To decide myself how much tip to give rather than have 12.5% or 15% already added on to the bill, in England

[Jossse]

I enjoy going out for food and drinks with friends and family. I have over the past 6 months or so, noticed that some establishments have started to add on 12.5% and 15% to the bill total. This is happening even when buying at the bar or and or ordering on an app.
I’ve always added on 10% for good service and more if exceptional, and rounded up most of the time.
We are all aware that food and drink prices are now much higher and also there is a national minimum wage.
I want to choose how much tip I leave for my server/waiting staff rather than have 12.5% and 15% added on to my bill. When I have questioned this, the manager has needed to come along and speak and authorise this, making the whole experience awkward.
Back in the day (pre Covid/2000) before this was happening, I was a waitress and earned good tips. I put in effort to ensure my customers enjoyed their experience. Sadly a lot of waiting staff today do not seem to understand about customer service, I’m guessing because they already are earning the tip from the bill.
One company said the extra 2.5% was so that the waiting staff didn’t have to pay the card payment charge!
So, AIBU to want to add my own service tip or should the establishment add it in for me when presenting the bill.

I recently asked our waitress (in Bill's) whether she got the service charge or would prefer cash. She seemed grateful that I asked and said that the way the service charge works is odd and she'd prefer cash. I think that's a good reason to get a service charge removed, but it does depend on my having cash.

Always tip in cash

I hate the added discretionary service charge. But i find it hard to ask for it removing due to not wanting to sound like a twat. Would far rather leave what I consider an appropriate amount of cash on the table for our waiter to do with as they wish.

I tip what I think is appropriate to the situation. I’m old so I never have trouble asking for it to be removed or adjusted…. It’s just a confidence thing. That said, it’s never been an issue when it’s happened.
America is the place that I loathe the most for tipping. I understand completely it’s caught up in their wages etc but it’s out of hand there. No I’m not tipping for getting a bottle of water out of a fridge myself and self serving at the till myself. America is ruining itself with the tipping (amongst other things!)

I actively avoid places that add a service charge. Its cheeky they should up the price of meals instead of trying to scam (im aware its not a scam but thats what it feels like) extra money out of customers.

I dont care if its awkward; makes it even more that you should do it. If they make it awkward, they are relying on that most wont go through that.

Don't be swayed thinking "oh no what will these strangers think of me", Always ask for it to be removed, its damn cheeky to add it, more likely to not go to staff, or be included in salary with tax and insurance taken.

I’m not in the UK and the country where I live does not do tipping, at all, so I’m completely unused to it. On a visit back to the UK recently DH and I had a pub lunch. When I went to pay the message on the machine was ‘Do you want to tip Waitress 15% of your total? That will be £Xx in total’. To say no, I’d have to do that right in front of her (she was holding the machine) which felt really uncomfortable. I did choose no, because she’d done nothing exceptional, nothing beyond what her job is - brought menu, took order, brought food, brought bill, worked the machine. Am I expected to tip for bog standard service?

Not quite what OP is referring to but equally awkward and uncomfortable.

I much prefer to tip in cash and am very comfortable using the words “please remove the zero e charge as I prefer to tip in cash”

They can be as awkward as they like but I would like to choose how much my server is tipped and it absolutely will not be 12.5% if the service has been poor.

Well yes but I would never tip lower than 12.5. that's the minimum and less means you weren't satisfied with the service.

I don't understand the service charge, what is it for, who gets it. With the cost of meals going up a 12.5% service charge can sometimes feel alot in cash terms. Went out the other day 4 pizzas and 4 soft drinks was a £12 service charge. It felt alot on top of an already expensive meal priced at 3 times the price of a pizza takeaway for the privilege of sitting at a table to order. I do find the added 12.5% pushes the prices to unjustifyable so then avoid eating out. I do have boys who like meat so 4 x steak and chips and a few drinks can easily be a £25 service charge and I end up thinking I should just spend £30 on steaks and cook at home and save almost £200 and put the money on something else.

I've just returned from a country with much lower wages and standard of living and the most that was added as a service charge whilst there was 7% which feels a bit more reasonable. The current service charge culture deters me from eating out. If the cost of eating out was more reasonable I would eat out more, and spend more overall. I do wonder when I hear how restaurants are struggling that this service charge business is just deterring repeat and regular customers.

We were in Bills last night as it happens and I was going to tip 10%. I noticed they’d added the service charge of 12.5% which was an extra £3. They were very slow but also attentive and apologetic. The food was amazing. My son didn’t like one if the dishes so we ordered another and they took the price off despite my husband eating it as there was nothing wrong with it. We also got 20% armed forces discount so we didn’t mind the extra service charge. We were served by 5 different people so cash tip, which I also prefer, would have been difficult. We will go again I will ask for the service charge to be removed if I don’t feel it’s justified as I think it’s presumptuous and quite rude.

This has been happening for years. I generally ask for the service charge to be taken off the bill and leave 10%, of more if service has been exceptional, in cash for the waiter/waitress. I’ve never been convinced they they actually get the tip otherwise.

By law all tips (both cash and electronic) must be given to staff. They are often split between all staff ie kitchen and waiting staff.
All tips are supposed to be taxed aswell.
By leaving that member of staff a cash tip she will have been able to pocket it without sharing it with the rest of the staff on shift that night but still take a share of the tips that others earned, that makes her dishonest.
Also a service charge must be removed from the bill if requested and it shouldn't take a manager to do it.
I've worked in hospitality on and off my whole working life and have found that putting a standard tip of 10% or above on bill actually reduces the amount of tips given because it puts people's back up. If you want to pay your staff 10-20% more then you need to increase your menu prices to cover it not demand that customers pay more than advertised

Most places have massively spiked in cost since COVID and are no longer affordable service charge or not.

When I am paying £10 or more at a cafe for a baked potato and hot drink I would rather just do a packed lunch at 1/4 the price.

Completely my thought, if they want paying whatever % more just be open about it, I don’t mind leaving a tip if the service is good but adding it onto the bill is wrong.

Isn’t that why they’ve started calling it a ‘service charge’ though, so they can get away with not necessarily passing it on?

Personally I don’t think it is dishonest, if I leave a tip it’s for the person who served me.

It doesn’t bother me to request it’s removed. As I’m paying, I’m the one who decides if I given anymore above the cost of the food, not them.

One previously great, and newly taken over, restaurant I ate in refused to take off the service charge. I told them that it was illegal to do that but clearly, they didn't understand that.

As it was, the food was shite. I didn't pay the service charge, have never been back and I couldn't have been the only one who disliked the place, because the new owners went bust after a year or so. A shame because previously under the old owners, the food there was fab and they couldn't do enough for the customers.

Why though? Why do they deserve the tip more than the people that made the meal?

Nope they way the law is written both service charges and tips are covered.
The push to call tips a service charge came about because % added service charge sounds less grabby than % added tips. It also sounds like something that you can't challenge, its manipulative and I've always refused to use service charges when I've managed restaurants and we always got larger tips than we would have with a service charge, people tend to be more generous when they know that they are incharge of the tip than a % being enforced

I’ve stopped eating out as much due to this. I was always very happy to tip in cash (and I believe I was a generous tipper). I don’t know why it angers me so much but it does. It makes leftie me have right of centre thoughts!!

I hate the culture of tipping - it's just so archaic and comes from the time when only the well-off could afford to go to restaurants and the staff would earn a pittance, so they patronisingly tossed a few extra shillings at the poor person, who knew their place.

Nowadays, there's every chance the customer might have saved up for a meal for a special occasion (from their NMW job where nobody ever thinks/is allowed to add a tip) but actually earns less than the server does.

People always come out with the "You're a miserable tightwad" if you express this opinion; but not at all - by all means let the business advertise and charge the full amount that they want/need to earn from your meal to maintain their viability and profitability, however much that is; but don't state an artificially lower price and then expect/assume/pressure customers to pay extra on top. It also makes no sense to base it on a percentage of the price of the meal, as it takes no extra effort to bring out a plate with lobster on it than a pasta salad.

I'm not expected to tip the checkout woman in Tesco for scanning my goods efficiently, being friendly and polite whilst she's doing it or for offering to help me pack. It doesn't mean that I don't appreciate it - and if Tesco decided to increase their prices a little so as to pay their staff a bit more, good for them; but run your business with transparency, honesty and integrity, please.

Why only a service charge? Why not an extra toilet-use charge, or a charge for the ingredients to be delivered to them, or a charge for their business rates or electricity bill? Running a Business 101 involves YOU doing the maths before stating an accurate price to potential customers; they want a pleasant meal out, not a riddle.

I agree with this. If we're going to go from an assumption that headline prices are set artificially too low to adequately pay the staff for their work, why would that not apply to all of the staff - when the customer is expected to take on a basic part of running the business rather than the business owner doing it themselves?

I absolutely agree with this ^
prices have got higher already so hospitality service can’t use the same argument twice. Higher price plus service charge on top makes going out impossible financially, at least for me.

Notice also when it's a percentage-based tip/service charge, not a set fee; and then they increase that percentage over time, under the excuse of 'inflation' or 'all costs are going up, you know' - as if they assume that the customers are all absolutely stupid and can't possibly understand how percentages work.