Would You Opt Out Of Tipping While An Employee Watches You?

Reader Bill was getting some sandwiches and paying with a credit card when he noticed something new and unusual on the payment machine. It prompted him to leave a tip between ten and twenty percent, to choose his own tip amount, or to decline tipping entirely. This makes sense in a country where most of us don’t carry much cash anymore, but there’s something about it that Bill doesn’t like.

We won’t say just yet which company this was, because we’re waiting for confirmation that it’s rolling out chain-wide. Also, the identity of the company and your opinion of the food isn’t really important: What we can tell you is that the establishment is a sandwich shop, not a place with table service. Is this the touchscreen equivalent of a tip jar, or would you feel uncomfortable tapping the “No Thanks” button?

“As a customer, I don’t like being put in a position where I pro-actively have to decline a tip, especially with an employee watching,” writes tipster Bill. He wonders how other people feel about this, so let’s take a poll.

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist