I saw receipt (from Bob’s Burgers in Seymour’s Bay, NJ) for 2 cheeseburgers, 1 ‘peas burger’, Cajun fries, sweet potato fries, and three soft drinks. But then there’s another line: 1 Included Tip (20%) $7.46.
The patron writes -7.46 on the tip line (yes, there’s a tip line in addition to the added tip), wrote a new total on the Total line, signs it ‘Scrooge Mcduck’ [sic], and writes, ‘Refund my 7.46. I am not going to be forced to tip.’
Does that actually override the printed amount? Or will the printed amount just be charged?
It’s just up to whoever decides to punch the actual numbers into the credit card machine. Any sane restaurant would probably prefer to eat the $7.46 than risk a chargeback.
Interesting thing about chargebacks, the merchant has to pay a fee for that. In this case, Bob would have $7.46 removed from his bank account until the chargeback is sorted out and it’s returned to either him or the customer. His next bill from the processor will include a $15-$30 fee, for the chargeback, regardless of who ‘wins’.
That usually means that either it is a fake bill posted to elicit hits, or it was a real bill, and all info that would actually explain what happened was deleted, again, to elicit hits. I have never been to a restaurant of any kind were there was no notice that, in some circumstances, a tip would be automatically added.
Restaurants, airports, etc. can add whatever bogus fees and service charges they want to. You can often challenge some but not all of them. They count on customer indifference and avoidance of conflict, not force of law, to make those fees go through.
If they get enough chargebacks, they’ll get dropped by their credit card processor. That’s really the mediating force here, not whatever they print on the signs or receipts.
That explains a lot. There is a similar fake receipt (with similar fake indignation created to elicit reactions from posters) from The Krusty Krab Restaurant in Bikini Bottom, Florida.
Yes, I did. I wanted to make it clear I was asking a general question, and not asking if the specific receipt that prompted the OP is real, since the post above my last one seemed to be answering the question I didn’t ask.
It seems that answer is that if a service charge is added, and there was a notification that a service charge would be added, then a patron can’t negate it. I didn’t see it: Does verbiage matter? Suppose a notification says ‘tip’ or ‘gratuity’ instead of ‘service charge’? Does the verbiage only affect the server’s compensation?
In many European restaurants, a 10-15% service charge is often included (“service compris”) in the menu prices or added to the final bill, particularly in popular tourist areas or for large groups. If included, extra tipping is not required, although rounding up or leaving a few euros for exceptional service is appreciated
Also, a lot of restaurants here have a policy where large groups automatically pay a tip. Because a lot of people who would leave 15% if they spent $50 at a restaurant seem to think when they spend $500 as a group, a 15% tip ($75) is too much money. (If anything, large groups are even harder to wait on)
The key thing here is, as pointed out, that the charge must be explicit before the customer orders - on the menu or on a sign by the door.
After all, it’s not llike it’s a life-saving medical procedure where they could ding you with out-of-plan medical fees after you wake up.
IMHO there should be no tipping and staff should be paid a living wage by the employer.
I have noticed several times that when the charge shows up in my online bank balance that it is just for the meal amount, not including the tip. A day or two later the charge for the tip shows up.
The other thing is that every large group includes that cheap unscrupulous person, or persons, who figures they can leave a zero tip contribution & get away with it; nobody else in their group will notice.
That was a lot more common when everyone would pool cash to pay, rather than the more modern system where the restaurant’s computer tracks everything by seat and each person pays for their own meal + tip independently of the others.