I'm specifically interested in anyone's experience getting reimbursed for tips at a buffalo wild wings shop. The shop pay is so low, you're basically doing the shop for free if you leave a tip and don't get reimbursed for it. I don't see anything in the documentation about tipping.

I hate shops where the tips come out of my own pocket. Nevertheless, I would never accept an assignment where I couldn't afford to leave a tip out of my own pocket. I was in a Subway the other day, and I was shocked to see a tip jar! The reimbursement doesn't even cover the cost of what we're required to purchase, and a tip on top of that? Some MSCs (not many, but a few) have told me to send an e-mail if the expense is greater than the allowance, and they'll adjust the reimbursement. It never hurts to call or e-mail and ask your scheduler or the equivalent of the help-desk.

Unless stated otherwise, always include the tip amount in your reimbursement limit.

A simple calculation would be: ReimbursementLimit / 1.22 = Pre-Tax Total to stay under reimbursement.

1.22 = 0.15 (15% tip) + 0.07 (~7% tax). Obviously adjust the tip, where they require 18% minimum and adjust to the appropriate tax amount in your area.

For example, the shop I have has a $100 spending limit, 18% tip minimum and 8% tax: 100 / (1+0.18+0.08) = $79.37. Thus, my pre-tax, pre-tip total for my meal should total up to $79.37 or less to stay under the $100 limit provided for the shop.

@ceasesmith wrote:

I hate shops where the tips come out of my own pocket. Nevertheless, I would never accept an assignment where I couldn't afford to leave a tip out of my own pocket. I was in a Subway the other day, and I was shocked to see a tip jar! The reimbursement doesn't even cover the cost of what we're required to purchase, and a tip on top of that? Some MSCs (not many, but a few) have told me to send an e-mail if the expense is greater than the allowance, and they'll adjust the reimbursement. It never hurts to call or e-mail and ask your scheduler or the equivalent of the help-desk.

This is our responsibility as shoppers to be familiar with the restaurant or to do a quick browse through the client's menu to see if the assignment meets your requirements for your accept the shop.

Some restaurants do not include the tip in the reimbursement. You have to be aware of that when you read the Guidelines. It wouldn't matter in some upscale restaurant as your expense may already cover the reimbursement amount. The jar tips are never included but when they ask for the total amount in a casual dining, I include it in the report. And since I give my tips in cash, I never expect it to be reimbursed.

@risinghorizon wrote:

Some restaurants do not include the tip in the reimbursement. You have to be aware of that when you read the Guidelines. It wouldn't matter in some upscale restaurant as your expense may already cover the reimbursement amount. The jar tips are never included but when they ask for the total amount in a casual dining, I include it in the report. And since I give my tips in cash, I never expect it to be reimbursed.

Casual dining as in fast-casual like a Noodles & Company?

As in Five Guys...

@risinghorizon wrote:

As in Five Guys...

Why tip? It's like tipping for a take-out order. Fast food restaurants like Chick-Fil-A deliver your trays to your table, but they don't expect any tips or have any tip jars....

Because I wanted to. No need for an explanation. I always do when there is a tip jar. Always! Unless the MSC instructs me not to...

And this ladies and gentlemen is the reason tip jars have popped up at every place known to mankind, even where people are being paid a full wage to provide services.

@bgriffin wrote:

And this ladies and gentlemen is the reason tip jars have popped up at every place known to mankind, even where people are being paid a full wage to provide services.

The people behind the tip jars are typically struggling to make ends meet. Those jobs typically don't pay well, especially for the most recent hires, as anyone who compares inflation rates to hours offered, starting pay, and cost of living in most areas would know. It's minimum wage or not much higher, and people often can't make a living on this even if they end up working 2-3 jobs and 50-70 hours per week. Really. The employment crisis is so bad in the States that even college grads are taking really bad jobs.

The average Starbuck's barista makes almost $10 an hour. Their personal story is of no concern to me as they are being paid more than minimum wage to provide me with my iced venti double dirty chai. They are not being paid a wage that makes them dependent on tips to make above minimum wage. Meanwhile the cashier at Macy's who rung up my 3 pack of boxer briefs is getting paid $1 an hour less but we see no tip jar at the Macy's counter.

So it's our responsibility as mystery shoppers (potentially some of the worst paid people out there) to supply tips for employees who chose to take a job they cannot make a living at, or have created a lifestyle beyond what they are capable of earning?

That's almost as ridiculous as the MSC that generally doesn't pay any fee asking me to make a chartable donation from MY reimbursement check!

I'm sorry but it's much worse IMO. At least I ASSume that the charities the MSC chooses are ones that put the money to good use. I have no idea if the money I put in the tip jar for someone already making above minimum wage is going to their pot habit or not.

@OceanGirl wrote:

@bgriffin wrote:

And this ladies and gentlemen is the reason tip jars have popped up at every place known to mankind, even where people are being paid a full wage to provide services.

The people behind the tip jars are typically struggling to make ends meet. Those jobs typically don't pay well, especially for the most recent hires, as anyone who compares inflation rates to hours offered, starting pay, and cost of living in most areas would know. It's minimum wage or not much higher, and people often can't make a living on this even if they end up working 2-3 jobs and 50-70 hours per week. Really. The employment crisis is so bad in the States that even college grads are taking really bad jobs.

..... So we should be tipping the struggling cashier at our local fast food restaurant? Same with the associates we interact at a retail store or grocery store? What about the security guard who provides you directions to the customer service desk?

It shouldn't be the consumer's responsibility to supplement their pay, that should be the employer's responsibility.....

Absolutely, but the libtards out there think that people who earn a living should supplement the income of those who aren't out there working as hard or haven't worked to gain the skill necessary for a better job.

@bgriffin excuse me, but didn't you just yesterday ask for politics to be banned from postings, and then just use the word libtard?

Yes. But apparently no one agrees with me that politics and religion should be banned from postings. I'm perfectly happy to not talk about either on here and would actually prefer it. However, we have some people on here who as soon as someone mentions religion or politics they don't agree with they go ballistic that this forum should be free of politics and religion and then when someone starts a thread that they agree with politics are suddenly ok. Well they can't have it both ways so I will continue to post about religion and politics when I see fit.

OK, you can call me libtard and I'll call you tea-bagger. I love where this tip thread is going

@Schneiderman wrote:

I'm specifically interested in anyone's experience getting reimbursed for tips at a buffalo wild wings shop. The shop pay is so low, you're basically doing the shop for free if you leave a tip and don't get reimbursed for it. I don't see anything in the documentation about tipping.

Schneiderman, I've done shops for this client before and I honestly don't recall if the tip amount is reimbursed as I usually spend more than the required amount. I would suggest sending the scheduler for these shops a quick email asking your question. That would probably get you an accurate answer a lot quicker than this thread (Especially the direction it seems to be taking ).

Well first we obviously have to determine if BWW (and/or the MSC) are liberal or conservative before we can really answer that question don't we?

Also the tip has been reimbursed for me before but I have not done one since they changed companies so YMMV.

Must be a full moon or something gong on...maybe Sybil will pop in to give us an update on Mercury's triple retrograde status and how it affects mystery shoppers dispositions....



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/09/2015 12:39AM by msimon-2000.

She will probably just sing more Grumpy Cat.

I love that song...I can still see Phoebe's reaction to her voice on the music video...priceless!

@bgriffin wrote:

Meanwhile the cashier at Macy's who rung up my 3 pack of boxer briefs is getting paid $1 an hour less but we see no tip jar at the Macy's counter.

You modeling your boxer briefs for the Macy's cashier is tip enough.

And here I thought I should probably have to tip them more.

@SteveSoCal wrote:

So it's our responsibility as mystery shoppers (potentially some of the worst paid people out there) to supply tips for employees who chose to take a job they cannot make a living at, or have created a lifestyle beyond what they are capable of earning?

That's almost as ridiculous as the MSC that generally doesn't pay any fee asking me to make a chartable donation from MY reimbursement check!

You've been doing this a LOT longer than me, and at a much higher level, so I know you're familiar with how tipping works. It's not your "responsibility" to tip. I choose to tip because I want to reward hard work--and like risinghorizon, I tip well, and in cash, and do not claim it for reimbursement.

I'll also point out that if a mystery shopper is one of "the worst paid people out there," it's his own fault. We have a considerable amount of control over our own income in this business; it's just a matter of hard work and developing the skills you need. I'd say the same holds true for waiting tables.

To each his own, guys. Are we going to ban tipping topics because you do not agree with it? Toggle all those who like to tip and be done with it!
Geez! Toggle! Done. Bye.

I had service times dragged down to a dead stop due to an employee ending shift while my casual dining was being prepared. The manager cleaned out the tip jar and every single employee dropped everything and huddled around the manager as she broke the tips into even amounts for every employee and distributed the tips in cash. Then the employees went back to work. This took several minutes and the fries were overcooked and the burger that was on the grill was also over cooked.

I put all of this in the report. The next time I visited that location about a month later, every face was new and there was no tip jar in sight.

@pinchers81 wrote:

@SteveSoCal wrote:

So it's our responsibility as mystery shoppers (potentially some of the worst paid people out there) to supply tips for employees who chose to take a job they cannot make a living at, or have created a lifestyle beyond what they are capable of earning?

You've been doing this a LOT longer than me, and at a much higher level, so I know you're familiar with how tipping works. It's not your "responsibility" to tip. I choose to tip because I want to reward hard work--and like risinghorizon, I tip well, and in cash, and do not claim it for reimbursement.

To clarify; That statement was in response to OceanGirls's assertion that people behind tip jars were generally poorly paid and have trouble making ends meet....and within the context of a thread discussing unreimbursed tips when MSing.

When I'm on an assignment where tipping is required, I expect that there should be some guidelines regarding the tipping policy of the assignment. If a tip is required, I am generally instructed on an acceptable percentage. I have seen a few shops where tips are expected but not reimbursed, and I will not take those type of assignments. If tips are not required or reimbursed, then I am going to be under the impression that the client does not expect their employees to be tipped, and I am not going to tip.

When I am on an assignment, I am not in the business of rewarding employees for hard work. I am in the business of evaluating their performance within the context of what their employer deems an appropriate reimbursement. We are, in a sense, both working for the same entity, so me offering a tip from my meager pay is like a busser providing a few dollars to the server from his minimum wage because the server did a good job. However, it's typical that the server will tip out the busser, since the server earns tips and the busser helps the server earn those tips.

I am not complaining about the pay that I get as a shopper. I'm just saying that most of the employees I evaluate probably turn a larger profit than I do at the end of the day for the time doing each of our respective jobs. I adjust my lifestyle costs to be below the income that I am capable of producing and expect others to do the same.

When I'm out on my own, I will choose tip tip as I deem appropriate, but this discussion was in regards to tips being reimbursed while on assignment.