The American hospitality sector has been doing this for decades, then it started out in London to spread out across the whole of the UK.
Do you agree with it or not?
My first experience was at an Asian food restaurant and the manager brought the cards machine over for me to pay for the meal, it was only when I saw the receipt later that he slapped on £9 for a service charge just to put a few plates on my table.
No indication of a charge on the menu on the outside window or on the menu inside the restaurant.
Legally they can’t force anyone to pay it and by law they have to remove it if the customer asked for it to taken off the bill.
I have heard of cases where the staff are arguing with customers who didn’t want to pay by saying to the customers was there something wrong with the food and service, so the customer is humiliated in a busy restaurant to justify why they don’t want to pay the service charge.
I have had incompetent and very poor service, then the staff had the audacity to charge me, I said no, remove the charge.
I always request the bill and check it out, if there is something I don’t understand or agree with I have no qualms about querying it. I don’t agree with a service charge and would challenge it. (My Mrs would have made a rapid exit at that point).
Re tips, if we have good food and pleasant staff then we usually give a tip of 10% of the total, if we get poor food and attitude they get nowt.
There was somewhere we went recently that had a service charge added for groups of (perhaps) 8 or more automatically though was worded such that it was still optional.
There seemed to be a spell for a while at least in the uk, a number of places either couldn’t or wouldn’t take a tip on the card payment, which without the foresight of bringing cash too, made it impossible to tip if you wanted to.
I had cash in my hand to pay the server in Georgia, for a clam Chowder, he aggressively and rudely snatched it out my hand to say that’s my tip, then he minced off with his nose up in the air.
As a side note, charity donations at point of sale seem to be more common, McD have had the option for quite a while, Screwfix when ordering online, esso card machines and I think Tesco did for me recently at self checkout.
Yeah I’ve noticed more n more places go pay with card don’t work person at till says have press red or green for charity donation.
I know Poundland do it as well as others mentioned. Not sure how much actually goes to charity as no doubt visa or who ever runs the machines takes there cut for processing it etc.
As for tips in restaurants etc. don’t see why you should .
Once people start and it becomes popular it’s a slippery slop to the bottom.
Said restaurant will pay staff less and less knowing they can top there wages up to a decent rate using tips.
Then where does it stop. Go local pub but a pint do you leave a tip?
No but I’ll often buy whoever is behind the bar a drink at the end of the night. Only talking local pub here. Very rarely tip in restaurants or “bars”, they’re just doing their job.