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Having dated my share of waiters I tend to overtip. However I have left nothing for abysmal service. As recently as a few months ago I was in vegas in which the food, the wait staff, and the busers/runners were all abysmal. What I found interesting is my friends from California could not leave without giving a tip - however small it was.

We tip based on 20% of our total bill. If the service was particularly good, we may tip more (or less, if the service is bad). However, the theory you posted could be based on a variety of factors like how the server interacts with the customer. One or the other may not communicate with the other for a variety of reasons besides prejudice. Could the customer have received poor service based on his/her race (this has happened to me at both Denny's and Krystal, when the staff ignored us in favor of customers of the employee's own race). How did the author of the article conduct his/her research? Was is anecdotal? Were both customers and service providers asked to record their tips/tabs/and races involved?

Beth, I've had the same thing happen to me. My husband and I have gone in restaurants (I'm Japanese, he's German) and not gotten either any service or not seated at restaurants -- Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and an American fare restaurant. We were not dressed any differently from anyone in the restaurant.

After waiting 10 minutes in front of the host at a Chinese restaurant, they seated the (white) couple who had just walked in to the restaurant standing behind us, and continued to ignore us after they were seated. Of course, we walked out.

I don't tip by anything but service. I've left nothing as a tip many times when I've thought that I received really subpar service - cold food, hair in my food, server coughing on my food, live bugs in my food, onions or whatever I specifically repeat 3x to exclude from my food, or just 0 service, e.g., waiting for 15 minutes after we've been seated for water and a menu when the restaurant has only 2 other customers. This is coming from someone who tips 20% at *certain* buffets, so you know it really has to be bad.

As for the restaurant that served us live bugs in our food (which we didn't order!), we were told we had to pay for our food, even though we didn't even eat any of it because we were so disgusted, or they'd call the cops. So we had to pay for our entire meal that we didn't eat. Of course, no tip - and we've never returned. I've actually written comments about my experience at 4-5 food sites, but they've all miraculously vanished. :P

Aghhhh oops that comment posted under my moms name I am not evil chef mom just one of her sous chefs.

I always tip a lot - more than 20%, sometimes way more. My husband laughs and says that it is the islandexile scholarship. I often feel that as a woman and now as an older woman, that service at a table I'm hosting is discounted, so to speak. Still an idealist, I'm always hoping to bust a stereotype. If service were really bad, I'd feel obliged to tell the person in charge why the tip was going to reflect that.

Have we not had race injected into our collective consciences enough already this week? Anyway, I tip between 15 and 20 percent depending on the service. I will say as an African-American that I must admit to coming from a family of cheap tippers! I have no idea whether this is true of others, just my own experience. I have often felt compelled to leave a few extra dollars when dining with my parents to bring the percentage up to 20% or so. I used to try to get my parents to be a bit more generous, but they could be rather tight fisted for reasons they have never explained and I haven't understood. Of my African-American peers, we all tip around the same: 20%.

@srhcb - Me either.

@All - I worked as a server years ago in college.(Sounds funny - server - we were called waitress' back in the day) I was treated poorly on more than one occasion by both caucasian and African-American customers. There were just as many low or non-tipping customers on the part of both. I tend to tip on the higher side, always rounding up, especially if the service was exceptional. I have never "stiffed" a server, but I have come pretty close! I will speak with the manager if we have been treated poorly or if the service was lacking. It is up to management to ensure the standard of service in the restaurant.

@srhcb - Ya think?

As a host, I've had waiters tell me not to seat black people in their sections because "they don't tip."

As a barista, I've received good, bad, and no tips from people of every size, race, and color.

I also tip according to service. I was at a restaurant with a friend and had terrible service. I was going to leave without a tip. She had a better idea. She left 2 pennies. That way they knew that we didn't just forget to leave a tip. The wait staff knew we left a bad tip for bad service. I think it is a great idea.

Also, I will speak to the manager if I had great service. I have never been a waitress but I have worked sales and you always hear the bad even if it is the customers that are the problem. So I make sure to let the manager and/or headquarters know when I had great service.

Once I asked a waitress to get the manager. The poor girl was terrified. She didn't think she did anything wrong but I wanted the manager. After I spoke to the manager about how great she was the waitress came back and thanked me and told me about her feelings about getting the manager. She also said that the manager went into the kitchen and announced over the kitchen speaker system that this waitress received a glowing comment. It made the waitresses day and mine.

When I was a waitress in high school, at a kind of touristy restaurant in San Francisco, I would amuse myself by putting on fake accents for a night (a special talent of mine) and then checking the tips. A fake Irish or English accent got the highest tips every time. My normal non-accented voice got the median as did a southern accent. But a Valley girl accent, New York accent, or girl from the 'hood accent got lower tips- by a couple percentage points. Pretty interesting!