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"Optional" gratuities added to the bill?
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By (user no longer on site) OP
over a year ago
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Views? This seems to be a relatively new phenomenon but it's happened a few times recently now - more and more restaurants seem to be adding "optional" gratuities to the bill total when it arrives. And not only that, the 'going rate' seems to have gone up from 10% to 12.5%.
Now of course, you're free to deduct that (it is, after all, optional) but if you do, you're going to look a bit of a cu*t, right?
Now I always pay a tip unless I've had really bad service but my standard, all my life, has always been around 10% in the U.K. (I know it's different overseas). But now it seems to have risen to 12.5% and I prefer to make that decision myself, not have it pre-added to bill.
It seems to me like an excuse for employers to reduce basic wages and supplement via higher tips?
I know for a long time restaurants have added this to large group bookings, but it seems now to also be added to tables for two.
Anyway, would you / do you refuse to pay this 'optional' charge when added to the bill? 
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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I've never paid an optional charge but I have noticed it creeping in. The first few times, asking for it to be removed was a bit nerve wracking but now I'll happy just cross it out.
If I have good service then I will consider tipping but usually round up the figure |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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Yes here I would, because it's not always passed on to the staff that have done the work. I prefer to give a tip direct to whoever has served me if I'm going to give one. X |
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By (user no longer on site) OP
over a year ago
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"Yes here I would, because it's not always passed on to the staff that have done the work. I prefer to give a tip direct to whoever has served me if I'm going to give one. X "
I've noticed that those bills recently have all said 'all gratuities go to our staff' - I know some places retain tips for the 'house'. Likewise I make sure this is the case before paying!
I know it's policy in many places that all Tips are 'pooled' so even if you think you're giving it to your server they have to pool it! |
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A friend of ours sat at a table in a Piazza whilst in Rome and ordered two coffees.
The waiter returned and put a bill on the table for €36
Mark called him back and said, we only ordered two coffees tonwhich the waiter replied "well there is a €30 gratuity for taking a seat at the table"
Strangely they both stood up and just walked off. |
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By *emini ManMan
over a year ago
There and to the left a bit |
If I've had good service then I'll generally leave it on - but have asked for it to be removed if service has been poor.
That said more and more lately I've asked the waiter/waitress if they get any tip added via a card payment (regardless of how it was added) and where the answer has been no, or that they only get a percentage of it - I'll give them cash directly. |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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Most restaurants I've chefed in tips go to the server.
But some places are sneaky and collect all together and then split them "equally".
I always offer to tip my server and the kitchen team if was all ok and I enjoyed myself. |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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"Yes here I would, because it's not always passed on to the staff that have done the work. I prefer to give a tip direct to whoever has served me if I'm going to give one. X
I've noticed that those bills recently have all said 'all gratuities go to our staff' - I know some places retain tips for the 'house'. Likewise I make sure this is the case before paying!
I know it's policy in many places that all Tips are 'pooled' so even if you think you're giving it to your server they have to pool it!"
Yes I used to have to do that at a couple of places I worked at. But I think it's more polite to give direct to the server x |
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Restaurants owe me a very full explanation of why I should be charged multiple times for service and where the money is going - or it stays in my purse.
Too many rogue practices from restaurants in recent years, whilst paying staff badly and treating customers like shit. |
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I always find this a really interesting debate.
A restaurant should be setting their prices to reflect their costs, which should include the food, the staff and over heads plus a profit, that's surely how business works after all.
When adding a tip, what is that tip actually for? Staff you would assume.
Now here's the interesting part.
In a restaurant the food should always be at least "good" otherwise they are in the wrong business.
In a restaurant where servicing customers is essential to making a living you should expect for your service to be at least "good" because once again if it's "average" they don't belong in that industry.
So essentially they are asking you to pay them for doing a job that they should be doing anyway.
If the service or food was bad then of course you wouldn't leave a tip, and in fact you would probably complain (as that would be the logical thing to do)
If the food was outstanding and the service was outstanding then of course the majority of us would want to thank them and would indeed tip them for their time and effort.
How do you define "good" service from "outstanding" service. If service was simply the normal and what you have a right to expect how do you deal with that situation?
I don't believe that any charge should be added onto a bill as standard. People pay it because they feel bad saying they don't want too, but if the service was average and what you would expect from the establishment , why should you pay more for that? They rely on people feeling guilty about removing it so that they can make more money, generally all tips have to be divided by the entire staff team, so if you tip £10 and they have a staff team of 50 your server isn't going to get a huge amount from your generous gesture.
To put it another way when you take money into a bank, you hand over some money and the person behind the desk counts it and logs it into your account, they were friendly but ultimately your conversation existed purely for one purpose to pay money into the bank, you leave a minute or so later. Are you going to go back and tip that person because they paid the money into your account? Or did they simply do what you expected?
When your children go to school you expect for them to have a teacher, and you expect that teacher to watch them and teach them something, your children come home 5 days a week and each day they ve had a nice time, they are safe, they are alive and they've learnt a new skill this week. Your child is fairly average and has no highly special needs, they are one of 20 other children in their class, they don't specifically require any more attention than anyone else and you've had a polite wave from the teacher each day which is what you expect but nothing more. Would you go to see that teacher each day and give him/her some money for looking after your child? Would you even go to them at the end of a week to give them money for basically saying "my kid is alive. Thanks for that. You did your job"
The chances are no. I've never met anyone in my life who would do these things, because we have expectations.
We expect a standard and we should receive that standard. We should not be made to feel that we have to bribe staff into wanting to give us extra special service because they get a reward from it.
Restaurants should be paying a decent wage for their staff and not be using the guilt factor for us to pay it for them.
If service is bad then I make a complaint. If it's amazing then I choose to leave a tip and usually a good review naming appropriate staff names. If service is mediocre then I don't pay it. |
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Had tea at the Dorchester with my daughter and they added 12.5% to the bill: cheek as tea and sandwiches were £49 each!
That said, I didn't want to spoil the treat for my daughter by quibbling about the bill and the service was second to none, but at those prices it shouldn't be! |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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"Most restaurants I've chefed in tips go to the server.
But some places are sneaky and collect all together and then split them "equally".
I always offer to tip my server and the kitchen team if was all ok and I enjoyed myself."
Why is it "sneaky" to pool the tips and share them out? We do this at work. I think it's only fair that the kitchen staff get tips too. They work just as hard as front of house. We even include the pot wash because that's usually a youngster on crap wages doing an even more crap job.
If I have to take any shit from a customer because of a complaint about the food and I agree with the customer, chef doesn't get their share of the tips that night!!!
All seems fair to us. |
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By *ikeC81Man
over a year ago
harrow |
I always ask for the 12.5% to be removed and have done.
Unfortunately a lot of the places near where I work charge this for single people as well. So whilst i do feel a bit of a Cu@t at the end why should I when the resteraunt is taking the piss
I must say If the food and service is good then I am tempted to not moan about service charge, but I do say remove charge and I will pay the server directly in cash
The ones i hate is when the service charge is not mentioned on menu or hidden away. I do make a fuss over these ones and refuse to tip or pay service charge
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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"I always find this a really interesting debate.
A restaurant should be setting their prices to reflect their costs, which should include the food, the staff and over heads plus a profit, that's surely how business works after all.
When adding a tip, what is that tip actually for? Staff you would assume.
Now here's the interesting part.
In a restaurant the food should always be at least "good" otherwise they are in the wrong business.
In a restaurant where servicing customers is essential to making a living you should expect for your service to be at least "good" because once again if it's "average" they don't belong in that industry.
So essentially they are asking you to pay them for doing a job that they should be doing anyway.
If the service or food was bad then of course you wouldn't leave a tip, and in fact you would probably complain (as that would be the logical thing to do)
If the food was outstanding and the service was outstanding then of course the majority of us would want to thank them and would indeed tip them for their time and effort.
How do you define "good" service from "outstanding" service. If service was simply the normal and what you have a right to expect how do you deal with that situation?
I don't believe that any charge should be added onto a bill as standard. People pay it because they feel bad saying they don't want too, but if the service was average and what you would expect from the establishment , why should you pay more for that? They rely on people feeling guilty about removing it so that they can make more money, generally all tips have to be divided by the entire staff team, so if you tip £10 and they have a staff team of 50 your server isn't going to get a huge amount from your generous gesture.
To put it another way when you take money into a bank, you hand over some money and the person behind the desk counts it and logs it into your account, they were friendly but ultimately your conversation existed purely for one purpose to pay money into the bank, you leave a minute or so later. Are you going to go back and tip that person because they paid the money into your account? Or did they simply do what you expected?
When your children go to school you expect for them to have a teacher, and you expect that teacher to watch them and teach them something, your children come home 5 days a week and each day they ve had a nice time, they are safe, they are alive and they've learnt a new skill this week. Your child is fairly average and has no highly special needs, they are one of 20 other children in their class, they don't specifically require any more attention than anyone else and you've had a polite wave from the teacher each day which is what you expect but nothing more. Would you go to see that teacher each day and give him/her some money for looking after your child? Would you even go to them at the end of a week to give them money for basically saying "my kid is alive. Thanks for that. You did your job"
The chances are no. I've never met anyone in my life who would do these things, because we have expectations.
We expect a standard and we should receive that standard. We should not be made to feel that we have to bribe staff into wanting to give us extra special service because they get a reward from it.
Restaurants should be paying a decent wage for their staff and not be using the guilt factor for us to pay it for them.
If service is bad then I make a complaint. If it's amazing then I choose to leave a tip and usually a good review naming appropriate staff names. If service is mediocre then I don't pay it. "
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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"Restaurants owe me a very full explanation of why I should be charged multiple times for service and where the money is going - or it stays in my purse.
Too many rogue practices from restaurants in recent years, whilst paying staff badly and treating customers like shit. "
I hate tipping. I'm appreciative of the people etc but why should tips even be expected? Pay the people a decent wage!!
It's like making them beg for scraps to top up their shitty pittance of a wage. |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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I don't like the practice of tipping as a whole. Every job out there serves another person in some way or another so who decides which job is deemed tip worthy over another?
I know many will say 'but the tips make up some servers wages'. I'll accept that and will say it's wrong but if they want that to change, all get together and quit their jobs. Said business will suffer without its staff more than it will if it paid them the wage they're entitled to. |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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Myself and some friends were at a resturant a couple of weeks ago. Ther service was appaling they had got the order wrong, missed one persons dish off completely.
We told them that were not going to pay the service charge, we didnt get any funny looks etc because i believe they knew they were in the wrong.
If the service is ok i will just pay the service charge.
Luckily its not like the USA |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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At the restaurant I work at it the card machine asks if they'd like to leave a tip and the amounts are 5%, 10% or 15% or they can type in their own preferred amount. I usually bypass it before handing the card machine over because I feel cheeky but a lot ask to put it on. It goes on our wages and we get additionally taxed so in the end, Mr tax man gets it anyway. |
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By *ENGUYMan
over a year ago
Hull |
In my experience in hotel and hospitality management, some companies and catering businesses add on gratuities as standard.
In the company I worked for for three and a half years till last September, the service charges were automatically added on by the computer systems in place, but guests could ask for them to be removed if they wished.
Staff NEVER saw a penny of the Service Charges as the company kept it all. Equally, any Gratuities voluntarily added to bills by guests and customers were kept by the company and staff NEVER got a penny!
The company would publicly state, when caught out, that tips etc were held to pay for Annual staff parties and Social functions. In reality, that wasn't the case, as at some hotels in the group, staff parties still had an "entry" fee of around £5 for staff. But other hotels in the group didn't host ANY social functions at all as it was deemed "too costly to administer!
Add to the mix, most hotels and restaurants these days now pay most of their service staff on NMW plus have them on Zero Hours Contracts. Tips are vital for staff to exist but if companies withhold them, it's tough on staff financially.
In one case I know about, a staff member had mentioned to customers that tips applied on bills would not be shared out to staff at all. One of those customers complained to local management and to Head Office. The latter worked back through billing systems to locate the staff involved, and fired her for Corporate "embarrassment!".
She eventually got her job back after the customer got wind of what happened and went viral with it.
But laws have to be redrafted to ensure staff get what are owed them. |
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By *FFB69Woman
over a year ago
Torfaen/Gwent |
"At the restaurant I work at it the card machine asks if they'd like to leave a tip and the amounts are 5%, 10% or 15% or they can type in their own preferred amount. I usually bypass it before handing the card machine over because I feel cheeky but a lot ask to put it on. It goes on our wages and we get additionally taxed so in the end, Mr tax man gets it anyway."
Aren't you supposed to declare any tips you get anyway? So the tax man should get it either way. |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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"At the restaurant I work at it the card machine asks if they'd like to leave a tip and the amounts are 5%, 10% or 15% or they can type in their own preferred amount. I usually bypass it before handing the card machine over because I feel cheeky but a lot ask to put it on. It goes on our wages and we get additionally taxed so in the end, Mr tax man gets it anyway.
Aren't you supposed to declare any tips you get anyway? So the tax man should get it either way. "
I do, thats why I get taxed  |
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By *ENGUYMan
over a year ago
Hull |
"At the restaurant I work at it the card machine asks if they'd like to leave a tip and the amounts are 5%, 10% or 15% or they can type in their own preferred amount. I usually bypass it before handing the card machine over because I feel cheeky but a lot ask to put it on. It goes on our wages and we get additionally taxed so in the end, Mr tax man gets it anyway.
Aren't you supposed to declare any tips you get anyway? So the tax man should get it either way. "
Tips can often be a "myth". They're not as regular as some people might think.
Simply, a lot if people don't tip these days; it's not as if service had been bad etc, they just assume that the employers WILL pass on the percentage to the employees.
Last year, I was lucky to get £40 in tips, given in Cash by happy clientele. But then, as a Manager, tipping is rare.
In previous jobs, say at prestigious events such as Royal Ascot Race week in June, ten years ago, staff could earn £250 that week. Nowadays, they're lucky to get £20 a week. |
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I'm a single parent who earns minimum wage myself - in retail so there are no tips however excellent the service I provide is! I simply couldn't afford to eat out if I had to tip 10% - 15% each time!
I will always tip if the service is good and give it direct to the waiter/wAitress in cash - but I can't afford to give large amounts! |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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I always tip if service has been good! However, the ones that get put on the bill automatically annoys me tbh & I refuse to pay if - its cheeky & we shouldn't feel pressured in to giving tips
Moon under water in Manchester has stopped their staff from receiving tips at present due to a failed alcohol audit of some kind which is in the employees contracts - absolutely pathetic if you ask me ...hence I'm boycotting all weatherspoons pubs at present |
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