Restaurants that practice double tipping

Smiley_Mum

Noticed there was already a thread mentioning about double tipping etc and how to avoid. Going by The F Word and www.yougov.com, pollster site. The No. 1 thing that people would ban if they had their own restaurant is double tipping. If service is good then sure leave a tip, if service is poor then why should you have to pay a service charge. The gratuity should be down to the individual not to the restaurant owners etc.

I know that The F Word/www.yougov.uk want to banish this practice from restaurants so they are instigating a name and shame campaign. Thought we might do the same seeing as it is such a bugbear with a lot of people who dine out etc.

Unfortunately, I don't dine out very often, and if so, usually Starbucks for a quick lunch with the kids. If anyone would like to start the ball rolling...

Name of establishment, rough address and percentage charged etc would be sufficient I think.

Please note, there is another thread re tipping and how to avoid the surcharge etc but this is just for establishments that double tip. Thank you.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=1254372#post1254372

Smiley_Mum

Perhaps after Christmas there may be postings etc as a lot of people will be going out for their Christmas dinner. For information, I ok'd this thread with Martin before posting.

VickyA_2

This one really got my goat last weekend:

Le Trouvaille, just off Carnaby Street in London.

Service charge of 12.5% and an extra £1 added to the bill for a charity that they support. Ok, so there were 4 of us eating, but it all seemed very much forced upon you - and my friends didn't object! It wasn't a cheap meal to start off with.................

Dora_the_Explorer_5

I would guess the majority of diners don't object, and that's why restaurants do it.

Smiley_Mum

Dora_the_Explorer wrote:

I would guess the majority of diners don't object, and that's why restaurants do it.

About time we put our foot down then and started to speak up. Something that really gets on my nerves is when we go out altogether for a family meal etc, and if the service is !!!!!! etc my father just pays and doesn't want to cause a scene and that's it. I would be like, stuff it, I'm not paying for !!!!!! service. Why should we put up with shoddy service. If a meal is good I would tip no problem but to have it forced upon me, like VickyA states above, I'd be absolutely fuming. That's the problem, we just sit and take it all the time, poor service, getting ripped off (Rip Off Britain!!!). About time we started sticking up for ourselves and not allow people to rip us off. After all, isn't this what Moneysaving Expert.com is all about. Would you pay for a dud meal and then be expected to double tip on top, I wouldn't.

Poppy9

Went to the Marriot for Xmas dinner/dance. The service was awful by a chap who couldn't speak English/Welsh and just showed you the starter for you to choose yes or no! The soup was so awful that we had to send it back and the wine we had pre-ordered and paid for was not on the table. They didn't get any money tips from us! We did each buy a £1 strip of raffle tickets for their charity though!

tomstickland

I went to a Marriot Chrismas dinner/dance last year and it was very much a money making activity.

Smiley_Mum

In the past when I've been out for dinner/lunch etc, I would leave a cash tip for the waiter/waitress that served us. There is one place I go to occasionally that I know doesn't have a double tipping policy and they just have a dish on the counter by the cash register where you can leave a cash tip. I take it that the money would just get divvied up amongst all the staff at the end of a set period.

bj-sailaway

The london hotels are the worst. My company uses Claridges for dinner/meetings, they charge for a minimum of 18 people, even though only 10 turned up - then they charged 12.5% service on all 18 meals!! I made them change the bill - said we'd pay service on 10 meals, but not for people that weren't even there.

Also, I used to waitress in a Beefeater, did you know that alot of the waitresses don't get a wage at this time of year, they work for tips only. You do tend to get the best service from them though! I hoped for tips if I'd been really good to the customers, and usually I did really well, the miserable waitresses never could work out why some of us made so much more than them!!!!!

jonesMUFCforever

Also, I used to waitress in a Beefeater, did you know that alot of the waitresses don't get a wage at this time of year, they work for tips only. You do tend to get the best service from them though! I hoped for tips if I'd been really good to the customers, and usually I did really well, the miserable waitresses never could work out why some of us made so much more than them!!!!!

Is this really true. What about minimum wage?

jonesMUFCforever

bj-sailaway wrote:

Also, I used to waitress in a Beefeater, did you know that alot of the waitresses don't get a wage at this time of year, they work for tips only. You do tend to get the best service from them though! I hoped for tips if I'd been really good to the customers, and usually I did really well, the miserable waitresses never could work out why some of us made so much more than them!!!!!

Is this really true. What about the minimum wage?