Tips

[Lat-Literal]

Do you tip:

1. Painters and decorators?
2. Electricians?
3. Plumbers?

If so, by what percentage of the fee?

Also:

4. The people who provide bed and breakfast accommodation?

or

5. Just their cleaners?

[Petrushka]

Does anyone tip these people? News to me. As they charge enough as it is the only tip they're likely to get from me is for the 2.30 at Kempton Park.

[cloughie]

Do you tip:

1. Painters and decorators?
2. Electricians?
3. Plumbers?

If so, by what percentage of the fee?

Also:

4. The people who provide bed and breakfast accommodation?

or

5. Just their cleaners?

No to 1 2 and 3 - they set their charges and I pay for job!

4 and 5 - usually tip chamber maids in hotels,

Not often tip in B&Bs as usually stay in small owner-present and again just pay the amount set.

Other places I tip are restaurants and when dining at pubs, but always pay tips in cash even when paying bill by card to make sure the tip goes to the staff who served me and not trousered by anyone else, particularly if it is a chain! I don't tip poor service. I also tip my hairdresser.
I think it is right to complain where service is poor but I also think it important to compliment where it is good and where staff are pleasant and helpful.

[Serial_Apologist]

I've no idea about "going rates" these days, but tip 10% of the bill in restaurants where no service charge is indicated, even though it is presumably incorporated into the figures. I haven't been by taxi for years - when I did I always gave more than 10%, in the understanding that that was what one did. I've never used Uber, and wouldn't imagine doing so, not being in possession of a mobile. I can't think of any other tipping situations I would be likely to encounter.

[vinteuil]

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... and do people still give Christmas tips to dustmen / posties &c??

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[Rolmill]

I've no idea about "going rates" these days, but tip 10% of the bill in restaurants where no service charge is indicated, even though it is presumably incorporated into the figures. I haven't been by taxi for years - when I did I always gave more than 10%, in the understanding that that was what one did. I've never used Uber, and wouldn't imagine doing so, not being in possession of a mobile. I can't think of any other tipping situations I would be likely to encounter.

Not even the barber/hairdresser S_A? Or is this example N/A (as it soon will be for me).....

[Anastasius]

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... and do people still give Christmas tips to dustmen / posties &c??

.

Yes to Postie.

[cloughie]

Yes to Postie.

Yes, though it is in the form of a bottle of red!

[Richard Tarleton]

No to 1 2 and 3 - they set their charges and I pay for job!

4 and 5 - usually tip chamber maids in hotels,

Not often tip in B&Bs as usually stay in small owner-present and again just pay the amount set.

Other places I tip are restaurants and when dining at pubs, but always pay tips in cash even when paying bill by card to make sure the tip goes to the staff who served me and not trousered by anyone else, particularly if it is a chain! I don't tip poor service. I also tip my hairdresser.
I think it is right to complain where service is poor but I also think it important to compliment where it is good and where staff are pleasant and helpful.

My policy also - including the cash in restaurants/pubs bit. A year or two back we ate in the café at the Royal Academy, the service was appalling, and there was an automatic service charge on the bill, which I declined to pay - the waiter had to fetch his supervisor, as this was unheard of. Postman - cash tip. Hairdresser - a chum, a tip would be demeaning so he gets a decent bottle of wine at Christmas. Dustmen move in packs around here, hard to know where to start.

[ardcarp]

I'd be interested to hear views about tipping in French restaurants. Alain? I gather that most people don't. I'm afraid my only steps in that direction are to pay the bill in billets and not expect any monai in return.

[jean]

I used to tip the milkman, but I do everything online now so I don't see him.

[BBMmk2]

May tip B & B people, as in hotel people. Also what do people think about when at a restaurant? If they charge for service charge, I wouldn't give a tip on top of that?

[gradus]

Sometimes delivery persons if the item is heavy/difficult/awkward. Restaurants or food service 10% or more unless the service/food are poor in which case I always complain albeit without rancour and I don't add a tip if there is a service charge. The dustmen are fleeting visitors and gone almost as soon as they arrive, thus almost impossible to tip although they do the job well. I'd forgotten about the postie but he's certainly worth a tip.

[Serial_Apologist]

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... and do people still give Christmas tips to dustmen / posties &c??

.

No in my case. The refuse collectors [sic] are collective sociopaths where we are concerned: half-emptying the bins which then become overfilled to the point where upturning them leaves half of the contents intact, which fails to concern them; not putting them back on grounds that they're too difficult to manoeuvre there, notwithstanding having moved them out when full in the first place; and scattering all manner of debris as they depart. The postie comes at odd times, and is always a different person.

[Serial_Apologist]

Not even the barber/hairdresser S_A? Or is this example N/A (as it soon will be for me).....

Last time I went to a hairdresser's it cost me 11/6. Since when I cut it to a No 1 as soon as summer proper seems to have arrived, using an electric clipper and two mirrors, and let it grow from the start of November. There's nothing like a thick head of hair for helping keep oneself warm - I'm sorry to learn of the bald facts of your life, Rolmill. A thick woolly bobble hat will become de rigeur... listerally!