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.

Except OP said that it stated clearly on the menu that the service charge would be added, so your shop analogy is nonsensical

You were incredibly mean and petty not to leave a tip. If device is good you should leave 10%.

The waitress Meade sure you knew not to leave another tip. Good job I think

Unless things have changed since I was a waitress, service charges go to be split amongst all workers. Therefore I preferred people to remove it and give a cash tip (but less than service charge or the manager would re-add it)

Agree with this - that bill was huge. And you can't even tip 10%

Poor waitress- she’s the loser here. And next time you get bad service somewhere you’ll be scratching your head wondering why.

Shes not lost anything because OPs money was never hers to start with. If she missed out on a tip, it’s because of the greedy policy from the restaurant.

This is fairly standard and has been for years in many places.

It's standard to add it but you can ask them to remove it if you want. It's been like that for at least 20 years in most decent restaurants

I usually do pay the service charge unless the service is really bad, but I think restaurants should just charge the correct amount and not add a service charge. People here saying that the waitress would have been on her toes working hard serving the OP - she gets paid by the hour for for doing that so unless she is going over and above, why should she be given an extra £23 for one table of four people. I know she's likely on minimum wage but so are the staff in my DS's nursery and they work like trojans all week without being able to receive a single tip. I guess I'm saying that it doesn't seem fair to single out certain professions like hospitality, hairdressers and cabs to expect tips but other professions to receive basic salary. I'd rather everyone was paid fairly.

I think you were tight not to tip 10% on your £230 meal out but I think you were tight and petty to then not tip £10 to the waitress because you were aggrieved by the restaurant management's policy. You do not come out well out of this story at all.

Please can you explain how it’s ‘greedy’ for a restaurant to state on the menu how much things will cost, and then charge that exact amount on the bill..?

There are so many jobs that pay minimum wage, why have we suddenly decided that wait staff simply doing their job should receive a subsidy.

When you're in a supermarket and the person stacking the shelves shows you to a product in an alternate aisle, or checks the stock out back for something missing from the shelf, do you all whip out your wallet and give them a couple quid? If not, why not? Probably because they are doing their job (even though checking stock room may be considered going above and beyond as they could simply state "sorry we're out").

Wait staff are literally employed to take your order, bring your food and drinks. On larger parties I may agree more that a tip may be appropriate as larger parties tend to listen less, it takes more effort to get everyone's order and to distribute the food and drinks, and you'll no doubt be running back and forth more than a couple of 4 tops.

But a table of 4 people is a fairly standard seating party I would imagine. It does not warrant a tip unless the wait staff has done something out of the ordinary!

I'm happy tipping but dislike it when companies automatically add a service charge onto my bill because to me it feels grabby and like they're relying on people feeling too awkward to ask for it to be removed.

If they want to put their prices up, they need to put prices up.

I do find it irritating that service charge is automatically added but in reality, I'd always tip 10% unless the food or service wasn't good so it doesn't really matter.

If I wanted to tip less then I'd tell them why.

Leaving nothing is really fucking rude and unfair on the staff who don't make the policies.

If 4 friends and I were happy to spend £230 on a meal out which is just shy of £60 each then I can't see me ever being tight enough to care about an extra £6ish each to contribute to a tip that is optional anyway.

You gave nothing?! 😱😳

If you want the hospitality to survive and have enough staff to serve you so you can continue to eat in expensive restaurants, just pay the bloody tip and stop being so tight. Post - Brexit staff recruitment is a massive challenge. There won't be a waitress next time you go if everyone does what you did.

I'm all for leaving a tip for great service but £23 is ridiculous. I always asked for it to be removed and leave my own tip.

Annoys me too.

I worked as a waitress when my DC1 was small. Less than 10 years ago.
The service charge (TOIL) did not come to us, the actual serving staff. It bumped up the more senior staffs wage. For example, everyone was on the same wage, minimum wage, but supervisors and managers would have their wages bumped up with the TOIL so per hour I'd make roughly 50p out of the TOIL and my total wage be £8.20. Whereas the shift leader would get 6 x toil, £3 per hour and their wage be £11ish. Even though I'd served the tables.

In my opinion the restaurant should have paid their staff the increased wage for their seniority, not have it come out of the service charge. I don't think customers knew that's what went on. I was happy when it was a few pounds down on the table instead because we could keep that.

Is this your first time at a restaurant int he last decade?

This is standard practice now.

If you cant afford to tip a waitress for good service then you cant afford to eat out.

I never know what this 'take it off the bill' actually means. The only time I didn't want to pay it I just left the amount the meal cost, minus the tenner service charge or whatever it was. I didn't get them to print a new bill. Do people mean they point it out when they come to pay by card?

Tipping culture is an american thing anyway because over there waiting staff rely on tips to earn a living wage. Over here we have minimum wage plus benefits so I personally never tip.unless someone goes above and beyond. The waiting staff are paid to do a good job and part of the cost of my meal pays that. I have worked in many minimum wage jobs that are not entitled to tips I dont see why the food industry is any different. Tips should always be a personal choice and for those saying if you cant afford to tip dont go for a meal that's ridiculous, a family could save for weeks to go for that meal should they be denied that one treat because they cant afford a discretionary cost?

Yes you are BU to be annoyed. Exactly what they said would happen, happened. You're lucky you got the reminder it was there - often it's not mentioned.
£10 is embarrassing.

Eurgh you absolute horror.

@tenbob the shop analogy isn't nonsensical. My comment related to people complaining it is tight or mean to just pay what is actually being charged on the bill (i.e. not tipping). If the gratuity is 'optional', it should be actually optional - in fact, it being applied automatically so that you have to get it removed makes it a coercive pressure.

It wouldn't be greedy to state it properly on the menu if they just absorbed it into the prices. Can't you see that it's not the same thing to have an item priced at 20 GBP with miniscule print at the bottom that a service fee of 10% will be added (often even this is missing, but we accept it existed in OP's case) and the item priced straightforwardly at 22 GBP? In effect the service charge model is that it's charged 22 GBP unless you bring it up to the service staff, in which case it falls to 20 GBP.

Was this your first time out? Its pretty standard practise to have 12.5% added to your bill as a service charge? You ruined the poor waitresses day. If you can afford to spend 230 quid on a meal why begrudge a tip?