Service charges and the law

Altarf

Surreystarlet wrote: »

I had a problem with they said I could EITHER use my taste card and get 50% off my bill, but pay the full 15% service charge (this amount wasn't stated anywhere....) on the total amount and drinks OR if I didn't want to pay the full service charge then I couldn't use my taste card.

So you tell the restaurant manager calmly and clearly that -

1. He accepted your booking with the Taste card, so that is not negotiable.
2. The service charge is optional, and due to his attitude you are now opting to pay no service charge at all.
3. Either he gives accepts that amount as payment now, or you will leave your name and address for him to contact you when he has decided that he will accept the payment that you are offering. And if he doesn't like that, he can take it to the courts.

Surreystarlet wrote: »

And if I didn't agree to one of these then I wasn't allowed to leave the restaurant.

And at that point you phone the police.

Surreystarlet

Altarf wrote: »

And at that point you phone the police.

Which is what I did after they didn't accept anything I said which was to the same effect as you stated above........

giraffe69

I rarely use any form of offer/card/voucher because it is rare that the participating restaurant doesn't either want to get up to some sharp practice or make you feel guilty for using it. It just spoils the evening. It seems clear that taste cards and the like don't cover things like drinks. It also seems to mne that a % service charge whatever it is is levied on the final bill and to add it first is to try to reduce the discount. If the restaurant feels this way then they should not participate in the scheme to start with.
Irrespective of any rights or wrongs the restaurant in OP's post behaved outrageously and unpleasantly.
In my opinion posts like this

The restaurant seemed not too keen on allowing you to use your discretion, but haven't you got over this yet?

don't help a lot but are entirely characteristic of the poster.

poontang

Surreystarlet wrote: »

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!

Nonsense. The waiting staff have a certain level of experience and skill, and if they wait on you for a couple of hours they expect a certain level of tip.

I had a builder come round to do some work on my house recently. I expect if I'd told him he should be grateful for the extra work and he should work for half price he'd have punched me in the mouth....

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 should have worked that out before you bought the card. You pay full price for drinks, and there's no reason at all why you should tip the waiter less than the person on the next table - the waiter is doing the same amount of work, the fact that he's unfortunate enough to be serving a skinflint rather than a spendthrift shouldn't penalise him.

Quentin

giraffe69 wrote: »

It also seems to mne that a % service charge whatever it is is levied on the final bill and to add it first is to try to reduce the discount.

Using a taste card cannot guarantee the service charge is discounted! (Most discount schemes - though not Taste's - spell it out for customers that the discount on offer "includes VAT but not service")

At the same time it's discretionary - so if you don't want to pay it you don't have to!

The OP started this thread to tell us about a rogue restaurant that didn't allow any discretion, and tried to detain her till she paid up in full. This was disgraceful.

However it happened 5 weeks ago, and the OP has moved on since then to grumble that her 50% food discount goes down if she pays a service charge.

But it doesn't - if she pays a service charge, then the food price is unaltered, and still gets the 50% off! Though when this is pointed out she takes it as an "insult"???

(And your personal jibe at me just seems designed to cause trouble and is unnecessary.)

giraffe69

(And your personal jibe at me just seems designed to cause trouble and is unnecessary.)

Whereas your comments????? Don't dish it out if you are going to whine when it comes back.

At the same time it's discretionary - so if you don't want to pay it you don't have to!

Yes, it is but in some restaurants, often I think when the service is bad, they add a fixed % and make it quite hard to remove it and you end up with a spoilt evening. The other nonsense of a fixed service charge is if I have a meal with a 10% service charge and order two bottles of £15 wine I pay an extra £3 but if I push to boat out and go for the £25 bottles then for exactly the same work the charge has gone up to a fiver.

I think it is a reasonable expectation that a 10% off card is 10% off and restaurants shouldn't weasel. They are also quite keen on such tricks as having a "cover charge" and then adding service to that. I don't mind tipping good service and have rarely not tipped however I don't think service charges are about rewarding good service. They are for the restaurateur to add to his profit line. A meal should be a pleasant social occasion and if you have had indifferent service the enjoyment is a bit reduced but to have to argue with the waiter and/or manager when with friends can be embarrassing and, for some, stressful.

Quentin

giraffe69 wrote: »

I think it is a reasonable expectation that a 10% off card is 10% off and restaurants shouldn't weasel.

The taste card is much "better" than 10% off - it's 50% off the food.

It's unreasonable to expect that must really mean 50% off the bill!

Quentin

On a separate, but related topic, taste card users beware the "sleeping" scam:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3068248

giraffe69

The taste card is much "better" than 10% off - it's 50% off the food.

It's unreasonable to expect that must really mean 50% off the bill!

I can see the point that it might not include everything, perhaps the aforementioned £25 bottles of wine and having a clear "alcohol is not included" is fine. I just wish they were straight forward about it however because my experience is that quite a lot of money back type offers end in some sort of unpleasantness perhaps because of contrasting expectations. Now if we just charged sensibly for meals i.e. what you see is what you pay and includes the service element) we might lose the right to withhold service but life would be a lot simpler.

Surreystarlet

poontang wrote: »

I had a builder come round to do some work on my house recently. I expect if I'd told him he should be grateful for the extra work and he should work for half price he'd have punched me in the mouth....

But you had an agreement with the builder before he came round that you would get 50% off the job (as in the restaurant), then you can give a tip, the amount of which would be dependent on how well the work was carried out (and not by an amount forcibly added onto your bill by the builder)

poontang wrote: »

You should have worked that out before you bought the card. You pay full price for drinks, and there's no reason at all why you should tip the waiter less than the person on the next table - the waiter is doing the same amount of work, the fact that he's unfortunate enough to be serving a skinflint rather than a spendthrift shouldn't penalise him.

Skinflint/spendthrift? Or just dependent on how much one earns and can afford to give???

And I'm happy to give a tip, just not the choice of either use your taste card and pay a service charge of a fixed amount not stated on the menu, or you can't use your taste card!!!