The 15% gratuity thread has discusse this issue a little, but I’d like to dedicate a thread to the topic.
The question is, am I contracting with the restaurant (let’s say one which offers to sit you at a table and wait on you, just to be clear) solely that they provide me with food goods in exchange for money, or rather, am I contracting with them that they provide me a service for money?
I think clearly the latter, at least on the strength of the fact that it is expected that the restaurant will be cooking and preparing the food for me. That’s a service, not a good.
If I’m right about that, I have two further questions:
Is the manner in which the food is to be served also part of my contract with the establishment?
Could I argue in a claims court that I am not liable to pay at least part of the charged amount, even if I ate the food, on the basis that the service of the food was not up to some standard or other?
(I take it that eating the food amounts to an avowal that the quality of the cooking and preparing of the food were themselves fine. I am here asking about the quality of the manner in which the food was served.)
Both, in a way. You receive ownership of the food; that’s a good. You receive the right to use a table for the duration of your meal; that’s a service. But the service is basically thrown in for free with the goods - you don’t pay more depending on what kind of table you sit at, how long you stay, or how much of the waiter’s time you take up. Any additional payment is between you and the staff in the form of a tip.
First, I think you’d have a hard time deciding how much of your bill is for the service and how much is for the goods, considering that the restaurant is free to set their own prices for both.
Then, you’d have another hard time deciding which standard your service was supposed to live up to. They’re not promising that your food will be ready within any specific timeframe, or that the server will come by every X minutes to see if you need a refill, etc.
And think about what kind of precedent you’ll be setting if you succeed. Suppose you go into a restaurant, you’re seated, you place your order, and you wait half an hour but your food doesn’t arrive. You get tired of waiting and leave. “Hold on,” they say, “aren’t you going to pay for that?” “For what? I haven’t eaten anything.” “Oh, but you’ve used our services. We guided you to a table, we took down your order, and you sat there enjoying our atmosphere for 30 minutes. That’ll be $4.”
I’m aware of the practical difficulties involved in the kind of thing I’m suggesting, but I was really hoping to find out if there are clear cut legal answers to the questions I was asking.
Well, in fact, on those two or three occasions on which I have, in the past, taken up a table and recieved complimentary service without actually ending up ordering anything, I have felt a little guilty as I left–like I got something for free!
Also, if, after a meal, my party stays at the table gabbing for a while, I will often leave an extra tip even if the server did nothing during the gab session. Others have told me they do the same thing. I think our intuition is that by taking up this table, we are inhibiting the server’s (and by extension the restaurant’s) ability to deliver it’s services to other customers and they should be compensated as a result.
Of course I never thought to compensate the restaurant directly, but if a manager came by and insisted I need to put down five bucks if I’m going to stick around without ordering anything, especially if I’m going to accept complimentary water or whatever from the waiter, then I’d be suprised, but wouldn’t think it an unreasonable request!
You’d be setting the “pay whatever you feel like” precedent. The same argument could be set forth for virtually anything:
“Well, I know I said I was going pay you $250,000 to build my house… but, even though we never set an exact deadline for completion beforehand, I think you were kind of slow. And your attitude was rather saucy. So here’s $176,000.”
(bolding mine)
The “some standard or other” is your problem. The restaurant doesn’t have any written guarantees that they are going to give you piping hot delicious food with excellent, speedy, & cheerful service. That’s just implied by social custom, and restaurants that consistently offer terrible service tend not to survive. Your best way to protest against what you perceive as lousy service is to follow this tradition and simply not patronize such restaurants. Problem solved, and it will save you the court costs.
Unless you bring your ingredients with you, a restaurant provides both goods and services. It also provides hospitality, depending on how long you can stay before they try to kick you off the table.
In times past, i.e. not too many years ago the gratuity or tip was not on the bil. Usually left on the table for the server.
Too many cheapskates skipped the tip, stiffing the server.
The IRS figured they server was NOT reporting tips as wages per their rules and the server got stuck paying income tax on monies not received. Sit down food establishments aka restaurants then added the tip to the bill calling it a gratuity.
Understand?
Quiturbitchin, shut up, and pay up!
Right, these are all problems, but they are practical problems. I’m asking a theoretical legal question. I’m asking what laws apply, and what they say.
You might begin by looking up how local laws deal with taxation.
For instance, Washington is a sales tax state; Oregon is not. If an Oregonian comes into my piano store and wants me to ship a piano to Eugene, I fill out paperwork, and voila — no tax. The sale took place here, but to a non-resident, and the product was never used or received in Washington’s borders.
If an Oregonian comes into my hotel and rents a room, I believe he pays tax, because he consumed the service in Washington.
If an Oregonian comes into my restaurant, I believe it is up to me to decide if I want to go to the trouble of filling out the paperwork. I can, I think, but I’m not required to. Food is something generally understood to be “consumed on the premises,” or something.
This is how it worked when I did bookkeeping about five years ago. I’d have to look up the relevant laws again.