NPC Comic
A comic about two blue cats who play World of Warcraft, and their gamer human. Written and drawn by Mary Varn.
©2009-2013 | NPC Comic is powered by WordPress with ComicPress
| Subscribe: RSS Feed | Back to Top ↑| Privacy Policy
Double the cost, drop the last digit, and more the decimal over one place. Tipping 20% is easy and convenient
If I dislike the service enough, then I’ll actually bother working out what 15% would amount to. Not leaving a tip implies I forgot. Leaving a ridiculous tip makes me look like a jerk. Leaving a tip that’s a bit smaller than what would be expected will, I hope, say something.
Well, *move* the decimal, don’t ‘more’ it!
I hate when I more my decimals. Especially when I mean to less them.
I wonder how one can *more* a decimal point.
…
Ouch. Head hurts.
you made me wonder about that and my brain shut down, an hour went by in a second
Well, it is possible to ‘moor’ a boat, but that’s not the same thing, either.
P.S. Mooring your decimal places is not advised, either.
I’d just do $28.25 (about 4.75) and call it done.
I thought, though, that 15% was more customary, only 20% if you want to say ‘excellent work’.
15% is…meh.
20% is…Yay! I can pay my car note on time this month!
I think for lady hair places, at least 20% is the norm because they share some of the tips with the shampooer, who often gives you a nice little head massage.
But to complicate things, I’ve heard it’s customary to actually tip them separately, which leads to all kinds of awkward complications involving exact change and chasing down shampoo ladies, so I JUST DON’T DO THAT.
You tip your hairdresser?!
Feels good living in a country where tips are non-existent in the first place.
Hah! My country doesn’t have any tipping. No pressure-math! :]
I usally just give 1€ if the cut wasn´t bad… But yeah, tip-free countries are nice. ;D
With haircuts i ushualy just leave a 5 dollar tip, but then again most of the time it just buz the head, And no not tipping dose not make them think you forgot, it make them think your unhappy, at least as a waiter it did, and the most insulting tip if you are extreamly unhappy with the service is 2 cents, its the worse insult you can give with out saying a word
Tip? Does it really exist? I thought it was an urban legend.
I wish haircuts were that cheap – my wife got gutted for $170 the other day when she got her hair done (yes, she dyed it, but she didn’t ask for styling or anything – they just did it and charged her after
I don’t know why I felt compelled to regress to the prices of haircuts I got in college 11 years ago. My haircuts are now are quite a bit more than this. But I’m also addicted to going to a really great hair guy.
I think the last scene really broke it for me. The whole comic built tension up yet the last panel did not seem to execute it well. Lisa’s face on the last panel did not seem show really freaked out, more like minorly annoyed at how much she tipped. If her face showed more rage or worry I would give a nod to this comic.
Holy crap! Now I know I’m never paying for a haircut again! Not that I’ve paid for one in 10 years or more, I went from hand-formed dreadlocks to having my wife buzz my hair in the garage every couple of months. I just don’t see how it could possibly cost that much.
Oh yeah, now I know why I made the haircut in the comic so cheap – I knew a lot of my readers are guys and would balk at the cost of fancy lady haircuts!
Yes, but it would be good for some guys to know just how much a womans haircut actually costs.
Haha I’m a girl and only pay $11 for my hair cuts, and $30 to get it dyed.
i would just listen to the guy instead of standing there and saying something silly
I’ve never tipped my hairdresser. They go to school to cut hair. Doesn’t sound like a job you should be tipped for.
Yet,I’m mean and frugal.Bah humbug.
Shaved head – no barber – Problem solved! But I will tip if i find a place that does a good straight razor shave and isn’t already $30 to start
I don’t ‘get’ tipping by default. If someone has been excellent, fine, tip – but automatic tipping? The cost is $23.46, pay that.
But then, you’re on the west side of the pond….
Between growing up without the social nicety of tipping, and being a guy, I echo the above posts. I’d tip for a great job, but the ‘sit down, trim, “See you next time”‘ approach doesn’t open to it.
I miss my barber from 2 cities ago..
Unfortunately, tipping in America isn’t about being nice. For some services, it’s absolutely expected, and not tipping at a restaurant is as good as not paying the whole bill, unless service was horrendous. The waiters here get paid less than minimum wage and live on tips.
Some of the tourist-hopping restaurants here in NYC put the tip on the bill so as not to confuse the Europeans who eat there and to make sure the waiters are still paid.
I don’t defend the practice expected-tipping. I think it’s ridiculous. I LOVE eating in countries where tipping isn’t expected, and I certainly haven’t noticed a decline in service in those situations.
Up-scale hair salons are the same as restaurants. Pretty much gotta tip, unless you had terrible service, or don’t bother going back. I really couldn’t say what the etiquette is at a barber’s (i.e. men’s shave and haircut).
Less than minimum? And that flies? I’m guessing they aren’t teen-aged workers..
Wow. Tipping here just means someone liked your service enough to leave extra.
Well it depends on the restaurant and probably the state. States and cities can set their own wage laws. But I’m pretty sure the federal law allows for wait staff to be paid less than minimum wage, and they calculate it so the estimated tips plus their wage add up to minimum wage. So they really REALLY do count tips as a necessity and part of doing business.
Minimum wage is so low though that even if a wait staff is paid min. wage before tips, they are definitely still counting on tips as big chunk of their income.
Maybe any American wait staff people can back me up on this? I’ve never waited tables, I’m just going on what friends have told me.
Seems rather scummy, regardless. If I ever travel over there, I’ll have to remember a decent tipping budget.
Not sure what it is in the States, but up here in Ontario, (Canada) “food and beverage servers” have a minimum wage about $2.50 below minimum wage, so if you’re up here don’t forget to tip your bar maid too
Actually, I’ve even heard that they tax waiters on the expected tips. If you make less than that – oops.
But this may be an urban legend. I live in no-tip country, so I’ll just round up for drinks or leave, like 5-10 for good service.
You are taxed on tips. When I was a waitress I made $2.50/hr + tips… the federal regulations assume waitstaff will make at least minimum wage “with tips”, but that is often not the case. Working 6 days from 10 a-10 p I was lucky to bring home $200 per week.
Woah. I’m making, uh, about 1750 a week. I could certainly live with half that, but 200? I can’t imagine finding even a flat that cheap, even if it was just one room (and such flats would exist).
Ouch, now that is really low, tinker. I work as a museum guide/guard during summer, with a 24,5 hour average workweek, and I get about $550 a week.
If I ever visit the states, I’ll be sure to be a good tipper.
Please don’t forget that the guy that delivers your pizza is also a waiter, just on wheels. We also get paid below minimum (I make $4.25/hr while on the road), and are expected to make up the difference in tips. If I’m making a 10 mile round trip to your house, and you don’t tip me at all, I actually just lost money (cost of gas) bringing you your food. So yeah, throw us a few bucks, we really do appreciate it. And as with all waitstaff, we remember the regulars, both good and bad – personally, I will always deliver a decent tipping customer’s order first when out on a multiple stop delivery.
Restaurants lobbied at some point to keep the minimum wage lower for waiters since they are customarily tipped. If only most Americans understood that not leaving a tip is actually quite crippling to waiters.
If you want to know why, I’m not the person to ask – I abhor how low our minimum wage is.
15% is easy to do.
Move over the decimal and round to an even number That’s 10%
$23.46 becomes $2.34
Remember the 10% number, and also divide it by two. That’s 5%
Half of $2.34 is $1.17
10% + 5% is 15%
$2.34+$1.17 = $3.51
15% plus your original bill, rounded up to keep balancing your account easy is what you pay.
$23.46 + $3.51 = $26.97 ~$27.00
With practice you can do it in your head easy peasy, and it’s surprising how often it comes out so close to a nice round number.
I just cut my own hair, but mine is pretty short. One white stripe down the middle and the other two thirds painted gray, my hair sticks up in the front of the middle, making a duck-tail type thing. that’s just the white part, so it looks pretty good. Plus, I have a silver-dyed soul patch.
….. Now I’m just bragging about my awesome hair. *shotintheface*
I love your comics, but recently they’ve been straying from its gamer-related roots. Perhaps you’d like to keep long stories going on, then every once in a while throw one in as a filler comic?
But then again, just suggestions. I’ve already read through all of your comics in less than a day, so I’m sure you have some tricks in there that made me love them so much. I don’t even play video games!
Thanks! I don’t know which ones you refer to as filler comics. I’m sure a lot of my readers have differing opinions about which ones they consider to be filler.
I just write about what tickles me at the time. I want to dig into the characters more, and that means not always writing about what they’re doing in WoW. And at the same time, gaming is a part of their lives, so there will be gaming ones too.
Thank you for using “they’re,” “their,” and “there” in your last two sentences and using them correctly.
You grammar goodly. XD
Haha! Thank you for noticing.
I’d call it a comic about gamers, rather than a gamer comic, if that makes sense. Character driven, rather than cracks about DRM.
For all of you guys in the US : In Europe (at least France, but UK is the same if I recall), service is already included in the price of things. We never tip elsewhere than in a restaurant/bar, and never over a euro (dollar) or two.
It drives us crazy when we dine with Americans who tip for 10 to 20% of the price which is already ridiculously higher than across the atlantic. They make us look like people who live close to our money
So remember, come on over to Europe, but don’t tip too much
As an American who has lived & traveled in several European countries, I could never believe that Europeans “live close to their money”! Our family always experienced such generous & gracious hospitality from both friends & strangers!
Some examples: When staying in a hotel, you need to tip the person who carries your bags to your room; the person who delivers you room service; leave a tip for the maid when you check out. Then there is the person who hails you a cab & the cabdriver too. And of course you tip the pizza delivery person that brings that nice hot pizza to your door; and what about that charming young person who just brought your groceries to your car & loaded them for you … or that pleasant NE Rogue that just opened up the 17 lockboxes that have been sitting in your bank for like forever…… 
As to tipping in the US, there are so many situations where tipping is expected, but remembering them all & how much you should give makes me just as upset as Lisa
We’re French, we just smile and kiss
(I wish)
15% tip is standard?
d-mn I need to move to the states,
I’m lucky to get 5% most of the time
You do realize that you will be paid significantly less in regular wages, often below the minimum wage.
An easy way to guesstimate 15% tip is double the sales tax. It’s not accurate, but it’s quick and works.
Btw, I just love your comics.
You can double the sales tax if sales tax is 8% or thereabouts. This… is not something you can count on, depending on which state (or country!) you live in. For instance, if you are in New Hampshire, there is no sales tax (there are “room and meal” taxes of about 8%, for restaurants and hotels; mmm, tourist money!). If you are in Texas, your sales tax depends on what city you’re in (as I recall, sales tax in Austin subsidizes the Capital Metro busses, and is higher because of this), but is about 6.25% overall, according to http://www.usa-sales-use-tax-e-commerce.com/table_sales_rates.asp. Louisiana, on the other hand, is listed as having a sales tax of 4%.
Now, what I’d do would be to round up to the nearest pre-figured amount and give that as tip. *grin*
ROFL!!
I hate it when I don’t know the tip. And you are so correct. Pay for an expensive haircut? No way. Well, that one time but they said the extra services were perfectly legal and.. nvm.. That’s probably more information than you really wanted me to share over here.
Great comic as always!
I have honestly never heard of tipping a hair dresser. I kinda wonder how many people I’ve insulted over the years. Granted I’m a guy and i can get away with only going once or twice a year, so they probably don’t remember my rudeness one time to the next.
Eh. When I went to a barber (before I got a electric cutter and did it myself) I’d tip a good bit. Granted it was only about a $15 bill sooo…
I’m in the same boat as you! But yeah, haircuts at most 3 times a year, half the time it’s completely different people working at the place I go to by the time I return.
Americans are so weird, why on earth do you tip your barber?!? They get paid a montly salary to do their job. Also…24 USD for a haircut? Thats ridiculous! I am a male and i pay 50 USD (but in swedish kronor of course) for a regular haircut. I even get a 10 % discount for being a good customer.
The only place where it’s common to tip in Sweden is in restaurants, mostly in the form of rounding up and adding a few bills, rarely more than 10 %, more than 10% would imply extreme satisfaction. Last time the family (4 grown ups) went out the bill ended up at 1800 SEk which is about 250 USD, and we rounded up to 2000 SEK which is about 276 USD.
The only hairdressers in America who get a monthly salary are the ones who work for national chains or in salons in JCPennys and they still have to pay for supplies out of pocket. If they work in a private salon they have to add rent on top of that.
The only time I’ve ever tipped someone was at a really fancy restaurant when i went to the states, in Canada not necessary
they like it but you really don’t have to.
I tip 20% at restaurants but based on the bill BEFORE taxes. It’s easy for me to calculate because I went to Stuyvesant High School.
In Spain you won’t see tipping. Maybe, some people give a “trash-tip”, that is, those cheap coins of little value you don’t want to fill your wallet with. To me, is insulting to recieve a tip of 6 cents. You just feel like you were a trash-can.
I tip lavishly because:
1. People who get tips depend on them.
2. I’m not a cheapskate.
3. You don’t mess with people who handle your food or have the ability to shave “Kick me.” in the back of your head.
4. I can afford a few extra bucks.
5. Karma. Cheapskate non-tippers will burn in hell. Ask any service person.
As for you Europeans, there’s nothing a US server hates more than getting a big table of you guys. Unless the server does something horribly wrong, 20%. (And don’t blame your server if the food is cold or wrong. Your server 99% of the time has nothing to do with that, so don’t take it out on them.)
Makes me appreciate the fact that, as a guy, I can get a decent haircut for $10 at a haircuttery a neighbor runs out of her house.
i worked in a ny hotel last year (but live in ireland
)
it is difficult for Europeans to understand the tipping system personally i found it more of a deterrent for service than a plus go in any kitchen in the us and you will hear staff giving out that some1 who may not have tipped enough last time is back or fighting over the old couple that always tipps better than expected lol if u dont tip above 15% most of the time you wont get served in that place again XD
the tipping thing is very confusing for ppl who live in non tipping country like myself most servers etc get $4.50 wage which is half minimum and are expected to make it back in tips, if they do not make it back in tips they the establishment they work for has to bring there pay up to meet the minimum (although most really wont)
but its generally actually hard work and its nice to bring a paycheck home thats you can live off of XD ppl i talked to told me 15% is standard tip and varys from there if u thought the service was good or bad, personally when i was getting tipped or tipping i felt kinda aqward growing up in a country where there was no tipping XD or very little in any way
Most people don’t know this, but after tips are figured into the pay, if a tip wage employee averages less than the normal full minimum wage, the employer has to cover the difference.