I had dinner with my family in Westin Market Street, San Francisco. We were total five persons.
When I received the check, I went it through as I allways do.
I noticed that there was service charge added in that check. The waiter did not mention anything about that.
In that same check there was a note that they will add service for parties of 6 or more. Also the gratuity column was open.
If the restaurant acts honestly they specially make note that tips are already added, not deny it. So they clearly trid to cheat us.

This is a clever trick since only few customers go through their checks and notice that the tips are unusually way already added.
Customers usually just add tips to subtotal and pay the check.
That way the waiter gets more that double the tips.
Does he share the extra with the management, I do not know.

Is this common nowadays?

What is common is that the vast majority of restaurants don't bother to remind patrons when the tip is included, and the gratuity line on the check is typically left open. I know Hyatt Hotels room service bills specifically label the tip line "additional gratuity" to remind people that service charge is already included in the price, but that's the only example I can think of. I've almost never had a restaurant mention anything when a service charge is included.

What's not common in my experience is including service charge when the stated minimum number of people is not met. I would have spoken to the manager about that.

If you were five persons you should not have to pay the auto service charge.
I really hate this as they calculate the total including the tax-you should not have to tip on the tax.
I would rather tip for the level of service recieved rather than having to supplement some poor servers meager income.

If this had happened to me, I would have immediately spoken to whoever is in charge... as far as I am concerned, it is theft.

I would probably not revisit that establishment anytime soon either.

What's the conclusion to your story? Did you speak to a manager?

Yes. I spoke immediately with the manager-on-duty. He was wery sorry and polite. He took off the service charge and also first courses from the check.
BUT I do not know if he was also involved or was the waiter alone.
Because of that I later tried to send an e-mail to the restaurant. There is one e-mail address in their homepage www.duccasf.com. It returned to me since the address is not in use.

Shucks, in the inimitable style of innkeepers throughout history (including Bethlehem, where for an additional bronze coin, Joseph could have gotten the bridal suite instead of paying holiday rates for the room next to the boiler, the one with a hay carpet), the joint had figured out a classic con....

Only two out of every ten parties will be equipped with an careful auditor of the check (while in 3 of 10 cases, the host will be befuddled by drink), and with 7 of 10 sneaking through, double-gratutificated as it were, the manager can afford to give away appetizers to the wary from now unitl the damming of the Golden Gate to assure adequate potable and irrigation water for the Bay area (or the inevitable calamitous 'quake, whichever comes first.

I hope that you, in this particular case, did not leave a tip at all (assuming this was done with the intention to get you to double tip.) The waiter should learn that he or she plays a game of "double or nothing..."

This has been happeniing more and more. It is always '"an inoccent mistake."

I'm a server at a chain steakhouse. Let me chime in. With the computer system that we use, whenever the automatic gratuity is put on (18%, parties of 6 or more), it shows the gratuity on the itemized receipt. When you run a credit card, it will print up in the area where the tip line normally is something to the effect of "A gratuity has already been added for your convenience." Unfortunately, if, during the process of authorizing the credit card, you either exit out of the table, or reprint the receipt, the credit card slip will print out without the notification of the gratuity.

I know when I'm busy, I've noticed that I've exited out of the screen while it was authorizing and therefore it didn't print out the gratuity information. That said, if I notice this, I inform the guest about the gratuity and thereby use the tip line as an additional tip line. So, it CAN be the result of an honest mistake if the server wasn't paying attention.

That said, there's obviously some dishonest servers out there. And I'm sure some are doing it on purpose.

As a side note though, everyone please remember the auto-grat is not the ONLY tip that can be given. If you get the best service of your life, and see an auto-grat is on the ticket, don't just sign the ticket and assume 18% will thrill the server (I know, I know, we're happy with ANY tip, right? ). Even if there's not an additional tip line, you can always add (and take away for that matter, in cases of particularly bad service).

Chris

I thought exactly same way as Michaelr. I did not leave any tip.

18% in a high end joint like the OP ate at is more than enough.
Especially when the "auto grat"is inclusive of the tax-which is just plain wrong.
I really hate this,and also being expected to tip 15-18% on an expensive bottle of wine on top of this.

I appriciate and support the working men and women of the food industry-since I have done this myself.
But there has to be a limit-and it looks like the place in the op is really testing that limit.

I would like to hear more about how "reducing" an automatic gratuity might work. I assume it requires getting management to redo the ticket and is not as simple as crossing out the gratuity after it's already been added.

Thank you in advance.

Actually the gratuity is before tax, so the server only gets about 16.4% at my restaurant. And that's before we pay tip out to pay for the hosts, bartenders, etc., so that knocks it down to 13.4%. So wait...18% is more than enough (assuming good service)? Don't even get me started on the $2.13/hr.

Chris

Yea, I would say generally get management involved. If you feel like you got subpar service, or specifically rude service, I would alert management and let them know you don't feel like you received 18% worth of service. Explain your justification, and then promptly leave what you feel comfortable leaving.

Chris