Are JWs the worst restaurant customers?

by Alfred 124 Replies latest jw friends

  • carla
    carla

    Here is what I have-

    KM 5/91 p4- Arrange Now to Attend teh 1991 "Lovers of Freedom" DC.....While we may be concerned with saving money, we should not knowingly neglect those who expect tips for services rendered. The articles "To Tip-or Not" and "Tips on Tipping" on pages 24-7 of the June 22, 1986 issue of Awake! still deserve our attention. It was pointed out on page 24: "Tipping is more than a thank-you for extra service rendered. It is the principal part of a persons income. "Awake! also pointed out that when "attending a convention, what you do personally reflects on the whole group. People will judge the group by your behavior." So regardless of your personal views about tipping, when you visit a city as a delegate to a convention of Jehovah's Witnesses, use good judgement and discernment, and be ready to "do all things for the sake of good news".- 1 Cor 9:19-13

    KM 4/04 p 5 Be Holy in all your Conduct

    We should also remember that in many places it is customary to leave a 15-20 percent tip, depending on the service. Even when eating and drinking, we seek to do all things for God's glory. - 1 Cor 10:31

    as a delegate to a convention of Jehovah's Witnesses--- aren't jw's supposed to be a 'delegate' of/for jah at all times? therefore they should leave tips whether they are with a bunch of jw's or not.

    My jw used to be a generous tipper pre-jw life due to the fact he knew full well the life of waitstaff. Now? I am constantly reminding him to leave a decent tip! People have no clue how much becoming a jw changes your life even in small annoying ways.

  • jookbeard
    jookbeard

    the summer conventions coming up in cities around the world it would be interesting to monitor the catering establishments around these centres, forget the tipping issue they really are dreadful customers,arrogant,rude,disruptive,awkward and demanding, I bet the staff dread these dreadful people approaching their places.

  • undercover
    undercover

    I can recall some horror stories of badly behaving JWs at restaurants.

    I remember how some pioneers would take up diner booths and order only water and then eat their bag lunch and then leave a pittance of a tip. Not only was that hurting the server, it was hurting the restaurant owner. They count on people spending money at those tables and turning them over so many times in a meal period. When free-loaders squat and don't order anything, it hurts the entire operation. One diner owner complained to a brother who was a regular as a construction worker not knowing he was a JW. He went back and said something to the pioneers, not to talk bad about the diner owner but to remind the pioneers that they needed to be better customers. Of course the pioneers got mad and boycotted the place from then on. The diner owner was ecstatic, I'm sure.

    When I was a kid I remember some dubs leaving magazines as a tip in a restaurant but the practice fell into disfavor sometime later. The WTS has printed guidelines on not doing that even. But even as a kid, I was puzzled by such a practice. Even then I knew that waitresses relied on tips to help supplement their crappy per-hour pay.

    My JW in-laws are cheap. They are the worst tippers. They prefer to eat at places where they don't have to tip...at least they know they're cheap... but on occasion when we do eat at a full service restuarant, my F-I-L will always insist on picking up the tab, but then I have to go find the server and slip them another 10 bucks or so to make sure he/she was tipped properly. We finally got him to let us leave the tip since he insisted on picking up the tab. But then my M-I-L would bitch about how much I was leaving. So again, I just started handing the server the money personally so she couldn't carry one about it.

    But having said all that, I knew of JWs who were good customers....loyal customers...and tipped properly. I remember for several years at one hall where we went to a local pizza parlor after the meeting every week and the staff came to know us. The owner would come out and chat with us. The servers were always glad to see us. They would ask if someone was missing. And we knew to tip well and treat them well. And to our credit, thankfully, no one ever tried to witness to the servers or owner.

    Another hall and time, we used to go to a local deli after the Sunday meeting. No tipping required, but there would be anywhere from 15 to 30 JWs lined up to order and we'd drink beer which the Baptists who also came in after services wouldn't do. So we helped the owner's beer sales. We came to know the owner and his top staff. They treated us well and would give us free apps from time to time just for being such loyal customers. We always cleaned up well behind ourselves and re-arranged the furniture back to the way it normally is instead of just leaving them all pushed together. The busboy always thanked us for helping him.

    So - not all JWs are no-tipping, cheapass, lowclass customers. While there are some, there are others who were the exact opposite.

    People tend to remember the bad customer rather than the good ones. I'ved worked in the service industry. I can recall the bad experiences much better than I can the good ones. But the good ones actually outnumbered the bad ones.

    I think another thing that helps give the JWs as a group a bad rep in this area is that most JWs are working class stiffs themselves. Most don't have extra income laying around. They're struggling to make ends meet. Not a lot of college grads in those groups of dubs that come in. So many of them count their pennies much closer than the average group that comes in. So you probably will not see a lot of big spenders and big tippers in their ranks.

    Speaking of college...one place I worked at, all the servers hated the college kids that came in as customers. They were the absolute worst. Ordered you around like servants, would hang out at a table long after the meal was done, thus eliminating being able to turn that table over, bitch when we wouldn't serve em booze if they forgot their ID and then leave next to nothing in a tip. These weren't working class college kids...they were kids from well-to-do families who weren't expected to work their way through school and they drove brand new BMWs or Audis because daddy had the money. I know that not all college kids were that snotty and rude, but enough came in like that, that the stereotype was developed and the servers dreaded seeing any group of college-aged kids come in. So we were guilty of lumping all kids into one group instead of taking it by a case by case situation. Same with JWs. I think some of us tend to focus on the negative conduct of the badly behaving ones and we tend to lump em all together and bad customers when it's not really the case.

  • Nickolas
    Nickolas

    If we get Americans though, I find that they tend to tip less - or in coin (or a couple dollar bills), thinking that their coins are so much more valuable than Canadian currency ;)

    I remember overhearing a waitress in a Florida restaurant telling a joke to the folks in the next booth, Tammy. She said something like, "Yeah, we get a lot of Canadian snowbirds in here. Hey, what's the difference between a Canadian and a canoe? Don't know? A canoe tips." Cheap comes in all shapes, sizes, nationalities and religious denominations.

    I don't agree with the sentiment about customers not paying the wages of restaurant workers with their tips. Customers are already paying the wages of restaurant servers as part of the bill, it's just that servers base pay is not all that high as a practical rule. If they are paid higher wages two things happen. One, the price of the meal goes up and the restaurant will not be as competitive as the place down the road that pays its servers minimum wage. Two, the quality of the service goes down because there is no incentive on the part of the server to make the extra effort to please the customer, and that will also affect the bottom line of the restaurant when people don't come back. I consider tips as sort of "pay for performance". If you as a server do a good job, I'll give you 15%. If you do a great job, I'll bump that up to 20%. If you do a poor job, you'll get 10% to nothing and if you do a really lousey job I'll be sure to fill in the comment card.

  • nolongerwaiting
    nolongerwaiting

    The server has to do a really lousy, rotten, awful job before I will tell NLW to give a bad tip. We've only had a few of those servers in the whole time we have been married. Otherwise the tip is always 20% for us. Before I got married to NLW I rarely went out to eat so I don't know the norm for JW's tipping.

    NLW's wife

  • tec
    tec

    That's funny, Nick.

    Also, its true that the customer is going to end up paying the wage of the server. If not in a mandatory tip included in the bill, then by his/her own choice... or the price of food and drink goes up to make up for the extra wages. You can be sure that the corporation owners are not going to foot the bill, and the smaller restaurant owners will get knocked out.

    I don't know what I would be doing without the tips, and I am grateful that this job exists... one that does not require higher education, but allows a person to earn good money in flexible hours. So for all of you who do tip, and often good, thank you.

    Tammy

  • wantarevolution
    wantarevolution

    well - it was the opposite where I was from. I worked in a restaurant through college (*gasp - a dub that went to college). A group of witnesses came in from another town, they were driving back from a zone talk . Anyway, my country doesn't have the tradition of tipping and to be honest - the wage I was on was enough to live (at the time we made 10€ an hour base + whatever tips were given it usually averaged an extra 15-20€ a night).

    Anyway, they didn't know I was a witness but i vaguely recognised one of them from being the guy that adjusted the microphones at assemblies and a couple of others as well - they were a group of witnesses, they looked too smartly dressed, though ties were off, for a sunday evening crowd. They came in and asked if there was a chance of some tables. They didn't request a big group table but split the group between 3 or 4 tables. They were polite, had their fair share of drinks and were pretty loud, but no more so than other tables.

    The left after their deserts, split the bills evenly on some tables, others i could tell were pay for your own (which when some have a steak, the others a salad is pretty normal). Aside from the bill - which for each table averaged 120€ or so, on one table was a 30€ tip and on one of them - a 50€. On the night i saw that each witness had tipped 10€.

    My point is, you can't generalise on diners - jerks come in all sizes

    As ex witnesses, or ones on the way out...i think there are an awful lot of other things to keep our grey matter occupied than tips....

  • DagothUr
    DagothUr

    I only tip around 5-7 % of the bill and only if I see a little dilligence from the waiter. It's a job like any other, keep it or leave it, go to school and change it. There are hundreads of jobs that don't get tips.

  • carla
    carla

    Dagoth, most waitstaff is paid about 2.35 per hour AND they by law (in my state) must pay taxes on 8-10% of the entire bill as tip income whether a person left a tip or not. If you get poor service perhaps they remember you as a lousy tipper.

  • keyser soze
    keyser soze

    Dagoth suddenly reminded me of the opening scene from Reservoir Dogs:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-qV9wVGb38&feature=related

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