It's simple, if a restaurant adds something to the bill I did not agree to beforehand I'll never eat there again.
If a restaurant adds something to the bill I didn't agree to beforehand, I'm not paying.
That would be consequent, but usually it's not worth the trouble.
I'd rather leave with 20 quid less than wasting 30 min of my time.
Went out to a pizza place the other night. Thought it was a brewery (one of my favorite local brews, actually), and had been there before and enjoyed flights from them…only to find out the place was a joint between the brewmaster and the restaurateur. Brewmaster took his share, his recipes, and dipped a couple days prior.
Anyways while the food was pretty good, I mostly went for the beer and that’s a big part of why I won’t go back (they only had a couple cans from the brewery left and nothing on tap, only some other regional breweries).
But the other part is that my wife put a tip down on the slip for our party of four (us and two kids) and asked me to doublecheck her math. I thought it seemed high and it turned out they already put a tip on the bill. For a party of four. Never saw that before.
The service charge is not a tip or gratuity, and is an added fee controlled by the restaurant that helps subsidize the staff wages so that management doesn't have to while still seeming to have reasonable prices on the menu. Also, management takes a cut as it subsidizes their wages too.
Edit: I get why this upsets some people, but the downvote button is not a disagree button. I merely restated the restaurant's explanation in plain language. I'm not agreeing with it...
If you charge me for service, I’m not paying extra for service.
Call it what it is - a junk fee so they can make their prices look lower than they are. I wouldn’t go to this restaurant a second time.
By tradition, the service charge is supposed to be paid to the staff. Therefore, it's not customary to tip when you're assessed a service charge, although many restaurants choose to ask for a tip anyway.
If you work in a restaurant that charges a service charge but pockets it... you're being robbed.
The problem is, this is still decietful. If this is an issue then the correct move would be to make every item on the menu 18% more expensive as a base. Because now, they still get to say “oh well our prices are still low come eat here and get “X item” for “Y price” but that’s not true anymore because of the service charge. It’s just a way to keep menu items lower in price but increase the price at the end.
Paying for servers based off of the price of the food just doesn’t make sense to me. If I order a super expensive caviar and super expensive bottle of wine the staff would be paid more than another server with large party that only orders inexpensive drinks. The second server would be paid less for doing more work.
I think they should just be paid a decent wage for doing their job well despite what the customer decided to order.
On a side note if the server has to do something like prepare a salad table side or flambé a dessert they should get a bonus for doing that.
I worked as a server at olive garden many years ago. They famously had their soup, salad, and breadsticks deal for like $6 something. People would run us ragged getting more of each thing. And we'd be lucky to get a $1 or 2 because the price was so low, but it was vastly more work than regular food.
18% service charge and then still ask for tips? Fuck all of this, this is a scam and refuse to pay this shit.
Based on the bottom of the receipt i would have said to the server something like "great, it says right here no need to tip"
This is probably a hotel or resort. $4 cookie and $6 oj are the giveaways .
$11 cannoli etc.
Why have a service fee at all then?
Just raise the prices and use the extra income to pay the employees better if that's really your intention.
People won't get upset about the tip on top of it if you don't already have a "service charge" sectioned off in the receipt.
It's so that they can deceitfully advertise prices which are lower than the real price.
I believe this is totally illegal in the EU (because they're obligated to list prices and all charges, fully, upfront and that even includes taxes) but I guess that in the US there are States were it's either not illegal or has never been challenge in court.
If the service charge is so they can pay the employees better, I guess they don't need a tip on top of that unless they went above and beyond their basic duties. Like what a tip should be for
The entire service fee thing is fraud at this point. Undercutting wages and skimming profits for owners off the backs of their employees.
I know it's been happening forever but this shit has been escalating exponentially.
Possibly illegal, depending on your local laws.
If it is legal, contact your congressman (local, state, national) because it sure as hell needs to be illegal.
Basically, they just raised their prices by 18% and blamed it on the greedy, useless employees. I don't know why businesses bother selflessly "creating jobs" if they are so much trouble. Shouldn't those be the first things to cut to make their business more efficient under capitalism? Stop doing charity work and run the business yourself.
Oh boy, the unlawfulness of USA. This would be clearly illegal in EU, as misleading pricing.
Even if stated there's an 18% extra fee, I'm pretty sure it would be illegal to state prices exclusively without it.
I would simply refuse to pay that fee if it was here, and report them to authorities.
I would simply not go to that restaurant anymore and very plainly let them know why. This is greed and I will not reward it.
Much like when I place a to go order and go pick up the order and the POS (point of sale not piece of shit if you’re wondering) system pops up that tip screen. You didn’t do anything worthy of a tip so I will not be tipping you. Now if for example when I get there they apply some discount I wasn’t aware of that makes my bill cheaper, I’ll tip for that. Throw in some extra cheese sauce, tip. Anything above and beyond, tip. Just ring me up and hand me my food, yeah no tip.
Increase the price of everything and pay a life supporting amount of money per hour of work. No tipping, no more service charge.
This service charge is literally the same but blaming the employees.
I don't return to restaurants that pull this bullshit. Raise your menu prices to provide a living wage or take a hit to your profits.
Are restaurants just poorly managed, or is there another reason why they can't pay their employees a living wage when their markup is like 400-1000%?
Restaurants have notoriously thin margins. I'm not defending this bill, and there are definitely awful practices out there, but it ain't easy. Even a $34 dollar steak only kind of covers all the ancillary costs that make it happen.
The biggest issue with the crunch we have going on is that food (prepared or otherwise) should be way more expensive, and that shouldn't be an issue because most people should be making way more money. All of those should/shouldn'ts got way out of whack over the course of decades, and the circus only continued because people found crappy ways to keep it going.
It's a lot of industries. Construction is a great example. The developers make money. The material vendors make money. The builders make money. The sub contractors who actually put the parts together get haggled on invoices and take the lower amount because they have payroll to make and equipment loans to pay. Loans that are happily given out because the equipment can be easily repossessed.
It's a very good thing everything is correcting, but it's going to be an ugly process as workers get their due and pass the burden on to the small business owners.
Completely fuck this shit.
Straight up fees like that should not be legal, if they even are in that location.
They should instead just add 18% to every menu item since it applies to everything anyways.
As it is right now advertising their cannoli for $11.00 is a straight up lie since it's really $12.98. They simply don't because they want to hide the actual cost and make their menu appear to be cheaper so you cant walk out until after you've ordered and eaten.
Also if got a bill with an 18% service charge I would definitely not tip, since tips are supposed to adjust for the low wages anyways.
I actually support phasing tips out for service fees, less dodgy and less influenced by cognitive biases from customers toward certain genders or ethnicities of staff.
There's no need for a service fee, just increase the prices of everything by 18% or whatever. It's more honest that way instead of listing one price and then springing a hidden fee on people at checkout. Part of why this particular example is so dodgy is they seem to be fishing for a service fee and a tip, which just seems like double dipping on hidden fees.
These prices are crazy. Lemonade costs as much as a beer. Drip coffee for $5. One cookie for $4. Over $15 for a kid's plate. Geeze.
Add to the fact all the food in the restaurant is much higher in caloric intake, sodium and sugar than any meal you could prepare at home. You get to have some wonderful heart disease with a side of stress. Hardly worth going out to restaurants anymore.
Ok where is this so we can avoid it?
It does seem tipping is American culture? Never heard this accross SEA and China. Who in the world would put suggested tip in the bill?
$18.25 for a kids meal, $6 for lemonade is ridiculous. Don't walk, run away!
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