Caution to Travellers US couple jailed for not tipping

[renormalised (Carl)]

Originally Posted by Omaroo

Too late...

Good one

[GrahamL]

I had some thoughts on how this might pan out , but will happily lift the words of another.

A couple of very disturbing things here. First of all, not paying a tip is not the same as not paying for your meal. Unless these two signed an agreement prior to eating, having a small notation at the bottom of a menu indicating an 18% gratuity added for parties of 8 or more is not contractually binding. Even if it was, this would be a civil matter and NOT A THEFT. Even if the police attempted to make a legal argument for theft, they should have taken the individuals information and proceeded by summons, and not handcuffed them and taken them away. If the patrons explained their concerns to the manager, which seem reasonable, the manager had an obligation to rectify it with his employee, and not contact the police. The police had an obligation to recognize this for what it was. Nonsense! A civil matter at best. These two will have the charges dropped at the preliminary hearing, and successfully sue both the pub and police

Despite how we all feel bout wages in other countries this one reeks of stupidity on a few levels , the front of house manager really had a good chance to deal with this civily , the cops had a equal chance to use a little disscretion on what was in front of them , maybe these people were charged with other offenses ?.. but if like above it does get thrown out , wrongfull imprisonment? .. A lawyer with a sense of humor would possibly take that $16.48 and file for 16.48 million damages

[iceman (Mike)]

Originally Posted by dpastern

Mike - with all due respect why was this thread even allowed then, since anyone with common sense was going to realise that it would attract comments about tipping and US lifestyle(s)?

A bit of the pot calling the kettle black imho. It's OK to praise US tipping styles, but not to criticise it. If you were fairly censoring things, you'd be removing all of the pro tipping posts as well.

Gee...I can see why Mike Sidonio made his comment earlier on in the thread about post nazis...all I see here is favouritism to certain individuals allowing them to wax rhetorically about the beauty of the American wages system.

C'mon Dave - it's one thing to discuss the US tipping system and another to criticise the whole country, it's values, it's politics etc. Which is exactly what the posts that were deleted were doing.

I mean, we're in Australia, should we even be talking about US wages?

Quite right - and we're on an astronomy forum. Why are we even talking about the US tipping system?

[Enchilada]

Originally Posted by iceman

This is not America, I make no claims about Freedom of Speech here.

This is IceInSpace. Not a place for political discussions or anti-any country discussions.

Honestly, I'm very confused here.

If I say that Australia is better than America, and justify it, then according to you this is either political or being "anti-country" ??
I carefully re-read the terms of service here, and I see no reference to "anti-any country" ideas there.
Whilst I agree there may be ways of saying things, I don't necessarily think that opinions about other foreign countries is so wrong. I.e. There was a debate on the Metric System ages ago, and that debate about Americans resisting the change was perfectly A-OK.
Perhaps the question here is what the majority deems acceptable. In my view, and among the number of acquaintances in the local club, people I know, or have associated with, my views and others on this subject are quite commonplace and really are heartfelt.
Whilst you may have your legitimate reasons to appease to our American counterparts here, it does IMO seem a little harsh to quell general discussion.

Note: Frankly, I find "The Rules" from blog site to blog site after awhile is just so confusing, and I have real trouble just remembering what comment is deemed acceptable and what is not. These days I spend more time trying to understanding the rules than I do in answering the question.

[iceman (Mike)]

Originally Posted by Enchilada

Perhaps the question here is what the majority deems acceptable. In my view, and among the number of acquaintances in the local club, people I know, or have associated with, my views and others on this subject are quite commonplace and really are heartfelt.
Whilst you may have your legitimate reasons to appease to our American counterparts here, it does IMO seem a little harsh to quell general discussion.

You've got to be kidding me. There's lots of things I discuss with friends and colleagues in person that I wouldn't talk about in front of others, or post on public internet forums.

I'm sorry that not everything is black and white for you in this world. There are often many shades of grey.

[OzRob (Rob)]

Originally Posted by Enchilada

Honestly, I'm very confused here.

If I say that Australia is better than America, and justify it, then according to you this is either political or being "anti-country" ??
I carefully re-read the terms of service here, and I see no reference to "anti-any country" ideas there.
Whilst I agree there may be ways of saying things, I don't necessarily think that opinions about other foreign countries is so wrong. I.e. There was a debate on the Metric System ages ago, and that debate about Americans resisting the change was perfectly A-OK.
Perhaps the question here is what the majority deems acceptable. In my view, and among the number of acquaintances in the local club, people I know, or have associated with, my views and others on this subject are quite commonplace and really are heartfelt.
Whilst you may have your legitimate reasons to appease to our American counterparts here, it does IMO seem a little harsh to quell general discussion.

Note: Frankly, I find "The Rules" from blog site to blog site after awhile is just so confusing, and I have real trouble just remembering what comment is deemed acceptable and what is not. These days I spend more time trying to understanding the rules than I do in answering the question.

The problem is that on internet forums rules are often more like guidelines. It can be a very fine line between allowing people a free rein and keeping the place civil. I'm a mod on a quite large (unrelated) forum (much larger than this one) and at times it is not much fun. It would be great if every forum member could be a mod at least once. You'd be surpriised how much of a hard and thankless job it can be.

BTW it is nice just to be able to sit back and have a laugh.

[iceman (Mike)]

This thread has gone way off track and has gone far enough as it is.

Unfortunately a handful of people derail a potentially harmless thread with their own very strong opinions that they have some desire to tell everyone about.

Post your comments in the news article itself, along with the other 2000+ comments:
http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/...052.html?yhp=1