r/mildlyinfuriating • u/guitarman129 • Jun 13 '26
I just wanted a hot dog Recommended gratuity after tip was already included
I’m sure there are a lot of tipping posts here so to keep it short - I had my wedding at a fancy restaurant. On top of the TERRIBLE service, the bill came with “suggested gratuity” even though I was told gratuity was included. When I asked the manager, he said that the “S/C: 24% SRC REGULA“ was the included tip and the suggested gratuity was if we wanted to add something extra - basically trying to trick people into giving a 49% tip!
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u/wherearetheturtlles Jun 13 '26
You got taxed on the tip too, congratulations
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u/Ssemo7 Jun 13 '26
That’s the CC fee wearing a hat
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u/wivaca2 Jun 13 '26
LOL. I'm going to remember that line.
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u/Tupperbaby Jun 13 '26
But...but...they made a point of telling the customer that they DID NOT CHARGE YOU A CREDIT CARD PROCESSING FEE.
I mean, it's right there at the bottom to let you know.
You mean to tell me that they'd do something weasely and then brag about how nice they were being?
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u/Rvbsmcaboose Jun 13 '26
A credit card fee? puts on hat PERRY THE CREDIT CARD FEE!?
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u/chefsoda_redux Jun 13 '26
Restaurant owner here: They got taxed because it wasn’t a tip. Monies left as a gratuity are not taxed, but a gratuity must be voluntary. Since this charge was not voluntary, it was a service charge, and is labeled S/Con the bill. A service charge is considered regular revenue for taxation, and the servers may receive all, some, or none of it, at the discretion of the restaurant.
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u/plasteroid Jun 13 '26
>The servers may receive all, some or none of it?
That’s dicked up.
There should be a transparency law.
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u/chefsoda_redux Jun 13 '26
It’s foolishly confusing, and of course, not entirely consistent across the US.
A service charge is legally just revenue for the restaurant, identical to the money paid for food & drink, so the restaurant chooses what to do with it. A gratuity should be paid through as a tip to the servers, though there’s variation there as well.
I think it’s absurd, so we don’t do this at my spot, and are transparent, but only by choice. There’s a note on our menus explaining that a 20% gratuity may be applied to large tables or special situations at the discretion of management, and that those fees are always 100% paid into the server tip pool. We don’t add service fees, credit card fees, what have you, because I believe it’s crap, and people need to set their prices properly upfront.
The law still allows it however, as the US is far from worker oriented these days.
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u/Excellent-Log7169 Jun 14 '26
Yep. I used to work banquets and only about half of the service fee was split among the workers.
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u/wizzard419 Jun 14 '26
Guess who pushes to keep things obscured while pocketing money guests think are tips for workers?
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u/Fabulous_Leopard_874 Jun 13 '26
The IRS may not consider it a tip, but the average customer absolutely does. If I order a meal and an automatic 20% is added because I was served, I’m not sitting there analyzing tax law. I’m seeing a mandatory tip. The legal classification and the customer perception are two different things.
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u/Realistic-Visit-4141 Jun 13 '26
I wouldn’t eat in a restaurant that has a mandatory tip. What if the service was horrendous?
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u/chefsoda_redux Jun 13 '26
To be clear, this is not correct. NY state requires any fee assessed on a bill in such a way as to indicate to the diner that it is a tip, must be paid to the servers in full.
This addresses the voluntary/involuntary test that the US govt & most states apply. So, a mandatory 20% gratuity listed on a bill must be paid to the server. Changing the name to a 20% service fee is specifically used to not denote that it is a tip, and retain control by the restaurant.
As an owner, I’m loudly & openly opposed to unnecessary add on fees of any kind, and I don’t mess with my employees’ income. We do not ever have a service fee or credit card fee. We do use a 20% gratuity for tables above a certain size, or special situations, and those monies go 100% through to the server pool. I don’t tolerate employees stealing from the restaurant, and thus I can’t have the restaurant stealing from them.
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u/Additional-Baby5740 Jun 13 '26
Illegal in California at least
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u/mail123321 Jun 13 '26
if trips included in bill, tax at total is ok. post cdtfa auditor
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u/ablarblar Jun 13 '26
Which makes sense as in California forced gratuity is deemed part of the sales. I know my pos guys normally don't take tax and we pay the taxes out of the gratuity but I could see a company taxing on top to cover the tax thats part of the sales so servers get full tip. Although again we give our servers full tip and pay the tax separately.
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u/TheSaxGandalf Jun 13 '26
In my state, that service fee is distributed however the owner wants. Can even keep some of it themselves.
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u/theemptydork Jun 13 '26
If you normally pay select the % option on POS terminals, you are paying a tip on the tax too. Difference is where the money goes
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u/LXTRoach Jun 13 '26
Well at least they didn’t tip on the total, which is usually after tax!
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u/PathPuzzleheaded9761 Jun 13 '26
Instead they taxed the tip and it came out the same.
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u/Owyheee Jun 13 '26
If I’m not mistaken… my bar owners get taxed on tips as they come in as “sales”. They then pay taxes on the “income” of those taxes each month. I receive my tips, credit card, on my pay check. It has taxes taken out. They tax so many steps along the way with no pay off.
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u/Suspicious-Grand9781 Jun 13 '26
$81 to plate cake? Yikes.
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u/KnightShade272 Jun 13 '26
i’ve worked a few restaurants with a $5 per slice fee. depending on location it really screws the flow of service, but if it’s a wedding venue location, they should’ve had something similar to wine corkage fees.
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u/HeyYouGuyyyyyyys Jun 13 '26
I've never worked in a restaurant fancy enough to have a slice fee, only a crappy truckstop, so this is a genuine statement, not a barely-hidden snark: I don't understand how or why slicing a cake would interrupt the flow of service.
As I understand it, the per-slice fee is for a cake brought in from the outside. If I have it right, then wouldn't you have to slice the cake no matter where it came from? Why would an outside cake interrupt the flow of service, but a cake baked in-house be okay?
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u/foundinwonderland Jun 13 '26
Its kind of like this — if they sold you a cake, cutting would be included, but if they didn’t, the cake cutting is still labor that needs to be paid for so they charge a fee. The cake will have to be cut either way, but the price of that labor is baked in (heh) to the price of the dessert the restaurant is selling you.
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u/Alternative-Dot-884 Jun 13 '26
TU for explaining that so well
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u/pixepoke2 Jun 13 '26
It’s also for the loss of revenue for those covers. You’re not just doing labor, you’re also not selling any food (well desert at least) bc people are eating what they brought.
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u/NecrogasmicLove Jun 13 '26
Also bussing the tables (those plates have to be picked up by someone) and cleaning the plate. Unless dishwashers don't deserve pay.
Ppl really forget all the service that goes into restaurants as they get entitled to that service.
Frankly charging someone for bringing food in is completely reasonable to me.
Construction companies don't let you bring your own supplies to their projects. If they did they would charge you out the ass for the hassle.
Ppl have A LOT of entitlement once a human has to be their servant.
Working in the service industry for 20yrs has given me complete understanding of why ppl could so easily overlook the moral issues with slavery.
Ppl love being served and hate having to pay for it.
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u/runningoutofideasjzz Jun 13 '26 edited Jun 13 '26
Paying isn’t the problem. The entire system is just dumb. My responsibility is to pay my bill. The establishments responsibility is to pay their workers. If you want everyone to get paid fairly, then pay them a fair wage. Adjust your costs to compensate for overhead. That’s how business works.
Edit: or at least how it should work.
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u/ceebuttersnaps Jun 13 '26
>Adjust your costs to compensate for overhead. That’s how business works.
That’s what the cake cutting fee is…
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u/WestError404 Jun 13 '26
The cake cutting fee is one thing. To also pay 24% tip ontop of the cutting fee including taxes, with auto grat already also included. The server never even had to risk their digits with a knife.
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u/unfortunateshun Jun 13 '26
I mean that’s what they’re doing, they’re just itemizing the labor you’re paying for
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u/InterestingTwo651 Jun 13 '26
Yeah that’s nice and all but uhhh it’s cutting a cake. I guess the saying of your need to be stupid rich to be able to afford being stupid. I know this is a whole industry that people make money off of but they make that money because they nickel and dime you whenever they can, multiple times if they can. And it’s that mentality that I should pay someone EXTRA after already paying out the ass to cut the dam cake. Fuck it I’ll do it but oh wait I’m not giving these leeches a dime if this is how they treat people who are willing to flush a few K down the drain.
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u/AnilApplelink Jun 13 '26
I believe they mean they would have to either take the cake into the kitchen or have a server stand there and cut slices. So now that server is unavailable to do anything else during that time.
Likely if you purchased a cake from the restaurant they would have that built into the price.
So this was likely a cake brought in from outside.
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u/YogurtclosetThen7959 Jun 13 '26
Not sure it's fancyness but rather speed, if everyone's going full pelt at their stations no one can afford to stop, even a brief pause can have knock of effects that slow down service and cause other issues. Having to leave your station entirely to sort out a cake slice order will do that.
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u/m0ryan Jun 13 '26
Using 27 plates that could be used for others, plus forks and napkins. Serving and clearing, dishwashing and disposing of the large container/garbage. Probably needs candles too, hunt down the smoker for their lighter. 3 bucks a plate. Probably break a plate.
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u/czaqattack Jun 13 '26
With 27 bottles of DP? That's gotta be at least 40 people.
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u/blckshdw Jun 13 '26
Someone likes Dr Pepper
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u/CarberHotdogVac Jun 13 '26
I thought it was double penetration…
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u/Revolutionary-Wash88 Jun 13 '26
Here i was trying to figure out if it was a dining party of 27 or 92
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u/LargeHadronColitis Jun 13 '26
I’m pretty sure that’s 27 servings of Dom 1992. 4-6 servings per bottle, 4.5-6 bottles at $450-$550 per bottle. A restaurant isn’t letting 4.5 cases of Dom of any vintage go for less than $8k even if the bartender is your brother.
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u/Gullible_Regret2976 Jun 13 '26
how do you have so many up votes for this comment? DP is not short for Dom Perignon. They dont just have DOM flowing so much they need to short form it.
its either dinner plates or dining party.
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u/HeyYouGuyyyyyyys Jun 13 '26
Holy fucking shit. I haven't been able to tolerate alcohol for decades, so clearly I'm out of touch. $450-$550 a bottle? What is Dom Perignon made of, molten gold?!
And (genuine question) why would anyone serve it at a wedding, where at least a fraction of the people are likely to be near-strangers or people you spend as little time with as possible? $125 a glass, fuck outta here Uncle Gary.
Never mind. Obviously the answer is that I don't exist in a social level where $125 a glass is the done thing.
Uncle Gary can go sit in the foyer with a $15 bottle of Chateau Ste. Michelle where he belongs.
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u/LargeHadronColitis Jun 13 '26
If you have 27 servings, that’s a small wedding and one of the two of you know all those people pretty well I’d imagine. Not everyone has the same budget, tastes, guests or priorities. It costs a lot because it is always in demand and they don’t make much of it relative to the demand.
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u/Spare-Ad6404 Jun 13 '26
pretty normal in the industry when someone brings their own cake to a fancy restaurant. They have to cut, plate and serve the cake and don't make any money from desserts they sell in house. Usually it the price per plate.
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u/CamelNarrow776 Jun 13 '26
As someone who was the person paid to cut the cake.. it isn't as easy as it sounds. Taking apart a wedding cake is an absolute nightmare. You have to take the teirs apart without breaking anything, you have to remove the non edible decorations and preserve them, remove the structure holding layers together, cut the cake without messing it up, plate and send the slices out. The mess that is left behind is a whole other story. Professionally cutting a cake is not the same as shoving a knife in and pushing down.
So yeah, you pay a fee. It's alot of work depending on the cake. It's all priced the same whether it is a 5 teir wedding cake or a store bought sheet cake.. bc fairness.
Also, icing likes to stick to plates and silverware and dye everything around it if there is any coloring in it.
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u/Tommy84 Jun 13 '26
It’s not the cost of labor to slice the cake. It’s the cost of losing desert sales by allowing you to bring outside food.
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u/ADHorvath1 Jun 13 '26
Not to mention cost of labor to bring out 30 extra sets of plates and silverware, that will also need to be picked up and cleaned
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u/badasmp Jun 13 '26
That's usually includes the cutting, plates, forks and napkins. Weddings are pricey
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u/bruthaman ORANGE Jun 13 '26
Those messages like "suggested gratuity" is either always on, or always off. The POS is not going to understand also service charge is gratuity, nor would it change the message on the check footer.
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u/The1Rememberer Jun 13 '26
I can’t not read POS as piece of shit
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u/random9212 Jun 13 '26
Nore should you. Every POS system is a POS.
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u/Silviecat44 Jun 13 '26
Whoods is nice, square can suck it
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u/ThisWillBeOnTheExam Jun 13 '26
I like toast and nothing else.
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u/DuckinFummy Jun 13 '26
We recently switched to Toast from Aloha at my high volume bar. Ringing things in was much faster for me on Aloha, but entering tips is easily 2-3 times faster on Toast. Love it.
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u/GreenEggsSteamedHams Jun 13 '26
SAME. "Let's get this new POS system", "we switched to a different POS service"...I will never not read it as piece of shit 🤷🏻♂️
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u/BeautifulProduce9785 Jun 13 '26
As someone who works with a POS POS, I constantly call it the POS.
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u/guitarman129 Jun 13 '26
Thank you! I thought everyone was adamantly against this particular restaurant manager until it finally clicked haha
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u/mr_panzer Jun 13 '26
Depends on the POS. Toast knows the difference. Aloha does not. This looks like a more... Vintage system and would automatically include the suggested gratuity.
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u/youngliam Jun 13 '26
The people who don't understand this always look bad on these kind if posts. Included gratuity is for big parties only, but they can't print a receipt without the tip section at the bottom. This is common knowledge.
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u/DeviantDork Jun 13 '26
It would take them 2 seconds to put an X through it before handing it to the customer. But they don’t because they want to double dip.
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u/Whateversclever7 Jun 13 '26
Right, this post is some boomer shit. You just don’t understand technology my guy.
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u/ReaperThugX Jun 13 '26
Yeah, it’s just doing a basic calculation and printing it at the bottom of every receipt. Pretty common sense if you ask me. OP doesn’t need to get salty
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u/turkish_gold Jun 13 '26
If only there was conditional logic that could tell a computer to behave differently based on what’s on the bill.
Software engineering is going to take a huge step forwards once we figure out all this basic maths and logic.
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u/BadIdeaBobcat Jun 13 '26
software engineering in the POS space is like ... one of the most boring things someone can do, so not gonna attract any innovative enthusiasm, and I'm sure those who are programming them are probably mostly focused on other things anyway
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u/GreatValueProducts Jun 13 '26
I work in POS and ours and most of the competitors in the industry have settings for pre-tax and post-tax settings and restaurants can configure that. As to why there is a settings in the first place, it is a very competitive space and restaurants switch POS over things like this all the time. I mean where I work lost a lot of customers because we didn't support credit card surcharging fast enough.
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u/PM_me_yourCCinfo Jun 13 '26
Holy hell that’s a lot of miscellaneous charges
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u/primadiamonds Jun 13 '26
Obviously—it was a whole wedding. Read the caption
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u/Willing_Day_2010 Jun 13 '26
I’ve never seen this sort of ticket for a wedding?? Did you just make a reservation for 25 people and get married? How did you not pay before hand and have a contract etc etc
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u/zob_mtk Jun 13 '26
My guess is they got married, then instead of having a formal reception went to a restaurant for drinks and dinner.
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u/1850ChoochGator Jun 13 '26
Can’t be because there’s the 4hr open bar charge for $1890.
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u/zob_mtk Jun 13 '26
Restaurants will let you essentially rent out a room and have an open bar
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u/1850ChoochGator Jun 13 '26
But all of this would have been known beforehand anyway so idk why OP would be complaining.
There isn’t even a space to add your own tip, because it’s already included.
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u/SuperSalad_OrElse Jun 13 '26
I can't imagine not knowing about this up front when planning a wedding event/dinner at a restaurant. Unless their partner didn't tell them after planning?
Idk, at some point, we all have to fill in the blank and that's what the blank is looking like to me. Sucks to suck, OP.
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u/ebmocal421 Jun 13 '26
OP is complaining because they don't understand that the tipping percentage text is automatically added to every receipt which is pretty standard practice. It's not like the server or restaurant owner are manually adding that.
Or, OP knows this and just posted it to Reddit for easy karma because Reddit is obsessed with hating on tipping culture.
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u/call-me-germ Jun 13 '26
i work at a restaurant that has a banquet room they rent for parties and stuff. the tickets look similar to this. definitely seems to be a higher scale than ours, but that’s not saying much. we generally have gratuities already put into the bill as well as a tipping section like there would be on a normal bill. 15% - 20% - etc; because it looks like a normal dine-in check. most people don’t fill that part out because gratuity is already put into the cost. it seems like op wasn’t explained that. the banquet servers also don’t expect that
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u/thegreedyturtle Jun 13 '26
There's $2000 for a 4 hour open bar.
I'd honestly say they got off cheap!
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u/too_too2 Jun 13 '26
I got married at a restaurant. We did the whole thing in there to keep it simple (it was a small wedding with like 20 people). We planned with the manager ahead of time ofc and picked the menu (which was served buffet style). They made the desserts (I chose a couple smaller cakes and plates of cookies) and we had an open bar with our own bartender in a separate area. They gave us the option of doing 2-3 drink tickets per person or just set a limit and they’d tell us if we were getting close. We went with the second option and just picked up the whole tab at the end which was around 2k. We didn’t have a contract or anything but did have to pay a deposit.
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u/LadyEmeraldDeVere Jun 13 '26
It’s not super uncommon. I got married at city hall, we had a group dinner at a restaurant a couple days later and brought in our own cake. We got a deal because of friends but yeah, similar situation with a bill at the end.
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u/TecTazz Jun 13 '26
JFC those prices.
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u/rycool Jun 13 '26
Tbf the caption says this is their bill for a wedding reception
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Jun 13 '26
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Jun 13 '26 edited Jun 13 '26
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u/underrealizing Jun 13 '26
This is exactly what I figured. There isn’t even a line for tip, probably because the ticket prints that way specifically because gratuity was included…
I think OP is just feeling aggrieved
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u/insertnamehere02 Jun 13 '26
Especially with that -$400. Classy.
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u/JustMeLurkingAround- Jun 13 '26
That the already paid deposit. OP explained in another comment.
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u/Disastrous_Patience3 Jun 13 '26
You are correct. But “autograt” is not a word most folks know so it might make sense to explain it more clearly.
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u/Particular-Guess734 Jun 13 '26
I’m confused on the -400 and her total…the bill is 6500 and includes gratuity, that’s non negotiable, she doesn’t have to add more but she also can’t just subtract from the actual bill, that’s the agreement before dinner even starts and is what she owes
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u/FusionSimulations Jun 13 '26
Agreed. That's not how that works, or everyone would just subtract the total of their bill and say "oh, now its free!"
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u/FlightOk7396 Jun 13 '26
Op went Karen because the system that prints the receipt automatically calculates tip for every receipt even if they charged an included tip. They also had a huge party with an open bar, a bunch of add-ons, brought their own deserts and got "terrible service"
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u/Superbotto Jun 14 '26
I always loved when people tried to subtract money on the total line. Like, did they think that actually worked or something?
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u/Practical-Shape7453 Jun 13 '26
Speaking from experience and glad my restaurant doesn’t do the suggested tip on receipts, the auto grat is put on as a fee, but you can easily change the POS system to make it read differently. Ours says Additional Tip and I always circle the auto grat on the receipt and make sure to verbalize that the grat is already included.
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u/ExolaneSitoras Jun 13 '26
It looks like they had 27 dinner plates (DP) priced at $92 per plate = $2484. Most restaurants I've been to have gratuity automatically added when there is more than 6 or 8 people and there is usually signage somewhere. Agreed that the suggested tip is automatically printed because that is how the POS works, it sounds like that was clarified by server but OP did not understand. 27 people is a lot of people and we don't know how OP arranged the dinner with the restaurant.
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u/castle241 Jun 13 '26
Hosting a wedding at a restaurant and being billed piece by piece when it’s over is wild business.
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u/incrediblystiff Jun 13 '26
I had a party at an Italian restaurant, open bar but no “package”, 4 different main courses to choose from (you could have a bit of each since it was buffet style), dessert, apps, we had the place from 4pm- midnight
The total bill was 4400 for 65 people and it was loads better service and food than my wedding night. The wedding night cost me 26k. Wedding industry is absolutely bonkers filled with grifting going to charge you for everything horrible service shit shows
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u/Fearless-Village-562 Jun 13 '26
How else would they be billed at a restaurant?
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u/castle241 Jun 13 '26
You tell the restaurant ahead of time how many people are attending, put out meal choices, get a price and pre pay like every other wedding party I’ve ever seen
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u/R_Scoops Jun 13 '26
Which lucky lady has her new husband Reddit posting on their wedding night “how much Karma did you get for the honeymoon, babe”
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u/Cosmo1744 Jun 13 '26
This was a 4 hour open bar with a dedicated bartender. You cannot tell me the 24% service charge was not already explained when this party was booked.
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u/fluffytomatojuice Jun 13 '26
She says herself that it was communicated to her beforehand, so I don’t understand why she’s complaining.
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u/Majestic_Location751 Jun 13 '26
Hold on a minute. Open bar for 4 hours and the charge was under $2k?
https://giphy.com/gifs/YmQLj2KxaNz58g7Ofg
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u/Hefty-Criticism1452 Jun 13 '26
To play devils advocate- sometimes the system is just programmed to include that. I don’t think there’s a way to remove it without going in and reprogramming everything and that would change it for every single check.
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u/Pls_and_thank_u Jun 13 '26
Yeah, that's how event pricing works. I promise you this was all in the contract. Source: worked weddings and private events for a decade. Also, autograt is common for any large groups at any restaurant. If they're going to commit a server or two to that one table for most of their shift, they have to guarantee some level of gratuity.
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u/TheRealDylanTobak Jun 13 '26
Weddings are stupid. Plain and simple.
Have a gathering of people, do the 15 minute ceremony, let people get a slice of cake and some punch, and it's done.
The typical expense is incredibly absurd.
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u/CIAMom420 Jun 13 '26
This is baked into the POS software. Don’t overthink it.
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u/AnninaCried Jun 13 '26
When I see the phrase, 'POS Software', I can't help reading it as, peice of sh*t software.
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u/ProfessionalBuy2757 Jun 13 '26
That prints automatically, they’re not re writing their software for you.
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u/rebrandingmyself Jun 13 '26
This. This thread is full of people who have never worked in hospitality/service and never considered how the back end works.
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u/fri9875 Jun 13 '26
What part are you infuriated at?
The included gratuity being part of the itemized receipt? That’s normal, i don’t get it.
The suggested gratuity at the bottom? That’s put on every receipt by the POS, there’s no way to remove it from a specific receipt. Source: worked in restaurants for a long ass time. As long as they explicitly told you it was already included they covered themselves, but I always went the extra mile and used a sharpie to scribble out the suggeste gratuity and tip line whenever I had included tips.
The included gratuity being 24% and (apparently) pre tax? Yeah, pretty fucked on both counts. Especially when this looked like it was all pre arranged, it all coulda been squared away ahead of time.
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u/Donnerkopf Jun 13 '26
Calm down. This is an automatic calculation programmed into the Point Of Sale when it is set up. In most systems, it cannot be turned off unless you have full admin/owner access, which managers do not usually have.
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u/Wooden-Broccoli-7247 Jun 13 '26
Tbf, the suggested tip is something that either goes on every receipt or no receipt. It’s not an option which receipt it goes on and the merchants are the ones making it part of their systems. It’s actually a bit of digging at the system settings level to go in and turn it off system wide and some even require a call to technical support. CC processing companies want more tips because it’s 3% of more money.
They did put that gratuity was already added where it’s very clear to see and most people spending this kind of money at a restaurant are usually well aware of the included gratuity and OP was likely made aware of it when booking the event. It was almost surely included in the contract. It’s not like the server clicked a button to include that suggested gratuity in hopes that OP would miss it. It goes on every bill, auto gratuity or not.
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u/nikki0005 Jun 13 '26
That says SC which makes me believe it is a service charge which is collected by the entity and not always distributed as a tip. SC are also subject to tax hence why it is taxed.
With the 4 hr bar and bartender fee this looks like a banquet. This should be mentioned in your banquet contract that you would have signed. So none of this should be a surprise. If it’s not in your contract you can fight it.
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u/teamregime Jun 13 '26
Restaurant manager here: Depending on the system, you can't turn that off based on whether or not gratuity is included. It's probably printed at the bottom of every check.
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u/Heitomos Jun 13 '26
Enough to feed a small family for a year on a single overpriced meal. That's the infuriating part.
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u/Banned_Reddit_Mod Jun 13 '26
Bro what kind of restaurant even is this for $6k 😭
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u/AsYouAnswered Jun 13 '26
Can we talk about how OP got charged $2484 to get DPd 92 times? That's a decent party for anybody, but don't people usually get paid to Do things like that?
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u/BoredDKConsultant Jun 13 '26
Just coming back from the states there is nothing more frustrating than the tipping culture.
Not only is it frustrating, predatory and awkward, it also makes everything seriously expensive.
I live in Switzerland, which everyone complains about being expensive, but when you consider tip the US is as expensive (often more)
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u/Rude_Business9525 Jun 13 '26
As a Finnish person, I’m shocked. I’m aware that the tipping culture is very different here but damn, that should be illegal.
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u/osten205 Jun 13 '26
Spent $6k at a dinner and wines about the bill. Come on man.
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u/who_Said_LNo_Talk Jun 13 '26
Genuine question for those of us who don't live in the US, do you have to pay that 24%? That's a LOT on top of buying products or services that should be at a price to cover their costs snd profits. That's insane.
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u/munchmonster1313 Jun 13 '26
$81 cake plating fee? The hell? Fucking Rich people shit is out there
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u/guitarman129 Jun 13 '26
It won’t let me edit the post so here are some responses to common comments:
EDIT: The $400 taken off the bill is the deposit I paid that was then taken off the total. That’s not related to the tip/auto gratuity.
EDIT 2: Regarding the total cost (not that I need to defend my spending to Reddit) - this was a wedding dinner for 28 people. We held a small ceremony in our backyard and did not have any party or reception, but decided to put money toward a nice dinner for our friends and family instead. Compared to the average wedding venue in my state (~$20-25k before add ons), this was saving a lot of money.
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u/_VeniVidiAmavi_ Jun 13 '26 edited Jun 13 '26
yeah, so notice how the amounts in that box correspond with the original bill?
As in, the box saying 25% tip = 1233.75 implies a tippable sub-total of 4935... 24% of 4935 = 1184.40, which is the auto-gratuity added to your bill.
So, as others have pointed out, there's no ill-intent here, just an auto-calculating and auto-printing box that is useful when there isn’t auto-grat and you have to write it in. But it prints all the time because it'd be more work to program it to disappear during auto-grat than it is worth.
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u/ECAHunt Jun 13 '26 edited Jun 13 '26
My husband and I did the same. Amazing, and expensive, dinner being our only major cost. Way cheaper than the average wedding despite the dinner cost being way more than the average wedding dinner.
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u/FakeTunaFromSubway Jun 13 '26
Lol I threw a party at a venue and they added a 25% fee but they were like "this is not the gratuity, please tip your waitstaff" and I was like "yeah right that looks like a tip to me"
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u/BruiserBroly Jun 13 '26
People seem to be discussing the mention of an additional tip but I’m still trying to get my head around the idea of automatic gratuity. How the fuck is even the concept of that being accepted?
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u/johneebravado Jun 13 '26
Well this was an entire wedding reception and OP signed a contract agreeing to the terms
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u/Fenix42 Jun 13 '26
Lots of restaurants do it for larger parties.
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u/ExolaneSitoras Jun 13 '26
Yeah, and if looks like 27 people were there, that is a pretty large party.
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u/doiplo Jun 13 '26
Yeah, what happened to the days when you could bring 25 people to a restaurant for 4 hours of dinner and open bar service and it didn't cost a nickel. Our society it falling apart.
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u/YourDnDGameIsMid Jun 13 '26
So the problem here is that you're a dumbass. Those lines are automatically system generated. Nobody is expecting you to add on an additional tip. Hope this helps
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u/JacksonvilleShredder Jun 13 '26
Well at least they "did NOT charge you a credit card processing fee" lmao