readywhenyouare

It should be a law that handheld devices are required. My credit card should never be out of my sight.

gaobest

There are certain benefits of those fast casual restaurants where you order at the counter.
I still have zero issues about giving my CC when paying the bill through the server.

tmiw

Barring other factors (e.g. PIN being mandated or a large number of customers demanding to pay with their phones), this is ultimately why it will take much longer than it has elsewhere for pay at the table to become common in the US (if it ever does). We're more likely to have optional pay at the front counter (mainly for mobile payments) than anything else.

hhdl

The casual dining chains have embraced the terminal at the table (more for the general labor savings for reordering drinks and the possibility of some extra revenue from games than any payment security considerations).

tmiw

Those might be a reason why a lot of Americans aren't huge fans of pay at the table, too. Not many have seen the form that's most commonly used outside the US so "pay at the table" likely brings up experiences with the tablets (which are problematic).

One form that I kinda wish was more common was using devices from companies like TableSafe, which look like a normal billfold but with a display, keypad and card reader. Expense might be preventing that, though.

mathprof

Extra revenue from when just touching the tablet to move it triggers the charge for the game (hello Chili's).

kipper

I've had that happen at Chili's too!

paperwastage

is there a place where a mandated service charge isn't subject to sales tax?

for sfo/nyc, gratuities aren't subject to sales tax but (mandated) service charge is

HarryHolden68

It may come as a surprise to our US cousins, but in the rest of the civilised word, when an item is priced on the menu, that is how much you are expected to pay. I find it incredulous that for ANY purchase in the US, the final price has no resemblance to what the price list suggests it is. Supermarkets, restaurants, bars, hotels - all the same. Say one thing - charge another. I know the reasons why. I just think it is stupid to say a drink is $5 when you have to hand over $6 for the drink. Just tell me it's $6.

I mean, why not? Just tell me how much it is going to cost me - including any tax and allowances for paying the staff a living wage. Then I can make an informed decision? It's not like I get better service in the US. If I had US levels of service in the UK, I would not recognise it with a tip. And service in most of Europe outside of Paris is far superior to the service I get in the US so the argument of people working for their tip does not hold.

rxgeek

I start at 20% in states that have a low wage for servers. Then I knock off 2% for every service screw up.
If they are making $15/hour why tip?
I was just in Seattle where some restaurants are adding a few percent to the check. Each had a different story as to why but all said it did not go directly to the server.

John Aldeborgh

The US and apparently Canada are not is step with the world. Tipping is not a good system, it doesn't exist in Asia and it's only very minimal in the EU. In these countries being a server is a profession and the workers are paid a market based salary. As someone who spends roughly 50% of his life traveling internationally I find the tipping system repugnant, restaurateurs should pay their people fairly and servers should act professionally, so customers don't need to be math experts or feel guilty about the tipping process.

Redheadpeter

Coming at this from the UK I have very mixed reactions. Sympathy for the rrestaurant - no-shows are very expensive for a restaurant so I have no problem with them calling me to re-confirm. The alternative is to act like a hotel, take your credit card details and if you don't show you get hit with a charge. In the world of restaurants seems sensible to me. Hand held readers, again the restaurant shold be protecting itself and its customers against fraud, paying by signature is a joke in that regard - there is no security for them or us. Even when the card is stolen. At least the bank can refuse the transaction if it is done online with chip and pin. But tipping - yikes! I don't get it that restaurants cannot or will not ay their staff a proper wage and add it to the cost of food then tell you tipping is not allowed. In Japan they don't traditionally accept tips. Problem is people from tip giving cultures go round the world spreading the nasty habit. No one ever tipped me for doing my job, but I was well paid. If it's unavoidable I go with 10% (though in a restaurant in Boston my friends were shocked that I would do such a thing)

knownothing

Agree, the precomputed is on the after tax abount so you are really giving 30%. The taste of the food was not the server's fault. But the wrong dishes were. When I get bad service, I either leave 0 or write note "bad service" Otherwise they just think you are a cheap tipper

Scrudgy

As is the case in the UK and many other places, many companies forbid their staff to even handle the card these days.

Last week in Austin a server took my card away for swiping and didn't return for 8 minutes, and was not visible for most of that time. I will be watching that card very closely. The last card fraud I had was in San Francisco and was believed (but not proven) to be a server cloning the card details whilst out of sight. The transactions from the stolen card details appeared 6 weeks after my trip, and were picked up by the card issuer within 1 day and only $30 spent on low value transactions, and then a declined transaction of $220 so they didn't get away with much.

kipper

Good point, although if one is concerned about the staff receiving a living wage, then what are they to do, other than increase prices?