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'm a server. I get paid minimum wage.
I earn every damn tip I make. I run back and forth to tables with drinks, starters, more drinks, mains, desserts and many many free glasses of water. Im scrupulously thorough with orders for people with allergies. I sweep up after peoples children, I make a fuss of people on their birthdays, I make a fuss of their children when they're making it hard for parents to enjoy their food, I make the effort to chat to my customers and have a bit of banter with them, I listen to their problems sometimes. I get verbally abused and sometimes LIED about to my manager because people want something for nothing. I run around like a blue arsed fly after huge parties of people who all want to order and pay separately to avoid service charges. It takes me twenty minutes or more to finalise a bill for these kind of tables. If you don't agree with tipping that's your prerogative but I have regular customers who throw money at me because I take pride in my job and I care about their experience.

I think carers, retail staff, factory workers, gardeners and so on work just as hard for a similar hourly rate and don't get tipped. Many customers get a similar hourly rate and work just as hard as the staff serving them. If something is optional it should not be automatically added to the bill so that you have to ask if you want it removed. Price you pay should be price on the menu, without the need to add extra. If it's compulsory, add 10% to cost of each item on the bill.

The point the OP is making is that you shouldn’t have to rely on tipping. The restaurant should charge what it costs to pay you properly and manage you well and it should put those prices clearly on the menu, not tack on a percentage at the end. And if they don’t pay properly you should move on to a job that does, not expect people to cough up an unknown addition to the prices that are advertised because you aren’t paid well.

As it is, wait staff may not even get the service charge - restaurants aren’t obliged to pass it on to staff.

I get it removed and pay my discretionary tip in cash

If you do your job well then you deserve a tip. The problem is places that automatically add it on.

Spot on
Should hairdressers add it? Barbers? Builders? Plumbers? Electricians?

I do the same. I always tip a 10% minimum, but in cash.

Wow, that’s tight.

I’m happy to pay a service charge and a tip
on top, as it’s usually only 10%.

I agree with you, though, OP. Tips should be up to the customer to determine. The whole connection of tipping and better service is lost if the charge is compulsory, fixed and not even paid to the server.

Believe me if anyone wants to remove the charge and leave a cash tip the servers will gladly do so. Although the chain I work for we get the service charges directly onto our wages 😄

How about all those jugs of tap water you love to order with ice and lemon, or don't want a tea or coffee? Just a hot water with a slice of lemon that you don't get charged for (but i still pay for the person to serve it to you, plus the washing up of the glass, plus the actual water, ice and lemon)
We don't as a rule add service charge to any tables but if any of the above happens and the customers are rude with it.....you'll get a service charge from me!

If the service is poor, don’t pay it.
if the service is good, pay it
if the service is great, pay more

I don't like service charges and think the cost of the service should be included openly in the price. It feels like companies are relying on customers not noticing or feeling too awkward to have it removed, which I don't like.

I'll happily tip staff, but dislike service charges.

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.

This.

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

That makes no sense at all. If you have enough available money to pay the stated price of goods and/or services, that obviously means that you can afford it.

If the 10% is of such little consequence, maybe they should add it to the stated cost to the customer, so they're actually being honest about their pricing and how much they expect people to pay in exchange for what they are selling.

I bet you'd be the first to complain if the council sent out their demand for the year and then added 'only' 10% on to your direct debit, to pay for all their admin costs in collecting it, unless you specifically asked them to remove it.

You always get people in threads about tipping/service charges calling others 'tight' for not wanting to overpay the stated price.

The only 'justification' that people seem to have for why you should tip is 'well, because you just should' - no critical thought seems to go into it.

Well maybe they can afford a meal out but additional 10% might be more than budget.

Maybe service doesn't warrant a 10% topic

My teenager doubles her wage in Saturday job from service charge. I pay it every time now

You can say the same for any business, a customer browsing in a shop who doesn't buy anything, you still have the same staffing level, heating etc.A builder/plumber/electrician has travelling time, admin, sourcing, then working out estimates that may not be taken up ? They pay rent & tax as well
What do you think everybody else does , yet you think it's reasonableto add a service charge for doing their job? I will happily give a tip but a service charge added = grabby
How about a shoe shop ? Should they apply a service charge?

The problem with the service charge added on is that it doesn't encourage better service because it's expected. If you had to really earn your tip, the service would be much better.

If you choose to tip and want the server to get the tip pay in cash. Because paying by card doesn't mean they have to get the tip. Legally the restaurant can keep any tips paid by card.

Servers aren't paid well in Canada though. I'm not sure it's the same in the UK or not ?

I agree and I also think it's the restaurants responsibility to pay their serving staff a decent wage.

My daughter earns 15 an hour plus tips.
I’m from the U.K. but live in canada and when I first moved over I hated the tipping culture… however I’ve not come to agree with it the severs are motivated to provide excellent service and that is what you get … not a plate dropped on your table from a miserable face to not be seen again!

Wasn't the whole idea of legally requiring restaurants to offer free tap water to help people better understand what the cost of their meal will be and not be taken by surprise by the (sometimes very high) cost of drinks? Especially as, for people who are not on their uppers but are on a budget (as sneered at above), the benefit and enjoyment of a meal professionally prepared and cooked for you is much more significant than the same bottle or can you could buy at a supermarket just opened and poured into a glass.

Other than wine, many restaurants don't put the prices of drinks on the menu, so that leaves the very obvious temptation for them to exploit this by charging well over the odds. Most people like/need a drink to have with their meal, so making sure that there is a simple free option puts the ball back in the court of the restaurant to price their meals transparently and realistically.

I get that there's the (tiny) cost of the water, the freezer for the ice, a bit of lemon and somebody to fill, bring and wash the jug and glasses, but it only has to be available to people already buying a meal; they can't just walk in only for as jug of free water and not pay the restaurant anything at all.

When you ask to remove the service charge they get annoyed with you and ask you why you want to remove the service charge. Most of the owners keep the money for themselves as well.