Tipping....how much do you tip?

[rleslie]

How much are we actually talking about? Six days with three dives each day:
6x3x$5=$90. Is that really out of line for DMs helping you for an entire week of diving? Or $180 if they do an exceptional job.

 

[Waterskier1]

How much are we actually talking about? Six days with three dives each day:
6x3x$5=$90. Is that really out of line for DMs helping you for an entire week of diving? Or $180 if they do an exceptional job.

Personally, I don't think it is the cost. How hard would it be to just add the $5 to the per tank price? It's the fact that tips are expected, and not given for exceptional service. I agree with the previous poster, put the costs up front, then let me reward exceptional service. I don't care if you call it a "mandatory gratituty" like the cruise lines do, just put the expected cost up front, that way there will be no surprises, for the tipper or the tippee. And no hurt feeling for not getting or giving a tip when you didn't realize it was expected to put food on the table or air in the tanks. Whoever decided to not pay a salary to DM and crew or whoever, to make the cost look lower (if indeed that is the reason it was done), did the crew and DMs a disservice. They are the ones who are loosing out. I suspect that those how are tipping for great service of an individual, would continue to tip that individual even if that was not his only pay. In fact, I tipped the only time I had a DM because he did a great job, no knowing that may have been his only income.

 

[Scared Silly]

If you feel so deeply about people getting paid a fair wage than why don't you tip those who aren't in order to supplement their income.

As a DM let me tell you I don't get paid nearly enough to babysit you and set up your gear for you etc. Nor do I get paid enough to provide the necessary emergency response to save your life when you screw up. So please tell me; what is my "*&^% job"?

And just how should one wheather you are being paid a fair wage? Some places do pay a fair wage DO some do not.

Let me know where you are working cause you (and some others) sound just like some of the DM we recently experience.

1) I do NOT want a DM that thinks they are baby sitting me - if you do think you are babysitting I would kindly suggest that you find another job that does not require interaction with guests. I want a DM knows the sites and convey that information to me so that I can enjoy the dive. This also includes being able to handle a group of divers of varying ability without resorting to the 60 feet for 40 minutes and then we ALL come up. Do not tell me to come up after 40 minutes when both me and my buddy have well over 1000psi left and we are on the top of the reef. This ain't going to earn you at tip.

2) I do not want to you to set up my gear unless you ask. And then I sill will decline, thank you. Last trip because the boat was a pain in the *&^ it was easier to put gear on in the water. Which is a nice time to realize they did not put your reg back on correctly. Nor it is a fine time to discover the gear is broken or missing cause they back of the boat is cluster %%$# and they have been laying gear on top of other gear cause they added to more divers than is really practical. This ain't going to earn you at tip.

3) Regularly check your rental gear so that I do not have to come to the aid of another customer who rented your crappily maintain gear and offer them my alternate when their blows. Worse at least make sure one of their two second stages is working. This ain't going to earn you at tip.

4) If dive does not go as you think - figure out what needs to be done. Do not walk off the boat saying nothing and then inform the divers that your are the dive leader and no one else is to lead the dive. This ain't going to earn you at tip.

5) Do not under any circumstance yell at a client unless there is either a) an emergency or b) they are in immediate danger. This ain't going to earn you at tip.

6) Do not lie to the client. This ain't going to earn you at tip.

7) At least have a few pieces of spare kit around like a fin strap so when some bloke breaks a strap you can fix it for them instead having a client not only have the kit but the know how to fix the damn thing in less than a two minutes while everyone sits in the boat in 4 foot swells fully kitted up waiting to splash. This ain't going to earn you at tip.

Now this is what happened during my last trip. As such, the tip was $0. And after speaking with the owner no tip was expected. First time that has ever happened (That is no tip was left for the dive crew as Ihave been to other place where no tip was expected as a matter of business).

As for the other parts of the above whinning. Sorry no dice. Having certain skills is part of the job description - if you do not want to maintain them get another job.

My point about being paid a fair wage is and doing your job was just that. Try figuring it out as it might lead to a better paying job and perhaps better tips. The other problem with tipping I find is where does it end? This thread is US centric - many countries tipping is NOT expected as others have already noted.

Oh and BTW - I have been a working DM. Sucks to pay out alot of money on gear, insurance, maintianing your skills and not make any money. For some it gives motovation to figure out something better and still do something that turns your crank.

 

[Scared Silly]

Quick Question: I will be going to an all-inclusive resort soon. That resort has a "No-Tipping" policy. Should I tip the dive crew anyway?

IMHO No, they have probably done this so there is not any disparity with any of the resort staff. Further, this way the staff treat all of the guests equality, i.e. no favoritism. Also it may be that there are so many staff that trying to split it equally between all would be difficult. It could also be those who do accept tips may be fired. Who knows. If during your stay you feel someone went above and beyond find the manager and ask if there is some that you could do - at a minumum let the manager know who it is.

 

[Spady]

I usually tip $20 or so. Divemasters and instructers don't make much. Then again, I have no qualms about not tipping at all if the service is bad (pretty rare, though).

 

[Scared Silly]

I think I dove with you. Next time I will not point out that you put your wet suit on backwards, your air is not on and your mask is fogging before you get in the water because you do not know what your doing.

Probably not. It sounds as though you are not attracking the very smart clients.

That said there is a difference between being helpful and a PITA. Which what my post was about. Too bad people assumed too much. :no

Speaking of assumptions ...

If DMs/Inst were paid a fair wage your trip would have been more in the three grand range!

This assumes that you know where I dove and what the local economy is like. They just might have been paid a fair wage. Mighty big assumption. :shakehead

 

[BRANDY]

And just how should one wheather you are being paid a fair wage? Some places do pay a fair wage DO some do not.

Let me know where you are working cause you (and some others) sound just like some of the DM we recently experience.

1) I do NOT want a DM that thinks they are baby sitting me - if you do think you are babysitting I would kindly suggest that you find another job that does not require interaction with guests. I want a DM knows the sites and convey that information to me so that I can enjoy the dive. This also includes being able to handle a group of divers of varying ability without resorting to the 60 feet for 40 minutes and then we ALL come up. Do not tell me to come up after 40 minutes when both me and my buddy have well over 1000psi left and we are on the top of the reef. This ain't going to earn you at tip.

2) I do not want to you to set up my gear unless you ask. And then I sill will decline, thank you. Last trip because the boat was a pain in the *&^ it was easier to put gear on in the water. Which is a nice time to realize they did not put your reg back on correctly. Nor it is a fine time to discover the gear is broken or missing cause they back of the boat is cluster %%$# and they have been laying gear on top of other gear cause they added to more divers than is really practical. This ain't going to earn you at tip.

3) Regularly check your rental gear so that I do not have to come to the aid of another customer who rented your crappily maintain gear and offer them my alternate when their blows. Worse at least make sure one of their two second stages is working. This ain't going to earn you at tip.

4) If dive does not go as you think - figure out what needs to be done. Do not walk off the boat saying nothing and then inform the divers that your are the dive leader and no one else is to lead the dive. This ain't going to earn you at tip.

5) Do not under any circumstance yell at a client unless there is either a) an emergency or b) they are in immediate danger. This ain't going to earn you at tip.

6) Do not lie to the client. This ain't going to earn you at tip.

7) At least have a few pieces of spare kit around like a fin strap so when some bloke breaks a strap you can fix it for them instead having a client not only have the kit but the know how to fix the damn thing in less than a two minutes while everyone sits in the boat in 4 foot swells fully kitted up waiting to splash. This ain't going to earn you at tip.

Now this is what happened during my last trip. As such, the tip was $0. And after speaking with the owner no tip was expected. First time that has ever happened (That is no tip was left for the dive crew as Ihave been to other place where no tip was expected as a matter of business).

As for the other parts of the above whinning. Sorry no dice. Having certain skills is part of the job description - if you do not want to maintain them get another job.

My point about being paid a fair wage is and doing your job was just that. Try figuring it out as it might lead to a better paying job and perhaps better tips. The other problem with tipping I find is where does it end? This thread is US centric - many countries tipping is NOT expected as others have already noted.

Oh and BTW - I have been a working DM. Sucks to pay out alot of money on gear, insurance, maintianing your skills and not make any money. For some it gives motovation to figure out something better and still do something that turns your crank.

I know this is the cry on my shoulder forum,,,,,,,,,,,,,,are you really that bitter with the DM's

 

[Homunculus]

i deeply hate the philosophy of tipping. i really hope one day we'll live in a tip-free world. i'd rather pay once whatever it is and be done with it. if service is great i'll most likely go with these folks again and again and if service sucks, i'll let others know. having said that, i normally give $10 (as agreed upon by the group of students who i dive with) but i only took 2 boat rides so far. no one changed anything for us and we brought full tanks, they helped us in and out of the water.

 

[Scared Silly]

I know this is the cry on my shoulder forum,,,,,,,,,,,,,,are you really that bitter with the DM's

Heck no, they were making alot of assumptions and whinning. I just strongly noted this and explained why there was no tip for our last trip. There is an old saying about word "assume". I have had some great experiences with other DMs and dive OPs.

 

[Flaviss]

I have only had one trip diving for experience with this in the diving community but have been a server for many years in my employment history so I fully understand those from outside the US's frequent difficulty in understanding tipping as the main form of income for particular jobs.

There is a very good reason for tipping! Tipping goes a long way to ensure good service.

Taking the food industry alone as an example: I have visited England, Wales, Ireland, Poland, Belarus, and Spain. In all of those countries gratuity is not the norm. In most circumstances I noticed a marked difference in the level of customer service I received. To give one example: not being able to get scrambled eggs at a breakfast restauraunt in the UK because they were out of thier microwave packets that they had to make scrambled eggs, even though they were happy to make me a fried egg. The server/cook could not be bothered to hit the fried egg a couple times while it was cooking with a spatula to provide the food I wanted. This would not have ruined thier pan or spatula, the cook would not have been injured, the server wouldn't have had no way to charge me - they just couldn't be bothered because failing to didnt affect them. I garauntee that if that server was working for tips she would have convinced the cook to just scramble the eggs in the pan. In fact, if it was an established procedure that the servers were tipped, the cook wouldnt have even argued and would just have considered it part of his normal job to fufill the customers request if possible.

I got a glimpse into the foreign perspective while speaking with a cab driver in Grand Canaria (a part of Spain). He was talking about a recent trip to the US and how he was uncomfortable all the time at restauraunts because he didnt know if his server was being nice to him just to raise her expected tip. He felt this was a negative aspect to tipping because you couldn't trust that servers were being genuine. I realized on my trip out of the country - I don't care why the server is nice and accomodating! I just want to them be nice and accomadating. Tipping is the most effective way to ensure this across the board, whether management is good or not. Proper managment can raise customer service without requiring a correlating increase in tip income for those prospective servers, but it can only do so much.

I kind of wish more services were tip based. For example, if cable TV installers worked for tips you can be dame sure I wouldn't have to take off a whole day of work because they can only give me a 6 hour window of when they will likely show up, they would be much more concerned with making me happy and I would most likely have a set appointment time or at most a half hour window.

No matter how giving an employee is or how good thier work ethic is, unless that employee is secretly a multimillionare just slumming it for fun - Tips Increase Motivation To Provide Good Service!