Tastecard / View Card / Toptable - Service Charge Saints & Sinners

lyster101

Altarf, I strongly objected to the service charge in its entirety. The service was awful - amateurish, complacent and another dozen things I could list. I acknowledge that I should pay for the actual 'product' that they supplied me as they would have paid for this, no matter how disgustingly they had cobbled it together. On the service charge itself, there is a spectrum of reasonable levels and there are many justifications for it not to be added by the restaurant.

What you state is a sensible procedure but I would feel uncomfortable in calling the police in these circumstances as I would feel like I would be wasting their time.

Implied before you reach your stage 4, is that you are talking to a reasonable and rational human. Unfortunately, there are some people who are impossible to discuss anything with in any civilised manner and this was the situation I was in at Cafe Mode. As I mention, all they did when I told them to take off the service charge (until using their threats) was to re-enter the original amount again. This occurred three times. Arrogant and conniving little dives like Cafe Mode survive in Soho by profiting from tourists from outside London not expected to return so trivialities such as courteous service or edible food are not required.

In any case, I have disputed the payment with Amex so will use them as an intermediary to recoup the whole bill. Although I must told me that they (Amex) will outrageously charge interest on the amount during the months-long process that will now follow!

Personally, I think all service changes should be input by the diner and not by the restaurant as this is more honest.

Thanks again Altarf.

richardw

sheer_vanilla wrote: »

As an example, if the restaurant offers you a 50% discount on food and your original bill is £40 which then should become £20, by logic the SC should be on the £20 (if 12.5% making it £2.50) not on the £40 (which makes it a whopping £5).

On a £20 bill if you are forced to pay a £5 SC then there's something very very wrong. It makes it a 25% SC!?

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.

Shame restaurants for bad food and bad service, but not those with good food and good service.

Altarf

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.

Because in the UK a lot of people disagree with service charges and the expectation of the payment and/or value of tips, especially when restaurants exploit them.

In a country like the United States where there is no minimum wage (or no sensible minimum wage) then restaurant staff have a reasonable expectation that good service will receive a good tip, since everyone know that their wages are made up partly of tips.

This would have been a reasonable argument in the UK prior to the introduction of the minimum wage. However now? Quite simply with a minimum wage, a tip should be a gesture of appreciation for good or exceptional service, not payment of staff wages.

As for service charges, quite frankly that is just a hidden part of the bill, since it is expected that it will be paid, irrespective of the quality of service. i.e. a service charge is anything but. And the issue being explored here is restaurants trying to exploit that, to minimise the effect of a discount offer they have given.

richardw

I don't think a 'service included' restaurant culture will ever arrive in the UK, perhaps just use the internet to avoid the bad restaurants.

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.

Shame restaurants for bad food and bad service, but not those with good food and good service.

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.

sheer_vanilla

Cape Town Fish Market, London - SC on discounted bill.
But seeing as it's a sushi bar where you pick off your own dishes, charging even on the discounted bill is blasphemy! Anyway

Surreystarlet

sheer_vanilla wrote: »

Cape Town Fish Market, London - SC on discounted bill.
But seeing as it's a sushi bar where you pick off your own dishes, charging even on the discounted bill is blasphemy! Anyway

I didn't realise that Cape Town Fish Market was on taste - excellent!!! I went to the one actually in Cape Town before they opened the one in London - they asked us about the prices they were going to charge. Despite the fact it was about 3 times the price we paid in Rand (a meal for two with drinks was £15!!!) we had to agree that the prices they had in mind were typical for London

sheer_vanilla

Surreystarlet wrote: »

I didn't realise that Cape Town Fish Market was on taste - excellent!!!

hi, it is on taste but i used the toptable offer of 50% off sushi bar + free cocktail (sweetish but free) + free soup (which never came). so not bad value plus toptable points but cheeky to charge SC when all they did was seat us and bring us our bill :rotfl:

dazzaofdagenham

Surreystarlet wrote: »

Two more for the taste list:

Beit Eddine - Service charge on full amount (which they demand you pay otherwise they hold you hostage in the restaurant.....)
GBK - no service change (there is a tips pot by the checkout)

I love places like that....happened to me once

darren

dazzaofdagenham

lyster101 wrote: »

We ate at a dirty little restaurant today. Cafe Mode in 57-59 Endel Street is a squalid, uncomfortable establishment. The food we ordered was awful and the service complacent. For example, I mistakenly ordered the 'King Prawn' spaghetti. At £13.95 it had a premium of £2 on anything else on the menu so I expected a speciality. There were certainly NO king prawns and what prawns there were, were less than half a cm in length and, of course, no shell. This description was a blatent lie and I grossly misled. Also, all starters were tiny - we paid £6.50 for a single slice of foccacia with goats cheese and pesto on it and £4.95 for 6 tiny doughballs and 10 slices of sausage.

But I'm not as interested in complaining about the food. They have to pay something for what they prepare...

It is the service charge I object to.

Firstly, as ordering through Taste London, they decided to base the service charge on the pre-discount amount. This would have been circa 20%. As the service itself was shocking, and in addition to the poor food in general I refused to pay the service charge. However, short of cash I had to pay by credit card and there was no option to pay without this charge and they refused - 3 times - my objections and that I could either pay the Tastecard discount plus the service charge or the full amount without service charge. Clearly this devious business offsets the discount with their 'optional' service charge, regardless of how they treat their customers. I felt intimidated and helpless.

I intend to chase AmEx in a few days (I spoke to them today and I cannot do anything until they 'see' tte transaction on my statement) to dispute this. In the meanwhile, does anyone have any suggestions about what I should do? Has anybody had any success with the 'paying under protest' idea as this is what I did today but it seems I have already been rendered helpless by inputting my PIN. Any ideas would be welcomed.

Moreover, I suggest everyone avoid this horrible place and go to one of the genuine local establishments.

I think as long as you protest during the meal and not after you are able to pay what you feel is correct value for the meal.

And as long as you dont attempt to leave the restaurant without paying is also important.

Call the police if required

darren