[zampano]

I think the bit about talking to the manager is key here. Many of my friends are servers and customers will sometimes stiff them entirely on tips because they are upset about the quality of the food or some other transgression of the restaurant, but really this only affects the servers and hardly ever goes up the chain to the management. If you are having an issue, you need to talk to the manager or odds are it will never be corrected. Plus, when you've been sitting there an hour and your server might only have four tables, you could end up being a much larger portion of their tables that night than you realize. It's not uncommon to have little old ladies take over a table for a few hours drinking tea resulting in the server walking away with substantially below-average tips that night. I find the system completely unfair but have not yet found a way to protest it that wouldn't directly hurt the servers.

[slurgfest]

If the purpose of the restaurant is to serve the waiters then they should be paid at least a living wage up front, rather than requiring me to vacate my seat as rapidly as possible and be required to supply minimum wage on pain of death.

Don't blame the customers for not tipping enough when there are such problems with labor law and restaurant management.

[tptacek]

If you object to the system of tipping waiters so strenuously that you're willing to stiff someone who earns a bottom-quartile income to serve you, just don't eat at sit-down restaurants.

Going to sit-down restaurants and refusing to tip is a great recipe for becoming a pariah.

[mootothemax]

Going to sit-down restaurants and refusing to tip is a great recipe for becoming a pariah.

Quite. I really don't understand the idea of showing one's dissatisfaction with tipping by hurting the guy earning $2/hour and not the owner of the restaurant - it seems pretty obvious whose bottom line will suffer the most in this instance.

[Evbn]

Go to restaurants that refuse tips or none at all.