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.

@Conkersareback at some places not all
Do you tip in macdonalds ?
Now we have min wage it shouldn't be expected and not every restaurant will be on min wage
Im happy to leave a tip but an amount I choose not a 10% or 12% , what I choose
Like even £10 cash extra on your shift is better
You add it on your bill they all pay tax on the tips so prob get less anyway

@OneTC so you tip everywhere ?
If you go to a bar for drinks and have a good time do you tip the bar staff? Or air hostess for making flight more bearable
I am happy to tip but at a price see fit and is affordable to me
If i have to tip 10/12% all the time then I can't afford to go out , no customers no basic wage

Nope I've never been to a Macdonalds, nor do i tip in McDonald's, they don't do waitress service, nor do they employ chefs. They don't have ATD, with food cooked to order, like steak, lamb etc.

A lot of staggeringly mean people on this thread. OP I would be ashamed to be your friend

It's constant here in London. Everywhere has 12.5% added pretty much. Winds me up and I doubt it even goes to the staff half the time and I'd prefer to choose to tip.

Often tip barmen yes, despite people saying otherwise that's also very common. I've never tipped a flight attendant no but I think we're moving a bit far away from nmw payscale there

@BigChesterDraws you say the waitress earned the £23. But she also got paid her wage.. which presumably is around £10 an hour. So if they were there for 2 hours she'd have earned £43... £21.50 an hour. That's pretty high!

The tip would have been shared

@OneTC not really depending on airline its not always much higher , also not every restaurant or bar pays NMW either
I mean even macdonalds pays over min wage

I think what goes around comes around, if you're a tight arse that's not great

@Devoutspoken no there not always shared
Worked in many a pub and restaurant and it varies

@Conkersareback thats where your wrong as a lot of food is cooked to order
, chefs aren't on min wage and many many restaurants the chefs do not get a share if tips
Quite often they do bring food to you, but where do you draw the line
Tips is an american thing and its used to be the main part of wage hence whilst people do it
If i tipped the percentage they asked we would go out a lot less , which benefits nobody

The service charge doesn’t even go to the staff. They should get rid of it all together

Because we'd like to reward people for good service and give a nod to their part in our party having a good time.

Sorry, I wasn't clear - I meant expected and socially-enforced tipping, as shown on here by all the people screaming 'tightwad'.

Of course, if you freely choose to offer a tip and the person wishes to accept it, no issues whatsoever.

It’s tight. You had an expensive meal and you should expect to tip in my opinion.

Who cares? good luck to her, expensive meal equals bigger tips

I don't fly often and assumed they were better paid than that tbh. I don't actually have a paid job at the moment so don't often find myself on planes but next time I do I'll try and tip em and see what happens

@Allthestarsabovemyhead in some places it does , others not but i always ask and always like to leave cash tips anyway but at a cost affordable to me not a price they decide

Like I said before prior say tight about non tippers because mostly the people that don't may have a hundred words to explain why they don't, but it mostly boils down to being tight, regardless of whatever they profess.

I mean you tip, so I don't know why you're arguing their side

@Devoutspoken people not eating out as 10% on the bill makes it unaffordable means no job, pretty sure a guaranteed job and income is more important
Most waitresses are happy with a tip and don't expect a percentage
Lets face it if you serve 10 tables who all give you a £5 plus your wage you haven't done too bad

Totally agree with this

I'm not wrong and I'll not take advice on "eating out" from people who don't even know how to spell McDonalds!

McDonald's is a matter of timing and nothing else, chips 6 mins, burger 5 mins blah blah

I'll continue to tip as I please.

But again it's like often shared.......

@OneTC its not being tight at all , what if you can't afford the tip are you saying people should never eat out then ? They don't deserve too
Tipping is optional pretty sure in this country it can only be optional so therefore discretion lies with the customer

@Conkersareback calm down and I was a chef its also down to timing and many of these restaurants are just fast food on a plate these days anyway