Do you tip at Sonic?

[Sonny]

I love Sonic food but I find myself passing it by for Mc DOnalds or DQ sometimes because I feel that the car hops expect a tip for bringing out my food. I wish they would just have a plain old drive thru. I imagine there is more people like me that feel this way and they are probably losing biz.

So when you go to Sonic do you feel like you have to tip them for your fast food?

[ThaGreat618]

i have before but recently i didnt tip and i am glad that i didnt. asked for NO TOMATOS, and my double burger HAD tomatos..then they didnt give me my tater tots with my meal. my daughter got hers, but they forgot mine.

[Laser Lady]

When I go to Sonic, it's always my husband driving, and he does tip.

[nope]

I don't tip. I don't tip at restaurants when I take out either. Handing me my food and serving me is 2 different things to me. They DO expect it though.

[Concerned 2]

I agree about not tipping when you pick up food for carry-out although I believe car hops do expect it. I too wish they would have a regular drive-thru where you grab your bag and go. It just seems very awkward having them stand there digging for your change,when you know they are thinking where's my tip?

[waitress]

when you take food togo at a resturant, depending on who takes your order, if a server puts the order in the computer under his/her name, they are taxed for that whole order. thats why togo orders expect a tip. we still have to pay for it. usually places have bartenders take the order or one set person doing togo all night depending on where you go. i tip the car hop, but i'm a waitress, i tip very generously wherever i go. i dont tip them much, usually the change left from the order and maybe an extra buck, because really, is that change OR dollar going to break my bank, and if enough people do that for these carhops, their job pays alot better and is worth it to have to run out side and hand you your food in all of the elements. dont be cheap, spare change WONT BREAK YOU!

[Wondering]

Doesn't Sonic pay the same min. wage as Mcdonalds.
If it does I guess we need to start tipping those people too.

I understand about to go orders at a sit down place.

[Laser Lady]

If they are bringing my food, whether it is to a table or my car, I tip them. However, that does NOT apply to the drive-thru orders that aren't ready when I get to the window and I have to pull up and wait on them to bring it out to me.

Doesn't the Columbia Sonic have a regular drive-thru? I know that the one in Waterloo has one.

[waitress]

just because they pay min wage means you can't leave the change?? really?? are you that cheap that you really wont leave the change from your order?? ITS LESS THAN A DOLLAR!!! my goodness, there are too many people in the world that are cheap like that. Do you know what to tip at a resturant?? HINT 10 % ISN'T good! Do you know that waiters only make 3-4 dollars, and MOST of the time we see NO money on a paycheck after they take taxes from our tips. PASS THE WORD

[ya know]

waitress wrote:

just because they pay min wage means you can't leave the change?? really?? are you that cheap that you really wont leave the change from your order?? ITS LESS THAN A DOLLAR!!! my goodness, there are too many people in the world that are cheap like that. Do you know what to tip at a resturant?? HINT 10 % ISN'T good! Do you know that waiters only make 3-4 dollars, and MOST of the time we see NO money on a paycheck after they take taxes from our tips. PASS THE WORD

Well, the Sonic employees aren't taxed on their orders so it doesn't apply...I last tipped $10 on a $44 ticket. Good enough?? Sometimes, we're scraping just to get that burger so, yeah, these days money IS hard to come by when we're loosing our factory jobs and getting several pay cuts.

[waitress]

ok i can understand that. really i can. all i'm saying is if you are paying with a 5 and the total is 4.65, does it hurt to say "keep the change"? and i wasn't targeting you personally about tipping at resturants. you would be suprised at how many people do think that 10 % is good enough.(this is all granted that the service was exactly what it should have been and no less)

[Wondering]

I usually tip atleast 20% but it does depend on the service. I have been known to leave a nickel for extremely bad service.

I know most sit down restraunts deduct a percentage off your wages for tips they receive.

But they don't do that at Mcdonalds or Sonic. I don't see them work any harder at Sonic than Mcd.

I understand what your saying about the loose change. I have done that at Mcd. before and they always put it back in the drawer.

[TIGHT WADS]

All they are wanting is 25-50 cents a car. JEEEEEEEEEZZZZZ

[TIGHT WADS]

You shouldn't even be eating out (PERIOD) if you can't tip a freaking quarter or so. Stay home and cook you will have lots of quarters you are giving away.

[TGIF]

A little off the topic - went to Cracker Barrel in Caseyville today for lunch - it took 40 minutes to get our meal. Another couple came in after us, ordered, got their food, and were almost done by the time we got ours. No explanation/apology from the waitress. She didn't even get a nickel.

[waitress]

did you ever stop to think that maybe it was somthing that was ordered at your table?? ever think that not all the food takes the same amount of time. at every resturant different things are faster than others. now granted if there was an issue (which i doubt because at a chain place like that the manager would have come out and said something, unless the service staff just really sucked that day) she should have said something.. if there was an issue. do you think it was her fault? maybe the cooks messed up, lost the check anything. maybe the cooks were just having slow tickets that day. Let me ask you something, if you food comes out tasting horrible, do you blame that on the waitress too?? her job is to ensure your satisfaction. if you felt that it was taking that long and hadn't heard anything from her as to why, why didn't you ask? i'm sure she would have gladly did whatever it took to fix the issue. A good server wouldn't have needed to be asked, but sometimes people are new, and just havn't caught on how to be a great server. Its cracker barrel,(not that there is ANYTHING wrong with their servers!!!) but its sometimes a place that people START out as servers. you know, LEARN. we've all been new at something.
Point is, she still brought you the food. she still took your order and gave you a drink. She STILL gets taxed for 8 % of your total bill. that comes out of her PAY check. Do you think that is right for her to have to be taxed?? just because you felt like that was bad service, you should have left something. If she had cursed you out, spit in your pancakes, and spilled (on purpose) your soda, THEN dont leave anything.
Maybe you people should try being in the business for a little while. i bet you its not as easy as you think it is. and when someone leaves you a crappy tip, or NOTHING, it can mess with your whole day.

[Wondering]

Waitress, can you explain what you mean when you say they 8% for taxs. Is that for Fica,Fed.& State tax.

I've know most places only pay like $4 bucks because they figure the tips will bring it up to min. wage.
The other thing I don't like is some places make them split the tips equally.

[Yavie]

ya know wrote:

<quoted text>
Well, the Sonic employees aren't taxed on their orders so it doesn't apply...I last tipped $10 on a $44 ticket. Good enough?? Sometimes, we're scraping just to get that burger so, yeah, these days money IS hard to come by when we're loosing our factory jobs and getting several pay cuts.

If you're scraping to get a fast food burger, perhaps you should save some money and make one at home instead?

And to the original question, yes I tip at Sonic, because they're coming outside in all weather to bring me my food - how is that any different than a server bringing food to my table?(:

[TGIF]

waitress wrote:

did you ever stop to think that maybe it was somthing that was ordered at your table?? ever think that not all the food takes the same amount of time. at every resturant different things are faster than others. now granted if there was an issue (which i doubt because at a chain place like that the manager would have come out and said something, unless the service staff just really sucked that day) she should have said something.. if there was an issue. do you think it was her fault? maybe the cooks messed up, lost the check anything. maybe the cooks were just having slow tickets that day. Let me ask you something, if you food comes out tasting horrible, do you blame that on the waitress too?? her job is to ensure your satisfaction. if you felt that it was taking that long and hadn't heard anything from her as to why, why didn't you ask? i'm sure she would have gladly did whatever it took to fix the issue. A good server wouldn't have needed to be asked, but sometimes people are new, and just havn't caught on how to be a great server. Its cracker barrel,(not that there is ANYTHING wrong with their servers!!!) but its sometimes a place that people START out as servers. you know, LEARN. we've all been new at something.
Point is, she still brought you the food. she still took your order and gave you a drink. She STILL gets taxed for 8 % of your total bill. that comes out of her PAY check. Do you think that is right for her to have to be taxed?? just because you felt like that was bad service, you should have left something. If she had cursed you out, spit in your pancakes, and spilled (on purpose) your soda, THEN dont leave anything.
Maybe you people should try being in the business for a little while. i bet you its not as easy as you think it is. and when someone leaves you a crappy tip, or NOTHING, it can mess with your whole day.

We had to ask a busboy to go get our waitress because we hadn't seen her in 10 minutes. Then when she comes out it was like there was nothing going on - maybe I should have asked for a manager and really made her day. If she would have given ANY kind of explanation that would have been fine, she would have got a tip, not a good one but a tip. And we ordered the special, not something that would have taken extra time. Plus since it took so long we had to rush to eat to get back to work. It sucked and she got what she deserved. Hopefully she'll get better or she won't be a waitress for long.

[waitress]

yes, you should have gotten a manager if it was THAT bad.