<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by StacyCat:
Some restaurants do add on an additional tip,and make you pay it. I went out to eat with 10 friends, then bill came at the end with a mandatory tip. 1) the waiter basicalyl took our order and passed out the food, it was the bus person that did most of the work. 2) the waiter was rude to almost everyone at the table. 3) when we tried to pay the bill minus the tip (because of the service) the owner almost called the cops on us!
</font>
I once encountered a similar situation - atrocious service followed by an included tip. many places include tip for parties of 6 /9 or more, but we were a party of 4. It was a busy time for the restaurant (jazzfest in New Orleans).
The waiter was friendly enough, but forgot our drinks, brought the appetizer after the entrees, brought me the wrong entree. Altogether, we had ordered 9 items, and 5 were mishandled.
When the bill came, I called the waiter over, and said something along the lines of "I don't want to give you a hard time, and I realize everyone has off nights sometimes, but I don't think 18% is appropriate, given the problems with the service." He said, "No problem, just leave what you're comfortable with". He knew the issues we'd had. I think he ended up with 8%.