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

superscotsman

Makes no difference to me. When I eat out I arrange things so someone else pays. And that includes service charge and tips.

Amba_Gambla

spoken like a true scot! :D:D

superscotsman

Picked all this up from Malcolm Stacey's book "Superscrooge" - the book that changed my life. Malcolm Stacey is a true Yorkshireman.

Amba_Gambla

we're nearly as tight as the scots

westernpromise

beadysam wrote:

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

There's a better way of getting the 'voluntary' service charge taken off the bill. Just ask the waiter how much of the service charge actually goes to him.

The restaurant almost always takes half for itself. It doesn't go to the other staff - the house just pockets it, having conned you into paying it by making out it's a tip for the waiter.

So of a 100-quid restaurant bill with a 12.5% service charge, the waiter more often than not gets #6.25 gross which is a fiver after tax.

If that's the case, I just say Fine: could you please take the whole service charge off the bill? - and I will add back an amount for service in cash.

Most waiters are quite happy to do this.

In general, I split the difference and round it off in his favour. So on a 100 quid bill, I'd probably leave 8 or 9 quid in cash. That way we're both about 3 quid up.

Jem8472

If I go out for meals anywhere I do look to see if service is included because I prefer to pay the waiter/waitress directly with the hope that it does not just go strait to the higher paid members of staff.

If the service has been poor then I wont tip. Also if the service was poor then I wont go back again.

inmypocketnottheirs

Stonk wrote:

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.

A close friend of mine is a general manager of a well known fast food chain. According to him, any tips paid via credit/debit card or cheque do not get passed on to staff, only cash tips.

My advice is, and I do this frequently, when either faced with an imposed charge (I ask for it to be removed) or when paying by card/cheque, I settle the bill and tip the person serving me personally.

I just prefer to be the one who decides if the service warrants tipping and not have it forced on me. I think that was the point of the OP.

lestamunda

Edna_Bucket wrote:

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.

One minute here, what "original thread to re-read"?????? WHERE? NOT BY ME...........

I only posted one thread - the one with CRAP!!!!! It was not a reaction response, just a response. Calm down, calm down!

Marsh_Samphire

I was in a restaurant and the waitress spilled a drink over my friend and she didn't even apologise or bring anything to mop it up. So we refused to pay the "optional" service charge and the manager came over and made an awful scene. But we refused to give in and then I wrote to their head office about it. They gave us a free meal and the manager came to our table and grovelled and apologised all night - which was even more embarrassing than the first time!!!

Mutton_Geoff

What is really annoying is the practise of some places to charge a fixed % service charge, then leave a separate space on the credit card chitty marked "gratuity"!

Some years ago the Evening Standard ran a name and shame policy for restaurants in London that did this.

Most places in the States now add automatic gratuities of 18% for tables of 6 or more as they know people start baulking when a large party looks at exactly just how much a large % tip is in real money sitting in the saucer.