Originally Posted by
BOSavi8tr
And to the poster that earlier suggested you could cross out the auto-grat and write whatever lesser amount you can't do that and the fact you do is disgusting. Restaurants don't just surprise you at the end of the meal with an auto-grat. It's written on any menu you receive prior to ordering. If you don't like it, PLEASE go to Varsity or McDonalds where we don't have to be near you.
Keeping it classy as per usual, I see. How laughable that you should presume to relegate a complete stranger to McDonald's over an issue that has zero impact on your life.
I never said that I adjust automatically-included gratuities, downward or otherwise, so keep your disgust in check. I don't view waiters' tips as a reward for good service; I view them as a fact of life in the U.S. and have resigned myself to tipping 20% every time. Unless, of course, the establishment automatically includes some other amount.
My personal practices aside, restaurant patrons are absolutely free to disregard automatic "gratuities" and instead tip as they see fit.
By definition, a gratuity is "something given without claim or demand." Some establishments lodge criminal complaints against under-tippers, but the cases are always dismissed. Hilariously (given the histrionics of your post), One Flew South's
own Web site describes the automatic 18% gratuity as "suggested."
Incidentally, come January the IRS will begin classifying automatic gratuities as taxable regular wages, which means restaurants must withhold FICA taxes on them. Rather than deal with that burden, restaurants are widely expected to curtail the imposition of automatic gratuities.