I like that Dish has banned tips. It makes things much simpler in life when the price is the price. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for people in service industries being able to make good money and live good lifestyles, but I'd rather have the companies simply pay them more to compensate for not allowing them to take tips than have tips be expected.
I also feel like we're experiencing a lot of "tip creep". It used to be you tipped the waiter/waitress at a sitdown restaurant and you tipped a pizza/chinese delivery guy, and that was it. I guess the valet, too, if you're the type of person who goes to places where there's a valet (I'm not in that income bracket). But nowadays all of the sudden there are tip cups at the counter at hamburger joints, ice cream stands, and just about everywhere. I even once picked up carry out somewhere where there was a tip line on the receipt that I asked about and it was implied that I should tip for food I personally drove over and picked up. It's aggravating.
Plus, it can lead to awkward social situations. I remember the first few times I went to bars years ago, I didn't know it was customary to tip the bartender, and so of course stiffed the bartender because it had never crossed my mind that one would tip a bartender. After I heard it was customary, I started doing it, but I probably got a few people ticked at me prior because of something I had no way of knowing I was supposed to do and wasn't.
It also used to be that tipping was 15-20%. Now I see people on the beer forum who say they tip $1 a beer even on $3 beers. I draw the line. 20% at the end of the night. Not that I go to bars that often. But I've also even in my own lifetime, and I'm not that old, seen the tipping go from 15-20% to where 15% is considered an insulting tip by some and you are supposed to go 20% or higher. Eventually the tip is going to be more than the meal at this rate! I know it's not mandatory, but you don't really want to be insulting people who prepare your food if you're going back there, you know? No one likes to think about those stories of people spitting in people's food. But I'm not tipping more than 20%, and I'm not tipping at all if I have to go the counter to get the food- you tip waiters/waitress, not people standing at the counter. If I have to walk up and get it, there's no tip involved, or at least that never used to be the expectation, with the expectation of bars.
I don't know, the whole thing just seems unnecessarily complicated. Even if they raise prices (Not you, Dish, your prices are high enough already) because there are no tips or whatever, I'd kind of prefer that. Know upfront what the costs are, you know?
A tip for something like Dish installation is particularly irksome, because television service is so expensive- especially when a certain company wants certain people to pay a $99 install fee and the first month upfront (Yes, this actually happened to me with Dish). I don't mean to sound like Scrooge, but I'll tip the TV guy when hell freezes over.
No offense to the TV guy. I wish I could have given the cable company negative tips with some of the "service" they gave me.
