‘Nay’.
Although it’s common in touristy spots of Thailand. Common enough, in fact, that some restaurants and bars distinguish themselves by announcing “no service charge” on their outdoor billing.
This is pretty common in the Mexico City area (“cubierto”), too. I’ve been all over the country, and have only ever seen it here.
When beef prices were extremely high a few years ago, a small diner by me put a service charge to cover the increase in prices. They said it was easier to do that than have new menu’s printed. Before you ask, I always ordered burgers from this place, so I have no idea if they put the charge on there if you ordered chicken. I didn’t mind it and I don’t think many people around did. They put up signs on the door and were more than willing to explain it to anyone who had questions.
Last time I flew through Oakland I stopped in the Pyramid Ale House inside the airport, which was one of the worst places I have ever been to, inside or outside of an airport. After my horrendous experience they finally gave me my bill (almost late to my gate) and they had some hidden fee on there for “employee health care.” I’d never seen that before.
I don’t think the fixed (non-percentage) cover charge that’s common practice in some places in Europe is what the OP is talking about. The cover charge is an established practice, it’s usually shown on the menu. It’s not a service charge, it’s more an occupation charge. If you have limited seating at a cafe in a busy place, this fixed base charge means you’re paying a fair price if you just want to order a coffee and sit and chat for half an hour. At a busy cafe, it means there’s more likely to be a free table available in the first place, so I don’t object to the principle at all. In any event, I don’t see any problem with any form of charging so long as it’s not deceptive - if it’s widely accepted common practice, and/or if it’s displayed prominently on the menu so that you know about it before you order.
But if it’s a sneaky hidden charge, a way to pad the bill without displaying true pricing, then there’s no obligation to pay it if it wasn’t clearly disclosed before you ordered. I’d refuse to pay it, even if it’s a small amount. I want to make them have to go to the trouble of going back to reprint my bill without the charge, so that they understand that this kind of deceptive practice is a problem.
That’s my question. Was it stated on the menu or a sign by the door or somewhere a patron could easily see that there was a 5% service charge? If not, I’d scream loudly and call Channel 58 Fights For You.
If so, well, it sucks, but at least they told you up front. And no, it isn’t in place of a tip.
I’d say one rather simple principle goes like this: Charges presented openly are valid; sneaky ones aren’t.
The simplest scheme is clearly best: menu shows the total cost of food items, which is what you end up paying. I think it’s stupid to get into the business of itemizing restaurant charges: so much for the food, this much to cover rent, this for employee healthcare, etc. But provided this silly scheme is clearly understood by customers, it’s okay.
In contrast, if any customer receives a bill that includes unexpected charges, that’s not okay. A customer would be well within his rights to say “I will pay this 3% healthcare surcharge provided you show me where you clearly disclosed it; otherwise, not.”
If this deplorable idea catches on, I’ll be directing my business toward restaurants displaying the sign that says “No sneaky charges - our menus are honest.”
I would review the menu to see if there was mention of the charge. If not listed I’d be inclined to charge the restaurant a 10% menu surcharge certification fee.
In my view, the whole point of a mandatory service charge is that it replaces tipping; it doesn’t supplement it. So, yeah, deduct away.
Update: I checked out the restaurant’s website and found this:
Oddly enough, the menu had exactly the same wording–except it dropped the last sentence.
Mmmmm - someone needs to mention this to Roman restaurateurs. The practice was alive and well in March.
j
It’s just bullshit, along with the “Kitchen tip” I saw on a bill recently. Instead of pissing off patrons, just raise the price of your meals by 5%.
I have a problem with the whole idea of a healthcare surcharge; that should be rolled into the price of the products I’m buying, whether they’re food items or service, not called out separately in some sort of passive-aggressive virtue signaling on the part of the restaurant.
Otherwise, why wouldn’t they just call out every fee that’s not explicitly part of the food ingredients or preparation labor? For example, have a 0.10% “Soap and Toilet Paper Fee”, a 0.15% “Management Fee” and a 0.10% Dishwashing Fee?
I don’t want to know anything at all about your inner admin, I couldn’t care less.
Create a clear price list that tells me what I have to pay for the service and goods you are offering to supply. No need to break it down because I just don’t care. The food you create for me and the means by which you get it to my table are utterly indistinguishable. If you leave certain charges unclear or ambiguous then I’ll be equally ambiguous about the way I pay you.
It sticks in my throat every time I’m expected to tip anyone for anything. Do your job and charge me what you need to charge me.
So that disingenuous bullshit makes clear that it’s not going to the staff to supplement their tip. They have to pay “wages and commissions to those who prepare the meals” anyway, it’s a cost of doing business. It’s just a deceptive way to increase prices by 5%.
They are basically trying to move toward the U.S. healthcare pricing model. If applied to a loaf of bread in the supermarket it would look like this. There would be no price shown on the shelf where you select the product. Even the “cashier” has no idea what you must pay, and you must commit to purchasing the loaf of bread before knowing what it will cost you. After eating the bread, you receive an itemized bill in the mail:
wheat growing fee - $1.85
fertilizer supplement - $0.25
harvesting fee - $0.50
milling fee - $1.25
baking supervision - $1.75
oven cleaning surcharge - $0.50
packaging - $1.75
transportation $2.25
.
.
.
.
total = $27.50
Shocked, you now contact the supermarket accounting department, who insist that this is what a loaf of bread always costs, but if you provide details of your income and number of dependents, maybe they can give you a 10% discount for cash.
That’s a bit what a landline phone bill looks like these days.
However, it’s too bad you didn’t have bread insurance, because your bread insurance company would have negotiated a group rate of $4.99 for the same loaf of bread.
I haven’t been to Rome for many years but my understanding is that coperto is not allowed but they will try to charge you for bread. If you decline the bread when it’s brought you won’t be charged. Things might have changed.
(In US) I’ve come across it a few times and I hate it. Time-honored practice is to just increase your prices if costs increase. They’re counting on most people simply not noticing. which is disingenuous at best.
This brings to mind when airlines tacked on a “fuel surcharge” during one of the oil spikes of the mid-2000s. Dudes, fuel costs are supposed to have been factored in to your ticket prices. Sucks for you if you calculated one way for a profit and you ended up with a loss.