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.

I’ve known 10% to be standard for about the last 35 yrs, since I waitressed as a teen in the North East (Teesside). OP comes across as not only tight, but also mean.

Well just to take the smugness from you, I have to eat out as i work away from home a majority of the time time and all my accommodation and meal expenses are charged to the company I work for, with a strict rule that tips etc. are not to be claimed as expenses. So yes I have no option to eat out regularly, should I starve?

Also I usually eat out a small independent restaurants where I can, to help local businesses and I know quite a few very well now, due to the time I stay away and they are all very happy with my business and do now begrudge me not paying service charges. So wow that does not go along with the MN narrative does it. 🙄

It's because it's open ended, not a built in 10% bump.

Customers won't tolerate higher bottom line prices. The optional tip is, however socially enforced, optional or on a sliding scale either greater or lesser than 10%.

OP could evade much of that social enforcement by not starting a thread lying about service levels in defense of their tightness

You don't even pay for your food and you won't chuck em a fiver?

Crikey

'I started thinking about all the ways she could have earned the 10% and it made me realise that she made too many mistakes and wasn't actually that good.

Especially if the tip was entirely hers. I might have left something if the chefs got a share.'

Jesus.

I don’t understand why people get so up in arms over tips, we aren’t in America, waiting staff get paid a proper wage here so tips are completely unnecessary!

Why do you pay to do your job? I would not have to be there if I was not working and you think I should pay for the privilege of having to stay away from home and eat away.

Also you feel you should be offended on their behalf, when are happy for my custom. It seems like your the one with the issue. 😂

i don't understand the fuss about getting it removed. Just pay the £230 and leave if it bothers you so much? you're not obligated to pay just because it's on the bill. Oh, and you're definitely being tight.

Can I ask why some many people think it’s “tight” not to leave a tip? Do you tip the servers in every retail store you visit? Do you tip the staff in supermarkets? The petrol station?
Servers are paid a living wage just like the rest of us, why are they more deserving of a tip?

Why do you pay to do your job?

Because it doesn't come to me? Petrol or PT costs, clothes, lunch

Not everyone rocking the expense account Squirreloutoftouchkin

I agree. “It’s just the done thing” doesn’t make it right

Things can change. When a mum posted in here about her son being searched in his retail job everyone jumped on her and said it was normal and therefore acceptable. Normal does not = acceptable.

Anyway I don't begrudge tipping, but I do begrudge paying a service charge that the owner or manager takes, either in whole or part.

Exactly - this seems to the point that the majority of people are missing.

The government has actually been looking at this, and might have done something about it now, but covid got in the way. But I did see that it was on their radar again, so hopefully they will.

I really don't understand your problem with it OP, it's very normal, and the tip you left is grossly inadequate in my opinion, if the service was good

Sorry I mean the tip you would have left. The fact that you left nothing is disgraceful

with a strict rule that tips etc. are not to be claimed as expenses

That's a shit company. My company allows for a reasonable tip. 10% would be more than acceptable.

Not unreasonable to ask them to remove it. Pretty weird to be so upset you needed to vent on the internet.

10% is standard tip afaic. A tenner when you've had a £230 meal is tight fisted.

This is why they've started adding the service charge automatically. Because people think "well, I've got a tenner in my purse".

Yes service staff are paid a wage, however, it is a hard, physical job, with long hours. Service staff have to be nice to you or they lose their jobs. It is a social norm that we tend to tip for decent service - not above and beyond or exceptional service. We tend to tip for service which was not bad. If anyone I was with said "well I'm not leaving a tip cos they get a wage don't they?" I'd think they were such a twat. I'm glad more restaurants are just adding it now, so fewer people might decide to just throw down a pound coin at the end of their massive dinner or whatever.

Bigger tables or more food ordered than usual are more work as well, so that's why the tip needs to reflect the size of the bill

It's because it's open ended, not a built in 10% bump.

Yes, so as I said, not guaranteed and relying on people's goodwill.

Customers won't tolerate higher bottom line prices. The optional tip is, however socially enforced, optional or on a sliding scale either greater or lesser than 10%.

How do you know they won't if the culture of being expected to tip is so ingrained that most people allow for it anyway? Like everything, I think people would soon get used to a more honest, transparent system - they manage OK in almost every other industry, where a full all-in price is quoted from the beginning.

I suppose it's probably not as lucrative now as in the past, now that most people don't pay in cash, but I think the lure of earning approximately half of your income tax-free was probably a big incentive, albeit very much not in the spirit of honesty.

I do agree with you that OP's behaviour was appalling, though - and that they have been apparently 'inconsistent' (to put it mildly) in recounting the events.

But would you be willing to pay increased prices as a customer so that businesses can pay their staff more money? Because that's what will happen.
Especially with eating out costing more because of the rising costs of the food itself, the gas, electricity and everything else associated with running a restaurant, and people are already complaining about that and although in theory, people may nod along and say "Yes, absolutely people should be paid a proper living wage no matter what job they're doing" in practice I'm not sure it would be tolerated and people just wouldn't go.

Would people genuinely be happier if that 10% were included in the prices on the menu making them higher, to go towards staff, no matter what the service is like? Rather than an option to pay the service charge or have it removed?

I'm not sure really. I am sure though that I would be uncomfortable with it should I work somewhere that did this and the potential for situations like this to happen and for people to disagree with the service charge and then take it out on me. I would have no issue with removing it if asked to do so, because I don't personally agree with it either.

A tip is gratefully received but not expected. Or should be.

Why should my company pay for other employees bonuses and tips, who do not work for them. What a bazar thing to think, do you ask this in your interviews to potential employers?

OP left nothing as she was annoyed at the company policy to pre-apply the gratuity. Instead of leaving a cash tip, which I much prefer in restaurants, she choose to penalised the hard worked & disgustingly underpaid staff for the companies decision.

Servers are paid a living wage just like the rest of us, why are they more deserving of a tip?

as a generalisation, waiting staff will be serving you for longer than a the person in a petrol station or M&S. they will interact with you, anticipating your needs for around 90 minutes if our dir a meal. Paying for your fuel at a petrol station will take approximately 90seconds

No tipping is not the ‘norm’ in the UK but it is good & kind to tip.
You literally penalised the hardworking, underpaid staff by not leaving a cash tip for them -despite you saying the added gratuity was the only issue with the meal - because the company they work for chose to use a system that adds the gratuity to the bill without asking you 1st. WOW!

Have you ever worked in any sort of manual service job?
Hardest jobs I ever had & little to no thanks for working harder to make customers experience the best. Also these are the lowest paid jobs & many rely on tips to make ends meet. Our CASH tips were literally the only reason we could afford to stay in the job 😐
Just click NO to paying the gratuity with the bill & leave a CASH tip for the staff directly.

Four of you could easily have afforded to put a minimum of a £5 CASH tip down for your server!!!

Do better next time.

OP didn’t leave a tip. They chose to penalise the hard working & underpaid staff for a business or management decision 😟

But that’s part of the job, which they are fully paid for so again, why do they deserve a tip?