On Feb 28, 12:48*pm, Roland Perry wrote:

on Tue, 28 Feb 2012, Neil Williams remarked:

There's still a way for waiters to 'game' the system. If they hand
the terminal to the customer after themselves entering a zero tip,
the customer is "forced" to leave a cash tip (or query the lack of
tip, which hardly ever seems to happen).

Or to leave nothing.

Which is what tends to happen if I'm the customer. If I'm paying by card
it's probably because I don't have suitable cash on me. But it doesn't
bother me because I assume it's the waiter gaming the system and losing,
and that was his choice.

They might not care whether or not you leave a tip paid for by card
(indeed they might prefer you didn't), if they're unlikely ever to see
any of that tip come their way. Unfortunately a fair few
establishments don't do a very good job of routing tips paid for by
card back to their staff (if indeed any of it gets to them). I prefer
to leave a cash tip if possible.