To think restaurants shouldn't be allowed to add service charges?

[Precipice]

Prices are listed on the menu. Maybe the menu has a tiny tiny print somewhere about service charges being added (or maybe it even doesn't!). When it comes to the bill, there it is.

You're already paying for the service in the cost, just as you're paying for someone to prepare whatever you're ordering if it's being prepared, and for the fact that you're there in a restaurant at all.

AIBU to think that if restaurants want to charge you 10 percent more for everything, they should raise their actual prices by 10 percent openly?

I live in canada and you get added tax 13%, plus min expectation of 20% tip so I’m used to it and don’t mind it, so I agree with tipping - servers are generally not paid well so I wouldn’t begrudge 10%

Service charges are usually optional, you can just ask for them to be removed can’t you?

I agree, they shouldn't add it because it obliges the customer to pay it, and they look stingy if they don't even if the service is rubbish.

It's not usually compulsory unless the table is over 6 or 8

Just ask for it to be removed if you don't want to pay it

YANBU and customers shouldn't have to ask for the charge to be removed from the bill (they bank on the fact most will be too embarrassed to), it shouldn't be there in the first place. Tipping is discretionary, not compulsory.

But do you think that's how all additional charges should work? If the menu lists the item for 10.00 and on the bill they list 11.00 or 14.30 or 16.70 or 22.00 and try to get you to pay it, that's all fine because you can ask for this to be put right?

It’s usually optional so you can just ask for it to be taken off? For big parties (like 10+) I think it’s fine though.

I understand why it's added in the US and other countries where hospitality staff rely on tips and pay tax on an estimated amount of tips.

But not in the UK, where we have a statutory minimum wage and hospitality staff earn similar to retail workers and other professions that don't get tips. Our culture is for it to be discretionary.

So YANBU, another change forced on us during covid and here to stay.

Agree with this. I didn't know it was optional. I paid it. They should explain.

Perhaps Canada should pass legislation to ensure staff are better paid?

Maybe , but I’m not in control of that ! I am in control of what I tip. It’s the culture here but also the service you receive is far far better than any restaurants I’ve ever received in the U.K.

I agree.

The price on the menu should be the price for preparing and serving the meal and paying at reasonable rates of pay (and we have NMW in the UK so that's a minimum) for all the staff time involved. If the menu price needs to raise to cover this so be it, but we should be transparent.

No need for a tip, unless someone does something over and above the job that they are paid for. So tip if you have a toddler who drops crumbs on the floor which requires extra cleaning or if you needed extra time and attention because you had extra requests, sure. But an expected tip for just doing your job that you're already paid in line with all other similar jobs for? No!

You aren’t wrong about service in the UK.

If you can’t afford to eat out then dont’, nobody is getting rich on your 10%

I usually ask for it to be removed because it’s usually at 10 or 12% which I think is pretty stingy. I then cash tip at closer to 20%.

This actually pisses me off even more! So we are a big group spending a lot of money and you want to charge us more for it? Heck no!

OP YANBU. Just put the bloody price on the menu.

Where my son used to work, if it got paid as part of the bill the owners kept it, if it got paid separately and not as service charge the waiters got it. It's just another way for the owners to get rich rather than a way of topping up waiters wages.

I hate it. Even when it is what I would tip normally I still don’t like having that option taken away. And I don’t like having to sound like a dick asking for it to be removed. It’s not just big cities or large venues either. I had it a while ago in a village pub!

It annoys me here in Australia that this practice has started. Most places you now order using a QR code at the table, so the only 'service' is food being dropped to your table.

Servers can be paid very well, especially if they work public holidays (10-20% surcharge on bill on top of any other service charges). A family member was telling me her DS wasn't at our NY Day family gathering because he was earning $50+ AUD serving in a cafe. If he worked equivalent hours, it'd be more than his now full time, entry level job. So he still works there on weekends.

I’d be interested to hear from waiters/servers in the UK what their contractual hourly rate is and what their average hourly rate is including tips. Just cos I’m nosey really!

I would rather my tip went to, or at least also to, the people in the kitchen who actually make the food more so than the person who carried it 10m to my table

I don’t think it’s a massive surprise that service is better in countries where tipping is expected. If it made up a large proportion of my salary I would be ensuring that I was earning that tip.

If there is no massive incentive to go overboard here, people won’t do it and especially if any tip received either goes into the owner’s pocket or is taxed before I see it

I absolutely hate it! I agree that in the UK, its supposed to be discretionary, but I still hate it. I was held ransom in a Vietnamese restaurant in London. Group of 4 and the waitress/manager refused to remove the service charge- despite meals being missed, late, cold and then said we couldn't leave without paying the 'optional' service charge.

People don't tip carers, shop assistants, supermarket workers, bus drivers- so why tip someone on a similar working wage in a restaurant?

I agree and actively avoid anywhere that I know adds service charges. They're banking on people being too embarrassed to ask for it to be removed and I thought the practice had died out in the UK now. It's especially ridiculous if there's just a couple of you having lunch with the type of basic service you'd expect in a normal fast food restaurant. If service is exceptional and I'd leave a tip anyway, then I wouldn't want it added to a bill, I'd want to give cash to the individual waiter/ress.

I really begrudge having to pay extra. Why should I? The boss pays the staff. I hate tipping.

Really? So you'd be better splitting the bill then. Seriously though, is that an etiquette thing or law? I've never heard of that.