The bloody service charge!

We ate out last week. 6.45pm table. They unfortunately didn't inform us they had booked the table again for 8pm. It got to 8.15pm and were about to order dessert and coffee, but the waitress said we couldn't as there was someone waiting for our table. Indeed there was a couple standing awkwardly in the corner. One of us still had most of a glass of wine to finish, but we were rushed out.
In this case the restaurant should have actively removed the service charge rather than wait for us to ask for it to be removed.

What is the same about these 2 things?

1. Scanning food where the customers brings it to the till themselves and takes it away themselves
2. having to put a smile on for 10 hours, carry a lot of heavy things back & forth hundreds of times and clear peoples plates & mess, whilst making sure all customers feel delighted

We ask for the service charge to be removed, not that we bother eating out much any more. I don’t think it’s asking too much for all costs to be factored into honest, advertised prices. And that includes paying the staff a decent wage.

I refuse to tip waiting staff now that minimum wage has increased. I don’t tip in a retail environment when the service has been good so why is it seen ‘as the norm’ in a hospitality environment?

Or people are sick of being ripped off left right and centre?

I don’t ask for the service charge to be removed unless the service has been abysmal, but I’m glad to see it’s becoming normalised to opt out of the ‘optional’ service charge.

Really? I now live in a European country where tipping is neither the norm nor expected. Hospitality jobs are seen as "proper" jobs and staff are well paid

Seen from a distance it seems like UK restaurants and their staff are constantly trying to fight each other, and both are trying to stiff the customers. Last time I was in the UK I met friends in a fairly average restaurant where there was a £7 a head cover charge and a mandatory £5 a head service charge - meaning that in effect, the four of us had already racked up a £48 bill before we'd even ordered or eaten anything.

I think tips are normal, and I prefer it being added to the bill, saves me calculating it myself. Unless service is terrible, I always pay it. If service is great I give more. I am surprised to read how stingy some people are. These people work minimum wage, it’s physically hard work, there isn’t a big profit margin on running a hospitality business (most big chains like pizza express / zinzi / ask italian etc operate on veryyy small profit margins, some are in debt). It’s not like the bosses of independent restaurants are wealthy, it’s often a labour of love & long hours. One thing I can’t stand though and will remove a tip is if servers have a grumpy / miserable / negative face on. Your one job is to make people feel welcome & happy, and if you don’t take pride in your work like that, no tip from me. If you go above & beyond: 15-20%

Most people will pay it, so taking it off for you is less work than adding it for everyone else. Merry Christmas!

Well for young people tips really do make a huge a difference. Under 18s are on £7.55, and it’s only £10 an hour for 18-20 year olds. If someone is obviously young I do try and give a little bit in cash, but only if I know it’s going to them directly. When I was 16 and a waitress on about £3.50 an hour we had to pool everything, even though the more senior staff were on a much higher wage and had had nothing to do with the customer who’d chosen to tip. I used to get a fiver pressed discreetly into my hand sometimes and told to keep it quiet, and as someone who came from a very low income family it made a huge difference to my wage!

Are you really bad at mental arithmetic? You don't need to make a big deal and send it back. You can quietly take it off and tell them what you are paying.

Plus it almost always says on the menu that an optional service charge has been added. So it can't come as a suprise

I'd just like to say at this point that not all waiting staff are paid double or triple time on Christmas day - if they are salaried staff and that's their usual work day, they might well just be paid their usual rate at some hotels and restaurants.

You don’t deserve to just be given people’s money for nothing. You’re paid a wage, no one owes you more money! In the UK there’s a minimum wage for a reason

For all the talk about the US, there's a minimum wage for wait staff there too now, @CloudSky, though it varies by state

Rightly or wrongly however the habit of tipping everything that moves has stuck, and I doubt the staff mind

No i go out at least once a month

I was In a pub off the Portobello road the other day and I ordered a gin and tonic at the bar. It was even more than I expected to pay so I questioned it, and the bloke said there was a 12.5 service charge added on! I got him to take it off, but he was most put out, asking if I’d felt I hadn’t been served! I said you don’t get tip for the customer standing at the bar and waiting for their drink 🤦🏻‍♀️

I can only assume they just get tourists this way who either think it’s standard or don’t question it.

If one lives in a country where service is not usually included in the bill but where 15%-20% is the voluntary norm, the post makes total sense!

Thing is they are "properly paid" in that they will be on at least minimum wage so the same as many cleaners, teaching assistants, supermarket staff, HCA, carers, delivery drivers...all of which work jobs as hard or harder than delivering some food to a table, so I really don't get the moral outrage if people don't tip some jobs while never considering tipping others.

The whole point is it should be a reward for above average service not an expectation.

Im with you OP. DH is in the restaurant biz and always asks them to remove it. He reckons they are not even legally allowed to add it but I cba to google to see if that’s true.
We always tip well when it’s deserved but would like to decide for ourselves, and it to actually go to the server not the restaurant owner!

God, this. What is wrong with people that they can’t fathom this?

You don’t deserve to just be given people’s money for nothing. You’re paid a wage, no one owes you more money! In the UK there’s a minimum wage for a reason.

I bet a lot of waiting staff in fancy restaurants and hotels are paid far more than a cashier at Tesco, but the cashier doesn’t receive (or expect) a tip!

Taxi drivers tend to earn more than bus drivers, but they expect you to hand over yet more cash, while the poor bus driver gets nothing.

It’s absolutely backwards and nonsensical. The cost of the goods on the menu need to cover all overheads. Simple as that.

You're right of course, but don't bother mentioning that in some of the more grasping places - and don't bother asking staff who gets the tips because there's just too much potential for a sob story if they perceive they've found a mug

As a PP said, some owners do try ways of keeping tips from the staff, but to my mind that's a matter between the staff and them. I don't insert myself into other people's employment issues anywhere else and am certainly not going to do it when out for a meal

If everyone had left a reasonable tip, surely it would have covered the service charge?
I don't understand what happened here.

That’s truly abysmal. It doesn’t sound like you are a regular £200 meal person though fortunately. Fucking hell some people are incredibly tight. I’m shocked you think this okay

I'm prettty sure it has to be stated on the menu - or at least be communicated clearly - if they're going to add a service charge, though some clipjoints put it in tiny writing somewhere you're not likely to look

Personally i'll pay (or tip, but not both) if the service i've paid for is good; otherwise it gets removed

I think if you can afford to eat out twice in one day you can afford to pay the service charge.

However YANBU to ask them to remove it, you’re allowed to do that. Assuming you’re tipping anyway though why would you bother

Just another thread demonstrating what a mean, little country we live in.

Wow. I wonder if they're still in business?