We don't serve pies, but we do like a Pi

BORK!BORK!BORK! There is an old IT truism that the best tip anybody can give is "turn it off and turn it on again." But this is probably not the sort of tip that the staff at this London pub were expecting. Today's entry into the world of embedded borks comes from the tipping machine in a London pub, spotted by an eagle-eyed …

[Dev_Fit]

Keep the tip

The only tip staff will be collecting is from wags commenting "have you tried turning it off and on again?" Oh, how they'll laugh!!!! I did!

[Francis Boyle]

"empowers staff to control tips"

Would be scary if it weren't marketing BS.

[NiteDragon]

Re: "empowers staff to control tips"

It certainly empowers management to only give a % of the tips money to employees

[Marty McFly]

Re: "empowers staff to control tips"

Incorrectly blaming management.

In the States, TIPs are reported at income when they are given via electronic means. That means a percentage is withheld to give to the government. That is a tax issue, not a management issue.

If you really want to make a server happy, leave some cash on the table.

I am particularly fond of telling a server "Do you know the difference between a tip & a gift? You pay taxes on a tip, and this <handing cash> is a gift for you."

[Dan 55]

Re: "empowers staff to control tips"

Yet in the US somehow there are businesses which withhold some tips or include tips as part of the minimum wage. That is a management issue.

[Benegesserict Cumbersomberbatch]

Re: "empowers staff to control tips"

And in yet other countries, service staff are paid something resembling a living wage.

Tipping is linearly correlated with corruption in an economy.

[Phil O'Sophical]

It's certainly an improvement on scribbling on a credit card receipt, fumbling for non-existent change, or avoiding making awkward eye contact.

Especially since a close check of the receipt for the meal/beverage is very likely to see that a 12.5% or more "service charge" has already been added, which seems standard practice these days.

[Will Godfrey]

No... Just NO!

If there's a service charge that is not clearly announced in advance I refuse to pay it. It's only happened a few times, and each time they backed down.

[alain williams]

Re: No... Just NO!

The only reason that the tip is these days called a "service charge" is because someone lost a court case against HM Customs and Excise (the VAT man) some 30 years ago. People were having a business meal and claiming the cost of food + tip on expenses. HMRC objected saying that the tip was discretionary and so could not be claimed. Calling it a "service charge" made it allowable.

So: what was optional & for good service became an obligation. The amount is creeping up, it used to be 10% but some want an outrageous 15%.

[FIA]

Re: No... Just NO!

Unless it's stated clearly up front it's 100% optional.

[Phil O'Sophical]

Re: No... Just NO!

What irritates me is when the bill has a clearly-marked optional service charge already added, but the credit card or room charge ticket then also has a field for a 'gratuity'. They're clearly hoping for (American?) visitors who just scrawl another 20% in the gratuity box without noticing the existing extra charge that's already there.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: No... Just NO!

A service charge IS NOT a tip.

[Anonymous Coward]

‘Standard practice’….. unless it’s in Londonshire … it’s really not.

[IGotOut]

"Standard practice’….. unless it’s in Londonshire … it’s really not."

Totally agree. You sometimes get service charges for large groups, usually stayed up front, but certainly not for one or two people.

[Marty McFly]

Years ago, in a career far away, I was on the service side of these transactions. That has made me a generous tipper when someone else is making my dinner on a busy Friday night - usually over 20-25%.

However, if they insist on a set gratuity, I will leave it at that. Want to add an automatic 15%, well then that is all you get.

[Dan 55]

As well as the optional service charge included on the receipt already, the card machine has already had the service charge included in the amount to pay instead of allowing the user to modify the gratuity themselves.

[Anonymous Coward]

Scourge

... so long as they don't end up being used by employers as a replacement for paying staff a suitable salary.

Tips and tipping have (many decades ago) become a tolerated replacement for paying staff a suitable salary.

In some countries eg: US tipping culture has become the scourge of anyone going to anything from a lowly diner to a midtown restaurant.

In other countries, I have seen that the tips are actually the waiters' wages which are many times must be shared with the kitchen staff.

Lower scale restaurant in midtown NYC, April 1994:

I still recall the very aggressive attitude of a waiter that, having served us (party of six for dinner) in the worst possible manner, loudly complained about us leaving the equivalent of 15% of the bill to comply with the required service charge rubber stamped on the ticket albeit not added to the total amount.

Yes, in spite of the mediocre food served cold and the rather expensive but warm white wine.

Is *THIS* the tip????

The service wasn't *SATISFACTORY*????

You must be *EUROPEANS* ...

Imagine what it is like these days.

.

[Peter Gathercole]

IMHO, a 'Service Charge' should be part of the meal. A tip should be discretionary, based on how well you were served. Whether a tip should count as an allowable expense is a completely different question.

I feel it's the same problem that is creeping in with US style reviews on service when anything less than 100%, 10/10 or similar is regarded as a negative, whereas I want to be able to indicate when it was outstanding and exceptional, not just ordinary.

[Korev]

It's also the dark pattern where if you give a bad or mediocre review then they ask you for feedback and if you give a good one then you're forwarded to give a review one Google / Tripadvisor etc

[Sproggit]

The Shocking Thing Is...

... the number of companies today that claim to offer "Customer Services" phone numbers [where nobody is ever available], but somehow manage to respond to a negative-but-factual posting to Trustpilot within 20 minutes.

If there is a secret of living in the digital age, then it is that companies only act when it is in their financial interests to do so.

Write an absolutely stinking review of a company on Trustpilot and it's an odds-on bet that you will get a response. Raise a complaint via an email address or a Customer Services line and I can pretty much guarantee you that nothing will happen.

I don't consider that a "dark pattern" so much as an illustration of the total and utter contempt with which many companies operate today. They believe they are doing you a favor.

[JLV]

Re: The Shocking Thing Is...

A “red flag” / “dark pattern” (hmmm I might be skating on the thin ice of our new days with my color patterns, mayhap a “white flag” is warranted, esp me being French) is when a biz has obvious recurring longstanding quality problems on reviews yet has “We deeply regret your experience and will take every step to correct issue XYZ” materializing within hours of the 237th flagging of issue XYZ.

I don’t blame the person (wrt human dharma doubtless thankfully now a bot) doing the response. But yeah, a U+274C indeed.

[DrewPH]

Re: The Shocking Thing Is...

I had a trustpilot account, once. All my reviews were negative, because, well, that's reality now. And they closed my account.

Shillpilot.

Not to be "trust"ed.

[Will Godfrey]

If I'm asked for a review, that automatically means I won't give one.

I also don't give reviews.

[Stumpy]

I just refuse any and all emails/messages that come through asking for any feedback. If your service was bad enough then I'll complain directly. Otherwise, F.Off.

[mark l 2]

I saw a YouTube video recently where in the US self service checkouts and e-commerce websites have started asking for tips! I really hope this doesn't make its way over to the UK like a lot of Americanisms do.

[jdiebdhidbsusbvwbsidnsoskebid]

"...where in the US self service checkouts and e-commerce websites have started asking for tips! "

I often tip at self service checkouts. If I think I've done it really well I slip a fiver into my pocket and give myself a well done.

[Anonymous Coward]

... hope this doesn't make its way over to the UK like a lot of Americanisms do.

Right ...

You do understand that it is up to the UK, don't you?

That said, Americanisms refers to 'America', please note that 'America' is a continent.

One with three separate subcontinents: North Ameria, Central America and South America.

You must surely be referring to the US which is just one country.

Much to the Orange Buffoon's chagrin.

.

[cmdrklarg]

They are indeed doing so here for us USians. This started right around the time COVID19 was making the rounds. It is very irritating to say the least.

Tips are for service rendered. I will leave tips for wait staff at a sit down restaurant, or delivery drivers bringing me my pizza.

If I have to go somewhere to pick up my own food there will not be a tip unless I'm feeling really generous at the time.

[JLV]

Our local rental housing is so expensive that I am mostly generous with bar/cafe/restaurant staff. Although I reverse tip my usual commoditized tipple, espressos: cheap? good % tip. very cheap? better %. very expensive? minimum and will not come back.

Cash register (say, a bakery) tips? Err, annoying.

A website??? LOL.

[Marty McFly]

That has always been the standard.

Go to the counter to order & pick up food = not a tip establishment. Though somehow coffee shops are exempt to that paradigm.

Wait at a table to be served = tip establishment.

Pay tip to an impersonal kiosk...not a chance.

[Flocke Kroes]

Re: Doubtless the password has been secured

Doesn't matter, either because there is no keyboard or because you have a root shell right in front of you.

/etc/rc.local is executed near the end of the boot sequence and it is the obvious place to put something specific to this machine like starting the software that allows tipping. I am not sure which would be faster: properly diagnosing the problem or just re-imaging the SD card. Before doing either it may be worth checking for a corrupt file system and/or a defective SD card.

[BartyFartsLast]

Tipping champagne

If I'm tipping cash I don't care what they spend it on, if they want to drink a pint of champagne that's fine by me

As for tipping culture, no, people should be paid well enough that a tip is a bonus, not a top up of their salary so they can afford to live.

Disgusting US custom to beat people down and keep them subservient

Saying that, the only time I've ever refused a tip and service charge was at some hole on Wardour street where the tables were so tightly packed we spent a good amount of time with one of the service staff resting their arse on our table as we ate.

[Pete 2]

Re: Tipping champagne

I wonder if pubs and bars feel the urge to voluntarily pay their suppliers an extra 10% on top of what their invoice asks for? Or if the same establishments add 15% onto what they bung their electricity provider, just to say how much they appreciate the service they get. Maybe their landlords are pleased with the 20% gratuity that comes every month with their rent.

Or do commercial organisations simply account for their costs (including people) in their billing process and expect no more than they have already priced-in to their costs of sales

[DrewPH]

Re: Tipping champagne

I'd love to get tips from my clients.

"Here's the keys to your new private cloud app and here's the final invoice. Gratuities are optional but 20% would be appreciated"

[TrevorH]

It's also running Debian 10 - or would be if it was working - and that went out of support in 2022. Yes, you can buy extended update support but does anyone think it's very likely on this device?

What could possibly go wrong:

Operating system 4 years out of support

Processes financial data

Sits out in public all day

Almost certainly network connected

[Bebu sa Ware]

What [else] could possibly go wrong ?

Could be connected to Sam Altman's Empire of Borkage.

No matter how fubar·ed something is, adding AI can fuck it further beyond even the inconceivable.

From the vendor's website just above the nations where they operate and where only the DE flag is omitted: "Join the tipping revolution" — Landfill comes to mind.

I can envisage an Arthur Daley character landing a van load of RPis with a dodgy provenance, another of some buggered kiosk hardware on the way to the tip and a PFY who perforce lives in a cellar - some misunderstanding about a 12 year old as well as unauthorised accesses to financial platforms - who is a "wizard" with computers, knocking up something like this.

The decals look like something a high street Kinko's might have knocked out in the late '90s.

I learnt something today "der Trinkgeld" probably means "tip." I suppose literally "drink money" like pourboire.

[lordminty]

Does PCI/DSS not apply?

When I worked for an organisation that took card payments we had to pass internal and external audits for PCI/DSS, and if we'd ever failed we'd have lost or ability to process card payments.

An out of date OS with no support contract would have failed. Even with a support contract we'd have had an auditors recommendation to get the OS up to date.

Does this not apply to TiPJAR? How can it not?

[just4this]

Where does it stop?

If you don’t pay the chef a service charge would you expect to get raw food?

Even more ridiculous, don’t pay the restaurant’s suppliers a service charge and get fuck all food.

[C R Mudgeon]

Running a kernel from 2022...

... Ain't it funny how the bork moves / With hackers closin' in.

Oh, and last login Feb 14, 2019. Not sure what to make of that, but ... happy Valentine's Day? I guess?

[Pete 2]

Don't tip, rotate

> rc.local on the screen, surely a reference to one's local hostelry

Well, if I had an arsey local they wouldn't get a tip at all. Though given the circumstances, my advice about this tipping machine is to not tip it too far in case it falls over.

However, I have never felt the need to volunteer extra money to an individual who has done nothing more than what they are already paid for, for a few seconds, by pouring a drink.

[DoctorPaul]

Re: Don't tip, rotate

Back in the day when the world ran on cash, my partner and I got into the habit of leaving a cash tip hidden under one of the plates after the meal. Our thinking was that whoever cleared the table probably deserved it more than most.

[Bob Royal]

Easy win for Burnhams new chancellor

I've always maintained that gratuities should have income tax deducted @ 100%

That would increase receipts from tax on work!

[Anonymous Coward]

Robin Hood

I work for a large multinational, and the people at the top can be found on those “rich lists”.

When dining on expenses, I always tip 20%. It’s my way of robbing from the rich, and giving to the poor.

[hugo tyson]

Those tip machines are a scam

Those tip machines are a scam, because - obviously - they charge a service charge ON THE TIP for the company that runs the machines. And don't show that at any time.

So you tip £3, say, and it comes back on your card as £3.15 or something. Fucking outrageous IMHO.

Bet the company that thought of that, thought they were brilliant. :-(

[Dan 55]

Future BORK!

Street screens pushing advertising sounding like a jet engine in mid-take off because the fans are working at 150% in the 37ºC heat.