Is this restaurant taking the mick, or are we just naive?

[IbizaToTheNorfolkBroads]

DH had a £100 voucher for a local restaurant.

We went tonight and ate/drank £76 on food and drink.

They initially refused to give us change (fine, I wasn't expecting cash change), or a smaller voucher for what we hadn't spent/ annotation on the original voucher for what we had left.

They did finally give us cash change as a goodwill gesture since we were unaware (doesn't say anything on their website or on the voucher).

Is this normal? They've been paid £100 for the voucher, they were essentially planning on picketing £24 that they'd been paid.

Or should be have forced ourselves to have had another bottle of wine ?🤣

I've never had a restaurant voucher before, but a local bookshop just writes on their vouchers how much you have left to spend if you don't spend it all at once.

[TheRainMustFall]

No tipping culture in the UK always comes up on these threads. Since the majority of people leave a tip in a restaurant -or did before automatically added service charges becomes widespread - there absolutely is a tipping culture. That doesn’t mean it’s the same culture as in the US, but it absolutely exists.

The distinction between SC and tip is artificial. If there’s a SC I don’t leave a tip, if there isn’t I do. A service charge can be removed. And the discussion about who the money is going to was always there with tips too. There really is no difference, except some of us prefer the convenience and some people hate the presumption.

[Kinsters]

@LadyWithLapdog

@Kinsters thanks for the reply. I had no idea what working in a dry cleaner entails. I didn’t know things like ironing were still done by hand. Isn’t there some kind of press for larger items, though shirts would be by hand.

Not where I worked (and it was a big chain), we just used irons. The steam cabinet was kind of an automatic iron in that you fitted the clothes onto the mannequin and that steamed some of the creases out but you'd always finish items like trousers and dresses off by hand. And anything that was laundered eg shirts and bedsheets or big eg curtains wouldn't go in the steam cupboard so would be pressed by hand.

[LadyWithLapdog]

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/e24-tips-gratuities-service-charges-and-troncs/guidance-on-tips-gratuities-service-charges-and-troncs looks like there’s a whole guidance about SC and tips, including that you need to declare them to HMRC. I haven’t read the whole document, just a cursory glance.

@Kinsters I had a mangle-like press in my head, but maybe that’s on an industrial scale at production stage, rather than individual dry cleaners.

[Usernamen]

@ReleasetheCrackHen

Have you ever waited tables in London? I have, and yes there is an expectation to tip 10-15% in restaurants with no service charge.

The fact you eat out an awful lot and never tip says what you do, not what the larger culture is.

So if every restaurant dropped service charge tomorrow, there would be no impact because everybody would just tip off their own accord? I think that’s nonsense. The very fact that service charge is automatically added in most restaurants in London (honestly I can’t remember the last time I ate in a restaurant that didn’t) shows that in this country you simply can’t rely on customers to tip. This is not America.

I didn’t say I don’t tip, I said I don’t tip above service charge, and I don’t know anybody who does.

[Usernamen]

@TheRainMustFall

No tipping culture in the UK always comes up on these threads. Since the majority of people leave a tip in a restaurant -or did before automatically added service charges becomes widespread - there absolutely is a tipping culture. That doesn’t mean it’s the same culture as in the US, but it absolutely exists.

The distinction between SC and tip is artificial. If there’s a SC I don’t leave a tip, if there isn’t I do. A service charge can be removed. And the discussion about who the money is going to was always there with tips too. There really is no difference, except some of us prefer the convenience and some people hate the presumption.

I disagree. To me, a tipping culture is one where everybody tips and not tipping is tantamount to not paying for your meal. It’s also where other services are tipped too - bar staff, hotel staff, taxi drivers, delivery men etc.


The UK is nothing like this.

[ReleasetheCrackHen]

@Usernamen

I disagree. To me, a tipping culture is one where everybody tips and not tipping is tantamount to not paying for your meal. It’s also where other services are tipped too - bar staff, hotel staff, taxi drivers, delivery men etc.


The UK is nothing like this.

That’s quite an impossible standard when the U.K. is a multi-cultural society with a tourism industry.

I agree with Rain, tipping culture isn’t only the illogical extreme.

[Precipice]

@LadyWithLapdog

@Kinsters we’ll have to agree to disagree. At the dry cleaners I don’t think you’re literally on your feet all day, to-ing and fro-ing with orders and plates and loud, drunken, boorish people etc. Do you make a point of taking off the service charge in restaurants?

Why do you describe asking for an additional charge to be removed and to pay in line with the quoted prices as "making a point"? I don't see a service charge of 10 percent added on top of my meal as any different than if items were listed separately as 22.00 when the menu listed them as 20.00. I think it's wrong. If you want to charge more, your prices should be increased.

[caringcarer]

They should have just written you put now voucher for £24. That way you'd have gone back again.

[LadyWithLapdog]

@Precipice so do you take off the service charge? We’ve only once done it in a group of about 8, the service was spectacularly poor. It created some division within the group at the time.

[IbizaToTheNorfolkBroads]

@caringcarer

They should have just written you put now voucher for £24. That way you'd have gone back again.

That's what I was expecting.

They are literally 2 mins walk from my house. The food isn't amazing, and that experience has left a bad feeling. I'd be surprised if we go back.

[Usernamen]

@ReleasetheCrackHen

That’s quite an impossible standard when the U.K. is a multi-cultural society with a tourism industry.

I agree with Rain, tipping culture isn’t only the illogical extreme.

Someone mentioned upthread that their son worked in a restaurant that didn’t add service charge and tables of 10 or 20 regularly do not leave a tip. Which is why restaurants have adopted service charge en masse now. Would there be a need for them to do this in a tipping culture? No. Because it would be unheard of for a group not to leave a tip in a restaurant. In fact, it would probably make local news (like the story that went viral of the waitress in America who publicly shamed a group for leaving too little a tip…).

[IbizaToTheNorfolkBroads]

@Soontobe60 - local village Italian, S Yorks.

[XiCi]

@Usernamen

So if every restaurant dropped service charge tomorrow, there would be no impact because everybody would just tip off their own accord? I think that’s nonsense. The very fact that service charge is automatically added in most restaurants in London (honestly I can’t remember the last time I ate in a restaurant that didn’t) shows that in this country you simply can’t rely on customers to tip. This is not America.

I didn’t say I don’t tip, I said I don’t tip above service charge, and I don’t know anybody who does.

Yes that is what most people are saying. The tip is sometimes added automatically- fine they have their tip. Some restaurants do not add a service charge so then you leave a tip.

It's not the same as the US where its virtually a mandatory extra 20-25% however the majority of people eating in a restaurant will leave a tip.

I'm actually amazed that OP could order 3 courses, a bottle of wine and coffees and it come to £76 for 2 people. I eat out a lot (not London) and that is such good value.

I think in the circumstances OP had described I'd have just ordered a couple more desserts and got them to pack them up for the kids

[jellyminelli]

"AlfietheSchnauzer
Greggs vouchers for Xmas?!?!?!?! God how joyless

I'm sure it wasn't their only present....!"

No, it wasn't their only present. Can't believe you only get your kids one thing @AlfietheSchnauzer! How joyless, the poor babies, won't someone think of the children?!

Mine, as it turned out, were fucking delighted with their greggs vouchers. They wanted to go on Boxing Day. We didn't, cause I'm a joyless bitch.

[XiCi]

Tweens and teens love those voucher cards as little stocking fillers. I always put a Costa one in mine

[Lacoeur]

Yanbu the restaurant was taking the proverbial p. Like most vouchers food or otherwise I’d have expected the unspent amount back on another voucher. Bizarre behaviour from restaurant and by acting how they did probably just put you off a return visit!

[Usernamen]

@XiCi

Yes that is what most people are saying. The tip is sometimes added automatically- fine they have their tip. Some restaurants do not add a service charge so then you leave a tip.

It's not the same as the US where its virtually a mandatory extra 20-25% however the majority of people eating in a restaurant will leave a tip.

I'm actually amazed that OP could order 3 courses, a bottle of wine and coffees and it come to £76 for 2 people. I eat out a lot (not London) and that is such good value.

I think in the circumstances OP had described I'd have just ordered a couple more desserts and got them to pack them up for the kids

It might be what people are saying but I don’t buy it for a minute. We’ve already heard about groups of 10 and 20 regularly not tipping and people routinely asking for the service charge to be taken off the bill, so how can it be the case that replacing service charge with leaving it up to the customer will have no impact? If that were the case then more restaurants would drop SC. But they don’t. Because they understand that the UK does not have a tipping culture.

[XiCi]

We’ve already heard about groups of 10 and 20 regularly not tipping and people routinely asking for the service charge to be taken off the bill, so how can it be the case that replacing service charge with leaving it up to the customer will have no impact
These people are outliers. There will always be a few people, even in the US, that will avoid tipping. The vast majority of people will tip in a restaurant. And because of this there us a tipping culture in the UK. You might not do it but the majority do. I have never eaten with anyone in a restaurant who has not wanted to leave a tip and I eat out a lot and all over the UK as I travel for work.

[ReleasetheCrackHen]

@Usernamen

Someone mentioned upthread that their son worked in a restaurant that didn’t add service charge and tables of 10 or 20 regularly do not leave a tip. Which is why restaurants have adopted service charge en masse now. Would there be a need for them to do this in a tipping culture? No. Because it would be unheard of for a group not to leave a tip in a restaurant. In fact, it would probably make local news (like the story that went viral of the waitress in America who publicly shamed a group for leaving too little a tip…).

Thats not the case. In every country with tipping cultures, there are always a minority of people who refuse to tip. It’s never “unheard of”. Just ask anyone who has ever waited tables.

[Usernamen]

@XiCi

We’ve already heard about groups of 10 and 20 regularly not tipping and people routinely asking for the service charge to be taken off the bill, so how can it be the case that replacing service charge with leaving it up to the customer will have no impact
These people are outliers. There will always be a few people, even in the US, that will avoid tipping. The vast majority of people will tip in a restaurant. And because of this there us a tipping culture in the UK. You might not do it but the majority do. I have never eaten with anyone in a restaurant who has not wanted to leave a tip and I eat out a lot and all over the UK as I travel for work.

We’ll have to agree to disagree. The very fact that SC is added automatically tells you everything. Funny how restaurants in countries with a tipping culture don’t feel the need to do this. I also think tipping culture extends far beyond restaurants. The fact that people in the UK may tip when no SC is added in restaurants doesn’t mean there’s a culture of tipping when other service workers like delivery men, hotel staff, bar staff etc. don’t get tipped.


And I don’t not tip! I just don’t tip on top of SC and I don’t know anyone who does.

[purplecorkheart]

A lot of the restaurants near me have gift cards so you still have what is left on the card. Otherwise them just alter the amount on paper voucher. I have never got cash back but equally never have not had the balance returned via voucher.

[ReleasetheCrackHen]

@Usernamen

We’ll have to agree to disagree. The very fact that SC is added automatically tells you everything. Funny how restaurants in countries with a tipping culture don’t feel the need to do this. I also think tipping culture extends far beyond restaurants. The fact that people in the UK may tip when no SC is added in restaurants doesn’t mean there’s a culture of tipping when other service workers like delivery men, hotel staff, bar staff etc. don’t get tipped.


And I don’t not tip! I just don’t tip on top of SC and I don’t know anyone who does.

Countries with tipping culture also have service charges- what a silly thing to say. Go to any restaurant in NYC, LA or DC and there’s a service charge.

[Blossomtoes]

@IbizaToTheNorfolkBroads

But she recognised you were owed something.

You said yourself you could have had another bottle of wine. You could easily have spent the rest of the money while you were there. You chose not to. Tough shit.

[Usernamen]

@ReleasetheCrackHen

Countries with tipping culture also have service charges- what a silly thing to say. Go to any restaurant in NYC, LA or DC and there’s a service charge.

Do you tip a courier? A barmaid? A hotel cleaner?

Leaving a (completely optional) tip when a restaurant hasn’t added a SC does not a ‘tipping culture’ make, as far as I’m concerned.

Anyway, like I say, agree to disagree. :)

[Blossomtoes]

Barmaids have been tipped for decades, I certainly was when I had a pub job in the 80s. Do you not tip the chambermaids when you have a week’s holiday? Most people do.