On 2004-09-12, Richard Periut > wrote:

> As a former waiter, I favor the mandatory 15% tip for parties of 6 or
> more. In the end, the net result was positive for me, for I remember the
> many parties of 6 +, who left crappa rata for tip, or none at all. More
> of these than you think.
>
> I always offered excellent service beyond the call of duty. Perhaps the

Then you certainly deserve the tip.

I know from experience the problems a group can present. It only takes one
flake in the group to throw a group's good intentions out the door. I can't
count all the times a single group member either shortchanged the total bill
or refused to pay a decent tip. I had one young boss who was a great guy.
But he was one of the biggest cheap-skates I've ever known. So, when we'd
go to an upscale place he'd throw the whole table off and others would have
to dig deeper to give a decent tip. We all liked the guy as a cow orker,
but began avoiding him like the plague around lunch time.

OTOH, I've had a couple experiences where service was intolerable. One so
much so it precipitated a band-stopping, adjacent-table-clearing,
meal-abandoning incident between the group and the staff and heated words
within the group itself. Having to fork over money for such abominable
service would have been criminal. Fortunately, these are extremely rare.

nb