How do you tip your server?

[Unorthodox]

Don't know why this was on the morning show on the way in, but there you go. 

Guess there's a lot of folks that have taken the 3rd rock from the Sun method to heart. 

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[ColdWizard]

For servers, 20% baseline (roughly because I'm not doing that much math after eating) modified by quality of service, which corresponds with how long I have to wait for refills (generally water).

10% = I went and got the water myself
15% = I thought about getting the water myself
20% = I didn't have to wait long
25% = I didn't have to wait at all
30% = I didn't actually want more yet, but thank you very much

I have hit the 30% once, dude was practically prescient (or didn't have many tables to watch). I would have hit the 10% once, but I asked a busboy for water instead. He ended up being our server for the rest of the meal and the next time I came in, he was a server (and good at it). Theoretically, there would be a 0% f-you I'm not coming back level but I think it would be difficult for a server alone to achieve. I try not to shoot the messenger, as it were.

Pizza guys get a flat tip as modified by conditions - rush hour, dark, wet, snow, big order, etc. - starting at $3-ish.

[Rusty Edge]

Our base is 20% of the pre-tax amount. We keep in mind that slow service is usually a function of the kitchen- not the waiter's fault. Well, you can judge it by the other tables to some extent.

Valets we normally tip $3 or so  for bringing the car back safely. After a hotel's valet service lost the only set of keys ( rental car) and losing half a day of expensive vacation time, we aren't so quick to reward them for making the car disappear.

Coat check girls and bellboys - a dollar- per piece.

Airport curbside check-in. Well that varies according to how helpful they are, and how much stuff we have . Ever changing security regulations may restrict their ability to facilitate my travel, but the base is by the bag, and I add for conveniences. Maybe it's helping me redistribute weight between the bags, or letting a heavy one slide by, or checking my wife while she is returning the rental car, or tracking me down in the airport because I left my license at the counter. 

[Eadee]

Well, servers are paid more by the owner of a restaurant here than in the U.S. which means they do not depend on it as much as they would in the U.S.

Once it was customary to pay 10% in Germany. But nowadays a lot of people do not tip at all.

I still give 10%(including taxes) and round up to the next €. In case I'm too drunk to do math fast I try to give rather too much then too less (In Germany you're supposed to pay your bill immediatly when you receive your bill, and the server will not leave until you did so... so... its a bit more of a time pressure).

If the server was VERY attentive and the food was good I sometimes go up to 20%, but this isn't very often since in Germany servers keep much more distance towards the guests than in the U.S. (it would be shocking if a server told his name to a guest over here).

Even if a server makes a poor performance, I usually give them 10%, but I tell them if something really bothered me. If I visit the same place another time and the same server still makes my meal hard to enjoy the same way, I significantly reduce the tip (no I do no bookkeeping about it).

[Buster's Uncle]

You've eaten in a US restaurant or two?

[Eadee]

Well I've been twice to the U.S. first time (must've been 2002) 3 weeks during winter holidays. I was 16, and had really bad grades in english at this time. I had a lot of communication problems in this time, but after this vacation my grades became the best in the whole class. I'm not sure if I was at a restaurant during that vacation...

However in 2012 I travelled with my significant other to the U.S. we rented a car and drove around. Started in Las Vegas, visited several National Parks in Nevada, Arizona, Utah and California...  Los Angeles and Las Vegas where the only places where we stayed longer than one night. In this vacation we ate multiple times a day in restaurants, so yes, I've eaten in one or two

(And yes... I did give higher tips during my vacation in the U.S.)

[Buster's Uncle]

That thing about servers introducing themselves gave it away - not something you'd often come across second-hand.

Tipping makes me feel extorted/guilt-tripped, what little I eat out.  -And the accepted percentage has inflated madly since I remember it being a flat 10%.  I don't want to be a jerk to strangers -underpaid ones in a treated-like-a-slave industry at that- so I'm glad I don't eat out much.

[Eadee]

Oh, I want to add something:

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...and can somebody please tell me how to embed YT-Videos here?

Edit: thank you Uno

[Unorthodox]

Edit the link to remove the "s" after HTTP and it will embed. 

[Buster's Uncle]

[Ninja'd]

Delete the 's' from 'https' and you get this:

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[Valka]

Delivery guys (pizza/Chinese food) get a set amount that may increase if the weather's exceptionally bad (in which case the restaurant is probably closed anyway).

Taxi drivers get a tip if they help me to the door with any stuff I can't carry easily.

I'm not much on tipping, actually. I'm rather offended when a cashier asks if I want my change. It's my choice to tip or not and I don't appreciate being guilt-tripped into it.

[Unorthodox]

I'm not much on tipping, actually. I'm rather offended when a cashier asks if I want my change. It's my choice to tip or not and I don't appreciate being guilt-tripped into it.

Advantage of plastic...