Spasticus Autisticus: As someone who usually tips 20%+ I'm getting a kick ou

Tony Soprano, is that you?

Those were good onion rings, eh?

USA Prime Credit Peggy: The Restaurant's Yelp Page - New Window

Who the fark charges 25 cents for a glass of water!?!

Lumpmoose: News: Group held hostage in restaurant. Fark: for refusing to pay gratuity additional fee clearly marked on menu
If you don't like losing the ability to snub the waitstaff, split up or don't go.

If they clearly mark it as a automatic gratuity, it's a gratuity, not an "additional fee".


If I were them I'd have spoken to the police and called out that they never even delivered the entire order (detail FTA).
Piss poor service aside, the restaurant can not legally charge for a service or products they never delivered.
If they didn't fully deliver all of the food, they can't charge for it.

CheekyMonkey: USA Prime Credit Peggy: The Restaurant's Yelp Page - New Window

Who the fark charges 25 cents for a glass of water!?!

Every convenience store ever. But at least there you get to keep the cup.

Surprised this wasn't in Miami Beach. Automatic 18% gratuity at every restaurant, doesn't matter if you're a party of 1 or 1000. Easily the worst service/meals I've ever had and we still had to pay a BS tip.

/fark Miami

17 percent is the bare minimum tip for restaurant service now!

20 percent or more if the restaurant staff doesn't unlawfully detain you for anything.

Mock26: One explanation that I have hears is because a lot of people tend to tip less on larger bills. If you are alone and your bill is $50 your 15% tip amounts to $7.50. If you have a group of 10 that tip is now $75. Sure, $75 is still 15% of $500, but it seems to be bigger. And, with groups, the cost of your meal is often greater than if it was broken down to each person. Groups tend to order more appetizers and more drinks (especially true if drinking wine), so that group of 10 could easily be looking at a $600+ bill, thus making the corresponding tip look bigger.

Large groups also may be business trips and some people might wonder if tipping is something they can or should expense. Most companies do not cover this info in their expense account guidelines assuming they even have a set of guidelines other than 'don't be stupid'. I'm rarely in that position since we also have a rule stating that the senior person pays the whole tab then expenses it.

Um.... FTA.... they weren't "held hostage", they were just told they couldn't leave until they paid,
(which they were fine paying for the food, just not the piss-poor service).

stevenboof: illicit: stevenboof: illicit: Of course you didn't. The restaurant forfeited their right to enforce the "contract" then they failed to provide proper service in the first place.

Whose definition of "proper service" is being used here? That's where the problem really lies.

Um, the customers? That's kind of how of how the restaurant business works.

There are many customers that would say, "they didn't give me enough lemons for my water", even if they didn't ask for extra lemons as a reason to get out of that contract. I have no doubt that there are crappy servers out there, heck I've been one on a few nights, but there is probably an equal percent of people that just don't want to pay anything but the price on the menu and will use any excuse possible to try to get out of paying a cent more. Check out some of those daytime judge shows where a seamstress didn't make the dress "pretty enough" or the haircut lady took a little too much off. There are people that just don't want to pay for what they get.

That's an awfully large brush your painting with, there.

stevenboof: CheekyMonkey: USA Prime Credit Peggy: The Restaurant's Yelp Page - New Window

Who the fark charges 25 cents for a glass of water!?!

When I worked at Chi-Chi's they had to start charging for sour cream because people would order so much on the side and just take it all home. Same thing with lemons. That was the best and worst job I ever had.

Wouldn't i make sense to not charge for sour cream unless extra is being requested? Or does your restaurant just love screwing over everyone in an attempt to weed out the few bad apples?

Nickel-and-diming is the fastest way to get people to go to your competition.

Trivia Jockey: Wrong...if it's posted as a "gratuity", the "policy" is simply that they add it to the bill automatically, not that you have to pay it.

Well you're wrong but keep going with that if it makes you feel better. Google it and you'll find that other people have tried challenging it and lost in court. If it's a posted policy and shows up on your bill, you pay it or you get in trouble, bottom line.

Trivia Jockey: stevenboof: but there is probably an equal percent of people that just don't want to pay anything but the price on the menu and will use any excuse possible to try to get out of paying a cent more.

From personal experience, these people definitely outnumber the bad servers.

Well, unless tips are now mandatory it is completely up to them as to whether they want to leave a tip or not.

People who dine as groups, tend to be very ERRATIC tippers. Often, TERRIBLE tippers.

Eurotrip: Finallly some support that the standard percentage is 15! I always get crap for leaving 15% rounded up to the nearest dollar(Live/Work in the Cambridge MA area). I've been told that it's just because I'm from New Hampshire and everyone is cheap up there. I think everyone is just stupid down here.

To determine if you're cheap I'm going to need to know if you tip 15% of the pre or post tax total.

S.A.S.Q.U.A.T.C.H.: Locking the doors was wrong, but fark you if you're too ignorant to read the part on the menu that says A GRATUITY WILL BE ADDED TO PARTIES OF 5 OR MORE. I deal with these cheapskates all the time, and it's usually the girlfriend/wife that stays behind apologizing for their other while they're out the door in some kind of fake huff. If you want it your way, go to Burger King. If you don't like it, farkin' cook at home. Nobody owes you shiat; you're in our house, and if you can't have respect for our business, or are there to shortchange us or take advantage, then piss off. Being a restaurant manager myself at a mid to high end restaurant, you'd be surprised how many people come in and "invent" problems to save a few bucks. Some people just want to watch the world burn, etc. If he really had a problem with the service, they should have been able to hammer it out with the manager, or got up and left. Not answer "everything is great, thanks" every time the waiter comes over then pull some surprise upset at the last second. Good for them for calling the cops. AND the guy ended up paying after all to avoid "further complications". Uh huh. He was in the right and ended up paying anyways? See above. Sounds like white trash both ways.

/also tell your server you'd like split checks WHEN YOU SIT DOWN, dammit.

If you don't like serving me then get another job

stevenboof: CheekyMonkey: USA Prime Credit Peggy: The Restaurant's Yelp Page - New Window

Who the fark charges 25 cents for a glass of water!?!

When I worked at Chi-Chi's they had to start charging for sour cream because people would order so much on the side and just take it all home. Same thing with lemons. That was the best and worst job I ever had.

Sour cream=/=water.

illicit: stevenboof: illicit: Of course you didn't. The restaurant forfeited their right to enforce the "contract" then they failed to provide proper service in the first place.

Whose definition of "proper service" is being used here? That's where the problem really lies.

Um, the customers? That's kind of how of how the restaurant business works.

The business owners, actually. Everybody's just kind of used to the same thing, and customers are expecting what the restaurants have been providing forever.

Now, one of those policies is usually something to the effect of "make customers happy." But the empowerment of the customer (and the employee for that matter) is illusory.

If somebody started a restaurant where cursing at customers was mandatory, and a sign out front read "Eat Here, Screw You" well, then that's what it would be. Not my idea of polite service, but it's not my choice, even though I am the Mighty Customer Before Whom All Should Bow.

99% of the time, everybody goes through the motions, and that's fine. The servers do their jobs and the customers pay their bills, and everybody's happy.

But some people wouldn't be satisfied if they got a BJ with every drink refill. And yes, a few servers need to be fired. They probably will be soon enough.

But hey, let's get all the self righteous, holier than thou twerps in thread to piss each other off! Whoop-dee-freakin'-doo!

Carth: Eurotrip: Finallly some support that the standard percentage is 15! I always get crap for leaving 15% rounded up to the nearest dollar(Live/Work in the Cambridge MA area). I've been told that it's just because I'm from New Hampshire and everyone is cheap up there. I think everyone is just stupid down here.

To determine if you're cheap I'm going to need to know if you tip 15% of the pre or post tax total.

What about if we calculate by doubling the tax?

I occasionally dine with a couple of brothers who think they are entitled to carry-outs on buffets or all-you-can-eat salad and soup. They look for the opportunity to claim slow service then ask for the second helping in a to-go container, and can their 3rd refill be put into a to-go cup? The whole time they are playing big-shot by treating everyone else to lunch. We (the treated and embarrassed) usually sneak in a nice tip upon leaving the table.

Once they wear out their welcome at a restaurant, they move on to the next and bad-mouth the first one.

These are the kind of people that make restaurants impose auto-gratuity.

illicit: stevenboof: CheekyMonkey: USA Prime Credit Peggy: The Restaurant's Yelp Page - New Window

Who the fark charges 25 cents for a glass of water!?!

When I worked at Chi-Chi's they had to start charging for sour cream because people would order so much on the side and just take it all home. Same thing with lemons. That was the best and worst job I ever had.

Wouldn't i make sense to not charge for sour cream unless extra is being requested? Or does your restaurant just love screwing over everyone in an attempt to weed out the few bad apples?

Nickel-and-diming is the fastest way to get people to go to your competition.

Well, to be fair, Chi-Chi's is only a restaurant inasmuch as a Big Wheel is an automobile.

Because People in power are Stupid: she claims they locked the door and called the police.
And Then?

And then I would have been calling the police charging the restaurant management with false imprisonment.

And another restaurant I'll scratch off my list of places to visit when I'm traveling.

perigee: What "Chick Lit" might look like...



FTFY

Spongebob Plaid Pants: I occasionally dine with a couple of brothers who think they are entitled to carry-outs on buffets or all-you-can-eat salad and soup. They look for the opportunity to claim slow service then ask for the second helping in a to-go container, and can their 3rd refill be put into a to-go cup? The whole time they are playing big-shot by treating everyone else to lunch. We (the treated and embarrassed) usually sneak in a nice tip upon leaving the table.

Once they wear out their welcome at a restaurant, they move on to the next and bad-mouth the first one.

These are the kind of people that make restaurants impose auto-gratuity.

Or the restaurant could just not put up with their behavior in the first place.

illicit: Carth: Eurotrip: Finallly some support that the standard percentage is 15! I always get crap for leaving 15% rounded up to the nearest dollar(Live/Work in the Cambridge MA area). I've been told that it's just because I'm from New Hampshire and everyone is cheap up there. I think everyone is just stupid down here.

To determine if you're cheap I'm going to need to know if you tip 15% of the pre or post tax total.

What about if we calculate by doubling the tax?

Then you'd only be tipping 13% and definitely cheap. (at least in MA)

Rapmaster2000: You ever try to get a bill together for a large group without automatic gratuity? There's always some cheapass who's trying to reduce his payment, someone who wants everyone to cover the appetizer they ate as an entree that was supposedly "for the table", and someone who agonizes over tax and tipping on their two $5 dollar beers.

I won't eat with a large group anymore who aren't my closest friends if the place can't split bills. I'm done with my wife's friend's birthday party with a bunch of people I don't know who act like they never get out of the house.

Actually, breakfast at Farkcon for about 10 of us was quite civil when it came to the tab. Even with "GRATUITY INCLUDED" stamped in big red letters. I guess your friends are just cheapskates and your wife's friend is too cheap to pickup the cost of her own birthday party.

Trivia Jockey: You're not right. I even posted a linkin this thread that included a lawyer's analysis. While it's not a slam dunk, it's certainly not the case that an auto gratuity is always treated like a service charge.

I don't care what some lawyers opinion is, this subject has come up countless times in the past and attention whoring douches have tried taking a stand and lost. If you're made aware of a charge and still choose to dine there, you've entered into a binding contract for services are are obligated to pay.

Lumpmoose: News: Group held hostage in restaurant. Fark: for refusing to pay gratuity additional fee clearly marked on menu

If you don't like losing the ability to snub the waitstaff, split up or don't go.

The waitstaff actually does have to wait on you before you get snubbed, though... sounds like they have this policy in place because they want to have an excuse to treat their customers like shiat.

Most of the places I go do this for 7 or more customers, but not 5. That's BS. And it also sounds like the management condones poor treatment of their customers if they're in a larger group... because they pull shiat like this.

Myself, I would have brought it to the attention of the management that I didn't get all of my order in a timely manner, was treated rudely, etc. and give them the opportunity to make it right. If they didn't, I would have paid the bill by credit card and left, then called the CC issuer and dispute the charge for being charged for goods and services that were not delivered. Anyone that fixes a gratuity like that should be held accountable if they do not deliver the same level of service as they would if they were actually working for a good tip...

Kraftwerk Orange: MythDragon: Kraftwerk Orange: I recently paid the bill for a large group. I don't have a problem with the auto-gratuity (in that case), but I do have a question about a particular line item.

"Gratuity Tax Tax"

[i555.photobucket.com image 640x427]

Anyone want to try to explain why I got charged an extra $15? State of SC, if it matters.

I'd like to know why you are walking around with $1400 in cash. You could be buying everyone in this topic TotalFark subscriptions with that money.
Elitist 1%er bastard.

I provided an explanation above. It was a school field trip. Sometimes people eat together in large groups, and pool their money so they don't have to pay individually. You'd be really impressed with the hotel bill, I imagine. They spent two nights, four to a room - total of 21 rooms plus 3 more for drivers and escort. Close to $10k, just so they could sleep and eat breakfast. Then there was the actual admission to the sites they visited and activities they participated in...

School field trips get very expensive, very fast. I think that 3-day trip ran around $20k total, once you figure in the bus charter and all.

The drivers at your field trips get escorts? Do you employ secret service agents to chaperone?

lackadaisicalfreakshow: I'll go back to telemarketing, soulsucking hellhole that that is, before I'll "serve" the populace again.

Pleasepleaseplease never work in a restaurant that I go to.

KatjaMouse: Then servers won't get all stabby when a nice family after a Sunday lunch leaves them with a Chick Lit at the end of the meal instead of cash. Uh, Chick Lits don't pay for the gas to get home.

Trivia Jockey: 9beers: If you're made aware of a charge and still choose to dine there, you've entered into a binding contract for services are are obligated to pay.

Do you know how I know you're not a lawyer?

Because he is posting on fark and doesn't feel the need to add "IAMYL TINLA after every post?

wambu: Gratuities are optional whether they have a "policy" or not.

The group automatic gratuity should be a CALCULATED amount. As in, to help save you the tedium of the calculation.

It should NEVER be a mandatory part of the bill, or there's going to be a stabbin'.

Trivia Jockey: Do you know how I know you're not a lawyer?

Never said I was. I'll tell you what, go out to dinner tonight at a restaurant that adds a gratuity to the bill and refuse to pay it. Report back on your results.

I have real trouble with stories like this. I am a great tipper - when I order food, in restaurants or delivery, I generally tip WAY too much. My delivery drivers most of the time get something in the realm of a 50% tip. I also am a delivery driver, so I know the crap of serving someone who doesn't want to tip. On the other hand, I have seen the kind of people who work in food service and there are a lot of them who just shouldn't work with the public in ANY capacity.

When we do large catering orders, a lot of times we're serving (prepping, making, delivering to and setting up for) something like 30 people at a time. For a restaurant to charge an automatic gratuity for more than 5 people is ridiculous. Unless you're an utter moron, you should be able to serve 5-10 people by yourself, no problem. I can see charging a service fee if you have a party of more than 10, because most of the time then you're going to have to move tables around, tie up the kitchen to make sure that all that food comes out at the exact same time, and it'll start being real work to keep everyone happy with drink refills and such. But an automatic "tip"? Fark that. If I have to deliver $600 worth of catering BY MYSELF and get no tip for it, then why should restaurant waitstaff be allowed an automatic tip for much, much less?