28 ms·

You (unfortunately) did the right thing and this is (unfortunately) still common in several Eastern European countries (and elsewhere for example certain areas

• Cthulhu_ 5y ago
  Tangentially related, but "what happens if I refuse" is a thing with US tipping culture as well. I was at a bar once during a conference, I didn't realize you're supposed to tip the waitress at every drink you order. That was not ideal. I mean on the one side I'm cringing with embarrassment, on the other... the fuck?
  • luxuryballs 5y ago
    I always just tip once early on, but I make it fat, they’ll remember you.
    • mywacaday 5y ago
      That works really well in Vegas, I tipped $5 on our first drink and then $1 per drink there after, the drinks are free while you are gambling. Our server made sure to get us another drink before she finally shed her shift and our glasses were never empty. This was about 10 years ago.
      • foxtrottbravo 5y ago
        Excuse the maybe ignorant question, but I have no feeling for the prices: is this 1$ Tip on a 3$ beer or more like 1$ tip on a 15$ cocktail?
        • amcoastal 5y ago
          Depends on where you're at and the cost of living in the area. Its about making sure the people serving you are recognized as people and not slaves
          • VBprogrammer 5y ago
            Having people rely on some unwritten custom where the rich are expected to give a handout as part of their meal feels much more like treating people as slaves than simply paying people a fair wage and charging what that costs to make workable. I know it's just a different culture and I try to give a decent tip when I'm in the states as my lack of understanding will not improve the situation but it's still fubar.
        • NoboruWataya 5y ago
          In Vegas, that $3 beer would cost $15 anyway, if you weren't getting it for free at the tables.
        • mywacaday 5y ago
          They were tips on free whiskey/vodka + mixer as we were gambling. I googled at the time and those numbers were recommended for that service. For food drinks etc would normally tip 15-20% depending on service, would also go lower if it was terrible.
        • OkayPhysicist 5y ago
          My rule of thumb is that at a bar, if a beer costs less than 6 or 7 dollars, it's a $1 tip, more than that $2. Cocktails get a bigger tip, depending on the complexity of the drink, but typically land somewhere around the 25% rounded up to the dollar mark. If you're on a tab, you tip at the end, but a slightly larger cash tip on your first drink will get you much faster service the rest of the evening.
  • inglor 5y ago
    As a non-US person I've refused to tip in the US (well, left an explicit 0.10$ tip so they know I didn't forget) when getting really bad service before. While it was probably considered rude I have never had the wait-staff chase me like I was promised by some travel sites. I would never try that sort of thing with an officer attempting to solicit a bribe though :]
    • iudqnolq 5y ago
      FYI that reads as extremely rude and uncaring to me as a US person, to the point where if you kept doing it I wouldn't be comfortable being friends with you. Unless by bad service you mean something like spitting in your food or calling you a slur, you should just consider a 15% tip a part of bill for anything where you sit down and have food brought to you. 20-25% for good service.
      • abricot 5y ago
        So you mean they have to almost be criminally negligent or abusive to not receive a full tip?
        • iudqnolq 5y ago
          Exactly, because a tip of 15% isn't a nice extra it's a part of the worker's expected wages. American workers who can't receive tips in practice don't need to be paid the minimum wage, for example. (In theory there's a process to correct if theyre still below it after tips, but in practice that's regularly flouted).
          • ako 5y ago
            Companies not paying their workers normal wages should be considered criminal. They're just trying to avoid having to pay additional taxes and social security, by paying workers lower salaries. Companies expecting workers to be paid by tips should be fined, and customers should not agree as they're complicit in tax evation if they do.
          • 5y ago
  • kuang_eleven 5y ago
    I've lived in the US my whole life and I have never seen this. Tipping is certainly expected, but, like with restaurant wait staff, typically done when you settle your tab. There are a couple of exceptions, but only really if you weren't paying for your drinks, like at a casino. In those cases, yes, you should tip per drink.
    • AitchEmArsey 5y ago
      When I saw "tipping in advance" I thought of Starbucks, though I'm not sure how much that is opportunism and how much it is now an expectation just like a restaurant.
    • alisonkisk 5y ago
  • tragomaskhalos 5y ago
    Got caught by this as well - was actually scolded by the bartender in an Irish-themed pub in NY for not tipping after the third or fourth round. My group literally had no idea that this was a thing.
    • dTal 5y ago
      I'd have been tempted to point out that in Ireland it certainly isn't a thing.
    • causi 5y ago
      I don't think I've ever seen a "advice for visiting the US" video, page, or pamphlet that didn't include tipping. The only way you couldn't know is if you did zero research before traveling to a foreign country. That's like not knowing you can't jokingly yell "Heil Hitler!" in Germany.
      • cjrp 5y ago
        Tipping when you pay the bill at a restaurant is well publicised, but when you go to the bar and buy a drink is not.
      • runarberg 5y ago
        It is not that simple. There are no clear rules on where you tip. You have to live in the area and simply learn it. E.g. you don’t tip at Starbucks, but you do tip at most cafés, you tip you taxi driver but not your bus driver. You don’t tip at the gas station. In an open bar you are still supposed to tip the bartender even if you don’t pay for the drinks, but hardly any guides tell you that. If there is live music sometimes you are supposed to tip them, but you can never tell when.
      • lolinder 5y ago
        I've lived in the US all my life and am still confused about when tips are expected and part of the wage structure. Sit-down restaurants with an assigned waiter are the easy part, it's all the other cases that quickly become confusing. It's not helped by the fact that every order-at-the-counter restaurant now asks for tips as you pay. It's almost to the point where I assume that a tip is needed if and only if I'm not asked for one. No wonder it's confusing to visitors.
  • sdeframond 5y ago
    Could we understand tips as a lesser form of corruption? I mean, the root cause is similar: low wages incentives the official/waiter to ask for more money directly to a citizen/client, or else. There's no tips where I'm from, so tips have always been strange and unecessary to me. Genuinely wondering. I have no fixed opinion. Edit to add: also a root cause is that both practices are generally accepted in some areas.
    • dec0dedab0de 5y ago
      Tipping is almost the opposite of police corruption. The idea behind tipping is that the wait staff will do a better job if part of their salary depends on impressing the customer. How well this actually works is a different conversation. With police corruption they are purposely doing a bad job to get the bribe, and getting the bribe encourages them to keep doing a bad job. I wish wait staff were paid better, or atleast got an automatic gratuity everywhere, then we wouldn't need tips.
      • sdeframond 5y ago
        In theory this is true. In practice... I don't know. Lots of countries have fairly decent service quality without a strong tipping culture. Edit: OK, there is one big difference: tipping is encouraged by the employer while bribery is not.
        • dec0dedab0de 5y ago
          yeah, I think there was a study a while back that said most people tip the same regardless of the quality of service. Which is why I said "How well this actually works is a different conversation"
      • runarberg 5y ago
        From a marxist perspective tipping is a scam in order to get cheaper labor. The employer underpays the worker and imposes an extra tax on the customer to fill the gap. This way the employer offsets their risk onto the worker when business is low while still keeping high profits when business is good. If tipping is a form of a corruption, it is the boss—which neither gives nor receives the tip—who is the corrupt one.
  • dec0dedab0de 5y ago
    Just for clarity, It's really when you pay, not every drink. So if you open a tab, then pay at the end, you only tip once. If you're paying cash after every drink, then you're expected to tip every drink.
  • macinjosh 5y ago
    A police officer has a little more leverage over you than an underpaid waiter. So not really the same at all.
  • alistairSH 5y ago
    You tip when you pay, not per drink order. Most bars allow you to open a tab if you'll be there long enough to order several rounds. But, if you're paying as you go, then yeah, you'd tip the bartender each order. You said waitress, which implies table service. That would normally be tipped when you pay at end of evening. I've never been to a bar that requires paying per drink when seated and getting table service.
    • thehappypm 5y ago
      Ditto, but it sounds like in this case “waitress” may mean “lady bartender” in which case it makes sense.
      • alistairSH 5y ago
        Could be. Worth noting that in the US, bartenders and wait staff can be on different pay scales and different tipping plans (pooled tips vs not, split with servers/bus staff or not). Doesn't make a big difference in this discussion, only noting it because if you get a drink at the bar, then go to a table, you might want to make sure both parties (bartender, waiter) are tipped.
  • fennecfoxy 5y ago
    Yeah but not tipping is just a civilian. Not paying off an officer of the law in a country is where things start to get a little scary, because of the authority that they wield :/ Also Americans should just get rid of tipping culture already, and pay employees what they deserve. You're a democracy, right?
• andi999 5y ago
  Long time ago a friend from a country I am not naming, told me, that it is also important how to bribe the officer. While they want your money and bad things will happen if you do not give it, bad thinks will also happen if you do it too blatently, since this could be considered insulting. The only phrase I remember is that one can ask 'could I pay the fine on the spot' (in case they want to book you for some imagined traffic violation).
• yreg 5y ago
  I don't think this is a normal thing in today's Romania, but perhaps a Romanian will correct me.
• barbazoo 5y ago
  Once after crossing the border from Laos to Thailand a Thai border official expected a bribe from us, citing some obviously made up tourist tax. I saw that they already stamped our passports and even though it was probably a stupid thing to do we just played dumb, slowly repeating the same thing over and over about how we're so confused, we thought there was no additional tax, we must have made a mistake, showing them the printout of the visa we had at the time, yada yada. Never were we confrontational, only slightly annoyingly "simple" I would say and it worked beautifully, after 15 minutes or so they gave us our passports and let us go. I've since applied that strategy in many other contexts, even in western countries.