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.

Embarrassingly tight. I’d have been mortified.

Simple consumer law to make it illegal would stop this practice. Our consumer law, both for rights and indeed responsibilities, is analogue in a digital age.

10% tip is fairly standard - and easy to calculate.

If a Service Charge appears on the bill its not hard to ask the Waiter "Who gets it?" If it's split between staff fine, the kitchen staff are working hard too, if it goes into the managers pocket then ask for it to be removed so you can tip directly.

Can I just suggest that you never, ever go to North America.

I find it appalling that people who are happy to spend £230 on a meal begrudge someone on minimum wage a tip for good service.

I was a waitress. I never got tipped, it’s not standard in my country. It’s not appalling the OP didn’t tip, it’s appalling the restaurant owner charges £230 for a table but doesn’t pay their staff a decent wage out of it.

Stop subsidising peoples salaries for the employer. Advertise the price of the meal that includes enough to pay your staff properly. I hate the concept of tipping.

I hear you. But so many people seem to be harking back to 1950 or something.

Probably the same people who are outraged by children using devices or if thank you cards for a tenner sent in an envelope aren't received within 5 days, even if the teenager sent a personal WhatsApp message. Social norms move on and harking back to a time that passed a long time ago always annoys me.

It's a discretionary charge although some restaurants add it for tables over a set number. It's harder for the chef to get 6 meals ready at the same time than to get 2.

It's normally written on the bottom of the menu that a service charge will be added.

I do hope people like OP end up jobless.

Tighter than a duck's arse.

You were unreasonable to take out your annoyance by not tipping the waitress, who give you good service and no authority over the gratuity charge whatsoever for 'souring' your evening.

It is also fairly common for restaurants to add an optional gratuity and has been for many years. So if you're not a fair tipper you need to get used to asking for the charge to be removed without taking it out on the poor wait staff.

It's such a shame this tipping nonsense seems to have crept over from the US. I'll feel obliged to tip restaurant staff when it becomes normal to tip those in the caring industry, who (imo) have a much tougher job. It's bizarre that waiting staff can earn so much.

Anyone who adds a charge like that just means I leave no tip at all & don't return.

I do tip if service has been good.
I've been tipping since the 80s & it was perfectly normal then so it's not a new thing.

Wait staff in the UK aren't owed tips just for existing.
They don't get paid far less than minimum wage with an expectation that tips will make it up to reasonable money.
They get tips if they make an effort to help you enjoy your dining experience, not just for doing the minimum required effort at their paid for job.

I really dislike the saying "if you can afford to spend £ on food you can afford to leave £ in tips". It's nobody's business what I can afford. I may be able afford £200 for a meal but it doesn't mean that I have to eat in a restaurant that charges that much. It is my choice entirely how much I spent.

And prices have gone up recently, a lot. Our family of 4 went to a nice but not fancy at all place for dinner, we had four standard mains, two starters, one beer and two soft drinks. It came to £96. The kids had a burger each, I had a chicken shawarma on a plate. Nothing special. Starters were from £9 each. Deserts from £8.50 each. Not long ago they would be £5-6. Again, a very normal, pub-like place. We ordered our food, and the waiter brought it to us. That's all the service we needed and received. The hell I am leaving £10 on top as a tip, it was expensive as it is.

In the UK I don't leave a tip if they add it on in this way. Plently of places give you the option to add it on yourself when you pay by card. Either pay your staff a reasonable wage, or give me the choice to add what I think the server should get as extra. I am always very, very suspicious of places that add it on automatically, do the waiting staff actually get it?

Standard for years and years in UK that tip has been added to the bill. I have only once asked for the gratuity to be removed when the service was abysmal. Gratuity was voluntary but the restaurant got really shitty about taking it off the bill and I had to speak to the manager in depth before they agreed to waive the gratuity.

Restaurant owners and waiting staff are trying to import American tipping culture to Europe.

The expectation is nonsensical, there isn't any lower than minimal wage law like in US, but some people want to buy a good feeling about themselves for extra 13£ so they can play generous on internet.

That's mean

I get great service at Tescos, do you all tip them too? What about the delivery guy that comes up the drive to your door and waits in the rain? What percentage of your purchase do you all tip in those circumstances? The girl at the theme park who ran around for you and gets £6.80 an hour, how much of your £200+ tickets do you tip her? I don’t get tipping at restaurants at all!

Its irrelevant what the tip was and what OP was prepapred to tip. The fact they automatically added it to the bill is what annoyed her. And it annoys the hell out of me too.
I always ask for it to be removed and then I tip according to the service we had. If it was great service, they will usually end up with more than what would have been added on automatically. Plus I make sure they know to put it in their pocket because I'm tipping the service THEY gave. I'm not tipping frank and albert who waited on the tables next to us and we had no interaction with.

If it was bad service, I don't see why I should tip.

Everytime I've asked a waiter/waitress who gets the tip when its added on automatically, it has never been just them. The usual answer is its shared between everyone, including the management.

I think nobody should be given tips anymore, why should any sector of hospitality be paid extra for doing their job. I work in retail and can often spend over an hour helping individual customers advice on the best options for them, do I get or expect a tip , no way. Everybody should now be paid the minimum wage so they know what they will receive at the end of the week, by continuing this outdated paractice we are subsidising some owners who may not be paying the full amount. Whist I realise that some of the staff may be young and not get the full over 25 minimum wage, we’ve all been young and had to work for whatever we were offered.Suck it up if you want to work start at the bottom, do a good job and you will gain experience that you can take to a better paying job in the future.

I think it's really really small minded of you to punish the waitress for a restaurant policy she didn't set. You didn't even leave a token tip? Embarrassing. If I had been with you I would have insisted on paying for it myself if you refused and I'd make a mental note not to go out for dinner with you again.

You are mean OP and so is everyone else on this thread moaning about tipping and saying things like 'where does it end?' It's been customary in this country for a VERY long time. If service is bad of course you have the option to opt out but to leave a waiter nothing because you have only just come across a common practice that helps keeps people's heads above water is supertight

It does my head in , one restaurant forgot to give me my order , offered a free dessert then didn't give it to us then still whacked on the 10 percent service charge. They didn't even give me a breakdown receipt rip off..

I wonder how Ops friends felt?

It’s been standard practice in UK restaurants for years and years. How anyone could have been living here and been surorised but it, unless they’ve never eaten out before amazes me.

We all know waiting staff earn minimum wage. We all know that leaving a tip is standard and the standard rate is 10%.

If you don’t like them adding on an automatic tip, you’re within your rights, as the bill stated to ask for it to be removed. That’s fine. Most people won’t but some will. The reason they add it like that, is because otherwise lots of people tip pretty meanly and might leave the equivalent of 2 or 3%. By adding it automatically, more people will pay that amount….but everyone has a choice not to.

I don’t have a problem with the OP asking for it to be removed and then choosing her own tip. I do have a problem with the fact she then left nothing, although she had received good service. The only way to interpret this action as looking for an excuse not to leave a tip. The fact a normal practice of automatically adding the tip would not cause outrage to a customer used to eating out and result in zero tip. Terrible rude service and awful food might lead to zero tip. What happened here was nothing like that. Essentially, OP wanted an excuse to leave nothing and although they say they’d have left £10 otherwise, it makes you wonder if they really would have.

I agree that a £23 tip can feel like a lot. However, I would consider my sound before going out and factor in 10% for the tip. I’d use that whole calculation to choose where to eat out. In my mind, paying for service is part of the deal. More expensive places with higher places will need a higher tip, in the same way the prices are higher….and if you don’t want to pay those prices, go elsewhere.

It was a stingy and tight response from the OP to leave zero…and given she herself said service was good, it penalises the waiting staff unfairly. Housing to leave zero is an entirely different issue to whether the tip should be added or not and if the amount should be 10%.

Why?