Apropos of very little, but speaking of auto-tipping:

Once in NYC about a decade ago I went to a restaurant with MrsNKEdel (albeit a couple of years before we got married) and despite being a party of only two, had an auto-tip on the bill of 15% pretax.

I complained about it, and despite nothing to that effect on the menu or posted, the waitress indicated that it was policy to include it after 10pm and that there was nothing she could do about it herself, but did I want to speak with the manager? I didn't bother - it was a chain place we'd dropped into for convenience, and I wasn't likely to ever be back there, and the service had been good up to that point.

Oddly enough, when my charge slip came it was the regular amount, without the auto-tip. So I left my usual closer-to-20-than-15% tip, and I assume I could have simply written zero or crossed off that line and copied over the total.

Still seems weird; has anyone else seen auto-tipping for smaller parties late in the evening? Or was the original receipt just a hamfisted case of "suggested tipping"?