Larry > wrote:

>Dave Smith wrote:

>> FWIW, we were out at a nice restaurant for lunch last weekend. It was
>> my brother's 40th anniversary. There were about 20 of us. Service was
>> slow. When the waitress came around to take drink orders, my wife
>> asked a question about the menu, which seemed to throw the waitress
>> off and she left without taking my order. I had a hell of time getting
>> her attention and finally someone else tagged her and told her that
>> she taken my drink order. She came over and I ordered a beer for me
>> and a glass of wine for my wife. It was a good 15 minutes before she
>> returned with the drinks.

>> That left me in a bit of a dilemma for me. The prices were pretty
>> steep and the bill came to almost $90, and I am expected to spend $15
>> on a tip for someone who neglected me and spent all of 5 minutes
>> dealing with me? With 10 couples there, all paying roughly 15%, that
>> would work out to something int he range of $150 for the two hours she
>> spent waiting on us.

>Was it her fault? If it was, I'd pay 10%. If she couldn't avoid it due
>to under-staffing, I would pay the 15% and talk with the manager.

Under-staffing is one possibility, but there are others. One
is under-training in that waitstaff may not be trained on how
to handle a party of 20. Another is the mechanics that a person
waiting on a party of 20 needs help from other staff, but
why should they help unless they get a share of the tip. Furthermore
since large parties notoriously tip under 15% even when the
service is fine, the waitstaff with higher priority refuse
such parties and the junior waitstaff gets stuck with them.

Basically at many restaurants large parties and their waitstaff are
in a vicous circle of mutual non-performance. It takes attentive
management and reasonable customers to break this vicious circle.

Steve