> > > Especially since now I work in a restaurant where the customers who repeatedly don't tip properly are asked not to come back. :-}
> >
> > That's fascinating to me. What kind of restaurant is this, and how does the restaurant approach someone like this? The kinds of places I eat, I'm out of there before anybody even knows what I've tipped, but that sounds like it's something more upscale than the places I go to. I would hope the restaurant wouldn't do this if the customer has a legitimate complaint, though.
>
> I think that if a customer repeatedly has a legitimate complaint about the service, they probably wouldn't need to be asked not to come back.
>
> But, yeah, I don't think I've ever eaten in a restaurant (even some very upscale ones) where they would even have a method of tracking how much people have tipped, especially as tips are more often than not cash, as you're on your way out of the door.

The method is simply the servers' memory. Obviously, if the customer had a legitimate complaint and didn't tip for that reason, this doesn't apply. But we remember if you don't tip *without* any good reason, and if you come in again, you'd better believe that whatever server has you will know that and you'll get crappy service. The particular place I work at now just takes it a step farther, and if you make a habit of not tipping you'll be asked not to come back.

I certainly don't have any problems in theory with not leaving a tip if the service is horrendous. I'm just a softie in practice.

We went to the 99 restaurant once, having heard wonderful things about them. Well, about half an hour after we ordered our burgers, noticing that the party next to us, which came in later, had already gotten their food, we finally managed to flag down our waitress. Apparently she hadn't noticed, but she said she'd check on our orders. Well, another 15-20 minutes go by and still no food, and no waitress. Finally she brings out two burgers that had very obviously been pressed to cook as fast as possible. They were dried out and burnt on the outside. She never said one word of apology. So before we left we talked to the manager, and he was very apologetic- the only thing we ended up paying for was my beer. I *still* couldn't bring myself to stiff her, even though she obviously had done a terrible job. I need more of a backbone, I know. :-}