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

raeble

I never pay the service charge or gratuity. It's optional so I take the option to cross it out if they add it. Sometimes I will give a tip if I think the service has been good, it never has though. Strangely enough the service charge didn't bother me when I was in Hong Kong, maybe that's because its standard practice there and the service standard is so much higher.

Kantankrus_Mare

I am a manageress of a restaurant which doesn't I hasten to add, put a service charge on bills!

All tips are shared equally between waiting on staff and kitchen staff. (Including pot wash)

Tips are an added bonus to working for minimum wage and I would hope that the same high standard was given to every customer that walks through our doors, irrrespective of whether they tip or not.

Where tipping on credit cards is concerned, I cant see a problem. We just add onto the card the amount the customer wishes to tip and then take the equivalent from the till in cash.


When I eat out as a customer, I will tip if service has been satisfactory.

I will leave a GOOD tip if service was excellent.

If service was crap I'd leave nothing and not bother returning. :xmassign:

System

elisebutt65 wrote:

She is paying tax in her wages - but why should she pay tax on her tips?

Simply because they're both Taxable Income and liable for Income Tax.

Further info:-

http://www.direct.gov.uk/MoneyTaxAndBenefits/Taxes/WorkingAndPayingTax/WorkingAndPayingTaxArticles/fs/en?CONTENT_ID=10026509&chk=aA1B2s

nathan_barley

Recently went to Blue Mango in Broad st, Birmingham. We had to order from a "special" 3 course Xmas menu (which was so not special) which we were not told about at the time of booking which made me cross. On the bill was a 10% service charge (it did not say if it was optional..... is this illegal? plus a £1 optional charity donation...... don't mind donating to charity but will do it off my own back and thoroughly object to paying it to a restaurant.... and how do we know the charity gets it? Sorry to be so "scroogily" cynical.

*Louise*

I don't agree to a surcharge being added to the bill. I resent being told what to do. Its pretty presumptuous of them to assume that they deserve it.

I prefer to have the freedom to choose how much to tip, and I usually do (10-12%) but if the service was rubbish, then I wouldn't leave anything.

bj-sailaway

raeble wrote:

I never pay the service charge or gratuity. It's optional so I take the option to cross it out if they add it. Sometimes I will give a tip if I think the service has been good, it never has though. Strangely enough the service charge didn't bother me when I was in Hong Kong, maybe that's because its standard practice there and the service standard is so much higher.

I hope you don't go back to the same places too often, they'll remember the customers who NEVER tip, and I wouldn't like to think what happens to your food and drink before it leaves the kitchen!!!!

AP

bj-sailaway wrote:

I hope you don't go back to the same places too often, they'll remember the customers who NEVER tip, and I wouldn't like to think what happens to your food and drink before it leaves the kitchen!!!!

What is going to happen? If any restaurant tries to pull a fast one on their customers in this way, it'll probably end up getting shut down by Environmental Health!

nicp97

I've tried to follow the link to YOUGOV, but can't find either the results of the survey, or any list that has been started.

bj-sailaway

AP wrote:

What is going to happen? If any restaurant tries to pull a fast one on their customers in this way, it'll probably end up getting shut down by Environmental Health!

Well, I've never known a Beefeater or Out and About be shut down, but if your a regular non-tipper you will automatically get your drink spat in, or your steak dropped on the floor before it's cooked - have even known the chef !!!!!! on a steak when it was returned, then put it back on the grill!!!!! A very successful branch it was too!

odowdchr

Our office Xmas meal just had a similar problem. Our "organiser" asked at the beginning of the meal that the service charge NOT be added to the bill (partly because he was paying with his personal bank card for simplicity) so that we could all contribute to the cash tip at the end.
They duly presented the bill with the service charge INCLUDED. He went up and paid, told us all that the tip was sorted out and we all left happily.........wasn't until the next day that he told us he'd removed the service charge and not given them anything at all for their cheek...

Mutton_Geoff wrote:

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.

It's a little different in the 'tip culture' States where the staff often don't get paid a wage and rely solely on tips.
A friend of mine works in a bar/restaurant in Miami. During a quiet week she can earn a pittance of $30 a day (bout £20?) ....but at the weekends when the bar's full and everyone's flush with money it's not uncommon for her to walk out with over $1000 per night in cash tips. Good work if you can get it.....