Are JWs the worst restaurant customers?

by Alfred 124 Replies latest jw friends

  • I quit!
    I quit!

    Maybe it is a reginal thing but I don't remember any of the dubs I hung out with being that way. We used to go out eating and drinking a lot. I've always believed in trying to makes someones life better by tipping good and to their credit I don't remember any of the dubs I hung with wanting to treat service people any other way. Although there was one time on a Ski trip to Mammoth with serveral other JW couples we went to a restaurant and one "brother" offered to leave the tip. He put a dollar down on as a tip on a $60 dollar meal. The other JW guy I was with looked appalled. One of us said we didn't think it was enough and we both added another dollar. We didn't want to make the guy look bad so we didn't add more than he did. Latter we discussed how embarrassed we were about leaving such a lousy tip and regretted even worrying about the cheapskates feeling. We both felt like we had taken advantage of the waiter

  • jookbeard
    jookbeard

    obviously they are bad tippers that there can be no doubt, but it is this obsession in going in big groups that I could understand pisses the staff off, and they as people have such a wide range of personality types amongst them that as stated by the OP some will have just a coffee and want a bill just for that Brother and Sister Glutton will have a full blow out with starters/mains/beers wines the lot, Sister Neurotic Hypochondriac will want Gluten free food, Sister Anorexic will just have a salad Bro and Sister Tight Ass will want to know how much every single item is what are the specials etc, I bet there are loads of places if the see the Dubs in a party of more then 10 say "no thanks we're fully booked" I've been in scenarios when I was a Dub that have been cringe worthy and down right embarrassing, luckily I dont have these problems any more.

  • cyberjesus
    cyberjesus

    jws dont tip... not because they are jws... but because they cant afford to tip... they work half time remember?

    Any other person who can not afford a meal wont tip either.

    if you have a restaurant and dont want people to come and just get water.... PUT A SIGN and tell your customers you only will accept customers who spend 10 bucks or more.

    RESTAURANTS are a service business... you provide service. PERIOD. why should anyone pay the salary of your employees? I dont want to be rating the service to see how much I want to tip..... I just want to FING EAT! charge me whatever you want but dont make me do your job nor pay your employees!

    how bout this. I go buy food. you give it to me and i pay you for it.... you pay your people and you see who is doing the best job and those get more money........

    I think the social attitud went backwards and we keep feeding the system. heck they even split it with the cook. The freaking owner should pay his employees. I should only pay for my food. that why we get so lousy service... because they are being payed by the customers. they never know how much they are gonna get and of course they are gonna bitch if they didnt get tipped enough.....

    Is not the problem of JWs... is the problem the whole system is set up.

    Jws are not the worst customers... Restaurant owners are the worst bosses

  • Alfred
    Alfred

    Thanks everyone!

    Looks like we have varying points of view on this subject. But it appears that there is certainly some truth to what my sister-in-law ranted about the other day. Personally, I was the one who always volunteered to pay the bill... I usually just told everyone at the table to give my wife their fair share (trusting them completely... how incredibly gullable of me). My wife did tell me a few times that maybe I should let someone else pick up the tab since she believed I was being taken advantage of occasionally. However, my group was usually just 4 to 6 JWs so I never noticed this.

    Cyberjesus... I totally get it... No one should have to worry about conducting performance evaluations of employees when they go to a restaurant... most people just want to eat in a relaxed atmoshpere and leave as soon as they're done. But the "unwritten" (and sometimes written) rules about restaurant etiquette do exist and no one should be granted a free pass regardless of their financial situation (especially if they're aware of these rules).

    I do have my theory on why this might be happening in some cases... I really believe that some JWs (pioneers in particular) feel that Jehovah will understand if they fail to tip their waitor appropriately so they give themselves permission not to. I also believe that some actually reason that if Jehovah wanted them to tip the waitor, He would have sent some kind of "sign". In the absence of such a sign, they assume that Jehovah has a different purpose for that money (such as contributing to the "worldwide" work)... that's my take based on my 36 years of observing JW behaviour patterns...

  • AK - Jeff
    AK - Jeff

    I recall a joke in the 70's [George Carlin I think might have said this] - 'Jehovah's Witnesses come to town for there religious conventions with the 10 Commandments in one hand and a 10 dollar bill in the other - and they don't break either one.'

    We had a 'sister' in our hall who would calculate to the very penny how much tip was proper for her food. If she had a cookie and a coffee and it came to $2.37, she would turn over the place-mat and multiply 2.37 x .15 and leave precisely 35 cents. Not a half dollar, or a dollar which is pretty common - but just precisely 15%. That might not seem bad, except that she would, like most Jw's drink plenty of coffee, demand excellent service, and always choose very inexpensive items from the menu.

    I think in general they deserve a poor reputation in this area from what I have seen.

    Jeff

  • WTWizard
    WTWizard

    Very much so.

    I remember when I was first going into the cancer, a group of witlesses would often show up at 9:45 PM after a boasting session. The place closes at 10 PM. They would stay there an hour or so, expecting instant service. They would leave a pxxx poor tip, or a waste of paper, after leaving a mess. This same place would often get hit with a mob of witlesses during lunch hour, with the demand that they have to be back at the group at 1 PM. Regular customers were crowded out, as there would always be 15 or 20 witlesses there. Tips were very poor (as often as not, a waste of paper), and the waitresses would always be running around for those witlesses.

    Later, after the regular customers were crowded out, the witlesses would start making trouble. They would have a group of witlesses that is primarily or wholly black, that would be very demanding and would stiff the waitress after threatening to sue the place for bad service. This was intended to instigate racism on the part of the servers, who would use the N word. This is why they were careful not to have white witlesses during this phase of the destruction of the establishment. It would create the illusion that black people are bad tippers, when in fact it is because they are witlesses. Eventually, the servers would be so unnerved that they were unable to properly do their jobs with what few remaining regular customers were left. The place eventually closed down.

    Had I knew something like this was going on, a good tip would have been a copy of Michael Jackson's CD "Bad". Every time the witlesses show up, they would plug in the CD player into the audio system, and play it. The volume would be at a high level. The witlesses would have a miserable time discussing how to do what they came to, and they would get a headache on Michael Jackson's music. In the meantime, the other customers would enjoy the music, and pretty soon the witlesses would get the impression that, since they are there to create headaches, they are not welcome while worldly people are given incentive to continue patronizing the place.

  • drewcoul
    drewcoul

    I remember before a District Convention in Louisville, KY, the Louisville Courier-Journal ran a story talking about the upcoming DC. The writer said something to the effect of, "The Jehovah's Witnesses will be in town this weekend with twenty dollar bills and the Ten Commandments and won't break any of them."

    I know JW's always had a reputation for being bad tippers, I know my Dad wasn't a great tipper. The waiter/ waitress was lucky to get 10%. Just because Dad wasn't really in tune to protocol of tipping. I think it was mostly a generational thing because me and my friends always tipped well.

  • keyser soze
    keyser soze

    I never noticed any difference myself as far as tipping. The people I went out with usually gave the norm. I definitely never saw anyone leave literature in place of a tip, though there may be some uberzealous ones who do so. I generally didn't like to associate with such ones socially.

  • LongHairGal
    LongHairGal

    ALFRED:

    Your sister-in-law is right, they do tend to be atrocious customers and poor tippers, unless they are responsible persons in the workforce who regularly frequent restaurants and know what the custom is. Somebody who hardly ever ventures out of their house might be a little ignorant about such things, but at least if they are with people 'in the know' somebody will advise them.

    Unfortunately, many JWs are not 'responsible persons' and are flippant and ignorant about a lot of things. Yes, they do make a bad impression (even though they think the opposite of themselves). And, NOBODY wants their atrocious literature as a tip. If I were a waitress I would tell a JW to go shove it if he gave me a piece of litter-ature in place of money for a tip.

    I myself never liked gatherings in a restaurant of more than 2-3 people. It becomes a three-ring circus and you can't really talk to everybody anyway when there are 10 or more people. Not only that, you have some deadbeat 'forget' their wallet or not have enought money and need a handout.

    Getting together to go out to eat with JWs lost its charm long ago.

  • snakeface
    snakeface

    Many JWs feel that since the servers are worldly, and therefore already dead in God's eyes, that it's a waste of $ to tip them since these sinful pagans will soon be throwing their gold and silver into the streets, and their eyes will be rotting their very sockets.....

    Another habit JWs have is, if you offer to take someone out to a restaurant, they always order the most expensive things on the menu. However when they have people over to their home for a meal, they serve macaroni and cheese.

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