Where is my waiter?
There’s been a movement at restaurants recently to raise servers’ wages and eliminate tips.
Some servers are in favor of this, while others say they actually earn less than before the “no tipping” policy started.
Of course, some restaurants who have tried this raised their prices, citing higher wage costs.
A few have already reversed course and brought backing tipping, saying their employees didn’t like the changes.
I’m guessing they still didn’t reverse the price hikes on their menus.
Another new restaurant trend is having iPads at the table so you can place your own order.
I am guessing this means the end of waiters in the future. Are you supposed to tip if you have no server?
Let me be clear: I always try to reward good waiters and leave a 15 to 20 percent tip, depending on the quality of service.
Recently, we ate at an airport restaurant during a layover.
No one greeted us, so we sat down at a table. After waiting several minutes with no one in sight, we figured out that we were supposed to order on the iPads in front of us.
We managed to open the menu and click on what we wanted, but let’s just say the software was not “user friendly,” and we couldn’t get the ordering process to work.
We wound up flagging down one of a half dozen “waiters” we saw milling around the restaurant and asked him to show us how to order without using a waiter.
I’m not sure what his job description was, since he mainly visited tables showing people how to order.
Maybe his title was “tech assistant.”
We finally placed our order, and my friend laughed when she noticed the software automatically added an 18 percent gratuity at the bottom. Sneaky. And just who will get the tip?
Once again, we managed to drag over one of the tech guys who told us that, yes, we could lower the tip by clicking on it. You can probably guess how much we lowered it.
The tech guy failed to mention how we were supposed to pay, so we tracked him down yet again.
At this point he was probably expecting a big tip since this “self-service” system was lost on us.
I think the restaurant should have tipped us for waiting on ourselves.
We weren’t surprised when the credit card swiping devices on the table didn’t work and, no, they didn’t take cash.
After five attempts, the tech guy finally got our cards to process.
Just before we left, the manager came over to ask how our meal was. I just smiled and walked away.
The final insult came on our credit card bills. Both my friend and I were charged for our meals plus two others.
My credit card company took care of that.
Here’s a tip: Get rid of the iPads and bring back my waiter.
Kristin Emery can be reached at kristinemery1@yahoo.com.