because the servers and chefs are not willing to serve her.

According to the article she thought it was her right to forgo tipping of any kind.

So! Should more restaurants ban tippers or just add an automatic tip for anyone and everyone who enters their establishment? (for example, for parties of 6 or more, there is an automatic tip already put into the check, should there be something similar for parties of 1-5?)

[fireheart17]

In Australia, tips are automatically included in the price AFAIK.

As for banning tippers altogether....while there are cases where a bad service=crap tip, CS.com has taught me that there are people out there who are just plain cheap.

[draggar]

If someone isn't tipping on a regular basis / all the time then the management needs to figure out why. Is the staff bad or is the person just not tipping because they do not want to?

If the staff is bad - the manager should do something about it.

If it's just a cheap person, I think they can ban them. What next? Demand discounts all the time? Not pay for parts or the whole meal?

[McDreidel09]

I think that tips should be optional and wait staff should be paid minimum wage. Nobody should be paid under minimum wage.

[AdminAssistant]

Fun Fact: If a waiter/waitress does not make at least minimum wage with their regular wage + tips, then their employer is required to make up the difference. Tipping is optional. But a business also has the right to refuse service to anyone so.....I'm not sure.

[lupo pazzesco]

So, I read the original article, and watched the video, and the woman in question has apparently NEVER tipped in the years she's been there, and claims they were automatically charging an 18% gratuity when it was just here and maybe 1 or 2 more people, despite it being stated the gratuity was only added to parties of 6 or more. She also likes to use the words "unjustified" and "unjustice". a LOT

My thoughts? I've been a server, oh so briefly, at Denny's. Being stiffed on a tip sucks. A LOT. Yes, my manager had to make up the difference, but at the same time, I'm busting my ass to do my job, and someone deciding not to tip without giving a reason is rather harsh.

In this case, this woman seems, to me, to give off the vibe of an EW, but she's doing it kind of politely, which is odd. She's started a petition for "Fair Service" for everyone, but not once did she mention why she didn't tip in the first place, or if, in fact, she ever tipped willingly. In fact, she focused only on the fact that she was banned and that she started a petition without addressing the cause of the ban in the first place. I find that telling in and of itself. The manager was very forthright, though, and said that none of the staff or chefs wanted to serve her, so I'm sure there's a bigger part of the story we're not aware of.

Nothing illegal here, and I have to side with the restaurant in this case. No, tipping is not required at all, but if you have excellent service at a restaurant you love going to eat at often (which this woman claims she loves going there a lot), why wouldn't you tip to show appreciation for the place you claim to love? Just a question.

[Fryk]

Nothing illegal or unfair about it. It's their business, they can refuse service to anyone they wish.. If she doesn't like that, she can start her own restaurant.

[Nyoibo]

In Australia, tips are automatically included in the price AFAIK.

Not really, some places include a gratuity but not many, it's not needed, waiters are paid between $15 and $25 an hour in Adelaide, there's no need for tipping it's an American custom that someone thought was a good idea to start here.

As for the OP, claim being traditional, there's no tipping in Japan, just say you were following the custom.

[muses_nightmare]

I don't think people should be banned for not tipping. IT IS OPTIONAL.

*disclaimer: bit of a rant here, this is something of a touchy subject for me, as I'm sure it is for many people*

Sorry, I have worked a few non-tipped jobs that required a lot more out of a person than serving does (at least in my opinion). It's not the hardest job in the world, don't get me wrong, it probably sucks just as much as many other customer service job, but I'm really sick of servers acting like it's the hardest job in the customer service field when it's not. You are paid by your employer, if you aren't then that's not my problem I'm paying for the meal I ordered, that should be it, but of course it's not.*

As for servers not serving a customer because they don't tip, I think that's BS you're there to do a job, you do it regardless of the customer. Even working as a dealer I would never have even considered turning someone away because they didn't tip, but servers seem to think they have this right. Sure you can refuse service, but within reason. If a customer is being rude about not tipping, as in taunting you, or just being belligerent or rude, sure refuse service, but someone who just doesn't see fit to tip, or even someone that finds out after they've gotten their bill that they can't afford to tip shouldn't be shunned. It's stupid.

*I do tip, only because I feel obligated to, it doesn't mean I agree with the practice. I also think 10% is a perfectly reasonable tip for average service.

[MaggieTheCat]

I think that banning someone for something that is supposed to be considered optional is a bit out of line. On the other hand, I also agree that businesses should have the right to refuse service to anyone for any non-discriminatory reason, so I'm kinda torn on this issue.

[elsporko]

Nobody should ever have to tip. If anything tipping should be gone away with and servers should be paid a livable wage. To ban somebody from an establishment for not tipping is insane. They are paying for the service. They aren't giving an optional amount of money they don't have to pay. Sometimes people have a good reason to not tip and they shouldn't be forced to.

[kiwi]

Nobody should ever have to tip. If anything tipping should be gone away with and servers should be paid a livable wage. To ban somebody from an establishment for not tipping is insane. They are paying for the service. They aren't giving an optional amount of money they don't have to pay. Sometimes people have a good reason to not tip and they shouldn't be forced to.

While I agree that every employee should be paid minimum wage, I whole heartedly disagree that tipping should be done away with and here's why.

I grew up in NZ a decidedly non tipping culture. Service there is dicey and on the whole much worse than the USA or Canada (where I now live). Servers in NZ are paid higher than minimum wage but in my experiences, unless you are going 4 star or higher, you get bare minimum service.
In north America the servers really earn their tips, they are much more friendly and helpful because of it.

If you got rid of tips, you could kiss the kind of customer service you are used to goodbye. One of the reasons servers over here work so hard is the possibility of making more money if they provide better service. If you put them on an hourly wage there is little incentive to work harder than the minimum needed, apart from pride in your work (which being beaten down by sucky customers day after day wont last long).

Server jobs where I live are very lucrative and as such restaurants and bars can be very picky about who they hire and they can demand very good service because there are 10 people in line for your job if you are lazy. If you take an equally hard job and say "you can earn this and nothing else" you are going to find that the good servers go because the work is hard, dirty and tiring.

[smileyeagle1021]

I'm with Kiwi, I know that service will go down the tubes onces the incentive of tip based pay goes away. Don't believe me? Try this, call 1-800-Holiday, they have incentive pay for high quality calls. The agents will work hard to help you. Then try calling 800-800-8000, the number for Super 8... they don't have incentive pay... you will get a room type and a price and take it or leave it. Unless we are really going to expect managers to find a way to incentivise employees more effectively than tipping does, we can expect to see service that meets the requirements to not get fired and not much more.

[Boozy]

I don't think people should be banned for not tipping. IT IS OPTIONAL.

Tipping is indeed optional.

Unfortunately for this woman, serving non-tippers is also optional.

Look, this business owner has to be concerned about staff morale. The staff hated serving this woman. The owner looked at the cost of losing one customer vs. the cost of dealing with low morale and/or losing staff members, and wisely chose to ban the customer.

[muses_nightmare]

Unfortunately for this woman, serving non-tippers is also optional.

Look, this business owner has to be concerned about staff morale. The staff hated serving this woman. The owner looked at the cost of losing one customer vs. the cost of dealing with low morale and/or losing staff members, and wisely chose to ban the customer.

See this is what I have a problem with. The fact that the staff feels that they shouldn't be doing their job because someone forgoes giving them the extra money they think they're entitled to.

I don't think it's right or wise, and as soon as the staff started refusing to serve her the owner or manager should have found out why they weren't serving her and when he found out it was because she wasn't tipping he should have informed them that it is in fact their job regardless of tips. But, servers seem to be entitled to me, they'd probably have thrown a hissy fit about it. Like I've said before, I've worked a tipped job, I never once presumed that customers "had" to tip and I would never have even considered not serving someone because they didn't. And I actually made quite a bit of my money from tips.

People are going to disagree with me anyway, so whatever. Just getting my opinions out there.