Dadaluma83

So this happened a few weeks ago. Went out to eat at this place in Albuquerque, forgot the name but most of the seating was outdoors. Just your typical run of the mill sit down place with the usual American bar and grill fare. Nothing special. Anyway normally whenever I go to sit down restaurants when the bill comes the server takes my credit card, then comes back with a recept and I write in the tip and total and sign. Well at this one sitting outdoors the server bought out this small portable credit card machine and swiped my card right there at the table then handed it to me to press enter. I get the machine in my hand and it is waiting on the tip. There are 3 options to press. 18%, 20%, and 25%. The machine was defaulted to the 25% option. Considering I tip 15-20% regardless of service depending on how rounding plays out every time I go out I was taken aback by this. Had to look at the machine closer and select the option for 18%, then hit enter, then the charge went through and it printed out my recept.

Never seen this before where the server charges your card right there at the table and you have to choose 3 tip options. Two standard choices and one over-inflated choice, and naturally the over inflated one is the default option, perhaps the server and the restaurant are hoping some people are suckers and just hit enter without looking at the screen closely.


Now I have seen restaurant recepts with percentages printed out on them as a suggested gratuity, but the customer is always able to enter in whatever amount they choose. Never forced to choose between 3 options.

Was unbelievably tacky.

Doc Savage

I would insist to see the manager, insist I be given a receipt without a tip on it, and then decide if I was pissed off enough not to tip the server.

Tacky doesn't nearly describe this.

And of course they plan to deceive some proportion of people until everyone catches on.

smith80678

They do this in china also, I guess because there is so much fraud. The customer wants to put the charge through the machine himself so no employee can put in a larger amount.

Philatravelgirl

The only place I write a tip in in the US as around the world have used these handhelds. you can ask them to change percent or type in tip before you hit ok.
In the US, I've seen more places using IPods for charges which also have the preset tips but again you can override them.

ExpatSomchai

Welcome to the real world. Usually in Europe we have the tip facility but we enter as a figure not as a %. This does tend to show the culture of the US.

Yoshi212

I've seen these in Toronto a lot. I find it kind of convenient in the fact that my car doesn't disappear from my view. The waiters I interacted with were very casual yet professional during this time and didn't look to see how much I tipped and ended the service just like any other restaurant.

davie355

Difference is that waiters are not tipped in China.

missydarlin

Did you ask if there was another option?

gj83

Those are all over Canada and with the move to Chip/PIN it will become more common in the US (because people need to enter their PIN).

Usually on one of the rows of buttons you can toggle between $ and %.

bryand83

This is the norm in Europe where they bring the machine to you, though obviously tipping is not the same culturally, but I would expect to see more of it.

As for the tip always you got a choice and you weren't in south beach where you are on the hook for 20% regardless of service.

chrisdenver1

I remember there was a similar scam like this when I used to travel to South Miami Beach on business. The credit card receipt looked pretty standard except there was a "suggested 25% tip" listed just before the taxes. On top of that was the normal blank tip line, which can easily fool someone into double tipping. In their defense, the bottom of the receipt stated that you can reject the suggested tip, but it was shady nonetheless. I wonder if they're still doing this.

LondonElite

This I really detest. It flies in the face of the argument that service is better in the US because waitstaff rely on tips.

lhrsfo

When people try to do that to me, I always remove the tip entirely and tell them to take it up with management. Tipping in the US is basically a scam in the first place - to have them make it "compulsory" is usurious.

Dadaluma83

Didn't bother me in the sense that 18% is about what I would tip anyway if I got to write it in myself. I was bothered by the fact that it defaulted to 25% and I had to specifically select the 18% one.

In what world is a 25% tip default?

What does bother me though is it guilt trips people. If you thought the service deserved less than 18%, you would have to make a stink about it there and look like a cheap skate. Or even worse what is to stop the restaurant from bumping up the levels? Say, 20%, 25%, 30%, and if someone wants to tip the standard 15-18 they would have to either ask how to manually set a tip, or fumble around with it in front of the server right there at the table looking cheap.

Was eating with co-workers so I didn't want to make a scene, but I wouldn't eat there again on my own that is for sure.


Tipping drives me nuts. I can understand how people not from the US are intimidated by who to tip and how much, but I am curious to see how it is for someone from the US when going elsewhere. I am going to London and Dublin this fall. Going to Dublin for the USA vs Ireland soccer game, but since it is not much more expensive I am going to swing by London first and hopefully catch the England vs Slovenia game at Wembley. If I have the money I want to buy a ticket close to the field and yell abuse at the English players.

Anyway when in Ireland and the UK, and most of Europe for that matter tipping in restaurants consists of merely rounding up to the nearest Euro/Pound since service is already included right? Unless they try that DCC scam and charge my card in dollars then no tip.

VizeL

I've run into a some-what similar situation -- where you select the tip% instead of writing it in.

However, there was another option for it -- enter own tip in % or $ amount. I can't recall where it was...as it was probably 3-4 years ago, but I did just hit the 20% and let it go. There was no default tip for this one.

As an aside, my favorite, however, is when you get receipts with the suggested % below, and the math is always wrong I've only ever seen it once where the suggested tip % was actually below what the amount should have been. I can't imagine its too difficult to screw that up in code, but the number of times I've seen the math off...

I see it a lot in taxis as well.