tipping? meals?

[royalc]

I found a formula a few years ago here on "Amtrak Unlimited" for tipping the SCA and at meals.

For couples: $5 Breakfast

$5 Lunch

$10 Dinner

$10 per night SCA

I get enough 5's and 10's for the trip plus two extra of each at the bank prior to leaving on the trip. This also eliminates having a bunch of 1's or change to carry around.

 

[neroden]

The Treasury Department FAQ is actually misleading and confusing as it does not clarify the main point, which is the difference between prepayment vs. settling of a debt.

If a gas station allows you to pump gas first and pay afterwards (remember those? they used to exist) then they *have* to accept any offer of sufficient legal tender as payment.

They don't have to make change, mind you. If you make a legal tender of a $100 bill for a $5 debt, there is no legal obligation for the recipient to make change for it.

 

[PVD]

the point is that payment for goods and services is not considered debt under that statute which is very important distinction.

 

[neroden]

Payment for goods and services *IS*, in actual fact, settlement of a debt under some circumstances, however -- specifically, if you receive the goods or services *before* you pay for it, the payment *is* payment in settlement of a debt. Which is what the Treasury page is unnecessarily confusing about.

This all relates to how implied contracts are formed, which is another topic... *sigh*...

If the business gives you the goods first under expectation of payment, you have formed a contract with them at that point, and your side of the contract is the requirement to pay a specified amount of dollars. Thus you owe the business a debt; they are required to accept cash or forgive the debt.

If the business refuses to allow you to take away the goods until after you have paid, the business has not formed a contract with you until you pay them, and pay them in the form which they have requested. At that point the business's side of the contract is their obligation to deliver the goods -- a debt to you, but not one denominated in dollars. If for some reason they fail to deliver the goods, they can generally get out of the specific performance requirement by giving you your payment back, which is typically denominated in dollars. And then *the business* has the right to give you that returned payment (paying off a debt to *you*) in cash, and you have to accept it if they do so.

It all seems straightforward to me but apparently it confuses extraordinary numbers of people including people at the Treasury and IRS. Perhaps people just don't have a proper understanding of what a "debt" is.

 

[PVD]

Those extraordinary numbers of people include most courts in the United States also. The common law principles are what our laws are to some degree based on, not bound by. What meant one thing at one time does not have to mean the same thing in the modern world. Questions about the validity of money from the Federal reserve, rather than US notes were once common, now reserved for the "tin foil hat" folks. Money used to be backed by gold. Things change, and one thing we probably agree on- not always for the better.

 

[leacrane]

Tip if the service is good. Don't tip if the service is bad. The staff make decent salaries. Nice pensions and benefits. Not the model of restaurant and hotel workers where you know they depend on tips. I'm sorry to say this but always travel with a lot of small bills for tips and find I'm not handing out as much as i used to. I'm not stingy. Just fed up with wildly inconsistent service. Sometimes I think Amtrak treats passengers like intrusions not customers

 

[NW cannonball]

We've been down this $2 path several times before. It always starts with the one poster who thinks its neat to use $2 bills for tips --- and it dissolves from there.

Well - this thread has gone somewhere Waste of time, but

$2 bill got me a day pass in Albuquerque on the bus.

I use $1 bills and $2 bills (seldom coins, because the USA is stupider than Canada)

Only fool will complain that the tip is in $2 bills or $1 bills or $5 bills (but if the tip is $5 bills, for me, that's super service)

All the "very informed" people blasting "we know the law -- hehe"

It;s all and only what the seller wants, usually cash, and $2 bills work just fine., everywhere I've ever been in the USA

It gets tiresome, this same-old ignorant $2bill nonsense.

$2bills have never failed me anywhere in the USA.

Nor dollar coins but I never tried to pay my mortgage with dollar coins or $2 bills.

Please, please, don't wanna hear this "currency" crap on Amtrak discussion -

Because it;s totally irrelevant to Amtrak.

$2 bills work just fine for buying tickets, or buying snacks, whatever, Even dollar coins work.

 

[Alexandria Nick]

Back in my cashiering days, if I ended up with a $2, I'd either buy it out of the drawer so I didn't have to deal with it later or give it in change to a kid. Kids seem to love the things for some reason.

 

[ericjeeper]

I guess on my next trip,I will ask if they are offended,by my 2 dollar bills. If so,they will just have to do without a tip I reckon.