Tipping for Take-Out, Tip Jars, Etc.

I work in the service industry and I absolutely disagree with this:

"I would never, ever leave a restaurant without tipping, even if I had horrible service," Marsch said. "You don't know what has happened in that person's life that morning. ... You have to give them the benefit of the doubt."

No, the consumer shouldn't have to give servers the benefit of the doubt for some possible unknown personal reason as to why that person provided bad or unpleasant service.

I do agree that a tip should always be left, but for a different reason. Leaving a very small tip makes the point better that the service/experience wasn't a good one and removes doubt about whether the customer just overlooked tipping.

That said, customers should be aware enough to recognize if the server is doing a good job and tip that individual according to that.