Service charge on bill

[Hollychristmasjoy]

I thought of this from the back of a thread I read on here recently and it really is a first world problem! So sorry in advance.

When splitting the bill do you also split the service charge equally or go to the faff of working out your own %.

I recently went out for a meal with friends for one of their birthdays. My friend is a chef at this restaurant and gets 40% off the total bill. It’s not a cheap place to eat but not the ritz either. For example, my main was £30.

I had a starter, main, pudding and 2 cocktails.

Birthday girl had the same as me.

Friend 1 had a main and 2 cocktails.

Friend 2 had just her main and drank tap water.

On top of the above we also got given a extra 2 cocktails each for free because it was my friends birthday.

The bill came to approx £230. The service charge was 12.5% and the amount stated was pre discount, not after (I’m not complaining about this) so approx £28 ish.

Everyone paid for what they ate and drank after the 40% was removed but we split the service charge equally.

Friend 2 only owed £10 for her meal (after discount) as that’s all she had and she had a cheaper item on the menu.

But When collecting the cash I said It was £10 + £7 for the service charge… Now I think for a split second she was about to say something but I’m unsure if I imagined it although it’s got me wondering if she thought it was unfair.

I’m wondering if what I did was right… as technically the service charge was only higher as the rest of us had more but at the same time it seems extreme to start splitting the service charge by %. It also never crossed my mind that it would be seen as unfair until my friend hesitated.

So WIBU to split it equally? And before anyone mentions it ..no I wouldn’t ever ask them to remove a service charge unless the service was terrible! and I certainly wouldn’t do it in my friends place of work.

The thing is, she doesn’t have more money than she did a year ago in real terms - inflation is rocketing, bills are going up massively, she can still be needing to be careful with money!

£7 service charge on a £10 bill is nuts.

It does seem a bit extreme to rigidly split a tip by % but each person could have just rounded up the amount they owed for their meal to a figure that was more than 10% - in your friends case I would have rounded it up to £12 to more than cover the 12.5% service charge. I understand what you are saying about she still got excellent service but it sounds like she was deliberately trying to keep her bill low (if she only ordered a £10 meal despite high prices). You don't know the reason why but maybe she was stretched financially that month.
I think people know that if they are ordering £30 meals and bottles of wine etc then they are going to be landed with a high service charge even though it's the same amount of effort for the restaurant as fetching a cheaper meal or bottle of water. She was very lucky to get free cocktails on a cheapish meal but still can't really be expected to pay 70% service charge to reflect that (in my opinion)

She's happy to take advantage of discount at a fancy restaurant then quibbles about the service charge?

I honestly don't know how some people manage to maintain their friendships. Getting out a calculator at the dinner table and quibbling over percentages would embarrass me to the point of self combustion.

The service charge is one thing we've always split equally. Never even thought about it too much that one would fine it unfair until now.

Hmmm I think YANBU - she only had a cheaper meal and water, so that was £10 after the discount - but drank the two free cocktails? The cocktails take time and effort to make, I thought the service charge is normally split between staff (so that back of house and bar staff also get tips) - the chefs still made her food, the bar staff still made her two free cocktails so I do think the service charge being split equally was fair. She still received the service.

Was the tip automatically added on and a set price? If so then spilt it equally. Doesn’t matter who had what it’s a certain cost.

If you calculated the tip off the total bill then technically it should have been split equally too by %. If I had a £10 meal then paid £10 in tip while someone else spent £50 and paid £10 tip I would be annoyed. However if the tip was only a few pound it wouldn’t bother me splitting it. It all depends on the ratio to the price of what you paid for the meal for me.

OP, your friend’s money and how she chooses to spend it and whether she has more than she did a couple of years ago is really not your business. Just look at the facts of the situation, not the peripheral assumptions or emotional cloudiness - and you’ll see that she was stuck with an unfair tip despite trying to enjoy the occasion (by being there) frugally. Which is her prerogative.

If she's chosen to be careful with money, regardless of financial position then that's her choice. She should only pay 15% of the original cost of her food in service charge. Friend 1 can't be really struggling for money if she ordered two cocktails, it's obvious they aren't going to be the price of a pint

No I think it was a bit shit for her. Did you not think as you said it that it had nearly doubled her bill? The service charge is calculated as a % of what you paid. She paid a 70% tip as opposed to a 12.5% I know the 40% discount brought her bill down but till not by that margin.

She's clearly tried to keep her spend down, whatever you think you know of her financial situation. She's sat and watched you all eat for most of the evening. So the "service" she received was substantially less than yours as she had less items but she's also had a less enjoyable time.

I would just put this behind you.
She had a main course and 2 cocktails at an expensive restaurant for £17, which doesn’t sound bad to me.
You got the free cocktails because it was your friend’s birthday. The main course only friend wouldn’t have got them if she hadn’t been with your party, so still benefitted from them.
It wouldn’t have been that unreasonable to use the 40% discount to pay for the person who qualified for it, or for you all to have covered Birthday Girl’s share.
It was a celebration, you had already taken time and trouble from your fun night out to spilt the bill as fairly as you had. It’s not like you just split it 4 ways.

She's got a cheap meal out of it and she quibbles about a fiver on her friends birthday, pretty self centred

If paying for what we had I would then calculate the percentage of that and round it up. It seems bizarre for me to do anything else.

I wish I was like you, Vladimirs! I count every penny. I used to get so annoyed at friends who (knowing the bill would be split) would order, consistently, the most expensive things whilst, when it was their turn to pay for a coffee, would never offer the option of an accompaniment. I had one friend who was so adept at this behaviour that they would disappear to the toilet for half an hour as their turn for a round of drinks approached.
Many of us would talk about these friends’ fiscally unfair behaviours behind their backs, so their greed wasn’t going unnoticed. I now refuse to split bills because of the ill feeling invariably attached to it. If I came out “on top” I’d feel guilty and embarrassed; if I came out hard-done-by I’d feel sad and used. It’s an upbringing thing, perhaps, combined with observational skills leading me to notice the grabby nature of certain friends.

I'm also confused as to why some posters seem to think it's difficult to work out the approximate percentage. It's a quick sun in your head. My meal cost £10, 20% of £10 = £2. My meals cost £30, 20% of £30 = £6. It just seems so straight forward to me.

Oh leave it out. Its too hard to calculate the service charge with your phone calculator but you all managed to split the bill?

Yabu.

The service charge was about 12.5% so you each pay just over 10% of your bill. Which you worked out anyway. You arent the tip police so she should have contributed what she felt comfortable.

So asking her to pay nearly double her bill when her contribution should be nearer £12. How much would 10% of your share of the bill be?

Out of 14 items ordered, you and birthday girl had ten of those. And your poor friend tipped on most of that for you.

It really is not your concern whether she’s not struggling for money or not.
It’s also so, so simple to add the service charge percentage onto your own bit of the bill. I get that the same number of trips had to be made by the waiter, etc etc, but restaurants choose to factor in the calculation as a percentage of the money spent, so it’s reasonable for each diner to do that too, irrespective of whether they are dining alone or as a member of a group.

I went out for lunch with my sisters, my husband and an elderly relative yesterday. It was in a very nice place and the bill came to £145 (we didn't have much to drink). We paid for both of us and the elderly relative (had always agreed we would do so) and we paid just a little over 3/5 of the tip. No service charge, we put down a £15 tip. (We put down £10). However it was our idea to treat our elderly relative and it was just nice that my sisters were able to join. Also our meals and drinks were probably about equal in cost. In general I would expect people to chip in roughly 10% (or the service charge percentage) of what their share of the bill is. So I do think it unreasonable that your friend was expected to put in £7. They should have put in 12.5% of what their undisputed meal would have been.

Where did I say her finances were my business? I’m just clearly stating I know for a fact she is not skint to all the posters who are saying she may be skint. She is not, We are close friends, we are a very open group, I know her finances as she’s told me them.

This

I’m at a point in my life where I know who the CFs are and I won’t go if they are. None of my friends are like this it’s generally colleagues.

It's bizarre you went to the trouble of calculating the service charge separately, rather than in proportion.

Doesn't matter her financial situation. You've totally ripped her off poor thing. Disgusting behaviour. She had a £10 meal so should only be paying a proportionate share of the service charge not £7! If you're all spending about a similar amount then that is different.

In simple terms the service charge is a percentage of the total spend. That means those people who spent less on their choices should pay less service charge. The fact your mate got you 40% off and there were some free drinks in immaterial.

It's offensive to suggest you know someone isn't skint. You know what they tell you.
There's also a massive cost of living crisis going on.
Being on a budget and restricted spending might mean you get through the week.