Lest you think that we get pleasure out of bad service at restaurants, let's get one thing straight: There's nothing that pleases us more than to be able to immediately reward someone for doing a great job. Gratuity-based jobs are not without their faults, but as a customer it's got a lot going for it.

Which is why we were a little disturbed by reader Han K.'s admonishment to read Frank Bruni's My Week as a Waiter in The Times (accompanied ominously by this iPod-esque graphic of a waiter about to launch into a flying roundhouse kick). Han said:

An important factor of being a good consumer besides finding the best deals is also being a good person not just being very demanding or complaining about bad service.

Many people seem to think just b/c they're the consumer they can be rude or unreasonable.