Tipping

[ZTAngel]

I'm a person who regularly tips 20% or more. I know that servers don't generally make a lot of money and that they work very hard. With that said, I have come across some pretty terrible servers and usually they'll get 15% (or sometimes less). But what I absolutely loathe is the included 18% gratuity that is automatically put on the bill of a party of 6 or more. If they're a good server, they lose out because now I'll only give them 18% versus the 20% plus that I would've given had gratuity not been included. Also, why should I have to pay 18% is the service is terrible? I had a really bad experience at a restaurant last year on my friend's b-day. The waitress was flat-out nasty. She put a bunch of items on our bill that we had never ordered and told us that we were liars when we said we had not ordered the items nor had they ever been brought to our table. When the kitchen finally told her that she was wrong, she mumbled an apology and had the manager fix our bill while she hid in the back. While those items were removed from our bill (and we got a free piece of cake....to share between 9 people), the 18% gratuity was not. It's like this waitress was being rewarded even though she was a general asshat to us.