25% default tip !
 

I couldn’t believe it. This is the same restaurant that called me during work hours to confirm a reservation I’d made online.

The service was friendly, but slow and incompetent. One wrong item and one duplicate item was served to my table. The food was nicely presented but tasted like crap. And the prices were exorbitant, but I knew that going in.

Unusual for a restaurant in the US, payment was done by handheld electronic card reader brought to the table. I was asked to sign and select from one of the precomputed tips: 18%, 20%, 25%, with the last option being selected by default. Oh, of course on the receipt a 4% surcharge had already been added for compliance with health insurance laws of California, whatever that means.

25%!

I’m likely to find the restaurant owner’s email address and e-tear him a new one.

25% is a bit much but I am finding that the portable readers are slowly becoming more common. I suspect they never will be as common as in, say, Europe simply because chip and signature makes them a pretty hard sell for a lot of restaurants (not to mention the general reluctance to upgrade anything due to low margins).

If these are the only available tip options, pick zero: 18% is more than the standard (in most places) and my guess is that their calculation includes tax and the lovely 4% garbage fee. Slow and incompetent service deserves less than the standard tip IMO unless it's beyond the server's fault and the server is genuinely really trying.

Please name the restaurant and location.

They have already added 4%, so an additional 18% would make the tip 22% - way too much even if the service is good. Always the best bet with these sorts of places is to choose zero and make it clear to the Manager why you have chosen zero.

That does little for the staff.

If you want to leave a tip of less than 18%, just ask the server presenting the device. There is always a way to adjust it and if you make it clear that the option of less than 18 is zero, you will find the adjustment quickly made.

We only use handheld devices in Canada. There is always an option for a $ vs a %. Even for those that have preset percentages on the screen, there is always an ‘other amount’ choice. Just touch ‘other amount’ and you can choose whatever amount you want, or just hit enter for $0.

Evidently at least one American is having trouble managing handheld payment devices. Emerging technology can be daunting for our American friends while Canada has had chip and pin cards for over a decade. :)

OP seems to be having a bad time of adapting to the reality of developments in the US hospitality industry. Two massive issues in a week.:)

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/dini...l#post31614790

Bottom line is that it appears that he did not ask for assistance or try locating the "other amount" feature which is present on all of the major software devices for these packages.

This. If you don't like any of the default tip amounts, change it or ask for help changing it.

I'd like to think that the issues people are having are just more visible now because we're transitioning to chip/contactless in the age of social media. Of course, it's also possible my faith in people is misplaced. :p

Yes, social media does provide a platform to complain about technology that much of the developed world mastered a decade ago. It's always a pleasant stroll down memory lane when visiting America and a server hands you a pen to sign your credit card receipt. It's like writing on a manual typewriter or using a rotary phone. ;)

This. It feels so weird to me to hand my credit card to a server or store clerk or similar and they disappear somewhere with it. Bizarre.

what restaurant is this?

That is ridiculous! Even 18% can be overkill, depending on where the restaurant is located and the quality of service. Some states still pay $2.13/hr minimum wage before tip credit, but others must pay full minimum wage even to tipped staff. Yet we're still expected to tip ever increasing amounts. :rolleyes:
https://www.dol.gov/whd/state/tipped.htm

Was this Manresa??

ive not seen the 25% option but I’ve seen 10% at La Boulangerie (formerly La Boulange, which SBUX bought ages ago), and I want to tell them to ditch that 10% option.

Usa is a tip society. California is a 4% or 5% health surcharge state. It’s not cheap but when we choose to dine out, it includes the societal obligation to tip, usually with giving that CC to a staffer.

After having my card number stolen by a server who claimed my card must've fallen out of the folio and that's why it wasn't returned, I much prefer not giving my card to a server.

Here's a thought. Don't go back.

But that makes sense and the OP receives no attention that way.

i guess i am a little late to this thread. when a restaurant charges a "surcharge" for their inability to price their food in relation to the wages they pay, i do not tip and encourage everyone else not to tip.

the thing to keep in mind is that legally, restaurants are required to ensure their wait staff receive minimum wage, but the wage for servers assumes a standard 15% tip. if servers' actual wage falls below that level (e.g., customers fail to tip), the restaurant is required to make up the difference.

now in california, servers get full minimum - there is no wage adjustment, meaning tips really are a bonus. but politically speaking, any restaurant charging a surcharge is essentially pushing an anti-worker agenda. in my opinion, the only appropriate response is to encourage that restaurant's workers that they are not working for a place that best serves their interests, and hopefully will encourage the staff to leave.

Agree. I'm in hospitality and staff are told to do everything in front of the customer and not take card away.

Take a closer read: The 4% isn’t part of the tip, it’s a state mandated fee. In your example, the tip would be 18%, not 22%.

The 4% is not part of the tip, correct.

It's a state mandated fee, not correct. The state mandates that the restaurant provide health insurance to its servers. Some restaurants impose a surcharge and blame it on this mandate. The state absolutely does not mandate charging this fee.

One could argue that the current minimum wage is still nowhere near enough to live on in some parts of California, meaning tipping is still pretty much mandatory. In any case, I definitely find the whole surcharging thing extremely petty and offputting.

That is an infinite argument. So many job sectors (even some so-called 'salaried' jobs where a person is working 40+ hours) make minimum wage...where do they fit in the ''tipping is mandatory' culture? I realize this (art of tipping) is a never-ending debate.

Tipping is always a sensitive subject on FT. 25% as the default tip is also pretty silly. Add in the 4% scamcharge, and yeah, it’s too much.

If the food was horrid, send it back. Or were you trying to impress someone by taking them to a fancy place?

Last weekend, I went to my favorite conveyor-belt sushi place. While the food is good, and service is fine, the recommended tip was 18%. Table service only consists of water, clearing the sushi plates at the end of dining, and bringing the bill. Similar to a buffet, when it comes to tipping.

I split my time pretty equally between the US and Canada and since we have residences in both countries, I have credit cards issued by US banks and by Canadian banks. I must preface what I am about to write by saying that so far I have been lucky in that I have never been the victim of credit card theft in the US due to handing the wait staff my credit card to pay the bill (I'm sure if that ever happened to me, my feelings would change). But I cannot stand the Canadian chip and pin system at restaurants. Whenever the wait staff hands me the payment machine to calculate the tip and enter my pin on the total amount, they always look over my shoulder to see what amount I enter as my tip. In fact one time after I entered my tip, the server yelled out "OH C'MON!" (This was for a relatively standard 15% tip). I prefer the US system where they hand you the bill in the little book after running it through and then walk away to leave you alone to calculate the tip.

Sometimes when I am in a real salty mood, I will use my no foreign transaction fee US credit card to pay for a bill at a Canadian restaurant. It's a guilty pleasure of mine to watch the staff scramble to find a pen. But I try not do this too often.

I have also noticed that when I pay the Canadian restaurant tab with a U.S. credit card, the machine will give me the option of charging me in Canadian dollars or U.S. dollars. I always choose the former because the U.S. credit card issuer will provide a better currency exchange rate than the handheld payment machine.

One last thing, I have been told by a banker friend of mine that the Durbin Amendment is the reason why there is not widespread acceptance of the chip and pin cards in the U.S. as there is in other countries. So it does not appear to be an issue of Americans not being able to handle emerging payment technologies. Since the Durbin Amendment is so highly regarded in other areas, I don't see the US joining the rest of the world on this matter anytime soon.

It's already culturally accepted that non-service workers don't get tips, for better or worse.

Speaking of culture, it may be more accurate to say that it's a cultural expectation to tip service workers (with a lack of a "living wage"--whatever that entails--as rationalization). As people know, it's difficult and challenging to change cultural norms, especially if there's a group that benefits from the status quo.

I haven't had fraud happen due to the US system, but I have had my written-down tip improperly entered before (including once when the server didn't enter an entire digit of the tip amount at the end of the night and ended up with a $0.50 tip instead of something more like $5). Being able to enter the tip on a device would eliminate those issues.

BTW, there are devices that implement pay at the table that are more like what Americans are used to. They aren't all that common, though, at least not yet. A possibly cheaper solution would be to just leave the device on the table while you're serving other customers, but I get staff/owners being concerned about loss/damage by doing that. In addition, tip adjust is still allowed by card network rules in the US, so a fair number of pay at the table restaurants just have people write tip amounts on receipts anyway.

Why would an interchange cap (that only applies to large issuers, mind you) impact what kinds of debit cards they go with? A bunch of smaller banks and credit unions also went the chip and signature route despite not being subject to those caps. Not to mention that credit cards are almost all chip and signature despite interchange still being uncapped.

IMO, it was more that the existing lost/stolen fraud levels weren't high enough to justify it, especially since there was already awareness that the US was two generations behind in payment technology by the time we transitioned. Completely catching up (by adopting contactless cards/mobile wallets) would mean that PIN ideally wouldn't be asked for with smaller transactions anyway (and likely never will thanks to not supporting PIN for transactions in the first place and/or having the role of PIN be replaced by biometrics).

I've never experienced that. I find that they generally stand back to give you some privacy while you enter the tip and pin. However, they usually feel the need to make small talk while you are completing the transaction. Drives me crazy when they ask what my plans are for the day, as if it's any of their business. I have seen a few places that will leave the handheld machine while they check on other tables, but not many.

Back on topic, a default tip of 25% is ridiculous. One local restaurant uses a machine that equates each tip with a level of service, to make you feel guilty for choosing a lower tip option. It actually gives you choices like "15% = adequate service, 18% = good service, 25% = great service".

I've never had a server attempt to look over my shoulder or comment on the tip amount. Did you make an issue of it at the restaurant?

Did he explain why limiting debit card merchant fees would cause banks not to introduce chip and pin? The Durbin Amendment doesn't apply to credit cards only debit.

David Brooks has a new argument for 30!

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/24/o...core-ios-share

If 30% becomes the new normal, that’s what I will give.

As it stands, 25% is far above normal, and I will not give it in normal circumstances.

Articles by current or former bartenders and servers often opine that everyone should tip a lot more than they do. Shocking, isn’t it? Kind of like ranchers saying you should eat more beef.

But the cows are always saying, "EAT MORE CHIKIN' (TM)*"

(TM) of Chik-Fil-A

It's not the state of California that mandates health insurance, as far as I know it is only the city of San Francisco (although can Berkeley be far behind?). I've almost never seen the 4% charge anywhere else and even in SF, the charge is most common in places that are more heavily visitor/tourist oriented.

I have seen it several times at high end restaurants in L.A.

I went to make rez for a restaurant tonight and saw this on their homepage. Key words: not optional. :confused: I am not sure how I feel about this. Unfortunately I like this restaurant and it is convenient to the theater that we are going to afterwards.

Wood & Vine has moved to a service charge model, with the tip line on guest checks having been removed entirely and replaced with a 20% service charge that is not optional. This allows for a fairer distribution across our whole team and a system that is closer to providing a living wage to all of our staff.

If that's the case, why don't they just increase their prices by 20%?

If the owners want to pay their staff a living wage then that's exactly what they should do. A mandatory service charge isn't the way to do it. My shadow would never cross their door.

This is tricky.

1. California will have its own individual mandate beginning 2020, requiring everyone not exempted buying insurance.

2. Certain counties/cities passed their own ordinances mandating mandatory benefits and allow employers to impose voluntary surcharges.

Personally, even San Francisco allows this surcharge (surcharge in SFO is governed by another ordinance), I have only experienced not more than twice for years. Many restaurants don't add this surcharge.

Also - because the ordinance must be used on employees, to me, it is practically a tip, but in another name.