"Tipping" ... Has It Gone Out Of Control ? | Your stories | Discussion forum

Grow a spine. Just ignore the prompts. Give a tip if you feel the service is over and above your expectations.

You wouldn't give money to every bum asking for it on a corner. Why feel guilty over not tipping for 'meh' service?

If the service is ok and nth spectacular, I just tip the same $ amount as the HST, which is 13%. No math required.

If the service is exceptional and the server is clearly a student working to pay for tuition etc, I will pay up to 20%.

I see tip as a bonus for good service, never mandatory.

COIN said
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/video-canadian-youth-tapping-out-of-tipping-as-cost-of-living-increases/

It's ironic that youths are tapping out of tipping when it is young workers who depend on tips the most.

Question: Do self-serve gas stations still have tip jars?  

Now that I have grown grandchildren I now see how tipping helps young people. But I do agree the predetermined amounts are unwelcome.

But before you tip:
1. Are you tipping that one person or a general pot?
2. If a general pot who are the recipients? Management? And is it paid out daily?
3. Does a wait person know what he/she is supposed to do to earn a tip? Just being a wait person doesn’t mean you are tip worthy.

And what about your local mechanic that adds in “shop fees”?
And what about car dealer ships that have fees for a loan prep, vehicle prep, documentation, tire warranty, and for installation of film in the door handle hollow and a donation to their foundation. Can add cost from $299 to $1600.

And what about your cable company that wants you to rent the TV boxes (the only option) and pay rent for extra routers to make their wifi work in your entire, average sized home. Often 1 year rent is more than what the unit costs, new.

There’s only so much water in the well.

Well, I've never tipped at a gas station. Not even the old full-serve ones. I try to avoid tipping on take-out. I really resent being expected to tip in a taxi. Hairdressers.. well, that's a very personal relationship.

Nor having a "partner/spouse/lover/etc," dining out at times is an important social contact in a bleak world. I have asked some servers who gets the tips, and they invariably claim they themselves.

RetirEd said
Hairdressers.. well, that's a very personal relationship.  

One doesn't get more personal than getting a massage from an RMT. My RMT has seen me naked and she massages everywhere. LOL. Ok, we digress, back to regular programming.

JohnnyCash said
Then we have a place called Australia where tipping is frowned upon. I think everyone in Canada should be tipped, why make it exclusive?  

My late mother spent some time at the hospital. She thought it would be nice to tip one of the nurses. I said that might be mistakenly construed as a bribe. (I think the nurse would probably have declined in any case.) Having said that I bring a box of chocolats every Christmas for the doctors/nurses/staff in the ward where I spent some time as a cardiac patient.

Where I work every gift (including Christmas food baskets) from clients must be reported to our compliance officer. Same with invitations to lunches, Maple Leaf hockey games, Blue Jay baseball games, etc.

One more story. My colleagues in the U.S. office said they are forbidden to offer any gifts, free lunches, baseball tickets, etc. to IRS officers (not that they would accept in any event). Of course, our CRA auditor had no issues accepting an invitation to lunch, LOL.

Ok, enough stories from the front line.

Here is my 2 cents about tipping: 25 years ago a good/decent income was 5 times the minimum wage, today it is more like 3 times. That means that we should be tipping less today, certainly not more.
Having said that, last weekend I tipped 18% at a restaurant in Niagara Falls (because I liked the service, not because it is likely for me to return any time soon), as opposed to the typical 15% which I used to tip 25 years ago.