Service Charge for a Take Away?

[starlightbright18]

Went into a restaurant that offers dine in and take away. I ordered 2 x 10 inch pizzas to take away. The pizzas were fairly expensive to start with (£20) but I was shocked when I was presented with the bill which had a £5 service charge added. When I queried the service charge I was told it was for the ‘chef’s time and expertise’ 😲 Is it normal to add service charge to take away? I’ve never come across this before. This is in the UK

YANBU, they are taking the piss! The chef’s time and expertise should be factored into the cost of the pizza. I hope you refused to pay it.

WTF......sorry but thats outrageous! As previous poster said, I hope you didn't pay it.

Fucking brazen

Its enough to make me want to stick to cheese sandwiches at home

But surely that's literally what you're paying for by paying a premium for the pizza.....how clear was it that the service charge would be added to the order? If not very clear I'd rather have walked away than paid the extra £5!!

Is paying someone for their time and expertise not literally what a salary is? I would’ve been tempted to respond with “oh right, do you not pay your staff here then?”

What ?!
So soon are we meant to give the cashier on the Tesco till an extra few quid to help pay her hourly wage ?!
The world has officially gone BONKERS and anyone who pays it is part of the problem!

not acceptable…. the service charge is for you fitting at a table and being served by waiting staff. They were trying their luck

£5 on a £20 takeaway is a lot, that's a quarter of the bill. I can understand a service charge when you've been sat at a table with waiting staff, but for food in boxes that you're taking home it feels like it should just be built into the menu price. I'd have queried it too, and I'd want to know where that fiver actually goes. Did they warn you about it before you paid?

Mad. I was ordering a dress online from Saint & Sofia and they asked for a tip at the checkout. No, fuck off.
I don’t even bother looking at their clothes now.

Thats taking the piss.
Its also insulting to our intelligence.
Buy our product, it is only £X

psst, plus £y and£z but we think you won't be able to add that up

Obviously ridiculous.

I would have pointed out that, if they expected me to pay £5 for the chef's time and expertise, then I would expect the cost of the pizza to be reduced to cover the cost of the ingredients only. And perhaps a tiny bit to cover the electricity for the oven. I'm pretty sure that those things didn't add up to £20.

The reason that they're able to charge so much more than the cost of the raw ingredients is because of the chef's time and expertise in bringing them together. It obviously isn't reasonable to expect you to pay for this twice.

We have the US to blame for all this tipping culture bollocks. Just ask them to take it off the bill. It’s optional and can’t legally be enforced. Even in a restaurant where you’ve had seated service.

Even than you don’t need to pay an extra service charge, because all the staff are paid a salary for this service!

We’re not in the US where staff are not paid any salaries.

I hate tipping, even in restaurants. It's even more meaningless when it's expected and/or added on to your bill. Yes, the serving staff (hopefully) do a good job... for which they are paid; that's the whole idea of an agreed transaction when buying goods and/or services.

People who call you a tightwad for objecting are either completely missing the point or being deliberately obtuse; it's not about paying less, but rather about honesty and transparency. The first rule of business is that it's up to you to state an all-in price for the items/services being offered, so the potential customers can decide whether to buy them or not.

If a place that sells prepared food wants to charge you more than the stated price for, erm, having prepared the food, does that mean that you the customer can deduct some money for your travel costs in getting there or for any parking charges you have to pay?! Is your employer being a tightwad for 'only' paying you your agreed salary each month and not chucking on an extra 10/20/25% on top?!

Did you pay?

Why is any business adding a “service charge” if they already advertised a price that covers this service?

i despise it and it puts me off ever going back.

You were unreasonable paying that much for pizzas, which are basically cheese on toast on a cardboard base. 😊

You received no service - which is someone coming to your table, taking your order, carrying it to you, checking it's okay, clearing away your plates and cleaning the table area.

Therefore no service charge.

The service you describe is already included in the advertised prices and paid to staff in salaries.

There is no need to pay either the cook or and other restaurant employees any extra!