Gratuity Removal Too Easy?

[LMaxwell]

 

If I ever got really bad service that resulted in me wanting to remove tips I don't think I'd be willing to stand in a guest services line, or wait on hold to speak to a g.s. representative when I was already pissed off. I sure as heck would not want to miss my dinner for it, or a show, or cancel an excursion in order to inform Guest Services.

 

That's understandable, no sense getting more wound up.

 

You do have the option of going to GS or making a call and having the action corrected though without changing your gratuity. But if you're willing to accept really bad service and not address it, you're doing yourself and the rest of us a disservice by not speaking up. We (you, me, the next person) are all paying for a standard of service and that should be held to.

 

edit: I guess a better way to say it is if you get bad enough service to be pissed off, I'd hope you would say something and not just accept it.

[BNBR]

If you read the tipping policy from royal... It certainly reads as mandatory. And the only reason tips should be removed is in "the unlikely event that you receive unsatisfactory service". And yes, I know it's not mandatory... But the policy does not read as "optional".

 

Hence the auto gratuity. Anyone removing all the gratuities is a cheap low life. There is no way they received unsatisfactory service from every person that benefits from the auto gratuities.

 

Decent people don't make excuses to save a few bucks off the backs of underprivileged workers. Sorry. Removing grats is inexcusable.

[geomancer]

Technically, you’re right, but we usually give the waiter, his assistant and sometimes the head waiter extra on the last night.

 

That's your choice to do so. But I sure hope you don't judge other guests as 'cheapskates' who don't decide to pay twice.

[DirtyDawg]

That's understandable, no sense getting more wound up.

 

You do have the option of going to GS or making a call and having the action corrected though without changing your gratuity. But if you're willing to accept really bad service and not address it, you're doing yourself and the rest of us a disservice by not speaking up. We (you, me, the next person) are all paying for a standard of service and that should be held to.

 

edit: I guess a better way to say it is if you get bad enough service to be pissed off, I'd hope you would say something and not just accept it.

 

Agreed, but how much of my time and energy do I owe future cruisers or how much time and energy do current pissed off cruisers owe me? Is it the customers' job to improve service or is it the for profit company's job?

Edited November 14, 2017 by DirtyDawg

[BNBR]

Agreed, but how much of my time and energy do I owe future cruisers or how much time and energy do current pissed off cruisers owe me? Is it the customers' job to improve service or is it the for profit company's job?

 

Feedback is crucial for the company to recognize a deficiency in service. Part of the for profit companies job is requesting feedback from guests and hoping guests will share with them when they have failed to make the guest happy.

[DirtyDawg]

Feedback is crucial for the company to recognize a deficiency in service. Part of the for profit companies job is requesting feedback from guests and hoping guests will share with them when they have failed to make the guest happy.

 

I am very passionate regarding companies wasting my time, whether it's cold calls where it takes the system 5 or so seconds, after I said 'hello', to connect me to the salesperson, or a company who expects me to fill out a 10 minute costumer service survey for a customer service interaction that lasted 45 seconds. So waiting for 10 or 20 minutes in a guest services line to give feedback is not something I would want to do. I'd rather spend that time at the show, or at dinner, or in my lounger on by the pool, the things I paid for.

[LMaxwell]

Agreed, but how much of my time and energy do I owe future cruisers or how much time and energy do current pissed off cruisers owe me? Is it the customers' job to improve service or is it the for profit company's job?

 

It is the company's job. But if they don't know about a problem, they can't fix it. If you're that pissed off, how much time do you owe YOURSELF to correct it? Five minutes. If you have service so bad that you are that upset, keeping quiet and playing door mat isn't going to help anyone, you, another person, the company, or the staffer.

[GUT2407]

Just off the Freedom (AMAZING week/cruise) and on the last day we were in line at GS to settle our cash account. They had a very friendly crew member going through the line to help speed it up and get people out of line quicker. The people in front of us told her they wanted grats. removed, she made a quick call on her portable phone, gave whoever answered the stateroom # and said remove grats. for all passengers. That was it, no signing anything, asking if there was a problem, nothing.

 

Of course it's nice that you can have an issue handled with ease, but it just kind of stuck with me all weekend that people can remove them so easily. It also seemed to be a very common need in the line we were in, as multiple were up there just for that purpose. Here's to hoping they had other plans with cash or something?

 

 

For as long as they are said to be discretionary that’s how it should be.

 

Just include it in the fare.

 

Pretty simple really.

[DirtyDawg]

It is the company's job. But if they don't know about a problem, they can't fix it. If you're that pissed off, how much time do you owe YOURSELF to correct it? Five minutes. If you have service so bad that you are that upset, keeping quiet and playing door mat isn't going to help anyone, you, another person, the company, or the staffer.

 

Five minutes would be my max standing in line, maybe. It's not about keeping quit, it's about not wasting my time. In way less than 5 minutes I can pen an email to the CEO or the hotel director, or a marketing V.P. My point is the customer does not owe the company or staffer anything. If they under perform, and do not provide a time efficient way for the customer to complain, it's on them, not the customer.

[LMaxwell]

Five minutes would be my max standing in line, maybe. It's not about keeping quit, it's about not wasting my time. In way less than 5 minutes I can pen an email to the CEO or the hotel director, or a marketing V.P. My point is the customer does not owe the company or staffer anything. If they under perform, and do not provide a time efficient way for the customer to complain, it's on them, not the customer.

 

I guess the correlating argument is that if someone is ticked off about bad service they're going to ask for the optional part of their charges back versus spending 5, 10, 20, 60 minutes rehashing their poor experience when they could ding 'em where it counts and go back to the pool, casino, dining room, etc., as quickly as possible. Looked at from that perspective they are just being efficient about expressing displeasure and it is a feedback mechanism the company has put in place. :confused:

[HicksRA]

That's your choice to do so. But I sure hope you don't judge other guests as 'cheapskates' who don't decide to pay twice.

Absolutely not. That was not my inference at all.

My definition of cheapskates was those who remove all gratuities for no valid reason other than their selfishness.

[DirtyDawg]

I guess the correlating argument is that if someone is ticked off about bad service they're going to ask for the optional part of their charges back versus spending 5, 10, 20, 60 minutes rehashing their poor experience when they could ding 'em where it counts and go back to the pool, casino, dining room, etc., as quickly as possible. Looked at from that perspective they are just being efficient about expressing displeasure and it is a feedback mechanism the company has put in place. :confused:

 

Not the casino, that is an utter waste of time. I mean who in their right mind would waste time engaging in an activity where the odds are stacked against you? :confused: Spending time in a casino is like being a Cleveland Brown's season ticket holder - expensive, and you know, in the end, you are going to lose. :D

 

Hey, thank goodness cruising in one of the rare industries where the service is good a vast majority of time. That's why I said I'd prefer a mandatory service charge instead of a gratuity. But if they want to continue the option to remove it, so be it, but I won't be wasting my time improving their service. If they want that, my consulting fees are quite reasonable. :D

 

And yes, my fees include a mandatory 18% service charge. No gratuities at DirtyDawg Consultants Inc. ;)

[pspercy]

Maybe they remove them because they tip individuals in cash?

 

Maybe, but I'd bet only a tiny minority is truly removing them for that reason tho' they'd say otherwise.

[deliver42]

I don't think anyone has said that the people who don't tip twice is a cheapskate. Only the people who take away the DSC. Additional tips are truly optional, and don't affect the behind the scenes people at all. When you take away the DSC, then you affect a lot of the crew that you never see.

[Markanddonna]

I also noticed far fewer diners in the MDR on the last night of our cruise. Go figure.

[geomancer]

Absolutely not. That was not my inference at all.

My definition of cheapskates was those who remove all gratuities for no valid reason other than their selfishness.

 

(y)

 

Just checking because you had said earlier you thought people would think that when you didn't go to the MDR the last night. I don't think people skip out because they're 'cheapsakes', plus with MTD you may have a different person every night anyways.

[molsonschooner]

The thing is, I have a feeling most grats are removed simply b/c people don't want to pay them. I bet most if not all don't really have a service issue for removing them.

I think you might be right

[nyroadrunner]

omg you all need to chill. you can tip, if others choose not to for whatever reason, they don't have to! live your lives! don't worry about others!

[BNBR]

Five minutes would be my max standing in line, maybe. It's not about keeping quit, it's about not wasting my time. In way less than 5 minutes I can pen an email to the CEO or the hotel director, or a marketing V.P. My point is the customer does not owe the company or staffer anything. If they under perform, and do not provide a time efficient way for the customer to complain, it's on them, not the customer.

 

You are right. And most people don't complain, they simply don't come back. And some come to Cruise Critic to complain.

[squadron]

Maybe they remove them because they tip individuals in cash?[/quote

 

Maybe they remove them because they have no intention of tipping in cash?? A possibility?? If they are prefer cash - why not just add extra on the last day?

[BNBR]

Maybe they remove them because they tip individuals in cash?[/quote

 

Maybe they remove them because they have no intention of tipping in cash?? A possibility?? If they are prefer cash - why not just add extra on the last day?

 

I especially love the people that say "we end up tipping more when we remove grats and tip cash" .... Umm.... why not just leave the grats on and add the cash then? :')

[Gloworm2]

omg you all need to chill. you can tip, if others choose not to for whatever reason, they don't have to! live your lives! don't worry about others!

 

 

 

We are worried about the staff that don’t get their tip when the auto gratuities are removed. And it’s our right to do so. Yes the room steward and dining staff you can see them and tip them. But the behind the scenes staff get shafted. And I’m very chill.

 

 

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[HicksRA]

omg you all need to chill. you can tip, if others choose not to for whatever reason, they don't have to! live your lives! don't worry about others!

Same to ya...

[mollyeilis]

I feel like going crazy about one cruiser’s overheard experience during one moment of one day of one cruise perhaps isn’t something that needs to happen.

 

When the line gets long they get all efficient with that employee going down the line. It doesn’t mean that what they do at that moment is what they always do.

 

 

The fact that they waited until the end of the cruise is nauseating.If they had a problem, report it, and let the cruise line correct it. I highly doubt they were confused. They just wanted to get off cheap. I also doubt they gave out encelopes, which, by the way, eliminates the rest of the people that participate in the pool.

 

 

Is giving out envelopes even a thing anymore??

 

 

Why? If you left auto-grats in place you and your wife paid $27, the same you paid every other night.

 

 

 

No one was 'cheapskates', and no one 'avoided tipping the waitstaff'.

 

 

Because people think you have to give out envelopes the last night, so if you skip it they figure you aren’t giving out tips. They don’t understand how automatic gratuities work.

 

I also noticed far fewer diners in the MDR on the last night of our cruise. Go figure.

 

 

Doesn’t matter. We’ve skipped because we’re packing. Servers still got their autotips. And in the morning (this was on Disney where you’d see the server that morning) we gave the extra if we wanted to give extra.

 

I guess the correlating argument is that if someone is ticked off about bad service they're going to ask for the optional part of their charges back versus spending 5, 10, 20, 60 minutes rehashing their poor experience when they could ding 'em where it counts and go back to the pool, casino, dining room, etc., as quickly as possible. Looked at from that perspective they are just being efficient about expressing displeasure and it is a feedback mechanism the company has put in place. :confused:

 

 

There’s nothing efficient about complaining in the least useful method possible.

 

Agreed, but how much of my time and energy do I owe future cruisers or how much time and energy do current pissed off cruisers owe me? Is it the customers' job to improve service or is it the for profit company's job?

 

 

I don’t know. How much time do you feel or wish previous guests who interacted with the problem employees should have given *so that you didn’t have to experience the problem*?

[little britain]

The TAs in UK regularly tell guests that they don't have to pay the tips. You should sail on Indie out of England if you really want to see a line at GR with people removing the tips......:-(