Tipper's Revenge

The soup arrives lukewarm, dessert does not arrive at all, and the bill bears little relation to what was ordered. Even so, the restaurant patron is likely to add 15% to the check for the waiter or waitress, then go home grumbling about the injustices of tipping. For the dissatisfied diner who is too timid to complain aloud, there is a palatable remedy: a union of restaurant victims called Tippers International.

Founded two years ago by John Schein, a traveling nuts-and-bolts salesman from Oshkosh, Wis., Tippers International now claims 2,700 members in the U.S., Puerto Rico and Canada. "I think tipping is a way of life," says Schein, 63, "but I think we have to control it a bit." Schein's control takes the form of blue and yellow report cards that members skewer with a monogrammed T.I. toothpick and leave with (or instead of) their tip. A blue card compliments the service and food. A yellow card contains a check list of complaints: service, quality of food, cleanliness, prices, courtesy and atmosphere. The card system, claims Schein, provides diners with a "diplomatic, dignified and effective means of letting people know when you're satisfied with their service, and when you're not."

For their $10 yearly fee, members of Tippers International receive a generous helping of cards and toothpicks, a pocket guide to tipping and a batch of envelopes addressed to T.I.'s Milwaukee headquarters. Members' evaluations of restaurants, hotels and motels are mailed in and passed on to the T.I. ranks in a monthly newsletter.

The comments are forwarded to the offending eateries as well, because restaurant owners seldom get the benefit of the constructive criticism on the cards that T.I. members lay on the table. Waiters and waitresses surreptitiously pocket the telltale yellow complaints even faster than they snap up tips.

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