Petition to stop restaurants automatically adding 'optional' service charge to bills

[Surelynotpeter]

I've just been sent a link to a petition to remove service charges from being automatically added to bills in restaurants in the UK.

I really dislike when restaurant automatically add service charge to bills. Although it's marked as optional on the menu, I've found it very awkward to ask for it to very removed. I have started to do this, but then I get questioned about why I want it taken off. Instant one instance, the server said that by taking it off he wouldn't get paid as much. Suffice to say we won't be going back there.

So I've signed the petition because I think adding a tip should be totally voluntary and not the situation we have at the moment that feels a little coercive. Please consider signing it too if you agree.

I tend to tip so it doesn’t particularly bother me , I’d only ask for it to be removed if the service had been lacking .

I don't understand why we tip in restaurants and possibly hairdressers but nowhere else. Based on that, I only tip if service is above and beyond.

If they are just competently doing the job they are employed to do then I don't understand why they need to be given extra wages.

Agreed.

DP and I had a roast last Sunday and they’d added a ‘service charge’.

It was a carvery. And our drinks were brought out in their original bottles (J20 type drinks).

There was no ‘service’. We served ourselves. Luckily there was an option to remove it on the card machine thingy.

I also dodge Superdrug now as they’ve started asking for charity donations when you pay.

@TheLightSideOfTheMoon i hate Superdrug now it’s such a rip off and badly stocked and like you say the charity thing and trying to flog their tacky ‘perfumes’

I prefer this as then I don’t need to worry if I’m being stingy only leaving 10%.

I leave a tip always unless I genuinely don’t have change or have had a terrible experience in some way and if that was the case I’d be happy to speak up and ask to have it taken off.

i think in an increasingly cashless society it works.

They rely on you feeling like that to get extra cash. Personally I don’t care if they think I am stingy, I know I am not

In Denmark they hand you the machine and it has the tipping options 0% 5% 10% and you have to select one. This works well as no one looks at it, you just choose one, tap and it's done.

im just back from Netherlands and Germany - mixed bag there in adding a service charge -when we lived in Copenhagen wasn’t charged once however at Copenhagen prices it was a good job !!

It's their loss. If they add a 10% service charge I pay the bill they put in front of me, and not a penny more. If a restaurant doesn't do that and leaves it up to me I leave cash that is 15% of the bill rounded up to the next £10 so I consider it a significant saving if a restaurant is so grabby that they miss out on my generosity.

I went somewhere recently which added a 12.5% service charge to the bill.

Then had to pay on my phone via an app and there was a tip box
/page at the end which was automatically set to 10% (but could be changed). I thought it was odd as was expecting it to be 12.5% but then realised it was a second charge! Well I changed that to 0% very quickly but I nearly left it at 10%. I bet lots of people get caught out.