Feeling generous during Covid, my husband did add a tip at a place like that. We were quite annoyed later to see there was already a service fee added to the bill. He should have looked more carefully, but still…
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Yup I do not understand why all the tipping lately and those dang iPad things with the tip option drive me crazy
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I went to a concert last fall and bought a beer for $13, I had to walk and stand in line to purchase this beer. The only payment option was by credit card and paid by one of those I pad check outs. There was no option to not tip. The lowest was 15%. I felt ripped off and didn’t enjoy that beer.
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I actually started tipping cash again and am trying my best to only tip in cash. I realized many of the card only places and fancy tech screens were adding additional fees and tips automatically and the screens were hiding or obscuring it.
Coffee place started charging an extra $.50 for “added milk” with no free milk containers because of “Covid.” I have going there for years and the staff person tried to argue for me that it was not new. Actually, she was new and I left.
Thought a bill seemed high and realized a place 1) charged a $1 for oat milk which I did not request, 2) added 15% fee without displaying it in the screen, and 3) then gave me a base tip option of 20%, 25%. Or 30%. The fee did not come on the screen at all. The oat milk charge did and I said I didn’t ask for oat milk. So he went and added cows milk to the coffee he had already added oat milk and didn’t reverse the charge. I had to ask and then insist he remake the drink and remove the charge and then I heard him mutter “Karen” as he made it.
Finally a local restaurant banded together with a couple other high end restaurant to add 5% to bills to allow them to offer health insurance to their largely full time staff. Many of the restaurants have long term full time workers. The charge is displayed at the register and they will remove it if you request it. These same restaurants advocate for immingratiim reform, got a specific provision added to Covid laws to support their workers, etc. happy to pay this fee.
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I attend college basketball games at a large arena. I buy a bottle of water. Credit card only. At the bottom of the screen there are tip/no tip buttons. Very easy not to tip on an overpriced bottle of water.
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Saw this article in my news feed and thought of this thread.
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Seems that would break some sort of law – fraudulent pricing?
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I would give the place a bad rating on Yelp or somewhere and include this entire paragraph for all to read. And put it on Nexdoor! Maybe contact the owner, also.
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“Clarissa Moore, a 35-year-old who works as a supervisor at a utility company in Pennsylvania, said even her mortgage company has been asking for tips lately.”
Often the concessions are manned by volunteers from groups getting paid a donation for their work (parents of boy scouts, a gymnastics team, football boosters). Those people/groups aren’t getting the tips and I doubt they are allowed to put their own coffee cans on the counter to collect donations for the group.
Nope—these are employees of Delaware North, a well-established concessions company—nobody’s fundraising here—a for-profit company. I certainly will not tip–how much effort is it to remove a bottle of water from a cooler six inches from the cash register??
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Thinking of this thread when we had a guy come out to install a fancy air purifier that had to be hooked up to the AC. I won it as a door prize and installation was free, too, but we slipped the guy a $20 because he was nice. I’d never tipped a tech like that before. He was surprised and delighted.
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In an earlier comment, I labeled myself “a cranky miser.” However, I went with a friend to a small Italian restaurant Sunday afternoon, had a delicious meal, and our young waiter was charming. My friend and I both tipped over 20% as it was well deserved. So maybe I’m a sometimes “cranky miser” but not all the time.
I guess I’ve just always thought a good tip went hand-in-hand with good service.
(And, just for the record, I’ve had unexpected/undesired expenses this year and so watch my expenditures. Required tipping just means I don’t go back to the place of business.)
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I gave the guys that delivered our new mattress $50. The reason was that the company would haul away the old mattress for free, but only 1 piece (old one was mattress and box springs). Before they delivered the new mattress H was trying to figure out where he could take the box spring to and it turned out the only place that would take it was 30 miles away and charged for it. I asked the delivery guy if he would take the box spring too if I gave him $50 in cash and he was happy to do it. It was a win win for all of us.
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Well played!
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I’d do that (I HAVE done that, haha). It’s not really a tip, rather a practical solution.
Okay folks, here’s a good one:
A patron at a restaurant noticed an Employee HEALTHCARE charge on their restaurant bill.
And over on this thread, someone has posted that a travel website is asking for tips after booking, along with some other doozies. Start from this point in the thread. We are not the only ones questioning the madness, lol.
Those have been pretty common in San Francisco for a while. Unless it is a sit down meal where I am served (NOT a buffet) I’m going to pass on your lovely ‘hammer to the head’ method of trying to extract a tip.
And, I do not tip the full amount (whatever it is given the place and the level of service) on alcohol. Sorry, bringing me a second glass of house wine is no more difficult than refilling my tea-tottering DH’s club soda. Your charging $18 for a glass of house red does not result me me adding a 20%+ tip on top off that. Nope.
Oh, and we just don’t eat out much any more. What’s the point.
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For those of us who don’t love cooking and cleaning, this could be a thread all in itself - or maybe not - since for us, the point is obvious! 
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Oh yes. That could be a whole thread. I’ve gotten us down to about a dozen quick fix, healthy meals. Between Costco and TJ’s I’ve found it super easy to do. Hubby will spend a whole day every few months BBQing 40 lbs of chicken thighs sealing them for the freezer. We’ve got 200 lbs of sealed fresh caught tuna/ahi/yellow fin and other fish in small portion packages. It takes less than 15 minutes to get most of these meals on the table with the help of an air fryer. Also, I’ve gotten it down to very little kitchen mess.
When we do go out it is for food I’d never make at home…usually ethnic which requires lots of ingredients, fussing and mussing.
And FWIW, I really dislike cooking. But as it turns out…I dislike the current atmosphere in most eateries even more.
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Consumers should raise their voices against these new tipping scams instead of having to make a choice at every transaction to either throw away money or feel/look bad. There has to be a law to regulate tipping system.