It is more convenient, but it still annoys me.

To the OP, I hope you enjoy this clip from a favorite show of mine (Curb your Enthusiasm):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4f7KiiB6dM

I generally dislike it, as I've found too often that the servers figure since they're earning a tip already, they don't need to do much.

Only for lazy people that don't know basic math is it good.

I hate it, and when it is there generally give less than what is said to give, where they'd have likely gotten $10-15 more if they hadn't been a pompous jerkwad and told me how much to give them.

http://sugarfishsushi.com is a small chain of sushi restaurants started by an iconic chef, Nozawa. Mr. Nozawa closed his restaurant and now has about 5 restaurants in So Cal. No reservations and tip is included. I rather like that the tip is included. Easy "trust me" menu, good food, good service, tip is included. So easy.

Agreed, especially since any establishment I've ever been to that does this adds a minimum 18% on top of the post-tax amount.

or N.Am should just do like EUrope and build their workers wages into the product prices :^

OK, so I understand that it is presumptuous, but hasn't anyone else ever had an officious finance person go over their tipping with a fine tooth comb? I find it's much easier to get restaurant bills through the expenses dragons when the tip is included.

No, I like that as well. I used to tip like most other people, the percentage I gave was based on how I felt about the service and overall dining experience but about 3 months ago I have changed the way I tip and it has made my dining experience so much better.

I am a flat tipper now. However I don't like pulling out a calculator and giving a set percentage. I want to go out and eat, not solve a math problem at the end.

So what I do basically is eyeball it. I start at 20% and truncate the amount to a full dollar amount and give that. 20% is too much to give as a flat tip so truncating to the full dollar amount basically makes my tip always in the 15-18% range.

So say I go have a burger and a couple of beers, pre tax total (Always tip on pre tax amount of course, never tip including tax) comes out to 17 dollars. To be exact I look at the change as well so lets just say 17.25, to get 20% you just take 10% and double it so 1.72, doubled is 3.44. However I won't leave that as a tip because I have always tipped in full dollar amounts because leaving change just seems silly. Truncate, write 3.00 on the tip line of the recept, and call it a day. Even if it comes to like 3.70 or 3.80 I still truncate and put down 3.00 because rounding up would give more than a 20% tip and me personally I see no reason to ever tip more than 20%.

No more analyzing every little detail of my food and service and subtracting or adding percentage points to come up with some dumb number to represent my exact level of satisfaction. I just pay my tip, consider it a service charge, and move on. Same method for both good and bad service.

Because I tip the same every time I wouldn't mind if a 15 or 18% tip were already included, would just save me the effort calculating it in my head and instead I could just cross out the tip line, and pay my bill.

nope

Concise. To the point. I like it :D

This is literally the exact same thing I do. Easy, objective, reasonable.

I can't claim for tips on expenses. Have no idea if I'd need to take out a service charge or not.

That seems unfair... You wouldn't be in a position where you had to tip if you weren't on a business trip, so why is the tip deemed non-expensable? And what do you do? Give a tip and pay it yourself, or not tip at all? Both options are unfair to someone...

I don't mind when this happens because I would've usually left a higher tip had I written it in myself! If they are automatically adding it then I guess this is enough for their servers...

Good point(s). Since the meal is totally free then I wouldn't have any qualms about paying just the tip out of my own pocket.

I don't really follow that logic though. If I were at home I could knock up a spaghetti carbonara for two people about 2 pounds, but if I am out with 4 clients and the bill comes to 50 pounds a head then why should I feel it's ok for me to pick up the tip when 15% is 37 quid? Even if I dine alone in an average restaurant then the bill would be around 30 pounds so I am paying 3-5 pounds of my own money to do the company's business. That's not right. It penalises people who travel for work.

Nobody is saying you have to pay the tip when you're out with 4 clients.

But if you're out alone then you should fork out the tip for your own meal. Or grab a pub meal instead. :)

If an amount is automatically added then, to me, it is a fee.

To be fair, you didn't specify any parameters. You just said that you'd be happy to pay the tip out of your own pocket if you were out for a meal.

I usually give a tip myself, unless the service is poor then I don't bother.

You presented a scenario and I agreed with you - if you are out with say 4 people on a business dinner and picking up the tab then I don't think the tip should be out of your own pocket.

But if you are travelling solo and have the chance to enjoy a meal at a nice restaurant - and the receipt will be refunded to you - then I do believe you can at least cover the tip.

Fine. Life's too short to quibble about stuff like this.

+1 A tip is inherently discretionary, and it's classless for restaurants to include it automatically.

OP, you make some legitimate points, but it seems like your real problem is with your travel/expense department. You should add this to Ridiculous things your company has done to reduce travel expenses

No, I'd rather not have the tip included.

The reason being is if the service sucks or is pretty meh, I don't tip. I work in the service/food industry as well and I do my best to provide the best service I can to my guests whether they decide to tip me or not. I don't tip for bad service, and if the service is okay to excellent I usually leave about 18-20% tip and if it is outstanding then above 20%. It just depends on where I eat and what the service is like. I can tell from when I walk into a Restaurant how the service can be and I hate it when the tip is included.

But the only place I have noticed it at is a place in Glendale, California, where if there are over 6 people in a party they add an automatic 15.00$ tip. It's the restaurant and there choice, but I'd rather decide how much I want to tip. That's just me personally.

I've seen this used quite often around the world, where if you have a group of 6+ or 8+ then a 10% service charge is automatically added to your bill.

Here in Singapore virtually every restaurant adds a 10% service charge (as do hotels), so a lot of people don't leave tips even though the two (service charge vs tips) are treated differently here. But hey, can't blame people, if they have something automatically added to their bill then I can see why they're going to leave it at that.

I love that thread, but I didn't think this belonged in there. TBH I can kind of see my company's point. In the UK the tip is added when your bill is transacted on the card device - the bill is shown, then you're asked on the device if you won't to leave a tip which appears on the final card slip. This isn't a valid tax receipt but it does prove beyond a doubt what tip you have paid. The problems occur in places like Italy where a tip is expected but it can't be added to the bill or paid by CC, therefore no proof of tip, or in the US where a space is left to write in the tip on the merchant's and customer's receipt. There is no way to tell whether the person who paid the bill left the same tip to the server as they wrote in their copy of the bill. The company could ask for the CC slip in the latter case, but adding the service charge automatically to the tax receipt removes all doubt.

I was told one of those stories about a chap who we realised was screwing the expenses system in every way he could, and one of those ways was that he would always submit restaurant receipts with 18-20% tip. It turned out that he was either tipping badly or not tipping at all then claiming the full 20%. He was a fairly unpleasant guy so it didn't take much for him to realise that he could personally profit by, A, ordering an expensive meal, and B, stiffing the server on the tip.

All in all, having the service charge added makes my life easier, less time is wasted at HQ questioning tip claims and in general people are happier not having to have this to deal with so often.

Addendum
 

Since starting this thread I decided to try something new. When asking for the bill at the end of the meal I also ask if service/tip is included in the bill. If it is not then I ask for an appropriate tip to be added to the bill as a line item at the end before they bring it to me. So far 3 out of 4 restaurants obliged, the exception being a major pizza chain where the EPOS system wouldn't allow them to do it.

As the tip is meant to be a voluntary payment, to have it automatically added to the bill is wrong.

It is the role of the employer to pay their operatives properly, not the customer.

I'd be in favour of the total abolishion of the 'tipping culture'.

The idea of leaving a tip implies two things for the tipper. It is a personal way of recognising good service. It is therefore also a way of encouraging that good service from that same person or those same people in the future.

Adding the tip automatically does neither.

As a general rule I'm not a fan.

A lot of restaurants in Colombia will ask you after your meal if you'd like to include a tip, and will add 10%(normal tip rate) to the bill for the service. I kinda like this policy, as it makes it convenient for paying and keeps the waiters on their game.

If it would be added automatically it would be a service charge. Like for example in Singapore where most restaurants add a 10% service charge to your bill. I have no problem with a service charge that goes directly to the staff and I will give a small tip on top if the service was good or excellent but a tip should always be a voluntary thing. I know that a tip in the US is something else. In my opinion it is a semi voluntary by social conventions requested service charge which makes up the majority of the wage of a waitress/waiter.

Me neither and IIRC Hong Kong has this policy and I grumbled at the 18% or whatever automatic gratuity added for what was basically very little service. If it's automatic where is the incentive to work hard and serve the customer from a waiter's point of view? Seems more like a disincentive to me but that is merely MHO.

Yes you are. Tips are based on the servers performance, not automatic.

Yea that seems pretty harsh. I would be ok with this in some high end place that won't compromise its service, but in other restaurants and/or countries where customer service isn't stressed(never been to Hong Kong so not sure what the case is there), it would definitely put me off.

Isn't it a matter of local laws and customs in the end?

In Japan, you don't tip, but the servers are pretty well paid.

In much of Europe, your service charge is not a tip, but a way for the restaurant owner to organize his expenses.

In some U.S. states, it's permissible to pay servers much less than the minimum wage on the assumption that they'll make it up on tips. Federal taxes are assessed on their presumed tips, whether they actually receive them or not, so I automatically tip except for really bad service.

Having seen how some people act in groups, I can understand why some restaurants automatically add a service charge for large groups. Otherwise, you get arguments between those who tip as a matter of course and those who whine that they don't tip because the restaurant owners should pay their servers more. (But the restaurant owners don't pay more, so if too many people adopt this attitude, then the servers are taxed on tips they never received.)

like many here I also believe a tip is discretionary. I have no problem providing a good tip but I think it should be correlated to the level of service. As far as I am concerned you can have my tip by default unless you do something to lose it.

I hate seeing the auto-gratuity at the bottom of receipts, but I've also never left the tip portion blank. I even grumble about the auto-gratuity when dining as a group. The tip should be based on the server's work, not simply because you were served!

My standard for tipping is usually between 20-25%, but if an auto-gratuity has been added, I don't add anything extra, even if the auto-gratuity is only 15% or 18%.

Same here.

+1