Here's my view on the situation: I work as a hostess at a restaurant that also takes to-go orders. In addition to seating people and checking people out, I have to take to-go orders on the phone, go back to the kitchen and nag the cooks until they get it right, box it up, prepare salads, condiments, and drinks, and deliver it to people in the drive-thru (oh, cursed drive-thru! but that's for another day)....all of this in addition to my "normal" hosting duties. Why is it such a big deal to give me a buck or two tip? Don't I do the same thing as a waitress?

"No, I accidentally wrote down the wrong number and just corrected it to the right one. I never intended to give you an extra dollar. But since you said something, NOW I'm going to lower the tip by a dollar." *Crosses out new total and writes another one.*

Oh, by the way, it was completely out of line for her to comment on it. Although, you know if she sees it, she's going to go into the back and complain about how much of a cheap bastard you are with all the other servers. At least give us some satisfaction. We're college students attempting to make some money in order to eat and live a reasonable existence.

FYL? Do us all a favour: go back to livejournal.

...at which point you say "Now I'm lowering by two dollars, anything else you'd like to add?"

50/50 - My uncle's an amazing waiter so I believe in tipping well for good service. However, A) OP was ordering out, B) he lowered the damn tip by ONE DOLLAR, and C) the waitress screwed up by opening her mouth about it like an unprofessional idiot. You don't do that in a working environment. Honestly, while I think the guy's a cheapass, I think the waitress is a ******* moron for commenting about it to the customer. That sort of thing could easily endanger her job and she gets minimum wage as it were. I don't know. On the one hand, OP's a cheap dipshit. On the other hand, the waitress was unprofessional and that's horribly annoying. Sooo... 50/50 I guess.

I agree with 91. The majority of the time, if your food takes forever or something, it's not our fault. We can go back there and scream at the cooks all we want, but it doesn't make them hurry up. We're trying to hurry them along, serve a bunch of other tables, make coffee and tea, clean, help the hostesses seat people, etc. It's a big job. I only make $2.83/hr as a waitress...some of my paychecks are like $10.00 for two weeks because it's all taken out in taxes. My only money IS my tips. I work really hard to give people an enjoyable experience and sometimes assholes don't tip because their food took 5 minutes longer than it should have. Not even my fault. And I think people should give at least a couple dollars on take out, at least at most restaurants. I've done take-out where I work and I have to take the order on the phone, prepare the salads and condiments, pack it all up, etc. So I think that warrants $2 or $3. I hate shitty tippers. The End.

Why did you tip at all? It's take out, you picked it up yourself and drove it to your own table at home, makes no sense. Do you tip the cashiers at retail stores?

I agree with #44, though those percentages seem a little high to me. I usually tip a little over 10% for standard service and 15% to 20% for really good service. But I always try to find nice, round numbers.

#102 - he wasn't waited on, he was handed his food in a bag to take home himself. Would you pay the pizza delivery charge if you went to go pick up a pizza yourself? no you wouldn't. The guy shouldn't have to leave a tip when he isn't being waited on just because your employer doesn't pay enough. The tip is for the service, a service which in this case he didn't receive.