Tipping Divemasters

[mmmbelows]

If you dine at a restaurant and the service is sub par, let the owner know you won't be back.

Wow that's amazingly harsh, you'd punish the restaurant and owner over one employee's mistakes? A restaurant has multiple employees, most who are working hard to give good service, you unluckily get the one employee who likely won't even be there in a month by their own choice because the tipping system weeds out those who are not service oriented through low pay. The foods great, you like the prices, why wouldn't you just let the owner know about the bad service you received from the one waiter? Harsh.

From what I read between the lines it sounds like a common denominator is there are a lot of people with no balls, they feel they must tip no matter the service. You should get over that. Tipping is not required, if you get good service leave a tip if you don't then don't tip. Man up, actually open your mouth and tell somebody why you're not tipping. The majority of owners want you to be pleased with their company they want to know if you're not getting good service, just tell them. Sounds like a lot of people begrudgingly leave a $5.00 a tank tip because they feel like they have to.

 

[Dhboner]

Wow that's amazingly harsh, you'd punish the restaurant and owner over one employee's mistakes? A restaurant has multiple employees, most who are working hard to give good service, you unluckily get the one employee who likely won't even be there in a month by their own choice because the tipping system weeds out those who are not service oriented through low pay. The foods great, you like the prices, why wouldn't you just let the owner know about the bad service you received from the one waiter? Harsh.

Harsh, maybe...but I can only judge a restaurant by the sum of its parts, mainly food quality and service. If the service is bad, I still have to pay my bill but I have other dining options in the future. The owner has a duty of care to hire and train staff to provide the level of service he promotes and if the staff fall short there are consequences. Is that harsh, probably but I'm not spending my hard earned money helping with on the job training for poorly trained servers. The truth be told I have rarely encountered bad service at a restaurant but on the odd occasion when I have I didn't go back.

 

[Dive Right In Scuba.]

If you are unhappy with a restaurant, dive operator, etc., who should your only option to be to stiff the one person you are supposed to tip, a person who may have had nothing to do with the problem? My wife and I recently had a meal at one of the supposedly best restaurants in town, and the food was terrible. That's not the waiter's fault. We reserved some of the food as evidence and asked for the manager. He was rightly appalled, comped us our entire meal, and gave us a voucher for another meal. (It was so bad we don't intend to use the voucher.)

Similarly, when I have been unhappy with a dive operator (which is not all that often), it is usually not the DM who is at fault. Even when it is, the DM is often acting in accordance with management polices (such as harassing marine life for the viewing pleasure of the customers). In each case, I let the management know my concerns.

 

[Patoux01]

Wow that's amazingly harsh, you'd punish the restaurant and owner over one employee's mistakes? A restaurant has multiple employees, most who are working hard to give good service, you unluckily get the one employee who likely won't even be there in a month by their own choice because the tipping system weeds out those who are not service oriented through low pay. The foods great, you like the prices, why wouldn't you just let the owner know about the bad service you received from the one waiter? Harsh.

So if I get crappy food, the server gets the blame? Why doesn't everyone in there get paid by tips, see how that'd work? Do you honestly believe what you're writing here?

 

[Land Fish]

At the end of my recent liveaboard trip, the guy in charge (not the captain) suggested about 10% of trip costs as tips for the local crew, like cooks and boat boys, and tips for DMs were "entirely optional" and should be dealt "personally".

I have food allergy and I informed the operator before signing up and I spoke with the guy in charge as soon as I got on the boat. But one of the cooks ignored/forgot (?) this piece of information and almost sent me into anaphylaxis, which would not be ideal out in the open water.

So I decided to still follow the 10% suggestion but halved it for the crew, and the other half was added to the tip for the DM who looked after me well for the past a few days.

Not sure if it was fair for other crew members but it is what it is.

 

[Frosty]

You mean people in the US TIP divemasters?? --Well in that case -pick me pick me.
Best Ive gotten so far was lunch paid for

 

[sheeper]

well i've learned that if i see some of you on the boat i can expect a lousy tip!

 

[Storker]

You can research the hotel to figure out where you want to stay when you travel someplace, you can research the dive shop to use when you travel someplace, but the tipping just baffles you?

Yes, it does. At least for those of us who live in a non-tipping culture where people are paid a wage they can live off. Who do you tip, when, how much? You 'murricans grow up in a tipping culture, you learn by immersion from high school age. You take those things for granted to a degree that you don't even think about mentioning it in your online reviews. It's not trivial to research those things, even today, since it's not communicated very well.

EDIT: And if you do a bona fide attempt at researching the topic like the OP did here, you're sniped repeatedly and the thread has about a 50/50 chance of turning into a trainwreck.


--
Typed on an on-screen keyboard with [-]autocorrupt[/-] autocorrect and sent from my Android device.
Typos are a feature, not a bug.

 

[mmmbelows]

Why doesn't everyone in there get paid by tips, see how that'd work?

Now you want to have even more people to tip?
Sounds like some people have a very difficult time prying a few euros from their change purses already, now you want to make it even harder on those poor souls?

 

[Storker]

for those of us who live in a non-tipping culture where people are paid a wage they can live off. [...] you're sniped repeatedly and the thread has about a 50/50 chance of turning into a trainwreck.

Sounds like some people have a very difficult time prying a few euros from their change purses already, now you want to make it even harder on those poor souls?

I rest my case.