When you go out to eat, have pizza delivered, or get your hair or nails done, do you always tip? Even if the service was bad? When is it ok to complain, and what do you as a customer expect?
My husband and I went out to dinner earlier this week, to a local restaurant we didn’t really like the last time we went one year ago. But we thought, maybe they’ve changed, after all, it’s been a year! Well, no such luck. The food was still overpriced and quite average in taste (a step up from last year), and the waitstaff was friendly but could have done with a few more hours of training. When she asked how everything was, we said “fine,” not really caring to go into a discussion of why she shouldn’t take the bread basked while we were still eating. We left a tip of double the tax amount, i.e. 16 %, vowing not to come back.
I also tried out the local nail spa in my new neighborhood today. The lady who gave me the pink and white refill dug her own nails into my fingers on multiple occasions while telling me to relax my hand. Instead of moving her wee powder-pots to the side of the table, she had me swivel halfway around the client sitting next to me. I had been debating getting up and leaving after she almost filed my natural nail down to the underlying flesh (which in case you’ve never had this done feels like the mother of all burns), but I didn’t want to cause a scene or leave with half a manicured hand. I waited, said “fine” when she asked how I liked the result, left no tip, vowing not to come back.
Do you speak up to get what you pay for? Customer is king, and all that? What if you live in, or are receiving service by somebody from, a culture where that adage isn’t on the menu? Do you avoid confrontation and find another restaurant / salon? In the two cases I’ve described here, there’s no real trouble not going back to the offending establishments, as there is a wide variety of choice available who will most likely do a more satisfactory job. But what if that restaurant is your only place far and wide? Or that store is so specialized, nobody else can take its place?
For expats, the trouble doesn’t end there. The tips you are used to in your home country may be far too much, way too little, or even insulting in your host culture. Service levels will most certainly show discrepancies. The locals may also make exceptions for you and expect extra high contributions, assuming that as an expat your living standards are considerably better than their own or that of the local clientèle (which may or may not be true). CNN wrote an article about international tipping a few years ago, and USA Today published this handy chart you might want to consider as a basic guideline.
I grew up in a place where tipping is mostly equal to already included service charges, rounding up, or leaving a couple of Euros on the table. Britain was different according to establishment, Spain dito, and everybody and their mother would expect tips in Mexico. I realize that statement may sound flippant, but my experience was that most times I wouldn’t even get a say in the matter. People would simply grab my grocery bags outside the store and insist on putting them in the trunk for me, or waive me out of the parking spot blowing those annoying whistles expecting gratuity for services rendered; never mind I didn’t ask for them. Maybe higher base salaries would be the answer? I don’t know.
At home and during travels, unsatisfied service expectations and tipping are a minefield as far as I’m concerned. I do speak out if I think my comments can improve the situation at the time, but in general I’m more of a smile-and-nod customer. Which is what makes my question now almost ironic: how can I improve my services to you? Are you getting out of this blog and these articles what you came here for? Don’t send a tip, but please leave a comment! Thank you! 
Til next week, have a good one.
Thanks to Alexandr for the free photo.
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