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 do find threads like this weird. Feel a bit like a mug for always tipping at least 10% and subsidising others who don't think it is necessary. On the other hand, absolutely everyone I every eat out with (and that's quite a few different people, fairly often) does the same as me. So maybe we are all mugs! Some other posters seem to live in a different world to us!

Feel a bit like a mug for always tipping at least 10% and subsidising others who don't think it is necessary.

Do you never think that you may be subsidising low-paying employers, though, rather than random other customers who are given a price and expect that to be the price - as with just about every other business where goods and/or services are being sold?

If you would’ve just asked for the service charge to be removed and then tipped what you wanted you wouldn’t have been unreasonable. But the fact that you left nothing after she took the tip off for you and you had a $230 bill not only are you unreasonable but there’s a special place in hell for you.

Tipping food delivery drivers is pretty standard here.

Yes. I couldn't swear to it I but I imagine being known as the house that always gives a £1 or two ensures your delivery is always hot when it's a busy Saturday night and the rider has a lot of pizzas on his moped.

Yes. I couldn't swear to it I but I imagine being known as the house that always gives a £1 or two ensures your delivery is always hot when it's a busy Saturday night and the rider has a lot of pizzas on his moped.

So now we've gone from tipping for 'above and beyond' service to tipping to get the minimum acceptable standard to make the product fit for purpose?

Sounds like a slightly more genteel version of the teenagers in rough areas who will charge you 'to watch your car' with the clear implication being that they will damage it if you don't pay.

I never go to restaurants where you can't book because I can't be bothered to hang around for their convenience getting drunker and drunker at the bar and running up their profits.

However there is one. We walk in and always get a table after a five or ten minute wait even on a busy Friday or Saturday. This is because we are magnificent tippers and the staff know that. I have heard non-tippers in the queue grumbling: "They didn't wait" to the waiter replying: "They were drinking in the bar round the corner and we texted them to let them know that they'd reached the head of the queue."

Whenever I tell this story people get infuriated. But I'm only doing it to be helpful. Restaurants are not a democracy and being known as a good tipper gets preferential treatment.

I've never tipped a delivery driver. In the past when you paid cash I occasionally had drivers not attempt to give me my change but it was rare. Drivers don't even wait for a tip. They drop and run.

I have also not had problems with food being cold or in any condition I wouldn't eat due to poor delivery so those thinking they get better service by tipping, you are delusional 😂 it makes no difference.

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll I've never knowingly damaged someone's moped. I would never damage the tools of anyone's trade. It is entirely the choice of the delivery person to decide on the order in which he or she delivers pizzas.

limitedperiodonly - I'm not suggesting that you had or that you would; but if pizza places are sending out too many at once, knowing that they won't all arrive there hot, then they don't sound any more competent at running a business than restaurant owners who are apparently unable to set their full budgets and account for all costs before presenting a price - the actual price - to the customer.

....and again, I'm not talking about tips that customers freely choose to give to a delivery person - it's when they're expected, especially if a minimum standard of service is contingent on their being given.

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll I know nothing about my local pizza place's business model.and so long as my food turns up edible in a timely fashion I don't care. I choose to give a tip because I believe it bumps me up the queue. Maybe as @neighboursmustliveon I am deluded and it makes no difference but that is my free choice. Just like if a restaurant menu indicates that there will be an optional service charge you are free to ask for it to be removed.

I don't understand why anyone should be embarrassed about this. It hasn't happened often but I have declined to leave a tip and felt no awkwardness about explaining why. If I disagreed with the principle of tipping I would say so with no awkwardness either.

But it is undeniable that tipping gets a regular customer better treatment more often than not. Everyone should get a basic standard of service and professionalism though and I am not saying they shouldn't. But I do wonder what is the service above and beyond that routine non-tippers say they would pay for? I gave an example of something exceptional but I still didn't tip more than I originally planned

Nothing annoys me more than having to leave a "tip". They get paid wages, as do staff who work in tescos, nurses, doctor etc. why do waiters/waitresses believe they should get a tip if they do a good job? Do we tip our dentist for checking over our teeth and cleaning them nicely? No

Dentists aren't on minimum wage.

If you RTFT there are lots of us former/current hospitality staff who have given our insider's opinion on tips, and lots of us who have said tips are treated as a bonus & not relied upon etc. etc. etc.

Why do you believe waiters/waitresses believe they should get a tip?

You say nothing annoys you more than having to leave a "tip"
I'm sure you can think of better things to be annoyed about.

Don't believe in tipping, then don't tip. Simple.

insider's opinion
insiders' opinion?
insider opinions?
Any grammar pedants who could help me out?

Wow. You are something else. First of all the going tipping rate nowadays is $5.00 or 22% whichever is greater. You boohooed over a measly 10% tip. You disgust me the moment you decide to not tip at all.

Wow. You are something else. First of all the going tipping rate nowadays is $5.00 or 22% whichever is greater. You boohooed over a measly 10% tip. You disgust me the moment you decide to not tip at all.

We're talking about the UK - it's been acknowledged repeatedly in this thread that the system in the USA (and other countries) is completely different.

I detest tipping culture. I don't tip unless someone's gone above and beyond.

You pay a tip because you are paying for a convenience(service). If you don’t want to tip at all you should go to a fast food restaurant: order your food at the counter, pay for it, take the food to the table and clean after yourself. What you did was rude and it was not the server's fault!!

The convenience/service is already built into the price. A sit-down place is massively more expensive than a fast-food one. When restaurants begin charging for their burgers the same as Burger King, then we can talk about service being an extra which needs to be paid for separately.

I get feeling some type of way over them automatically adding it but they didn't even add the full/proper amount, only 10% on a fairly large bill. And how many times do we come across articles & comments talking abt how much easier & how much more sense it would make if they just included it automatically?!? You want to call them out for their behavior but what abt yours? $10?!? Thats a spit in the face. I give more to my pizza man/uber drivers. And you even admit it was good service up until that point. Ppl like this should stay home. Or work a week serving ppl for 2something an hour.

Thats exactly what they did & why she is mad

And still she took it out in a server for the restaurants policy. Still discussing.

I can't believe you would otherwise have left only ten quid. Beyond tight. And then you left nothing! Ugh.

I've just seen that the Irish government is reforming the laws on tips. I hope the UK government follows suit and stops dithering as it consulted on this back when Theresa May was PM: enterprise.gov.ie/en/news-and-events/department-news/2022/october/202210311.html