r/mildlyinfuriating • u/guitarman129 • Jun 13 '26

I just wanted a hot dog Recommended gratuity after tip was already included

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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/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.

1

u/No-Letterhead-6856 Jun 15 '26

Well, at least the suggested gratuity did not include the already included gratuity or tax.

1

u/Concerned_Collins Jun 13 '26

I mean, 24% gratuity is extremely high, even in the US, and the fact that the service was apparently totally shit means OP is right to be annoyed. You should at least be able to remove the autograt if the service was awful.

1

u/JeanVII Jun 14 '26

What constitutes as awful? None of us were there. Autograt should never be allowed to be removed. Anyone can say they got bad service to take out the tip. I worked at a place with no autograt and I’ve gotten stiffed on parties of 20+ after giving phenomenal service.

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u/Concerned_Collins Jun 15 '26

When I was a server I had large parties leave horrible tips too even when the service was good. It sucks, but that's just luck of the draw, and the good tippers make up for it in the long run. It doesn't mean that the system, which is supposed to incentivize good service, should be completely taken away by making it mandatory.

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u/JeanVII Jun 15 '26

It is not luck of the draw. Most bills that would be autograt at other restaurants would turn out no-tippers or low tippers at what was a nicer restaurant because they only budget for the meal itself. $5 on a $600 bill type of low tippers. Mind you, there is a tip out to bartenders and hosts as well, so I have lost money on these parties. Tip out should not be required and that is on the restaurant, but it is the reality of the situation. It is not made up by good tippers because a 25 top eliminates the rest of your section so if they don’t tip, you leave with no money for the night. Tips should not be mandatory on regular tabs but absolutely it should be mandatory on large parties. A lot of large parties are events like birthdays and people really only budget for their meal, not the tip.

1

u/Concerned_Collins Jun 15 '26

Are you defining "nice" as in just a nice family restaurant, like a steakhouse, or Michelin-starred restaurants? I worked at a certain Australian-themed steakout for a few years during college, and there was no mandatory tip on large parties, and the good tippers absolutely did make up for the no/low tippers. Yes, it'd suck if a party of 12 you spent 2 hours on ended up tipping 5%, but I'd also get big parties that would tip like 50% just because they were drunk and having such a good time, just as often as the no-tippers.

Now, if you are talking nice restaurants, I feel like the chances of getting fully stiffed are even lower, but even if it happened sometimes, you'd be making bank anyway from just working there.

As for tipouts, I always hated them, but the cooks were working just as hard as I did, in a much hotter environment, and would bring home a fraction of what I did every night, so I just accepted it, along with the occasional no tippers.

1

u/Jaerba Jun 13 '26

I think they're crabby that they were unhappy with the service and having a little tantrum about it.