Restaurants automatically adding service charge to the bill automatically. Is this normal in the UK?

15 comments

1. It’s become a thing over the years.

   You don’t have to pay optional service charges, but it’s mandatory if the service charge is included in writing somewhere before ordering e.g. On the menu.

2. May have changed over the last few years with covid restrictions and now the cost of living crisis

3. This is pretty normal these days, you should be able to remove it if you have the social skills required to ask though!

   – I think it’s due to us moving towards card only payments cash tips are drying up

4. [deleted]

5. Normal in London. Much less common elsewhere

6. Yeah some places add a service charge, I recall seeing a 12.5% service charge.

   It’s optional but you have to ask to remove it, then they get funny and ask if there was a problem.

   I just consider it as a ‘tip’ so I don’t tip on top.

7. It’s definitely a thing now. And not just for large parties. Ate out with 2 friends recently and notice they’d added the service charge on.

8. Been asked before. It’s obviously becoming normal.

   If I ever have compulsory service charge added, I’ll ask the waiter/waitress to bring the manager to me. Then I’ll ask the manager to remove it and explain to the poor waiting staff why they are now not getting a tip by trying to force me to pay a charge.

9. At least in my experience, it’s fairly common to have an optional service charge automatically added for large tables (say more than 6-8 people). For smaller tables I’ve occasionally seen it during very busy periods (e.g for Christmas menus), but not on the regular.

10. Anywhere that does this I don’t eat at again. A few places that I use regularly lost my custom this year as a result.

11. It’s very common.

    The more upmarket you go, the commoner it gets. Upmarket, it has certainly been commonly the case for at least 40 years.

    Also, there is a practice that used to be (and still is) very common on the continent- a lot of places like gastropubs have a more formal and more informal bit. Even though the bar area is still table service (the food has to come out of the ktichen and maybe it’s table ervice for your order too), nevertheless, they only put the service charge on if you eat in the ‘official restaurant’ area.

12. It started when the telegraph made a campaign that servers get paid minimum wage instead of a low wage where they relied on tips (I worked places for £2/hr). This inflated the restaurant costs, so (because telegraph and their ilk don’t actually *care* about wages), gratuity was added to help pay wages.

    There are lots of restaurants that treat this well and it *does* go to the staff, others that use it to bump up wages for higher level staff: effectively using it to pay little for professional people.

    It’s still discretionary for smaller groups. I don’t really get where if you ever tipped before, 12% is seen as some massive scam, but… ok. You can take it off & leave cash, or leave nothing if you’re that guy.

13. It has always been normal, but entirely optional unless stated else where on the menu that it will be mandatory gratuity. Been like this for at least 15+ years.

    Honestly, staff most likely do not get it. I would just say ‘please put ‘sub total’ amount before gratuity. If I am tipping, I do it with cash so the waitress has a chance to keep it (sometimes they don’t even get cash!)

14. Mostly happy to pay it if it’s not ridiculous.
    One American diner wanted 15%
    They brought us a few beers and burgers.
    I felt like a cunt asking for it to be reduced to 5% until the waiter told me they don’t get any of it as a tip so I said remove it all and slipped him a 5er.

15. I thought this had to be made clear and known to customers before they decide order in order for it to be mandatory? I wouldn’t eat somewhere that was mandatory, and I only tip if the food and service was of expected quality or higher in reflection of price, we have minimum wage for a reason. If I wasn’t made aware before hand and I felt like the service and food wasn’t up to expectations I would be paying the price on the menu only and leaving. If the service and food was good then I’d let them have it as it’d be cheaper than my usual tip anyway.