Comment by creepydata | Hacker News Reader

Comment by creepydata | Hacker News Reader

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I tip the same even if they don't keep my water glass full. I don't believe such a minor "annoyance" as asking for more water (which its not an annoyance) requires a dock in pay. Also, in California they are required by law to wait until you ask for water due to the drought!

>You are getting into someone's car and they are taking your pittance, minus their service broker's fee, to bring you where you need to go. That is a business transaction, and it's in the class of transactions that I would expect to involve a tip.

My transaction is between Uber and I and should not be between Uber's employees and I. Do you tip your bus driver? Do you tip the train conductor?

Do you also tip your mechanic if they get your car fixed before schedule? How about the pulmonologist when you get blood drawn? Or is it only if they don't leave a bruise? How about the person who stocked the shelves so the thing you want to buy is in stock? What if an employee goes in the stockroom for you? Do you pull out a $5? What about the person who makes your sandwich at a deli, I mean, making custom sandwiches are labor intensive.

>That's just how I was raised

Sure but...

You can (and should) acknowledge that it is completely arbitrary and cultural. If I go to the bar and order a soda I tip. If I go to McDs and order a soda I don't. That's silly. The thing that really kills me is, I've been to a few wineries. When I pay there's never a line to put my tip on the credit card receipt, so I don't tip. I guess you don't tip in wineries even though they provide you basically the same service as a restaurant or bar and you tip there. The best part though is I also go to breweries and breweries always have a tip line on the receipt! Serving beer where you make it = tip, serving wine where you make it = no tip. MADNESS!

>I tend to assume the service was also poor, and they earned exactly the tip they got!

99.9% of the time poor service is not personally the customer service employee's fault.

I actually really enjoyed my job in fast food. The pay sucked but the work was fine, my coworkers were pleasant, and the restaurant was very well run. The customers were pleasant too because we provided good service. We provided good service because the management gave us the tools to provide good service and expected us to provide good service.

> >I tend to assume the service was also poor, and they earned exactly the tip they got!

> 99.9% of the time poor service is not personally the customer service employee's fault.

"If you hear someone complain about a tip" is the important context that you removed. Maybe the employer is responsible to train the CSR that you should not complain about tips, or lack of tips... I don't think so. I think your parents should teach you that. I think it's common sense. If you got a tip, you should not complain about it. I don't think that 0.01% of people _complaining about_ their tips to the customers are responsible for it. That's nonsense.

If you did not get a tip, you should not complain about it to the customers! If you are regularly complaining about your tips, or lack of tips, it is a sign that you are providing bad service, and you should improve. If there is a systematic issue, you are understaffed, the kitchen staff sucks, etc... I can concede it's not your fault, but it is going to result in a statistically significant hit to your tips, and you should see if you can get them to improve.

If I ask for a sandwich without tomato and you bring me a sandwich with tomato, the same person who complains about having to make the sandwich again because they got the order wrong, is the person who complains about their tips. The one whose service is habitually bad, because of their attitude.

> Also, in California they are required by law to wait until you ask for water due to the drought!

The more you know... I assumed you were in California, but not because of my perception of your attitudes, just because this is HN and a vanishing proportion of people here I think are not from Bay area.

Thanks for engaging me here. I certainly don't tip my mechanic or my nurse's aide, but next time I'm getting blood drawn, I'm going to remember this conversation.

It is absolutely cultural, and it is arbitrary. I also don't know why I would tip more if the beer simply costs more. I tend to tip bartenders somewhere between $1/trip and $1/drink. This is a completely arbitrary standard, that I set with no review by anyone, and adhere to sometimes, depending on the number of "ones" I happen to have on my person at the time.

> I tip the same even if they don't keep my water glass full. I don't believe such a minor "annoyance" as asking for more water (which its not an annoyance) requires a dock in pay.

I don't mind having to ask for water, but I do notice when a server has a habit of showing up at my table just as my glass has been emptied. I consider it exceptional service when I can see there's also a lot of traffic, and yet my glass remains filled. I also notice if a long time passes and I don't see my server, and doubly so when my glass has already been empty for a while. You have to set the bar somehow!

> My transaction is between Uber and I and should not be between Uber's employees and I

That's a principled stance that I understand on some level, however I could not make this distinction in my own personal life. If it is factually true that Uber treats the drivers as full employees, then it is a fact that has only recently been settled as a matter of law. The bus driver and the train conductor are equally worthy of my gratitude, but they don't have a tip jar. The mechanic and the nurse's aide are great examples of how arbitrarily we draw the line, too. Thanks again for engaging.

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