10% gratuity added to bill

[Byz]

AIBU to be annoyed by a 10% gratuity charge being automatically added to my bill at a restaurant?

Seafood restaurant in the North East, a little town, not a city.

For four of us our bill came to about £230 and a £23 tip was automatically added to the bill. It did state at the bottom of the menu an optional charge would be added but they didn't ask me before actually adding it.
When the waitress brought the bill over she reminded us about the gratuity and said she would remove it if we prefer but I think I should have been asked if I wanted it adding in the first place. It was quite embarrassing to ask for it to be removed. She was polite about it but did seem a bit surprised.

Food was good, service was good and I would have left £10 but it soured the evening a bit so I left nothing. I don't think tips should be expected in this country.

Its bog standard practice in a decent restaurant - at least she gave you a heads up before you paid - most wouldn't. You were ridiculous to let it sour things and frankly 10% is low never mind a measly 10 er

I don't give a fuck they aren't on a very low minimum wage are they like the US. Many people don't expect tips in their low paid jobs.

The whole tipping debate really pisses me off. It is not up to customers to subsidize wages

I agree. It's up to the diner to decide if they think they want to pay even more for their meal. Many places do not add on service charge automatically and where they do, it's stressed it's an optional charge. I always ask for it to be removed if it's just added on. I do often tip, but I don't want it to be assumed I will.

I know it's different in the USA where tips are expected and necessary to subsidise wages. Tipping has crept in here in the UK for some reason where some people are starting to feel they should tip every service going! Read it often on Mumsnet.

I’m so embarrassed for your friends. A 10% tip is the absolute minimum, leaving nothing when that waitress is likely on minimum wage and you can afford that sort of restaurant is just absolutely cringeworthy. I wonder if they’ll want to eat out with you again.

I wouldn’t write a review OP. You may get a stinging reply about your behaviour at the restaurant and end up in the Daily Mail.

It's standard....where I work the service charge is actually 12%. You can ask for it to be removed and they happily recalculate the bill for you. No need to get upset about it.....

OP might be earning the same as the waitress and has saved to eat there.

@Gloryofthe80s She didn't leave anything in the end. Even though the food and service were good!

Whether or not it is illogical to tip some staff and not others I have always tipped restaurant staff, taxi drivers, and some delivery drivers. I will continue to do so.

In my area there is a huge shortage of hospitality staff as presumably many left during closures due to Covid restrictions, and have found preferable work.

I very much dislike service charges being added, especially when they are not shown at least as prominently on the menu as the food and drink prices.

It is ridiculous to think that the prices do not include the food and drink being brought to the table. That is the bare minimum one should expect.

I was ready to leave a restaurant recently due to poor service, but the whole experience was then lifted by one particular waiter. He deserved his tip. I tip according to the level of service, rather than an arbitrary percentage.

I very much dislike sending back the bill to have the service charge removed at the end of what should have been an enjoyable experience.

If the management think that a service charge is needed to enable their staff to have an acceptable level of pay for doing the job, and to stop them leaving, I would prefer that they just increased the menu cost of the items and said that service charge was included. At least that way everyone would pay the same.

Customers could still choose to leave a small cash top for exceptional service.

OP YABU. You had to ask twice for ice? How terrible. The service gets worse with each post as you try to convince yourself you weren’t unreasonable.

I eat at Michelin on occasion I max would tip is 10 percent I'm not a millionaire and I don't purchase the wine pairing as I don't drink often. I'm guessing the staff hate me 🤣🤣

Waiting staff are on low wages and I am absolutely MORTIFIED that you think walking away after good service and leaving NOT A PENNY is ok.

Cringe.

@startfresh I think the tip should be split among all service staff. Why should the waiting staff getting a tip for bringing the food, but the chef gets nothing for making it?

You left £50 in tips for a £120 meal?

That's a lot but then your meal was extraordinarily cheap if you paid £120 for 10 people

Complaining about the time the cocktails took is awful. Really unpleasant. 15 mins really isn’t too long.

And the tip issue is just shocking. On a £230 bill for a party of 4, we’d have left £10 each - absolutely no question.

Blimey OP.

So on top of min wage, what, say 9 quid ish, waiting staff can make an extra say tenner an hour based off tips? So around £19 an hour? Is that accurate or am I missing something? I suppose they'll need to share it amongst kitchen staff as well.

Very cheap and petty of you to pay £230 and not pay a standard 10% tip on top of that. I’d be really bloody ashamed to be your friend if that’s the way you operate. 10% is standard, unless service was so dire it doesn’t warrant any tip at all. Can’t believe you’re even suggesting £10 would have been enough.

I saw this quote recently...

'A frugal person saves money from choosing not to eat out 4 x a week.
A cheap person saves money from choosing not to tip the server.
Being frugal makes you smart.
Being cheap makes you an a**hole.
Learn to be frugal, never cheap.'

If I am going out for food and I plan to tip I would always do it in cash. I've worked in restaurants and bars before and the tips that go on cards never seem to make it to the staff. So the poor waitress that supposedly got stiffed probably wouldnt have seen a penny of it anyway.

OP, 10% is standard you are definitely unreasonable and are now looking for things to justify your incredibly stingy behaviour. You initially went from saying service and food was good to giving your faults. I am guessing you don't go out a lot as the service charge is standard practise . I would not enjoy being at your table . please don't ask people out to eat and offer to pay if you can't afford it and the mandatory service charge. Also I'd encourage you to be fair in your review

I always tip at least 10% tip. If you can afford to send £60 a head on a meal you can afford a £6 tip contribution.

Love this.

I think it must be their share of the bill was £120, I can't think of anywhere that 10 people ate for £12 each including drinks.

So a total bill of £600 (5 couples x £120) and £50 tip would be reasonable.

I know, and I’m not a massive fan of service charge (as opposed to discretionary tipping) for this reason. I think it’s just the fact that in this case OP managed to spend £230 and then refused to tip in a way that I would imagine would be quite embarrassing for the waitress.

To be fair on the OP, I think that this is possibly a regional thing. It might be common in London/south east, but I live in the north, eat out approx 3 times a month, and I would say that it's very rare to have a service charge added to the bill.

Person used to eat out 4x a week and left a small tip , business decided they were going to add on a 10 percent gratuity. Person decides well with cost of living crisis they may as well just eat there once a week or a month. So the business loses money and the waitstaff lose their jobs. I eat out 2-3 times a week apart from fine dining I never leave a sizeable tip. I go back repeatedly and spend money .