Having been here for almost a week now I'm finding that 90% of Bermuda restaurants add an 18% service charge to parties of any size... "for your convenience a service charge has been added." They could've come up with a better way of saying it, and you really need to be careful to read the bill since the credit card slip generally doesn't make any mention of it. Drinks ordered at the bar normally don't get this fee.

Instead of these endless arguments over percentages and such, it's so much easier to realize that there's a social norm for tipping everywhere, and said norm is different depending on your locale. At least, that works everywhere except in the US...

I will say though that it seems like there's been a fair amount of "tip inflation" happening lately. Used to be people tipped 15%, pre-tax, for good service and only hit 20% for absolutely outstanding service. Nowadays, you get people who tip in excess of 20% for mediocre service. This changes societal expectations, and in turn "raises the bar" for everyone else. I'm not a fan.

If you read one of my earlier posts, I mentioned the fact that we tip out on the expensive items, so if we don't receive a tip, we lose money. Let's say you have $100 of food and a $150 bottle of wine. You don't care to tip on the wine, so you leave me $15 on the $100 of food, and nothing on the wine-- $15 on $250. Well, let's say I tip out 5% on my food, and 10% on my wine. I now have received ($15-$5)=$10 on my food and lost ($0-$15)=$15 on my wine. By not tipping me on the wine (even though I poured the whole bottle, made sure to practice proper wine etiquette, etc.), I actually lost $5 for waiting on your table. Not to mention the opportunity cost insofar as I could have had a table in your place that I actually made some money off of. That doesn't pay bills unfortunately.

Chris

Yup, there's waiters that'll try to cheat customers; and customers that'll try to cheat waiters!

But most "play by the rules", I reckon.

It's a big old world, that's for sure!

I try to stick with local customs. At home, I tip 18-20+% post tax... never really thought about extracting the tax until I read this thread. If they add a 18% SC, then that's it for me... sorry. A waiter's beef would then have to be with the management who made the call.

My post previously was simply that in other countries where waiters are not working for tips, it is new and concerning that service charges are added. There are a couple of things that struck me on my last trip:
- Are they doing this selectively to me because they know I'm from the US?
- Are they selectively deciding what sc rate to apply because I used a Amex or Visa? As opposed to no sc or smaller sc if I paid cash..??

These things cross my mind.......

Ditto. Nor can I recall a situation that warranted 28%....but maybe we don't get out enough

"Automatic Gratuity?!?!"

That is just wrong to begin with and has always irritated me...so if there are more than a certain number of us you automatically deserve a tip? No way Jose.

Good service gets you a tip...not you adding it to the bill.

I rarely eat out anymore...the food and drinks are usually extremely overpriced and the quality is poor. Dinner party at home is the way to go!

In East and Central Europe tipping is not normally a custom but since tourists unwittingly do it they have become used to it and get pissy if as resident you don't tip...greed is funny.

Clearly you haven't had me wait on you . For the record, I'm in the industry and here are my standards:

• 30%+ if you give me free stuff
• 25-30% if you gave me exemplary service (great recommendations, particularly knowledgeable about products)
• 20-25% assuming my drink stayed full and my service was quick enough
• 18% if you don't know what you're doing but I eventually get my stuff
• 10% or less if you're rude or incompetent

Chris

You have to determine if it is really part of their salary before you make this kind of accusation of greed. I literally don't make ANY money other than tips, so it is not greed that drives my need for tips. It is my WHOLE income. That might not be the case in Europe, but in other locales, it is a different custom.

Chris

That's a pity. You obviously frequent the wrong establishments.

Nope...I just don't find value in paying 5-10 times more for a meal/drink than I could prepare it for myself and usually more to my taste.

And I have the comfort of my or a friend's home and don't have to worry about any of this sort of thing.

That makes sense. Dining out isn't for everyone.

And, as a server, I have no problem with this line of thinking. If you don't like paying a premium for eating out, please DO stay at home. I'm not trying to be offensive in the least with that statement either. There's plenty of people who like things a certain way, etc. and are never happy with their restaurant experience. I often wonder why they come out to eat at all if they're not content. It's nice to know there are some people who have figured that fact out for themselves.

Chris

Well phrased.

Staying on topic: When adding a gratuity to a check, which I have no problem with, it should be clear and obvious that it's been added......and no further gratuity should be expected, nor accepted without restating the fact to the customer that the gratuity is already included. That's acceptable AND classy.

Adding a gratuity and hiding/blurring that fact in order to extract additional money from a customer without their realizing it is dishonest, in my opinion.

Absolutely. Without question. Except the "no further gratuity should be expected" line. I don't EXPECT more...but if I blow you away and I assume you would have given me 20%+ w/o the gratuity on there, that shouldn't prohibit me from getting the same amount. Quite frankly, I wouldn't put it on there if I had the choice anyway.

Chris

Chris

What you say is true, if you look at the small picture. But on the big picture, you serve hundreds if not thousands of people/tables. Every now and then, you make nothing, or even lose a bit. But over the year.... or even over one month, the final sum of tips can be surprisingly sufficient.

If not, there wouldn't be career servers.