Restaurants that practice double tipping

Chris4817

thompma wrote:

Some of the best service was in the US, excellent service whereever we went for food, but the system of tipping there drives the employee to give good service, but not in a false way that some of the big chains here promote.

Have to say I disagree. I think restaurant service is very false in the US. If I had a pound everytime they said 'You're welcome.' You know it isn't really meant.

I hate double tipping but prefer our way in the UK. In the US you look at the menu and by the time you get the bill it has been increased by a third. The tax is added at the end as is their wages (sorry tip)

essaym

I like to think that when I receive service, that the waiter(ess) is nice (or nasty) because thats who they are, and not because they are after a tip!

Ive just been lucky enough to stay at an all inclusive sandals resort in St Lucia and tips are included in the price of the holiday (our holiday was won! : ) so all the staff who work there, in the bars, in the resteraunts etc dont expect a tip and I have to say they are the nicest people in the world, the staff there cannot do enough to help you, and I even witnessed someone offer a member of staff a tip and he refused saying "thank you sir, but its not neccessary, im only doing my job"! In my opinion thats how it shoudl be, the staff probably arent paid that much but the service charge is included, so they dont hanker after more.

we should have this in the uk too! but i suppose in the carribean theres a whole different outlook to life, its warm all the time too, that would certainly make me be more cheerful all the time!

hercules_2

You Have A Legal Right To Insist On A Service Charge Being Removed From Your Bill.
I Have Done This For Years And Reward Good Service And Quality Only As And When I Have Received It.
It Is Often Used To Subsidise The Wage Bill, But Is Only Ever Applied In Establishments Which Are Expensive Anyway.
Having Run Country Pub/restaurants For Some Years Until Retiring, There Is No Better Feeling Than A Tip At The End Of The Evening To Confirm That The Food Was Good And The Service A1 - It's Nice To Be Appreciated!!

rygon

I had a meal at frankie and bennys in doncaster not long ago.
The meal itself was ok (nothing special).When i came to pay it i used my chip and pin card. One of the options asked if i wanted to tip the staff. The waiter serving me actually told me not to tip as the staff never saw the money. I did give him a couple of quid tip as the waiters were very helpful and polite.

I also went to an indian resturant in doncaster a few years back and 4 of us ordered. It took about 3/4 of an hr for our food to arrive. My rice was hard so i took it back. The stuff i got back was even worse...not only was it still hard but some was off colour and clumped together. I took that back also and said not to bother with any more. When we finished i complianed about the meal and service, and was told to that they would not charge me for the rice as a way to apologise. I reminded them that i shouldnt be charged any as i had not even had any.

Lakeuk

Was shocked this year when staying in Maidenhead to find that Holiday Inn had brought in a policy of automatically adding 10% service charge to everything, this included breakfast that was a help yourself jobby.

Got talking to a bar person at the place who said that once a year the service charge is shared out with all staff including top management based on salary which turns out to be not very much for the lower end staff. He recommended we asked for it to be taken off when we check out.

He made vastly more (x12) from giving advise to customers in the hotel, taxis companies to use, where to go to eat/drink visit.

It's very cheeky to add a service charge when it's £129 a night for a box room, £25 for evening meal, drink double what you'd pay in a pub. My service charge would of be around £75 if it wasn't taken off.

When I was there service in the restaurant was bad, they had new staff from abroad, couldn't speak english, plainly hadn't been trained by Holiday Inn. One brought a bottle of wine showed it to us to check we were happy then put it in the ice bucket and walked off with it still corked, took 10mins to take our order in the end we had to point on the memu to what we wanted, and then we got the wrong meals. Seems Holiday Inn were only interested in cheap labour and not there customers.

Had no problem in asking to have the service charge taken off when checking out, the bar man got a personal tip though - told us a good place in Maidenhead to watch the football and get a good cheap meal

m0nkeyb0y

Any Cafe Rouge. 12% enforced gratuity which is used to prop up the appalling wages of the cafe staff and you are then browbeaten into adding more as a "personal" tip. Disgusting.

I know this because I have a friend who worked for them for years.

Smiley_Mum

Hope that everyone had a nice Christmas time. If you went out for your Christmas dinner etc it would be good to hear how the service was and whether there was excessive charges etc on top of your food bill etc. Let's keep on naming and shaming the restaurants involved. I stayed in myself, home cooked Christmas dinner and had great fun playing with all my kids toys etc. :-)

lencollacott

Henry Africa's Hothouse-a chain I believe. My daughter worked in the one in Bristol. Policy there is to add a 'discretionary' 10% service charge that the manager says 'goes to boost the pay of the waiting staff' and as such is retained by the company. My daughter was on the minimum wage so it could hardly have been boosted. A poll of friends revealed that all thought the 10% service charge was a tip for the waiting staff and so did I so did not leave a tip, causing staff to lose out. My policy in future is to refuse the service charge in such circumstances-wages are an overhead not an extra- and leave a cash tip.

FiscalFox

Some popular restaurant chains that attempt the charge and drive me crazy (since poor service in all three):

Ken Hom's 'Yellow River Cafe' (10%)
Bluebeckers (10%)
Edwins (10%)

Rise up!

peteraj

Lakeuk wrote:

Was shocked this year when staying in Maidenhead to find that Holiday Inn had brought in a policy of automatically adding 10% service charge to everything, this included breakfast that was a help yourself jobby.

Got talking to a bar person at the place who said that once a year the service charge is shared out with all staff including top management based on salary which turns out to be not very much for the lower end staff. He recommended we asked for it to be taken off when we check out.

He made vastly more (x12) from giving advise to customers in the hotel, taxis companies to use, where to go to eat/drink visit.

It's very cheeky to add a service charge when it's £129 a night for a box room, £25 for evening meal, drink double what you'd pay in a pub. My service charge would of be around £75 if it wasn't taken off.

When I was there service in the restaurant was bad, they had new staff from abroad, couldn't speak english, plainly hadn't been trained by Holiday Inn. One brought a bottle of wine showed it to us to check we were happy then put it in the ice bucket and walked off with it still corked, took 10mins to take our order in the end we had to point on the memu to what we wanted, and then we got the wrong meals. Seems Holiday Inn were only interested in cheap labour and not there customers.

Had no problem in asking to have the service charge taken off when checking out, the bar man got a personal tip though - told us a good place in Maidenhead to watch the football and get a good cheap meal

We also stayed at the Holiday Inn Maidenhead over Christmas and although we did not buy much food / drink while there I was shocked to see when my wife bought a coffee that they had added 25p on as a seperate 10% service charge. From that time on every time we bought anything and signed for it we crossed out the service charge - I would encourage everyone else to do this too, particulary when service is far from exceptional and staff struggle to understand what their English guests are saying