Service charges and the law

Surreystarlet

richardw wrote: »

I'm all for money saving in restaurants but I just don't see why the waiting staff should be penalised when the restaurant offer a discount on food and the waiting staff give good service, so what if the service charge percentage on the discounted amount goes higher, that's just maths. If the tip before discount is £7.50, why not enjoy the discount on the food and maintain the £7.50 tip for the good service waiting staff.

Legislation is the only way to clear this up, with service charges being automatically levied being made illegal, would level the playing field so to speak.

Generally people would only choose to visit/try out these restaurants due to the discount on offer with Taste. Therefore surely the waiting staff aren't penalised as without the discount they would have been a couple of diners down!

Lots of restaurants seem to use this as an excuse - the service charge i was charged was 35% which is a lot and means effectively I only ended up with a 33% discount, rather an 50% and bare in mind that we have all paid money for our Taste cards as well.

Quentin

Surreystarlet wrote: »

Lots of restaurants seem to use this as an excuse - the service charge i was charged was 35% which is a lot and means effectively I only ended up with a 33% discount, rather an 50% and bare in mind that we have all paid money for our Taste cards as well.

You maybe misunderstand what your taste card discount covers.

It doesn't cover your visit to the restaurant in full.

It is just 50% off the food!

No discount off drinks!

And it doesn't give any discount off the service charge, though if it's optional you don't need to pay it at all.

richardw

Surreystarlet wrote: »

surely the waiting staff aren't penalised as without the discount they would have been a couple of diners down!

So a reduced service charge is better than none, is that what you are saying?

Surreystarlet

richardw wrote: »

So a reduced service charge is better than none, is that what you are saying?

Surely that has to be the case? Paying any kind of tip has to be better than none. Even leaving no tip has to be better for the restaurant than not having customers at all.

In any case surely a service charge should be of an amount that you think the service is worth? Not an amount enforced by the restaurant.

I almost always pay a service charge - I just object to being told what I should pay (when the amount is a large amount compared with my total bill) and also when the restaurant complains when you don't pay it all (and doesn't allow you to leave!)

Surreystarlet

Quentin wrote: »

You maybe misunderstand what your taste card discount covers.

It doesn't cover your visit to the restaurant in full.

It is just 50% off the food!

No discount off drinks!

And it doesn't give any discount off the service charge, though if it's optional you don't need to pay it at all.

I use my taste card lots, so I know what it covers!

How would it give a discount off service charge? It is a discretionary amount?

It never gives a discount off drinks, and sometimes it is 2 for 1 rather than 50% off food (which matters if there are 3 of you)

Quentin

Surreystarlet wrote: »

I use my taste card lots, so I know what it covers!

How would it give a discount off service charge? It is a discretionary amount?

So why are you moaning here about the taste card not getting you 50% off everything?

Surreystarlet wrote:

the service charge i was charged was 35% which is a lot and means effectively I only ended up with a 33% discount, rather an 50% and bare in mind that we have all paid money for our Taste cards as well.

sheer_vanilla

Quentin wrote: »

So why are you moaning here about the taste card not getting you 50% off everything?

Quentin, with all due respect, you first picked on my post, now on surrey starlet's one. The aim here is to help each other out if I'm not mistaken. How about we try to stop pointing fingers at people unnecessarily and only offer suggestions that actually ''help'', than annoy (sorry, but true). If the content of this thread doesn't interest you, you could contribute on other threads.

Quentin

The content clearly interests me, hence my posts. (And where have I "picked" on a post of yours here?)

Surreystarlet's thrust is by paying a service charge she cannot get the taste card offer of 50% off, and that has resulted in the 50% becoming "only 33%".

But this is wrong. She has been given the taste card discount in full!

The 50% off is not 50% off everything, just the food. So if a restaurant makes a compulsory service charge that has to be paid in full along with any other non food items! If it's not compulsory no-one has to pay it!

I am attempting to help her out!

sheer_vanilla

my post you kept questioning was on the other thread (service charge taste lon), not this one. as for surreystarlet's post, if you're aiming to help out why use phrases like ''why are you moaning then?'' when she clearly had a problem with the restaurant and is here to make others aware of it. besides, it looks like you've missed the point entirely about the service charge 'discount'. anyway..

Quentin

sheer_vanilla wrote: »

my post you kept questioning was on the other thread (service charge taste lon), not this one. as for surreystarlet's post, if you're aiming to help out why use phrases like ''why are you moaning then?'' when she clearly had a problem with the restaurant and is here to make others aware of it. besides, it looks like you've missed the point entirely about the service charge 'discount'. anyway..

If you want to discuss posts in another thread, then use that thread! (Though the 2 posts I made there 3 weeks ago weren't "picking" on you at all!)

In this thread her original problem was addressed 3 weeks ago.

Now she has a new thrust though!

This is the point she is making saying that her taste card 50% off has been reduced to just 33% off.

It hasn't.

The 50% off relates only to food!

Despite me pointing this out, her reply was then to say she knows she only gets discount off food!

Now you come on pointlessly saying I point my finger at her. !!!!!!???