Optional service charge added to restaurant bill...cheeky?

[wetlastfoor]

Went out for a meal with my friend on Saturday night.
It was her birthday so it was my treat.
Bill came to £70.00
Plus a £7.00 "optional service charge"
So altogether £77.00

Now am I wrong in thinking this shouldn't be on the bill? If you want to tip it's your choice..them adding this to the bill makes it awkward to ask for another bill with it removed.
They must know most people (me included ) wouldn't ask and have to explain why I want the service charge removed.

Aibu to think it's cheeky to put this on?

I hate this. I’m already paying for the service, I shouldn’t have a tip automatically added to my bill. I always tip unless the service has been crap, but I consider it incredibly rude and presumptuous to add the tip onto the bill like I’m expected to give it.

I always ask for it to be removed as I find it very presumptuous that it’s on there. Restaurants should pay their staff better and not expect patrons to make up the shortfall. Not my problem.

I agree & it's more than likely that this payment won't even go the waiting staff. Restaurants have been allowed to get away with this for too long.

Service charge is not the same as a tip - from the BBC website:

In fact, there's no guarantee your waiter will see a penny of the service charge. It's often added to cover things like breakages and people "doing a runner".

You can opt to not pay a service charge but looks like if you do pay a service charge you should leave a tip as well!

Ah thanks @bilbodog - that has confirmed my suspicions. I think I will be braver and ask for it to be removed in future and remember to take cash with me to actually tip.

@bilbodog

Service charge is not the same as a tip - from the BBC website:

In fact, there's no guarantee your waiter will see a penny of the service charge. It's often added to cover things like breakages and people "doing a runner".

You can opt to not pay a service charge but looks like if you do pay a service charge you should leave a tip as well!

Link please? It was always service charge == no tip everywhere I've worked.

This I think is naughty, how do you know the service charge (tip) is going to the staff?

I would of asked.

I hate this - it's so cheeky. Of course, you can ask for it to be taken off, but they know full well that most people will feel too awkward or embarrassed to do so - especially if there's no central till, so you pay at the table - and you effectively have to tell the waiter/waitress that you want to pay them less than you've been strongly 'invited' to pay, which will largely reduce their own earnings.

Asking for it to be taken off will look like you're actively complaining about poor service, when there's every chance you found it to be perfectly good service, but just consider that to be an integral part of what you've already paid for.

I hardly go anywhere these days that does have one… hardly something to get bothered by. And 10% on low side.

Can you imagine supermarkets trying (and being successful with) this, if you use a traditional checkout - your shopping is £40, so 'with the optional service charge, your bill to pay now is £44'....?

I hardly go anywhere these days that does have one… hardly something to get bothered by. And 10% on low side.

So you'd have no objection to all shops and services presenting you with a bill that includes an extra miscellaneous 10% service charge, then? If not, why are restaurants and cafes 'special'?

I didn't pay a service charge that was added then the waitress came back and told me I hadn't paid enough! I told her I didn't have to pay it. I think the service charge is different to tips. Tips I think get shared out between everyone but service charge doesn't

I also hate the assumption that I want to tip. If I ran a restaurant, I would prefer to know if a customer wasn't 100% happy.

'We hope you enjoyed your meal and would like to leave a tip, if not please let us know where we went wrong today, we'd love to get it right next time!"

It's also worth noting tips are not subject to VAT, and should be calculated from the Net amount not the gross. In the OP example £7 tip is over 12%, not the 10% you might think.

I'm in two minds. In Belgium the prices on the menu include tax and service which is fine as there's never any surprise.

In the UK this adding service to the bill is annoying as a) there is no guarantee it goes to the staff and b) why should hospitality get tipped when others don't? Historically employers didn't pay minimum wage and staff relied on the tips to earn a living wage but that's no longer the case.

Don't pay the service charge instead of a tip, the staff won't get it.

It usually posted at the end of the menu. I’ve yet been to a place that hasn’t had it displayed.

Cheeky if it’s not visible, not cheeky if people don’t bother to read the menu before entering.

My children (18 and 20) treated me and DH to an evening meal out just before Mother’s Day.
The restaurant added 12.5% service charge to the meal, which came to £21.
We should have asked for it to be removed. The service wasn’t great. We didn’t all get our main course at the same time, and it was hard to get the waitress’s attention.
We didn’t as I thought it would mar an otherwise pleasant evening, which is probably what the restaurant relied upon. I reimbursed the children. It would have taken my 18 YO over 3 hours to earn that amount. I later kicked myself for not getting it removed as £21 is worth a bit of awkwardness.
I normally tip but think 12.5% of the cost of the meal and drinks just for tapping an order into a tablet and carrying pre plated meals to the table is too much. The cost of staff wages are already included in the price calculations. We were only there about 90 minutes, so that £21 works out at £14 per hour for whoever gets it ( maybe it is shared between staff- it wasn’t clear).
We wouldn’t go back to that particular place again as the food was ok but not special. I will check menus when out in future ( the ‘discretionary’ service charge was on the menu, but not that obvious), and tell the staff not to add it when I ask for the bill, so I can leave what I think is appropriate in cash.

I don't like this practice. I don't think the actual staff member sees any of it - it all gets saved up to be divided up at management's discretion.

Lots of restaurants do this - some do it for large groups only, and some do it for every customer. It's not a regional thing; I travel a lot within the UK and there are places all over the country that do it.

The key word is 'optional' - if you don't want to pay it, you don't have to.

I pretty much always tip in restaurants anyway, unless the service has been truly horrendous. I've only ever once asked for a service charge to be taken off the bill, and that was when the service had been so bad in a place where we were regular diners that we'd already been offered a free meal the following week as an apology). Thinking about it, that must have been at least 10 years ago now, so service charges on the bill aren't that new.

#LegMeChicken

www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-45707539

Link to BBC. I also remember a top chef speaking on TV sometime ago explaining how service charges are different to tips.

I fucking hate the "optional service charge" shit. Optional, but we'll stand over you and make you feel like Scrooge if you exercise your right not to pay it.

When I make a decision to pay restaurant prices for food, part of that decision is that I am paying for a nice environment, use of the toilets, and someone to bring the food and drinks to the table. They're already being paid for those things when they charge, say, £11.50 for a burger, chips and a bit of side salad.

Tips are different; they're something you choose to leave, uncoerced, and they're supposed to go to the person who served you. If I don't want to leave one, I don't, and there's nobody looming over me saying "will you be leaving a tip today, Madam?"

not at all new
you need to check the bill before you add your own service charge and of course i would tip if the service charge had not been added.

Don't pay the service charge instead of a tip, the staff won't get it.

It totally depends on the restaurant. I've asked waiters many times if they get the money from an automatic service charge (as I would always obviously want them to!) and in most cases they say that the service charge gets divided equally among the staff as a whole, or the staff who were working that night. A lot of restaurants also do that with cash tips rather than the individual keeping the money outright - particularly as the person who clears your table or brings you your bill might be someone different to the one who actually served your meal. Either way, you can check with the waiting staff.

This is really very normal and 10% is low. If
you don’t want to pay it just ask for it to be removed. They are chancing their arm but you can calmly push back.

The last few times we have been out in Glasgow it had been added. I do usually tip but find this cheeky. Last time I realised they actually did themselves out of a few quid as I would have rounded the bill up but their exact 10% was less. It did used to be for larger parties but now even as a couple it’s creeping in. I can understand that staff struggled for a while but tips should always be at the patrons discretion. In York there was a service charge but the waitress did say please let me know if you are happy with all the items on the bill. I crossed it out and gave her 20% as she had been great.