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Ad Hominem: Can It Be Used as a Tip?

In a debate or an argument, people sometimes use “ad hominem” as a tactic to attack the rivals even though they may know that this tactic creates illogical fraud. The question is: Is it OK to use “ad hominem” as a tip when one receives poor service?

According to this NBC News video, a couple left a waitress no tip but the following sentence: “P.S. You could stand to lose a few pounds!” The victim (waitress) shared her story on Facebook. As a feminist, she does not feel that it is right for a man to “attack” her on her weights.

No matter how bad the service was, there is absolutely no reason for anyone to leave a comment like that. I had bad experience with waiters or waitresses before. There were also a few times when I did not leave any tips because of the level of service --- if I left no tips, however, I often wrote down why the service was not appropriate and asked the managers to better train their staff. Why would a person blame the poor service to the weight or the physical apparence of a server?

Instead, I encourage people to write down “Thank You” or something sweet when they are nicely treated or leave constructive suggestions when they have bad experience. I believe that every server will very much appreciate guest compliments for his/her hard work and the constructive criticisms. What do you think? I hope people are nice to all service providers --- tip them well and more importantly, appreciate their service.

Another interesting aspect of this story is that the waitress got her attention from a lot of people because of her Facebook update. Once again, Facebook can be very powerful! It is important that we know how to leverage the power of social media in a positive way.


Comments

  1. I'd like to comment on a few things here. First, the name of the restaurant, "Bimbo" isn't the best name to have when it's being splattered allover headlines for serving an unhappy customer. The word's most common definition is 'a foolish, stupid or inept person'. Now I'm not saying i disagree with what the waitress said went on, but according to that annonyomous blog, I think one can infer that not the whole story came out when she reported it to facebook. Customers don't just lash out at management or waitresses, attacking them personally, for the average customer service experience. She is leaving something out and I am sure of it. Maybe she did make a comment about the customer's weight, or maybe she did abandon their table for twenty five minutes, we'll never know. But what I do know is that no customer or employee should get into verbal attacks at one another, even if any of the claimed incidents were true. A proper thing to do would have been to talk to the manager about such name calling and lack of adequate service happening, not resort to weight slurs and a facebook outcry about one bad night. All waitresses have bad nights and all customers have been difficult more than once in their lives. Its the hospitality industry, if you cant take the heat, get out of the kitchen

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  2. I would like to say, i think that leaving a note to your server either praising them or criticizing them is a great idea and i've actually never heard of it before. That being said however, how many servers in this day in age would actually appreciate a gesture like that? To think, most servers are young just out of highschool or college student there to make money and tips to pay for the things they need and want. I just think that leaving just a note to this kind of population wouldn't get very far and that no matter how nice the note, they would just go home and post to their facebook that "this jerk just left me a nice note and no tip...must be a creep." However, i think that for bad service, leaving a minimal tip and a note explaining why you left such a minimal tip could be effective. In fact the more that i write and think about this idea the more i feel like this could be a new form of etiquette when dining out.

    Now, was the guy above wrong to take a stab at this poor waitress' weight when all she was trying to do was her job. Absolutely. Was she wrong to post it on facebook? Eh, maybe. Everyone needs an out and working in the hospitality industry as mentioned is a hard job. Not everyone's gonna love you. Your gonna have your great days and your gonna have absolutely awful days. There have been a few occasions in which i myself have posted on my social media site about the ridiculousness that i've come across working in the hotel.

    -Kelly Hodges

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