u/ITGOKS

I feel it's important to start by saying, I do believe tipping in some circumstances, like in a traditional restaurant setting, has merit. Tipping/No Tipping in general has been done to death, and I while I understand arguments against tipping in general, that isn't the point of this post.

My view is that tipping before receiving service is not really tipping, as tipping, even when conventional, should reflect, at least to some extent, the quality of the service and/or food received. Asking for a tip at the coffee shop before I get my coffee isn't really informative to anyone, as the only portion of service I've received so far is the taking of my order. Further worse examples include ordering online, where I don't dispute wanting to tip based on how prompt my order was out, whether I was helped right away or not, the correctness of my order, and the quality of my food, but I know none of those things when I place the order. The tip is either a shot in the dark, a hope of tipping in advance to buy better service/food, or an expected uncharge, which I'd rather just have reflected in prices.

I can see two main counterpoints that I'd like to address here:

1. Convention. If you're okay with tipping in a sit-down restaurant, you're likely okay with being expected to tip 15 or 20%, so why wouldn't you be okay with doing the same here (even for a different %)? My reasoning is that while I would tip 15-20% for normal service, I would tip little to nothing if the service/experience was absolutely horrible. Here, I can tip 20% even and still get poor service and food quality. So it's back to being a hope/purchase than a thank you for good or even standard service.

2. Practicality. I don't disagree that asking for the tip before is more practical. But if you can't find a way to make cash tips work or have some form of separate tip payment pad, then just don't accept tips if you have to pay before service.

But tipping before service is extremely prevalent, so what am I missing here? Thank you for your time. Change my view.

Edit: I'm not talking about delivery apps with online ordering. Yes, that's different than a food service tip, but I was referring to ordering online for pickup.

Had a very frustrating morning, waking up to learn that my train from Kansas City to St. Louis was cancelled. I called Amtrak to confirm and they said it was due to a service disruption, while my notifications have said severe weather. Why was it cancelled? The weather has been and is supposed to be fine, and the temps are sub-90. Plus, the train is still running from STL to Chicago, so what's wrong with this leg? And why couldn't Amtrak try to find a bus substitution?

I found a different way to get there (rented a car) but its been a very frustrating experience, and I was wondering if anyone else might have any insight. Thank you!

**Especially* when in a cone.

I have noticed that most times when I go to an ice cream shop (gelato & sorbet included of course, but for streamlining purposes "ice cream"), most (not all) shops, in this sequence:

1. Ask for my order
2. Make the order
3. Hand me the order
4. Charge me

I don't understand why charging me isn't step 2. Once you get the ice cream, it instantly becomes a battle against time to prevent it from melting down the cone or out of the cup (if it's full enough) and into your hands. And if it's a cone, I can't even put it down, so I have to juggle holding my cone and pulling out my wallet, then my card, and then the reverse (Especially if I'm alone). Aside from being hard, if the ice cream melts onto my hands, now my wallet might get sticky and that's no fun.

This problem seems very avoidable, too, by charging me before giving me my food, the same way that McDonald's and other fast food restaurants do.

I can ponder that this *might* be beneficial to line management (maybe?) and might help make sure I'm paying for what I'm getting due to the selection, but I just don't think that's worth it for the stickiness juggle.

Is there something I'm missing? Is this helpful to me in some way I overlook? There must be *some* reason this is typical, right? Change my view or at least open my eyes to being more understanding of this practice.

Edit: This was the fixed version - I briefly posted with the wrong title. Thank you to everyone who pointed that out.

I used Excel to make a spreadsheet showing the appearances of 5 different characters throughout the TV Series. I thought it would be interesting to see how difficult it would be to figure out which five they are, as a sort of game (obviously, it's pretty easy using the Wiki, but I meant more just from retained knowledge). I used random number generators to pick the characters. The answers are below:

1. >!Kelly--------------------!<

2. >!Mavis--------------------!<

3. >!Sir Robert Norramby--- !<

4. >!Freddie------------------!<

5. >!Gordon------------------!<

Episodes are listed in the order they appear on the Wiki’s “List of Thomas & Friends” page, which I believe is the broadcast order. The Wiki is also where I got the data for which episodes characters appear in.

Trailer Cameos don’t count.

Extended Scenes, Deleted Scenes, and Dropped Roles don’t count.

Music video appearances don’t count – only appearances in the special proper.

Fantasy/Dream Sequences & Stock Footage count as appearances.

Only certain features of characters appearing does not count.

Post-Credit scenes count.

Laughing, exclaiming, and grunting counts as ‘speaking’ in CGI series

Jack and the Pack episodes are listed in UK broadcast order.

Indirectly Mentioned counts as Mentioned.
Not Being Named in the episode does not affect the character’s status for that episode.

Cameos in forms other than their normal formal (i.e. poster) count as other.

For differences in narration for who speaks or not, the UK version is the one I used.

Learning Segment Appearances within Specials count

Opening Sequences of Specials count as Cameos

Enjoy!

https://preview.redd.it/de1h6lyyd73h1.png?width=742&format=png&auto=webp&s=80578810e6cb1667c474040ff982ac9f269bc776

Number 2

Number 3

Number 4

Number 5