Not a shop (wish it were). I had a rewards for a free shake with a ten dollar purchase, so I go to Red Robin to collect and sit in the bar area at a table. My order is taken.....period. Waitress brought food and never came back. I waited and waited, then see waitress behind bar serving drink's She walked by my table three times coming from three guys, flirting, walking past me without saying "are you o.k.". I finally got up went to bar and not nicely said, could you send a waitress to my table. She comes over, says do you need something, and I said service could do, I'd like to take salad home and get my check. My tip was 00.
I know many of you will say 10% would have been accepteable, but since tips reflect service, this seemed like the message I was trying to send...oh, if only it had been a shop. Rant over, too bad they discontinued our service.

That's one of my pet peeves. It's hard when you've been trained in customer service and don't receive proper service. I am a very hard person to go to the restaurant with because I do say something. I don't see anything wrong with leaving a tip of zero. Of course, they will "assume" that we are "cheap". When really we are not being cheap we are just responding to their lack of care for their customers.

Irene, I had bad service at Red Robin also. They really need to reinstate their mystery shopping program.

Yeesh. Now that you all bring it up....

RR has always been one of my very fave restaurants. For years now. But I haven't gone since my son's bday in March because of the poor service.

Except that withholding a tip doesn’t really get you much. You still paid for a joyless experience. Communication as a customer can get you much more.

If you need service, ask for it. If it’s not provided, inform them that you’re leaving and find another place. Or get a pint of ice cream and make a milkshake at home.

Honestly, walking away from a bad situation can feel a lot better than withholding a tip. Save all the money.

@1cent wrote:

Except that withholding a tip doesn’t really get you much. You still paid for a joyless experience. Communication as a customer can get you much more.

If you need service, ask for it. If it’s not provided, inform them that you’re leaving and find another place. Or get a pint of ice cream and make a milkshake at home.

Honestly, walking away from a bad situation can feel a lot better than withholding a tip. Save all the money.

Please READ my post, I did speak up and my meal was good and the shake fabulous, just the service which if you read my entire post tells it all. Withholding tip made me feel she will get her act together much more than a word....money talks.

@1cent wrote:

Except that withholding a tip doesn’t really get you much. You still paid for a joyless experience.

Nailed it.

My experience wasn't joyless, just bad service, food was great. and shake was free. Withholding tip gives you control and maybe next time better service. Finding different opinions on forum over a real situation mentioned very interesting. My motto is: actions are louder than words.

@Irene_L.A., I'm sorry to criticize, but I wonder what part of the service was horrible if your "meal was great", and the free shake was "fabulous". Was the meal service slow? Did you require something that wasn't provided by the initial service? I re-read your initial message and I couldn't find it. You were sitting in the bar. Yeah I get that it would be nice for a check back, I don't know if I would withhold the tip if that was the only thing wrong with my visit.

As a lifelong waitress and having worked with thousands, when one gets stiffed, they do not feel that it is due to anything they did or didn't do. They only see it as a customer being witchy (with a "B" and cheap. If you are recognized there in the future, you better believe the service will be double plus worse. Your food might also get altered. Servers, in general, expect a tip no matter what and rarely reflect on a matter to discover that they might have done something wrong to deserve getting stiffed. This is a generalization and there are exceptions but post-visit communication with management would have gotten your complaint recognized. Trust me, if that waitress was so clueless as to ingore you, then she is also clueless as to why you didn't tip. You have only branded yourself as a non-tipper, which that waitress will make sure all her cowokers know about. Sorry, it's just the way it is there in the underworld of restaurant work.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/28/2019 04:07PM by sestrahelena.

This is true. I know this is how they will look at it but still, I refuse to pay you for poor service and as having worked as a waitress as well in my past I try to tip "above average". But if I get mad, you best believe you "ain't getting no" optional money. You will get exactly what I have to pay to keep from going to jail for stealing, *theft of service" and not one penny more. I may or may not tell the manager my gripe, certainly not for no check back or my drink not being refilled. But you better believe I won't be back for you to screw with my food.
I did a Texas Roadhouse dinner shop for another MSP. I ordered chicken fried steak, which I had not had in a long time. My family and I are from Texas and I had a taste for it. They brought me chicken fried boneless chicken instead. I took one bite and it was great. However, I had my heart set on some chicken fried steak since that's what I was daydreaming about. They brought me my chicken fried steak and it was drenched in salt, so salty that you could not eat the crust. I did not say anything, did not send it back again partially because I was on a mystery shop and didn't want to cause too big of a scene. I took it home scraped all the crust off ate a few bites and gave the rest to the dog. I didn't go back. That was over a year ago. They didn't do the line dancing either. They hooped and hollered for one minute that was it.
I had a situation with a Lady Foot Locker one time long before I ever became a mystery shopper. They didn't have the female shoe I wanted in my size and one pair left in the warehouse. So I ordered them and decided to wait for them to be shipped. When they hadn't come when they were supposed to I called customer service. It turned out they were shipped to the wrong address. She offered to replace them with any shoe they had in the store. I told her I really liked that style and could I get the men's shoes for the women's price, (the men's were ten dollars more). She said sure just go in the store and tell them. They can call and verify if they want. When I got there and explained what happened and what customer service had told me the young ignorant supervisor got an attitude with me and said "she ain't get my shoes for ten dollars off". I got mad when explaining that that was what customer service agreed to and she responded so negatively. She got in my face with her hand or something I really can't remember because it was over twenty years ago. I had to leave Lady Footlocker and go to Footlocker to get a manager. By this time I was so disgusted over the whole affair told them to keep their shoes and just give me my money back. I refused to shop at any Footlocker (ladies, men's or kids) for like 20 years. (Yes, I know they were not her shoes, they were the companies which was one reason I was so mad).
I was trained by 7-11 back in my 20's. Their policy states that if you come in and buy a gallon of milk and go home and put it in the refrigerator, get up the next morning and pour it on a bowl of cereal and it turns out the milk was spoiled. I could do up to and INCLUDING give you your money back, give you a FREE gallon of milk, and give you a FREE box of cereal. They said the average customer spends roughly 700+ dollars a year at a gas station on snacks, sodas, etc. and that that ten dollars was not worth losing the 700+ dollars for a year. I was also taught in customer service that the first thing out of your mouth when a customer has an issue is, "I'm so sorry that happened, let me see what I can do to remedy that', even if I had to defer to a manager because I could not solve it myself. This diffuses the customer's anger and opens the door to communication as to what that particular customer thinks would be fair. I can't tell you how many times (especially here in Georgia) that I don't hear that statement.

P. S. I did not say that I, personally, have done vindictive things to non-tipping customers but I have witnessed more types of vengeance than you'd care to know.

lol. I didn't do things to people either. I just called them little nicknames, like cheap (rear end). or whatever that particular customer needed callin'.

I leave two pennies for poor service. That way, they know they're not getting stiffed. For nasty servers, I write letters or fill out cards.

I never, never get upset/rude with restaurant staff, due to fear they might do something to my food (this visit or next time). I always hold it in and try to be polite no matter what (even if I'm steaming inside).

Have heard lots of really gross stories of revenge.

I've not tipped before, though, when the service was horrendous. The one penny thing is common too to show the same point.

Here, one penny means "Great service, and I wish I had more to give you." Two pennies means "You suck," especially if they're left face down.

Maybe this is a regional thing? Generational?

TIP is an acroym. It means, To Insure Promptness. She wasn't at all prompt, I don't think you should have tipped her. (sorry, in a cranky mood today anyway from dealing with an MSP).

@iShop123 wrote:

Here, one penny means "Great service, and I wish I had more to give you." Two pennies means "You suck," especially if they're left face down.

Maybe this is a regional thing? Generational?

I think I've vaguely heard that before. But here it's just anything that's low in value that means your service was bad. 1..3. ...4 pennies...anything like that.

I'm always scared, though, that they'll do something to me in the future (heard too many horror stories). I don't go back to a place that I stiff for a long time. Staff turnover by then usually makes it safe to eat there again.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/01/2019 03:18PM by shoptastic.

Being afraid to not leave a tip or not leave a penny is ridiculous...do you think the waitress is running to the kitchen, describing you and telling the cooks to spit in your meal after you leave......LOL What should happen and will, is waitress will be better after learning a hard lesson, and concentrate on giving all good service, people coming alone as well as serving four people for a bigger tip while ignoring a one person party.

As a formerly tipped employee, it is incredibly hard for me not to leave a tip and often leave too much of a tip. However, if I'm not getting any service, I'm not paying for something I didn't receive.

I do believe being a waitress is a rough job, and leave 99%of the time a tip of 15/18% and when in a upscale place leave over 20% where they hire the best and service is fabulous. No service is no tip or maybe 10% which is better than the penny thing, but still leaves a message. Now I get a free B-day burger and (be sure), I won't sit in the bar area, but main dining room, so we'll see how service is there. Instead of my being afraid to go back, they're giving me a free meal, chance for them to improve, but it won't be a job......and I didn't tell the Manager, wouldn't want her to lose her job.

I always leave a tip, as I know most often wait staff are taxed on 15% regardless of what a customer leaves. If I have a problem, I speak up. If it is a mystery shop, my report speaks for me.

UPDATE: I went back to Red Robin (after the above post) to claim my free B-day burger/salad and sat in the main dining room....and, service was excellent as it used to be. I'm saying one bad server should not deter future meals. Everything was great and my server was great, left a big tip 22% to make up for the non tip, we're good!!

@iShop123 wrote:

Here, one penny means "Great service, and I wish I had more to give you." Two pennies means "You suck," especially if they're left face down.

Maybe this is a regional thing? Generational?

I think that nowadays, people would rather shame a server on by taking a picture of the receipt and posting it on social media (and vice versa) instead of leaving two pennies. I may consider leaving two pennies though. In the past, I've left the absolute minimum of a tip (less than 15%).