It annoys me in North America, especially if I detect sneakiness. Some Florida restaurants add it on, presumably to deal with the foreign tourists not following US customs, but it's buried as a service charge and the credit card bill still spits out a line at the bottom for the tip.

A couple of months ago in Florida it was only after double-checking the bill before signing that I noticed the "service charge."

A couple of times when has appeared to be sneaky in that way, I've been annoyed enough to insist it be removed and left no tip at all. It seems to happen at places where the service is mediocre anyway. Somehow, the wait staff has figured out that good service is not rewarded, I guess.

Yes, you are the only one.

I like it in a place that has high-service standards and is priced accordingly.

A prime example among hotels has been the Elysian (now Waldorf) in Chicago. At Bernard's Bar in the hotel, the bartenders are very clear that prices are inclusive, do not accept any gratuities, and nonetheless provide a very high level of customer service and professionalism. The drinks are, with tip factored out, comparable in price to other good bars in the city and often very generous pours too.

When it works, it's a real luxury.

Plus one to this. Pay your staff well, expect performance for that level of pay, price your food and drink accordingly and refuse to allow your staff to accept tips. That is the way things should be and it makes it easier for everyone else.

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