Watch that Service Charge!

zak39

Just a quick one to watch. I used the two for one main course voucher in Strada this weekend and noticed that the service charge was some what higher than I despite the bill being £25.10 the service came to £4.25. Reading the receipt it clearly stated that the service charge was 12.5% which is clearly is n't (the numbers above give ~17%). Turns out that what they do is apply the service charge to the bill before deducting any money off.

Totally apart from your views on service charges etc. Its just some thing to be aware of. Personally I had the charge removed and paid 10% as is my standard.

Raspberry_Swirl

Thanks for the info I don't think they're doing anything wrong by applying the service charge before discounts though, which is a pain!

Money being tight, I tend to avoid places that apply service charge as standard as I feel I have the right to tip only if I wish to. I know you can ask them to remove it, but it's akward sometimes!

TEDDYRUKSPIN

The old service charge. Actually the UK has the cheapest service charge in history. In france they expect a 20% service charge on the total price.

muffintop

Never be afraid to ask them to remove the service charge! And I'd always advise paying any service charge in cash. There was an article in the Observer at the weekend stating that the company that owns Strada has sent out a memo to restaurant managers telling them to discipline their staff if the staff tell the customer that any service charge paid by card goes to management to assist in the payment of the wages.

The article said that they paid £6.50 an hour to waiting staff, but of that expected £2.50 to come from the company with the rest being made up from tips. I think that's pretty shabby.

The article also said that, despite new rules coming into force in October 2009, the companies will still be able pay staff wages from collected tips. So really, what's the point of the new rules?

daveyjp

We had a long chat with a waitress at a Strada when we asked about the service charge as we prefer to pay cash in hand to the staff serving us.

Their flat rate is well below minimum wage, the service charges are then shared amongst the whole staff to ensure everyone gets minimum wage. Not all of the tips are shared though, some is banked and this is used during the winter months when the restaurant is

This waitress was a manager in a major retail outlet prior to waitressing and she earnt more at Strada than working in the shop.

Mum_of_3_3

I always refuse the service charge and handover any tips in cash.

This is because the government see no wrong in companies using service charges to make up wages, but also because any money handed over (whether tip or service charge) is liable to PAYE.

If a tip is handed directly to the server as cash it won't go through the company & therefore won't get taxed (it's still liable to tax, but up to the waiters/waitresses to declare this through a Self-Assessment form & tbh the amount the average waiter/waitress gets in tips means that it's not financially viable for HMRC to investigate these people & harder still to determine how much they would've received).

Therefore never pay a service charge or tip by card always give it in cash if you can, that way the wait staff get to keep all of it & the stingy restaurants have to pay them a decent wage as well :beer:

M_o_3

PS A link from Direct.gov about this situation

NoAngel

I had no idea you could ask them to remove the service charge. I always seem to pay it, but would rather just leave a tip that I know the waiter/waitress will actually receive. I also hate it when paying by card when it asks you if you want to add a service charge...

loupee

Just wanted to say on this, up until vary recently I've worked as a waitress and know many companies that get up to sneaky tricks, tho I have been luck not to work for one that made up my wages with tips. And its sound advice to leave cash over credit card everytime where possible. The last place I worked didn't apply service charge at all, so you would often do a large table, anything from 8 to 40, and especially if it was a business meal, although not neccessarily you would have no tip at all! Very infuriating. All our tips were pulled and split weekly, which was fair. However out of the tips would come, any spillages, any tables that had walked out, anything we had put incorrectly into the till (that had never been made therefore to product wasted) so that there were no voids in the system for senior managers to complain. Also there was a 10% service charge for tables of 8 or more in December, but this got split between managment as a bonus, so in december us Waiters actually had very little tips!
Anyway enough of my gripe! Thanks for being considerate to your waiting staff

VickyA_2

Just to add to this thread. I recently ate in a (VERY busy) Chez Gerard restaurant with friends, who slapped on a 12.5% service charge. Our waiter was superb, but a couple of other staff members had a poor attitude so we didn't want our service charge to go to them. On asking our waiter how much of the service charge he saw, he told us (after much prompting as he didn't want to get into trouble!) that he saw £20 every 2 weeks. Hmmmm...... Needless to say, we asked for the service charge to be removed and left him a hefty tip as he was the only one who had earned his service charge (and the chef, but of course we weren't about to march into the kitchen).