Dog3 wrote:

> Same here. There are people out there that are just cheap. I stopped dining
> out with 2 friends because they were immediately belligerant and always
> stiffed the waiter after running them all night. The friends would bitch all
> evening about one thing or another. They are fine people but sort of turn
> when they sit down at a table in a restaurant. Every time I dined out with
> them I had to sneak money to the waiter or hide it under my plate.

Yes, there are cheap people out there. I do not pool tips when I go out with
other people. I give my tip directly to the server or leave it at my place at
the table. While I may feel sorry for servers waiting on some cheap people I
know and who I had to have restaurant meals with, I do not subsidize their
tips. I have been known to call them cheap SOBs for leaving small tips, or no
tips, but I am not paying for them.

The worst was a guy who went out with a bunch of coworkers. When they were all
up at the cashier paying their bills he went back to the table. It looked like
he was going back to leave a tip. What he tried to do was to pick up the tips
the others had left.

When organizing Christmas luncheons, I always requested individual bills
because I knew some of the cheap SOBs would not leave tips if we pooled our
money, and probably try to overlook the tax on their portion leaving the money
collector to make up the difference.

I always leave a fair tip, but I must admit that I resent it. I think that
service is part of a restaurant meal and that owners should pay their staff a
reasonable meal rather than leaving them at the mercy of a cheap and resentful
public, or being held responsible for slow and sloppy kitchen staff.

I especially resent having a 15% service fee on buffet meals. They are not
waiting on me and bringing my food, so I don't think it is fair to expect
people to tip them as if they were.