Restaurants: How to avoid paying the 10%+ serivce charge: Save £££'s every year!

FiscalFox

If you like to dine out in restaurants you may have noticed a nasty practice becoming more and more common in the UK. It’s called the “Service Charge”.

What is the Service Charge?
In the good old days, you could tip your waiter or waitress at the end of the meal, depending solely on how you liked their service. Whatever amount you tipped was at your digression, and no-one really thought any less of you if you didn’t.

Nowadays, many restaurants seem to presume you will tip their staff and automatically add a 10% “optional” charge to your bill. Indeed, some venues like to charge even more. This can add a considerable amount to the total of your bill, and there is no assurance that this money even gets distributed fairly among the people you want it to!

How it Really works:
This innocent charge has a darker background. When your typical restaurant bill arrives at the table, the customer is ‘free’ to request that the service charge be removed.

However, by refusing to pay, the customer is actually left in a socially sticky situation. The restaurant knows that the customer will be very reluctant to cause a ‘scene’ at the table, especially in front of his dining partners and/or waiter. Therefore, he will feel more comfortable by just paying an extra charge and avoiding any (unrealistic) fear of confrontation with the waiting staff. Indeed, he may even convince himself that paying a handsome charge was the right thing to do, in order to avoid feeling like a mug.

This is a form of social pressure; an invisible force that sometimes obliges us to act against our will. This pressure is further compounded if you are out on a date or eating with friends. The restaurant knows this and realises you would never want to risk looking like a miser in front of your nearest and dearest.

To make matters worse, in my experience i have found that the quality of service offered by such restuarants to be below par. It seems that they once they expect an automatic tip they'll try less to please you.

The Solution:
Luckily, there is a way out!

Your escape is to take a stand and retaliate against the charge. For meek folk, this is not always as easy as it sounds- as a fear of embarrasment may rest on your shoulders.

You should never be embarrassed to object to this payment, because it is the restaurant that has placed you in this situation in the first place. ~Not you!

(-How dare they!)

The next time a food bill arrives at your table with an “added extra”, stand your ground and politely object to it. Tell the waiter straight: “I’d prefer not to pay the surcharge on this bill”

It is wise to realise that some greedy-restaurants have a back-up plan to end your cash-saving schemes. Often, they will apply even more social pressure to you to conform to paying the 'extra' by sending a member of staff to your table to check your service was satisfactory. At this point, more pressure is plyed to you to tip- stand your ground and do not buckle!

So if the situation arises, just say something like:

“Your service tonight was lovely, but I’d rather not pay the optional service charge, I’d prefer just pay the total amount instead”

-That should put them in their place.

And, if you happen to find your self on a date (lucky you!), take a direct stand and question the bill regardless of what your eating partner thinks. If you have had a pleasant evening, taking this kind of action will do little to sour the proceedings, in fact you’ll feel great knowing you acted like a Man. Gentlemen, contrary to popular belief, women will love that you actually stood up for yourself- it shows confidence!

Happy confident eating!

Xbigman

I really can't help thinking you are a tight g1t. No really. I know someone who is a waiter and they exist on their wages but live on their tips, and its the service charge that determines the amount of 'direct' tips they get.

So if you eat out and get good service then pay for it. Or (like me) don't eat out.
Regards



X

Amba_Gambla

I agree with the OP. If you like the service, then tip, if not, then you shouldn't feel pressurised into giving them a tip.

It's not up to us to subsidise a waiter's wage. Fair enough, if you want to pay your waiters more, then charge more for the food, but don't add a stelth tax.

I work behind a bar, last time I worked a cash bar, during an 8 hour shift I earned £1.80 in tips.

kabie

I dislike the whole idea of the service charge being added on automatically. I've only ever asked for it to be removed once though and the service was awful. Unless the service is bad I tip so I guess it doesn't make too much difference, although I also like the idea that the person I want to get the tip gets it, rather than it just being taken as part of the bill. Often the service makes the meal.

Stonk

Chip-and-pin payment is having a useful side effect in this respect. Whereas in the past one would often receive a credit card slip to sign, with the amount and then an extra un-filled-in area for a "gratuity" (sometimes even when they've already added a service charge!), this does not happen with chip-and-pin.

However, I expect that it will, over time, tend to increase the chance of having an optional service charge automatically added.

I wish they'd add it to the price of the food and pay the staff better. Can't understand why some sectors have this policy and some don't. I don't tip the lady in the post office for serving me. She'd probably throw it back in my face if I tried.

lestamunda

CRAP!!!! I do not see why I should be forced to pay a service charge - if I am happy with service I will decide what is given; who is the restaurant to decide?

It is not being "a tight g1t", but paying for good service and not paying for bad service.........that way it is deserved and hence a "tip/gratuity".

It also ensures that service is always good, not average as tip is always added anyway.........

beadysam

I never pay a service charge or gratuity and I would indeed do what the first poster recomends on principal. However, if I felt I had really good service and wanted to tip (yes it does happen occasionally!) I would actually give the money in cash to the server that deserved it even after I had refused the service charge....
SAM xx

Voyager2002

Does anyone know what the legal situation is? Presumably the menu gives details of the service charge, so if you place an order and eat a meal you have entered into a contract with the restaurant. Or is that not the case?

This is not actually a money-saving issue, because waiting staff do deserve to get paid for their work. But many of us would rather pay ten per cent for service directly to the waiter rather than trusting the restaurant management to pass it on.

Edna_Bucket_2

jaghir wrote:

CRAP!!!! I do not see why I should be forced to pay a service charge - if I am happy with service I will decide what is given; who is the restaurant to decide?

It is not being "a tight g1t", but paying for good service and not paying for bad service.........that way it is deserved and hence a "tip/gratuity".

It also ensures that service is always good, not average as tip is always added anyway.........

Rather than being rude to other people who have criticised you, you might want to re-read your original thread. In that one, you make no suggestion that you would ever pay any sort of tip anyway. That was why you got called tight, and therefore you have only yourself to blame for the way you worded the post.

I too dislike any automatic addition of service charge, but there is an easier and more polite way around it. I always simply and discreetly ask the waiter if they actually get the money! If they don't, strike out the charge and tip the waiter/waitress with cash.

JimArnold

Voyager2002 wrote:

Does anyone know what the legal situation is? Presumably the menu gives details of the service charge, so if you place an order and eat a meal you have entered into a contract with the restaurant. Or is that not the case?

Presumably you can still withold payment if the service was poor - just as I might refuse to pay for food that I had ordered if it is inedible

lush_walrus

The OP is right you do not have to pay the service charge, it is a voluntary thing. In fact, you can pay 'whatever you value the food to have been'.

Personally, I never pay the service charge either, even though I was a waitress for 7 years while studying.

I just simply cross it out and pay the total. The reason I do it is not a monetary one, but out of principal. That service charge will very very rarely be passed onto the waiter/waitress, it actually goes into other costs 99% of the time. Same with credit card tips, most of the time these do not make it to the waiting staff either, this disappears into a black hole.

The only way to ensure that the waiter/waitress gets the money you want them to receive is to physically give it to them. Personally, as I said I cross off the service charge, tell the waitress I dont want to pay it, then give the actual amount it comes to to the person who served me.

Next time you are out, check with the waiting staff whether they (whether pooled together or not) recieve the full amount that is left as a service charge and see what they say!!