Went to a restaurant in LA today and when I got the check I noticed that it was a bit higher than it should be. Then I noticed this 18% service charge. So… We, as customers, need to help pay for their servers instead of the owners paying their servers a living wage. And on top of that they have suggested tip. I called bs on this. I will bet you that the servers do not see a dime of this 18% service charge. [deleted a word so it wasn’t a grammatical horror to read]
If the service charge is always there then just raise prices by 18% and stop misleading people ffs…
That’s what they did. They raised the price by 18%. I get that the price increase sucks, but why is it different to add an 18% increase to the overall bill rather than adding an 18% increase to each item? How is that misleading?
Edit: someone explained to me that it’s because you don’t realize the additional cost until you see the bill. This hasn’t happened (yet?) where I live, so I didn’t realize what the issue is. That IS really misleading.
Because the price on the menu then appears lower than what the customer actually pays. It’s completely misleading.
Ohhh, that’s a really good point. I didn’t think about that. This hasn’t happened where I live. Thanks for helping me understand. That IS really misleading.
It also guilt trips the customer into accepting the unexpected added price.
And even if it’s on their printed menu, you might look at the menu on Google Maps and see one place has a dish for $20 and another place had the same dish for $24. You go to the cheaper place and sit down and see the 18% fee. Are you necessarily going to leave and go to the other one?
It’s usually on the menu but it’s in fine print under an asterisk.
It’s alarmingly common (though not usually as high as 18%), and ought to be fucking illegal.
I would probably leave and just go home. I wouldn’t be in the mood to eat anymore.
Because no one agreed to pay that when they were ordering. Imagine being a on budget for a night out and getting this extra charge outta nowhere
Yes, that makes total sense. I just hadn’t thought it through.
Imagine you only have 10 dollars on you and buy a 9.99 item off the menu because of it, only to discover at the register there’s a 20% service fee. Not very a very pleasant customer experience, is it?
Thank God where I live this is completely illegal. The prices on the menus are always the final price.
^ This is the answer folks…this type of bullshit legalese in restaurants should not be legal.
Also it costs far too much for the owner to reprint all those menus with higher prices. And to update all the food delivery apps… fuhgeddaboudit
But they can afford to reprint the menu to include a note about the 18% service charge or when their item prices increase ‘organically?’ This is a BS excuse.
My guess would be that it was sarcasm exactly because of the reason you explained. It contradicts really so hard it almost makes it obvious (not completely, it seems)
It has nothing to do with the cost of re-printing menus, because they have to do that anyway to put the legalese on there about the percentage surcharges.
You own that restaurant. Don’t you?
Caught me.