Tipping in the UK
 

Okay, I know there are a lot of threads out there on tipping, but I haven't found what I'm looking for. I don't want to start a contentious thread on tipping, but was hoping some UK experts would give me some advice. I'm a new UK resident and I realize I really don't know what is appropriate.

*Restaurants, what percent is the norm?

*Pizza delivery, how much here? My order might come to 18 pounds, so what should I tip?

*Grocery delivery (I heart online grocery shopping!). Should I tip for this? I feel like I should, but have no idea if that's correct or how much?

Any other tips on tipping here? Thanks!

Restaurants - 10-15% although do make sure that a service charge hasn't been added to the bill. Better IMO to pay the tip in cash to ensure your server gets the tip.

Pizza & Groceries - Maybe round up to the nearest pound but it's not going to get you bad service in the future so not something to worry about.

To be honest if the bill was £18 and I was desperate to leave a tip I would leave a £20 note.

However I am seldom desperate to leave a tip so I would pay by card and leave nothing.

Tight fisted git I may be but we are not yet in the American frame of mind for tipping.

Muck

oops I mean I would pay with a £20 and not require any chamge lol.


Muck

"I realize I really don't know what is appropriate."

Nothing really. Tipping - with a couple of exceptions - isn't a big thing, practically no-one gets het up about it, and what we find gob-smackingly incomprehensible are those long lists Americans publish about how you should tip the second deputy assistant busboy 13.246% but the chambermaid's boss 15.314%

What you need to know are the exceptions:

- Black cabs in London and other cities expect a tip (around 10-15%) and can get stroppy if they don't get one. I think (and the fact that's it's just "think" shows you how unimportant the issue is here) you don't tip owner-driven minicabs.
- You never, ever, ever, tip barstaff in a pub (though, sadly, it's becoming more commonplace among waiters serving drinks to a seat in hotel bars). If there's a tips saucer on the bar, it's been taken over by self-regarding staff and you should walk out immediately.
- Barbers and hairdressers (except the owner of a barber shop) get around 10%.
- Otherwise restaurants are the only place tipping's expected, but waiters are used to coping with mean tippers, and just regard them as a mildly depressing fact of life.

There's absolutely no standard practice about delivery staff. I'd say you shouldn't tip grocery deliverers, as it might start an undesirable practice - but that's just me. Personally, I always round up take-away deliverers - but again that's just me, and it's further evidence this is all (apart from pubs and blac taxis) a personal choice, and absolutely not expected anywhere.

Simple one-liner: just don't worry.

I must say that it has never occurred to me to tip grocery delivery men.
I have paid online and the man just delivers the goods.
I have never received the slightest hint that a tip is expected.

I like to tip 20-25%, just to set up expectations for flanneruk to meetin the future ;-)

Another question is what to tip the servants when one stays in one's friends' country house. Certainly the underhousemaid and footman who unpack for us and draw our baths deserve something. :-)

More seriously, I always buy the barman/woman a round for every three I buy myself and friends. I don't know what the cheeseparing middle classes do, but it is what my working class friends always do, having some appreciation for what it means to work at a low wage.

Thanks for these replies. Very helpful. I'm certainly not "desperate" to tip, just want to make sure I'm not being cheap or giving money away unnecessarily. Coming from the US where 20% on a restaurant tab is increasingly seen as the baseline, I knew I probably needed to adjust my tip practices. I did give the pizza guy a twenty on my 18 pound bill and told him to keep the change. I felt cheap doing so, but I didn't have anything else on hand. Now I realize I probably wasn't being cheap after all. Anyway, thanks for the guidance.

- Black cabs in London and other cities expect a tip (around 10-15%) and can get stroppy if they don't get one.>>>>

No they don't. I have lots of friends who are cabbies and they're all minted. They are pleased to get a tip but certainly don'yt expect one. nb This is true for London - it may vary in the provinces and other backwaters.

As for what to tip a barber? The last time I did it was probably a taner.

The way I see it is...

I am a shop manager, I am paid to provide a service to people and I don't get tips - (financial ones anyway LOL!) - so it is the same with all others who are employed providing some sort of service to others. They are paid to do their jobs, whatever that may involve.

However I generally tip around 10% in restaurants because it is expected. I also tip the same to my hairdresser and boys' barber, because not only is it expected and I don't want the equivalent of spit in my soup next time I visit, but because they are nice people and have become like friends over the years.

If I order groceries online I pay online, and would not consider tipping the driver - after all I have paid around £5 already for the convenience of having my shopping delivered and the driver is paid by the supermarket anyway.

Ditto the pizza boy, though it is always my kids who order and then answer the door and it's up to them what they do with their money. Again, the driver/delivery person is paid to do the job by the delivery company.

I live in a rural area, where the taxi driver we almost always use is self-employed, and after using his services for several years we are happy to round up his £18 charge to £20. Although I would round up the cost with other local taxi drivers too, because there aren't that many of them round here and I don't want to get a bad reputation LOL! However in London I reckon I will probably never see that cab driver again so I'm not that bothered whether I tip him or not. Depends if I've any change really!

Oh yes, and in restaurants I always leave cash - it is becoming more common for the restaurant to leave a space on the bill/credit card slip for you to add your tip that way. Well, if you do then the staff are less likely to get any money directly.

But don't worry too much, and don't go over the top.

Personally, I tip cab drivers £1 or 10% - whatever is greater. Restaurants - 10% in cash (otherwise the restaurant may snaffle it) possibly 15% if the service is exceptional.

In pubs - difficult to say - in my local I just offer to buy the barman a drink if in for a "session" - otherwise do the same every 2-3 weeks in I am only in occasionally for one drink during that time (they don't actually buy the drink - just put the cost into their tip jar - normally a half pint)

In restaurants (assuming no service charge has already been added) I would generally tip 10% or round to the nearest whole pound.

We order both groceries and pizza for deliver and never tip (having said that I have never thought of tipping). I think its fair to say they would not be expect a tip (Maybe if regular delivery person you would give an xmas tip).

So, the same tipping rules as everywhere else in Europe.

Seems that the USA is the only country in the world where service staff does not get proper salaries.

I give a "Christmas Box" to the paper-boy, postman and dustmen, but that's just an annual thing.

Traveller1959 wrote: "So, the same tipping rules as everywhere else in Europe."

Let's set aside the point that there is no such thing as "tipping rules", just customs or norms.

Those customs or norms vary all over the place. For example, I would tip about 10% on a restaurant meal in the UK (with considerable latitude for convenient rounding); I would tip nothing in France, but might leave small change uncollected.

What's a dustman? Is this what you call the trash collector, or what we in the US call the garbage man? Dustman is so much nicer!

>>>>>
Tipping - with a couple of exceptions - isn't a big thing, practically no-one gets het up about it,
...
just don't worry.
>>>>>

if you are so 'laid back' about tipping, why are you the first one to get stroppy in just about all tipping threads? for someone so unconcerned, you always seem very concerned about tipping.

anyway, i disagree that in the uk it is a non-issue. i would say that about 80% of the time i dine out (and increasing every day it seems), service is added automatically to the bill. if it were a non-issue, it would not be forced on the consumer. it's a big issue and the system here does not work well here...waiters and customers are not well aligned to tipping customs. if they were, service would not have to be automatically added. very rarely do i see service added automatically in the US. usually on the menu it states that it's only done for large parties.

but i guess we've figured out a good way to avoid strict rules that customers need to know about tipping...just allow the restaurant to make the rules and automatically execute said rules!

Samtraveler,

Yes a dustman is a trash collector. I use the term binman just to add to the confusion so I guess it varies where you live in the UK.

Does all/any of this apply to tipping in Scotland? ( I'm thinking the answers here are mostly about England.)

people are generally more stingy in scotland. other than that, it's just incrementally grimmer the further north one travels. do take care to treat them as they are very important, however. they are extremely sensitive.