20100430

Tipping



I-S Magazine, a Singaporean weekly tabloid, discusses in its current issue about tipping, which has been banned in Singapore since the 1970's. Instead of tipping the restaurants add automatically a 10% of service charge to each bill and the customers do not have to guess about tipping.

I think the current policy works fine and should not be changed. Tipping in other countries always make me feel awkward; how much should I give, did I give too little or too much. For me as a Finn tipping represents something extra that I give for superb service, not for slow and unattentive one, which I should always reward automatically when in certain countries (US, UK, etc).

What do you think, should tipping be re-introduced in Singapore? Would it make the service any better?

2 comments:

  1. I think the current practice is excellent and should not be changed - as another Finn I find it extremely irritating to be guessing how much to give and where ... and indeed tip in places where you rather not even pay the bill.

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  2. Thanks for you comment, Blanca! Nice to hear from a fellow Finnish expat. It must be even hotter there than here.

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