Living in Australia, i've never had to bother about going out and having to tip - except when i was overseas. Really having no idea about the concept, how much was appropriate to leave and what the conversion was (my maths skills are nowhere near that good!), i just followed the lead of others around me. I have no problem with the concept.
The only time that it did become annoying was when we went out to lunch at a chinese place in Berlin (yes, we had chinese - we had cravings, give us a break!). We were all set to pay, tip set out - probably more than we needed to, due to aforementioned lack of ability to do the maths. Then, the owner came up to us and said, pointedly, in a voice obviously reserved for tourists, 'tip isn't included'. It was like we were being reprimanded! There was an implied 'don't forget to leave a tip!'. We halved the tip we already had out before we handed the money over.
It's one thing to tip because you want to, or because you know it's the right thing to do. I don't like being informed that i HAVE to tip. But maybe i've a different perspective because we don't worry about tips in Australia? Who knows...
6 comments:
We run into a slightly different problem over here in the US. My two brothers (both bartenders) get stiffed because visitors from other countries don't know to leave a tip. And they're too polite to go over and ask for one. The people at the restaurants we went to in England must have loved us cause we tipped on top of the built in service fees.
Great post. I have never been to Australia...but I would like to go there sometime in my life
I hate tipping for rudeness. Amazing people, aren't they? Good post!
We are used to tips here, but be sure, whenever I'm informed I have to tip there won't be one.
I always say: "as you're so able to inform people, maybe you can inform rich people twice."
A few years ago I tipped at a restaurant and the waitress said after we paid and tipped here. "I have to give this back, as the tip is included."
We all immediately reached for more and she had a great evening. LOL!
Welcome at my heads or tails:
:: here::
Have a great day!
Tipping is silly. I was accused of being one of "those" foreigners who doesn't tip when they're in the US by an American waitress who then told me how little waitresses get paid there. So I asked why I didn't get tipped at Summer Camp even though I made a third her salary which just goes to show how silly it all is really.
The only time I wanted to tip was the nicest tourist guide who worked for the city in a booth in DC handing out free tour tickets of the Capitol building, he was so friendly and helpful - though you don't tip them. Yet you are expected to tip rude taxi drivers. What a dumb system.
The Anonymoose
Post a Comment