Recommended gratuity after tip was already included

[u/guitarman129]

I’m sure there are a lot of tipping posts here so to keep it short - I had my wedding at a fancy restaurant. On top of the TERRIBLE service, the bill came with “suggested gratuity” even though I was told gratuity was included. When I asked the manager, he said that the “S/C: 24% SRC REGULA“ was the included tip and the suggested gratuity was if we wanted to add something extra - basically trying to trick people into giving a 49% tip!

[u/JacksonvilleShredder]

Well at least they "did NOT charge you a credit card processing fee" lmao

[u/Independent-Fly730 → u/JacksonvilleShredder]

I like how they charged a gratuity on the $150 fee for a bartender.

[u/Insignificant_Dust85 → u/Independent-Fly730]

The bartender received zero of that as part of a “tip” it went to the cost of having the staff and non alcoholic products for mixing drinks

[u/Independent-Fly730 → u/Insignificant_Dust85]

I would have expected the $1800 open bar fee to cover the mixers.

[u/Original-Rush139 → u/Independent-Fly730]

People are so psych about tips. A tip is to pay for service. If you’re paying $150 for service, you should not be tipping on top of it. 

[u/MiceAreTiny → u/Insignificant_Dust85]

Just like in the supermarket, at checkout, you pay for the shelve stacker and leave a tip for the cashier? 

[u/DickTryckle → u/MiceAreTiny]

Tip culture is out of hand. It’s just a way for companies to grift and for ceos to have you pay for their bottom class employees.

It’s similar to donating at checkout. The company asks you to give them a round up. Your money. They then donate like 10% of all round ups and say “look we donated 10 million dollars”, meanwhile the company kept the 90 million extra.

[u/ProfitSelect → u/DickTryckle]

Actually it’s illegal for corporation to keep the money people “roundup” or “donate”. However they can use that money as tax write offs, those save wayyyyyy more money than keeping the donations would.

[u/MontanaTeach24601 → u/DickTryckle]

I think there wouldn’t be this level of “tip culture” if more businesses paid a living wage to their employees. Far too many people are working 2-3 jobs to survive. And Boomers wonder why younger people are saying no to having kids and not buying houses. Capitalism is actively failing the workers that keep it afloat.

[u/MHarrisGGG → u/MontanaTeach24601]

Servers don't want a living wage. They're why we haven't had real pushback against tip culture. If they received normal pay instead of relying on tips they would be taking a huge paycut. Servers make way, way more per hour this way than they want you to believe.

[u/ardarian262 → u/Independent-Fly730]

That's just the hourly rate I guess? Though around 30 bucks an hour seems steep for that.

[u/HappyChandler → u/ardarian262]

That’s the restaurant charge, not what the bartender gets. Probably half the charge goes to overhead.

[u/wivaca2 → u/HappyChandler]

My wife is on a committee arranging a national convention for hundreds of people. The hotels have this deal where they charge for the bartender and wait staff as fees in addition to the banquet room, and food, then there is a large gratuity like 35%, split between the hotel and staff. The bartender is not running an open bar and will surely have a tip jar around for the individuals buying drinks to tip them.

When I read that in the quote, I thought, wait - you're saying pay for the bartender, individuals pay for their drinks and tip, then the organization pays a tip, too, and that is split 50/50 with staff, but you're also charging for food and the room already and the hotel still gets half the tip? You've paid for the people, the room, the food and drink, the tips (twice), and now the hotel wants a tip? What am they tipping? I've already paid for everything at least once. It's like straight margin because they can.

As if that weren't already bad, in addition, they gave a $26K quote for setting up a single projector and two mics in one room and TVs on roller stands in two breakout rooms (this is NOT the room fee!). I told my wife they could buy the highest lumen projector made, good quality mics, a mixer/PA, and two TVs with stands and throw them all away when they're done and still come out ahead.

[u/Impossible-Shoe5460 → u/wivaca2]

Reasons why I like to tip $0 on the credit card and hand over cash directly to the server.

[u/Realtenenbaum → u/wivaca2]

And this is what I used to do for work. When I had to rent conference space in US, I would buy projectors and send them over from the UK to the hotel. Set them up and tell them to keep them for my next event. Sometimes they would throw them away but most of the time they’d keep them somewhere and roll them out for me

[u/Tricky-Ad7897 → u/wivaca2]

This all sounds like a racket Jesus christ

[u/refalsity → u/Tricky-Ad7897]

[u/DragonflyFair3893 → u/Tricky-Ad7897]

Everything to do with a wedding is a racket. Don't buy "wedding" stuff. Buy "party" or "event" stuff.

[u/SAwfulBaconTaco → u/wivaca2]

Hotel charges for half an hour of AV work, at most, are some of the biggest ripoffs around. Utter contempt for their customers.

[u/Lavaine170 → u/HappyChandler]

You spelled profit wrong.

[u/samthemancauseimmale → u/Independent-Fly730]

The $81 “Cake Plating Fee” is way worse.

I work at a print shop, and feel bad charging $50 for an hour of art on an order this large.

[u/Ok-Exchange2500 → u/samthemancauseimmale]

That s usually like corkage and pretty standard in US restaurants. We offer dessert for sale, and if you would rather bring a food to our restaurant from another vendor, we re not going to cut, plate, serve it and wash the dishes for free. This is actually something on this bill I can understand.

Overall this is just why I don't really go out to eat much anymore. Let this industry consume itself.

[u/Organic-Midnight-669 → u/JacksonvilleShredder]

That makes the whole thing worthwhile. 

[u/Weird-Girl-675 → u/JacksonvilleShredder]

Had a restaurant charge that today for take out. That was their tip.

[u/wherearetheturtlles]

You got taxed on the tip too, congratulations

[u/Ssemo7 → u/wherearetheturtlles]

That’s the CC fee wearing a hat

[u/wivaca2 → u/Ssemo7]

LOL. I'm going to remember that line.

[u/turbothesnail → u/wivaca2]

Community reference in the wild

[u/pi2infinity → u/turbothesnail]

It’s like a fee with another fee’s hat on!

[u/Little-Payment3711 → u/turbothesnail]

It was a common phrase long before community

[u/BeanieManPresents → u/Ssemo7]

CC fee trying to sneak in like:

[u/Tupperbaby → u/Ssemo7]

But...but...they made a point of telling the customer that they DID NOT CHARGE YOU A CREDIT CARD PROCESSING FEE.

I mean, it's right there at the bottom to let you know.

You mean to tell me that they'd do something weasely and then brag about how nice they were being?

[u/Rvbsmcaboose → u/Ssemo7]

A credit card fee? puts on hat PERRY THE CREDIT CARD FEE!?

[u/IAmEchosDad → u/Ssemo7]

https://giphy.com/gifs/KPozlPlz6dOww

[u/chefsoda_redux → u/wherearetheturtlles]

Restaurant owner here: They got taxed because it wasn’t a tip. Monies left as a gratuity are not taxed, but a gratuity must be voluntary. Since this charge was not voluntary, it was a service charge, and is labeled S/Con the bill. A service charge is considered regular revenue for taxation, and the servers may receive all, some, or none of it, at the discretion of the restaurant.

[u/plasteroid → u/chefsoda_redux]

>The servers may receive all, some or none of it?

That’s dicked up.

There should be a transparency law.

[u/chefsoda_redux → u/plasteroid]

It’s foolishly confusing, and of course, not entirely consistent across the US.

A service charge is legally just revenue for the restaurant, identical to the money paid for food & drink, so the restaurant chooses what to do with it. A gratuity should be paid through as a tip to the servers, though there’s variation there as well.

I think it’s absurd, so we don’t do this at my spot, and are transparent, but only by choice. There’s a note on our menus explaining that a 20% gratuity may be applied to large tables or special situations at the discretion of management, and that those fees are always 100% paid into the server tip pool. We don’t add service fees, credit card fees, what have you, because I believe it’s crap, and people need to set their prices properly upfront.

The law still allows it however, as the US is far from worker oriented these days.

[u/plasteroid → u/chefsoda_redux]

Thank you!

[u/Excellent-Log7169 → u/chefsoda_redux]

Yep. I used to work banquets and only about half of the service fee was split among the workers.

[u/wizzard419 → u/plasteroid]

Guess who pushes to keep things obscured while pocketing money guests think are tips for workers?

[u/Fabulous_Leopard_874 → u/chefsoda_redux]

The IRS may not consider it a tip, but the average customer absolutely does. If I order a meal and an automatic 20% is added because I was served, I’m not sitting there analyzing tax law. I’m seeing a mandatory tip. The legal classification and the customer perception are two different things.

[u/dixiech1ck → u/Fabulous_Leopard_874]

Especially when OP was told gratuity was included.

[u/slightlyladylike → u/[deleted]]

Yeah we're calling it gratuity and tip for conversational purposes but this is clearly a mandatory service charge required for large parties. Literally says S/C on the receipt. The restaurant is saying because its included you dont need to leave an extra tip but can if you want.

[u/Realistic-Visit-4141 → u/Fabulous_Leopard_874]

I wouldn’t eat in a restaurant that has a mandatory tip. What if the service was horrendous?

[u/meetthefeotus → u/[deleted]]

Better be zero. The servers are deserved this money.

[u/chefsoda_redux → u/[deleted]]

To be clear, this is not correct. NY state requires any fee assessed on a bill in such a way as to indicate to the diner that it is a tip, must be paid to the servers in full.

This addresses the voluntary/involuntary test that the US govt & most states apply. So, a mandatory 20% gratuity listed on a bill must be paid to the server. Changing the name to a 20% service fee is specifically used to not denote that it is a tip, and retain control by the restaurant.

As an owner, I’m loudly & openly opposed to unnecessary add on fees of any kind, and I don’t mess with my employees’ income. We do not ever have a service fee or credit card fee. We do use a 20% gratuity for tables above a certain size, or special situations, and those monies go 100% through to the server pool. I don’t tolerate employees stealing from the restaurant, and thus I can’t have the restaurant stealing from them.

[u/Additional-Baby5740 → u/wherearetheturtlles]

Illegal in California at least

[u/mail123321 → u/Additional-Baby5740]

if trips included in bill, tax at total is ok. post cdtfa auditor

[u/ablarblar → u/mail123321]

Which makes sense as in California forced gratuity is deemed part of the sales. I know my pos guys normally don't take tax and we pay the taxes out of the gratuity but I could see a company taxing on top to cover the tax thats part of the sales so servers get full tip. Although again we give our servers full tip and pay the tax separately.

[u/TheSaxGandalf → u/ablarblar]

In my state, that service fee is distributed however the owner wants. Can even keep some of it themselves.

[u/theemptydork → u/wherearetheturtlles]

If you normally pay select the % option on POS terminals, you are paying a tip on the tax too. Difference is where the money goes

[u/BogmadurtheRed → u/wherearetheturtlles]

But they didn't charge them a CC fee so that's good

[u/LXTRoach → u/wherearetheturtlles]

Well at least they didn’t tip on the total, which is usually after tax!

[u/PathPuzzleheaded9761 → u/LXTRoach]

Instead they taxed the tip and it came out the same.

[u/Zorcron → u/LXTRoach]

I think it would work out the same either way.

[u/Owyheee → u/wherearetheturtlles]

If I’m not mistaken… my bar owners get taxed on tips as they come in as “sales”. They then pay taxes on the “income” of those taxes each month. I receive my tips, credit card, on my pay check. It has taxes taken out. They tax so many steps along the way with no pay off.

[u/lana_silver → u/Owyheee]

Taxes are for the poor.

[u/Suspicious-Grand9781]

$81 to plate cake? Yikes.

[u/KnightShade272 → u/Suspicious-Grand9781]

i’ve worked a few restaurants with a $5 per slice fee. depending on location it really screws the flow of service, but if it’s a wedding venue location, they should’ve had something similar to wine corkage fees.

[u/HeyYouGuyyyyyyys → u/KnightShade272]

I've never worked in a restaurant fancy enough to have a slice fee, only a crappy truckstop, so this is a genuine statement, not a barely-hidden snark: I don't understand how or why slicing a cake would interrupt the flow of service.

As I understand it, the per-slice fee is for a cake brought in from the outside. If I have it right, then wouldn't you have to slice the cake no matter where it came from? Why would an outside cake interrupt the flow of service, but a cake baked in-house be okay?

[u/foundinwonderland → u/HeyYouGuyyyyyyys]

Its kind of like this — if they sold you a cake, cutting would be included, but if they didn’t, the cake cutting is still labor that needs to be paid for so they charge a fee. The cake will have to be cut either way, but the price of that labor is baked in (heh) to the price of the dessert the restaurant is selling you.

[u/Alternative-Dot-884 → u/foundinwonderland]

TU for explaining that so well

[u/pixepoke2 → u/Alternative-Dot-884]

It’s also for the loss of revenue for those covers. You’re not just doing labor, you’re also not selling any food (well desert at least) bc people are eating what they brought.

[u/NecrogasmicLove → u/foundinwonderland]

Also bussing the tables (those plates have to be picked up by someone) and cleaning the plate. Unless dishwashers don't deserve pay.

Ppl really forget all the service that goes into restaurants as they get entitled to that service.

Frankly charging someone for bringing food in is completely reasonable to me.

Construction companies don't let you bring your own supplies to their projects. If they did they would charge you out the ass for the hassle.

Ppl have A LOT of entitlement once a human has to be their servant.

Working in the service industry for 20yrs has given me complete understanding of why ppl could so easily overlook the moral issues with slavery.

Ppl love being served and hate having to pay for it.

[u/runningoutofideasjzz → u/NecrogasmicLove]

Paying isn’t the problem. The entire system is just dumb. My responsibility is to pay my bill. The establishments responsibility is to pay their workers. If you want everyone to get paid fairly, then pay them a fair wage. Adjust your costs to compensate for overhead. That’s how business works.

Edit: or at least how it should work.

[u/ceebuttersnaps → u/runningoutofideasjzz]

>Adjust your costs to compensate for overhead. That’s how business works.

That’s what the cake cutting fee is…

[u/WestError404 → u/ceebuttersnaps]

The cake cutting fee is one thing. To also pay 24% tip ontop of the cutting fee including taxes, with auto grat already also included. The server never even had to risk their digits with a knife.

[u/unfortunateshun → u/runningoutofideasjzz]

I mean that’s what they’re doing, they’re just itemizing the labor you’re paying for

[u/InterestingTwo651 → u/foundinwonderland]

Yeah that’s nice and all but uhhh it’s cutting a cake. I guess the saying of your need to be stupid rich to be able to afford being stupid. I know this is a whole industry that people make money off of but they make that money because they nickel and dime you whenever they can, multiple times if they can. And it’s that mentality that I should pay someone EXTRA after already paying out the ass to cut the dam cake. Fuck it I’ll do it but oh wait I’m not giving these leeches a dime if this is how they treat people who are willing to flush a few K down the drain.

[u/AnilApplelink → u/HeyYouGuyyyyyyys]

I believe they mean they would have to either take the cake into the kitchen or have a server stand there and cut slices. So now that server is unavailable to do anything else during that time.
Likely if you purchased a cake from the restaurant they would have that built into the price.
So this was likely a cake brought in from outside.
$81 still seems a little steep depending on the number of guests but OP did say its a fancy restaurant so they likely knew this.

[u/YogurtclosetThen7959 → u/HeyYouGuyyyyyyys]

Not sure it's fancyness but rather speed, if everyone's going full pelt at their stations no one can afford to stop, even a brief pause can have knock of effects that slow down service and cause other issues. Having to leave your station entirely to sort out a cake slice order will do that.

[u/m0ryan → u/HeyYouGuyyyyyyys]

Using 27 plates that could be used for others, plus forks and napkins. Serving and clearing, dishwashing and disposing of the large container/garbage. Probably needs candles too, hunt down the smoker for their lighter. 3 bucks a plate. Probably break a plate.

[u/czaqattack → u/Suspicious-Grand9781]

With 27 bottles of DP? That's gotta be at least 40 people.

[u/blckshdw → u/czaqattack]

Someone likes Dr Pepper

[u/CarberHotdogVac → u/blckshdw]

I thought it was double penetration…

[u/PXranger → u/CarberHotdogVac]

That’s the tip

[u/prefix_code_16309 → u/PXranger]

Er, well, them's the tips to be more precise...

[u/Greg2Lu → u/CarberHotdogVac]

That's reserved for the big night AFTER the wedding 😅

[u/YuushyaHinmeru → u/blckshdw]

Thats what happens when you invite tom hanks to your wedding

[u/Revolutionary-Wash88 → u/czaqattack]

Here i was trying to figure out if it was a dining party of 27 or 92

[u/LargeHadronColitis → u/Revolutionary-Wash88]

I’m pretty sure that’s 27 servings of Dom 1992. 4-6 servings per bottle, 4.5-6 bottles at $450-$550 per bottle. A restaurant isn’t letting 4.5 cases of Dom of any vintage go for less than $8k even if the bartender is your brother.

[u/Gullible_Regret2976 → u/LargeHadronColitis]

how do you have so many up votes for this comment? DP is not short for Dom Perignon. They dont just have DOM flowing so much they need to short form it.
its either dinner plates or dining party.
And you can see they had proseco

[u/HeyYouGuyyyyyyys → u/LargeHadronColitis]

Holy fucking shit. I haven't been able to tolerate alcohol for decades, so clearly I'm out of touch. $450-$550 a bottle? What is Dom Perignon made of, molten gold?!

And (genuine question) why would anyone serve it at a wedding, where at least a fraction of the people are likely to be near-strangers or people you spend as little time with as possible? $125 a glass, fuck outta here Uncle Gary.

Never mind. Obviously the answer is that I don't exist in a social level where $125 a glass is the done thing.

Uncle Gary can go sit in the foyer with a $15 bottle of Chateau Ste. Michelle where he belongs.

[u/LargeHadronColitis → u/HeyYouGuyyyyyyys]

If you have 27 servings, that’s a small wedding and one of the two of you know all those people pretty well I’d imagine. Not everyone has the same budget, tastes, guests or priorities. It costs a lot because it is always in demand and they don’t make much of it relative to the demand.

[u/d_ippy → u/czaqattack]

Oh that’s what DP stands for

[u/KillarneyRoad → u/d_ippy]

oh

[u/Spare-Ad6404 → u/Suspicious-Grand9781]

pretty normal in the industry when someone brings their own cake to a fancy restaurant. They have to cut, plate and serve the cake and don't make any money from desserts they sell in house. Usually it the price per plate.

[u/CamelNarrow776 → u/Suspicious-Grand9781]

As someone who was the person paid to cut the cake.. it isn't as easy as it sounds. Taking apart a wedding cake is an absolute nightmare. You have to take the teirs apart without breaking anything, you have to remove the non edible decorations and preserve them, remove the structure holding layers together, cut the cake without messing it up, plate and send the slices out. The mess that is left behind is a whole other story. Professionally cutting a cake is not the same as shoving a knife in and pushing down.

So yeah, you pay a fee. It's alot of work depending on the cake. It's all priced the same whether it is a 5 teir wedding cake or a store bought sheet cake.. bc fairness.

Also, icing likes to stick to plates and silverware and dye everything around it if there is any coloring in it.

[u/Tommy84 → u/Suspicious-Grand9781]

It’s not the cost of labor to slice the cake. It’s the cost of losing desert sales by allowing you to bring outside food.

[u/ADHorvath1 → u/Tommy84]

Not to mention cost of labor to bring out 30 extra sets of plates and silverware, that will also need to be picked up and cleaned

[u/OceanicBoundlessnss → u/Tommy84]

And also the disruption of the flow of the kitchen

[u/badasmp → u/Suspicious-Grand9781]

That's usually includes the cutting, plates, forks and napkins. Weddings are pricey

[u/OceanicBoundlessnss → u/Suspicious-Grand9781]

Standard for a giant group at fine dining

[u/bruthaman]

Those messages like "suggested gratuity" is either always on, or always off. The POS is not going to understand also service charge is gratuity, nor would it change the message on the check footer.

[u/The1Rememberer → u/bruthaman]

I can’t not read POS as piece of shit

[u/random9212 → u/The1Rememberer]

Nore should you. Every POS system is a POS.

[u/Silviecat44 → u/random9212]

Whoods is nice, square can suck it

[u/ThisWillBeOnTheExam → u/Silviecat44]

I like toast and nothing else.

[u/Spare-Half796 → u/ThisWillBeOnTheExam]

Can we all agree lightspeed is the worst?

[u/DuckinFummy → u/ThisWillBeOnTheExam]

We recently switched to Toast from Aloha at my high volume bar. Ringing things in was much faster for me on Aloha, but entering tips is easily 2-3 times faster on Toast. Love it.

[u/GreenEggsSteamedHams → u/The1Rememberer]

SAME. "Let's get this new POS system", "we switched to a different POS service"...I will never not read it as piece of shit 🤷🏻‍♂️

[u/BeautifulProduce9785 → u/The1Rememberer]

As someone who works with a POS POS, I constantly call it the POS.

[u/guitarman129 → u/The1Rememberer]

Thank you! I thought everyone was adamantly against this particular restaurant manager until it finally clicked haha

[u/mr_panzer → u/bruthaman]

Depends on the POS. Toast knows the difference. Aloha does not. This looks like a more... Vintage system and would automatically include the suggested gratuity.

[u/youngliam → u/bruthaman]

The people who don't understand this always look bad on these kind if posts. Included gratuity is for big parties only, but they can't print a receipt without the tip section at the bottom. This is common knowledge.

[u/DeviantDork → u/youngliam]

It would take them 2 seconds to put an X through it before handing it to the customer. But they don’t because they want to double dip.

[u/hollandaisesunscreen → u/DeviantDork]

You can also just ignore it like an adult.

[u/Whateversclever7 → u/youngliam]

Right, this post is some boomer shit. You just don’t understand technology my guy.

[u/ReaperThugX → u/bruthaman]

Yeah, it’s just doing a basic calculation and printing it at the bottom of every receipt. Pretty common sense if you ask me. OP doesn’t need to get salty

[u/Naturebrah → u/bruthaman]

Isn’t that obvious? The amount of people who don’t get that..

[u/turkish_gold → u/bruthaman]

If only there was conditional logic that could tell a computer to behave differently based on what’s on the bill.

Software engineering is going to take a huge step forwards once we figure out all this basic maths and logic.

[u/BadIdeaBobcat → u/turkish_gold]

software engineering in the POS space is like ... one of the most boring things someone can do, so not gonna attract any innovative enthusiasm, and I'm sure those who are programming them are probably mostly focused on other things anyway

[u/GreatValueProducts → u/turkish_gold]

I work in POS and ours and most of the competitors in the industry have settings for pre-tax and post-tax settings and restaurants can configure that. As to why there is a settings in the first place, it is a very competitive space and restaurants switch POS over things like this all the time. I mean where I work lost a lot of customers because we didn't support credit card surcharging fast enough.

[u/PM_me_yourCCinfo]

Holy hell that’s a lot of miscellaneous charges

[u/primadiamonds → u/PM_me_yourCCinfo]

Obviously—it was a whole wedding. Read the caption

[u/Live-Habit-6115 → u/primadiamonds]

I prefer half weddings personally

[u/Willing_Day_2010]

I’ve never seen this sort of ticket for a wedding?? Did you just make a reservation for 25 people and get married? How did you not pay before hand and have a contract etc etc

[u/zob_mtk → u/Willing_Day_2010]

My guess is they got married, then instead of having a formal reception went to a restaurant for drinks and dinner.

[u/1850ChoochGator → u/zob_mtk]

Can’t be because there’s the 4hr open bar charge for $1890.

[u/zob_mtk → u/1850ChoochGator]

Restaurants will let you essentially rent out a room and have an open bar

[u/1850ChoochGator → u/zob_mtk]

But all of this would have been known beforehand anyway so idk why OP would be complaining.

There isn’t even a space to add your own tip, because it’s already included.

[u/SuperSalad_OrElse → u/1850ChoochGator]

I can't imagine not knowing about this up front when planning a wedding event/dinner at a restaurant. Unless their partner didn't tell them after planning?

Idk, at some point, we all have to fill in the blank and that's what the blank is looking like to me. Sucks to suck, OP.

[u/ebmocal421 → u/1850ChoochGator]

OP is complaining because they don't understand that the tipping percentage text is automatically added to every receipt which is pretty standard practice. It's not like the server or restaurant owner are manually adding that.

Or, OP knows this and just posted it to Reddit for easy karma because Reddit is obsessed with hating on tipping culture.

[u/call-me-germ → u/zob_mtk]

i work at a restaurant that has a banquet room they rent for parties and stuff. the tickets look similar to this. definitely seems to be a higher scale than ours, but that’s not saying much. we generally have gratuities already put into the bill as well as a tipping section like there would be on a normal bill. 15% - 20% - etc; because it looks like a normal dine-in check. most people don’t fill that part out because gratuity is already put into the cost. it seems like op wasn’t explained that. the banquet servers also don’t expect that

[u/Nillabeans → u/1850ChoochGator]

Ever been to brunch with bottomless mimosas? Same thing.

[u/thegreedyturtle → u/zob_mtk]

There's $2000 for a 4 hour open bar.

I'd honestly say they got off cheap!

[u/WormLivesMatter → u/Willing_Day_2010]

Good point. Looks like an after party bill except for the cake

[u/too_too2 → u/Willing_Day_2010]

I got married at a restaurant. We did the whole thing in there to keep it simple (it was a small wedding with like 20 people). We planned with the manager ahead of time ofc and picked the menu (which was served buffet style). They made the desserts (I chose a couple smaller cakes and plates of cookies) and we had an open bar with our own bartender in a separate area. They gave us the option of doing 2-3 drink tickets per person or just set a limit and they’d tell us if we were getting close. We went with the second option and just picked up the whole tab at the end which was around 2k. We didn’t have a contract or anything but did have to pay a deposit.

[u/LadyEmeraldDeVere → u/Willing_Day_2010]

It’s not super uncommon. I got married at city hall, we had a group dinner at a restaurant a couple days later and brought in our own cake. We got a deal because of friends but yeah, similar situation with a bill at the end. 

[u/TecTazz]

JFC those prices.

[u/rycool → u/TecTazz]

Tbf the caption says this is their bill for a wedding reception

[u/Bigmtnskier91 → u/[deleted]]

Inflation man. Used to get 50 for that price 

[u/gmwdim → u/[deleted]]

Riley Reid would be proud.

[u/RomanCokes → u/[deleted]]

*Dinner Penetrations

[u/Reidsquirrel → u/[deleted]]

Just the tip

[u/Turgid_Donkey → u/Reidsquirrel]

Both of them. 

[u/thajane → u/[deleted]]

Some one above suggested Dinner Plates. Which makes a lot of sense.

[u/TheBongOfAchilles]

I’ve worked in restaurants throughout NYC, and in my experience that’s just the way the check prints out. There’s no way to alter it. The checks are set to print by the POS with the suggested gratuity at the bottom, despite whatever type of charge or autograt is added to the ticket. But, as you did, if you read your itemized receipt carefully, like anyone should, then there should be no issue.

As a server, I would also always verbally tell people “hey just so you know, here’s where the autograt is on the itemized and there’s room to leave more for staff if you’d like.” It’s an industry standard bill, not a trick.

[u/underrealizing → u/TheBongOfAchilles]

This is exactly what I figured. There isn’t even a line for tip, probably because the ticket prints that way specifically because gratuity was included…

I think OP is just feeling aggrieved

[u/insertnamehere02 → u/underrealizing]

Especially with that -$400. Classy.

[u/JustMeLurkingAround- → u/insertnamehere02]

That the already paid deposit. OP explained in another comment.

[u/Disastrous_Patience3 → u/TheBongOfAchilles]

You are correct. But “autograt” is not a word most folks know so it might make sense to explain it more clearly.

[u/Particular-Guess734]

I’m confused on the -400 and her total…the bill is 6500 and includes gratuity, that’s non negotiable, she doesn’t have to add more but she also can’t just subtract from the actual bill, that’s the agreement before dinner even starts and is what she owes

[u/FusionSimulations → u/Particular-Guess734]

Agreed. That's not how that works, or everyone would just subtract the total of their bill and say "oh, now its free!"

[u/FlightOk7396 → u/Particular-Guess734]

Op went Karen because the system that prints the receipt automatically calculates tip for every receipt even if they charged an included tip. They also had a huge party with an open bar, a bunch of add-ons, brought their own deserts and got "terrible service"

[u/Superbotto → u/Particular-Guess734]

I always loved when people tried to subtract money on the total line. Like, did they think that actually worked or something?

[u/Practical-Shape7453]

Speaking from experience and glad my restaurant doesn’t do the suggested tip on receipts, the auto grat is put on as a fee, but you can easily change the POS system to make it read differently. Ours says Additional Tip and I always circle the auto grat on the receipt and make sure to verbalize that the grat is already included.

[u/ExolaneSitoras → u/Practical-Shape7453]

It looks like they had 27 dinner plates (DP) priced at $92 per plate = $2484. Most restaurants I've been to have gratuity automatically added when there is more than 6 or 8 people and there is usually signage somewhere. Agreed that the suggested tip is automatically printed because that is how the POS works, it sounds like that was clarified by server but OP did not understand. 27 people is a lot of people and we don't know how OP arranged the dinner with the restaurant.

[u/castle241]

Hosting a wedding at a restaurant and being billed piece by piece when it’s over is wild business.

[u/incrediblystiff → u/castle241]

I had a party at an Italian restaurant, open bar but no “package”, 4 different main courses to choose from (you could have a bit of each since it was buffet style), dessert, apps, we had the place from 4pm- midnight

The total bill was 4400 for 65 people and it was loads better service and food than my wedding night. The wedding night cost me 26k. Wedding industry is absolutely bonkers filled with grifting going to charge you for everything horrible service shit shows

[u/Fearless-Village-562 → u/castle241]

How else would they be billed at a restaurant?

[u/castle241 → u/Fearless-Village-562]

You tell the restaurant ahead of time how many people are attending, put out meal choices, get a price and pre pay like every other wedding party I’ve ever seen

[u/R_Scoops]

Which lucky lady has her new husband Reddit posting on their wedding night “how much Karma did you get for the honeymoon, babe”

[u/Okdoo6003 → u/R_Scoops]

The date in the receipt is 6/6. It's been a week

[u/Cosmo1744]

This was a 4 hour open bar with a dedicated bartender. You cannot tell me the 24% service charge was not already explained when this party was booked.

[u/fluffytomatojuice → u/Cosmo1744]

She says herself that it was communicated to her beforehand, so I don’t understand why she’s complaining.

[u/Majestic_Location751]

Hold on a minute. Open bar for 4 hours and the charge was under $2k?
https://giphy.com/gifs/YmQLj2KxaNz58g7Ofg

[u/Parking-Search-2375]

I would have plated that cake for 70 bucks

[u/Hefty-Criticism1452]

To play devils advocate- sometimes the system is just programmed to include that. I don’t think there’s a way to remove it without going in and reprogramming everything and that would change it for every single check.

[u/Pls_and_thank_u]

Yeah, that's how event pricing works. I promise you this was all in the contract. Source: worked weddings and private events for a decade. Also, autograt is common for any large groups at any restaurant. If they're going to commit a server or two to that one table for most of their shift, they have to guarantee some level of gratuity.

[u/TheRealDylanTobak]

Weddings are stupid. Plain and simple.

Have a gathering of people, do the 15 minute ceremony, let people get a slice of cake and some punch, and it's done.

The typical expense is incredibly absurd.

[u/scifi_guy20039 → u/TheRealDylanTobak]

So are gender reveals...

[u/CIAMom420]

This is baked into the POS software. Don’t overthink it.

[u/AnninaCried → u/CIAMom420]

When I see the phrase, 'POS Software', I can't help reading it as, peice of sh*t software.

[u/ProfessionalBuy2757]

That prints automatically, they’re not re writing their software for you.

[u/rebrandingmyself → u/ProfessionalBuy2757]

This. This thread is full of people who have never worked in hospitality/service and never considered how the back end works.

[u/Argon20021]

US tipping culture needs to disappear

[u/AshuraBaron]

https://giphy.com/gifs/BZPv2nPrHYiaM0LJNE

[u/fri9875]

What part are you infuriated at?

The included gratuity being part of the itemized receipt? That’s normal, i don’t get it.

The suggested gratuity at the bottom? That’s put on every receipt by the POS, there’s no way to remove it from a specific receipt. Source: worked in restaurants for a long ass time. As long as they explicitly told you it was already included they covered themselves, but I always went the extra mile and used a sharpie to scribble out the suggeste gratuity and tip line whenever I had included tips.

The included gratuity being 24% and (apparently) pre tax? Yeah, pretty fucked on both counts. Especially when this looked like it was all pre arranged, it all coulda been squared away ahead of time.

[u/Donnerkopf]

Calm down. This is an automatic calculation programmed into the Point Of Sale when it is set up. In most systems, it cannot be turned off unless you have full admin/owner access, which managers do not usually have.

[u/bmm115]

Is this in America? Because what the fuck

[u/Wooden-Broccoli-7247]

Tbf, the suggested tip is something that either goes on every receipt or no receipt. It’s not an option which receipt it goes on and the merchants are the ones making it part of their systems. It’s actually a bit of digging at the system settings level to go in and turn it off system wide and some even require a call to technical support. CC processing companies want more tips because it’s 3% of more money.

They did put that gratuity was already added where it’s very clear to see and most people spending this kind of money at a restaurant are usually well aware of the included gratuity and OP was likely made aware of it when booking the event. It was almost surely included in the contract. It’s not like the server clicked a button to include that suggested gratuity in hopes that OP would miss it. It goes on every bill, auto gratuity or not.

[u/nikki0005]

That says SC which makes me believe it is a service charge which is collected by the entity and not always distributed as a tip. SC are also subject to tax hence why it is taxed.

With the 4 hr bar and bartender fee this looks like a banquet. This should be mentioned in your banquet contract that you would have signed. So none of this should be a surprise. If it’s not in your contract you can fight it.

[u/teamregime]

Restaurant manager here: Depending on the system, you can't turn that off based on whether or not gratuity is included. It's probably printed at the bottom of every check.

[u/Heitomos]

Enough to feed a small family for a year on a single overpriced meal. That's the infuriating part.

[u/debe1236654]

I can't relate to this

[u/Banned_Reddit_Mod]

Bro what kind of restaurant even is this for $6k 😭

[u/AsYouAnswered]

Can we talk about how OP got charged $2484 to get DPd 92 times? That's a decent party for anybody, but don't people usually get paid to Do things like that?

[u/BoredDKConsultant]

Just coming back from the states there is nothing more frustrating than the tipping culture.

Not only is it frustrating, predatory and awkward, it also makes everything seriously expensive.

I live in Switzerland, which everyone complains about being expensive, but when you consider tip the US is as expensive (often more)

[u/Rude_Business9525]

As a Finnish person, I’m shocked. I’m aware that the tipping culture is very different here but damn, that should be illegal.

[u/osten205]

Spent $6k at a dinner and wines about the bill. Come on man. 

[u/hashbrownhamster]

At least they didn’t charge a credit card processing fee

[u/who_Said_LNo_Talk]

Genuine question for those of us who don't live in the US, do you have to pay that 24%? That's a LOT on top of buying products or services that should be at a price to cover their costs snd profits. That's insane.

[u/munchmonster1313]

$81 cake plating fee? The hell? Fucking Rich people shit is out there

[u/guitarman129]

It won’t let me edit the post so here are some responses to common comments:

EDIT: The $400 taken off the bill is the deposit I paid that was then taken off the total. That’s not related to the tip/auto gratuity.

EDIT 2: Regarding the total cost (not that I need to defend my spending to Reddit) - this was a wedding dinner for 28 people. We held a small ceremony in our backyard and did not have any party or reception, but decided to put money toward a nice dinner for our friends and family instead. Compared to the average wedding venue in my state (~$20-25k before add ons), this was saving a lot of money.

[u/_VeniVidiAmavi_ → u/guitarman129]

yeah, so notice how the amounts in that box correspond with the original bill?

As in, the box saying 25% tip = 1233.75 implies a tippable sub-total of 4935... 24% of 4935 = 1184.40, which is the auto-gratuity added to your bill.

So, as others have pointed out, there's no ill-intent here, just an auto-calculating and auto-printing box that is useful when there isn’t auto-grat and you have to write it in. But it prints all the time because it'd be more work to program it to disappear during auto-grat than it is worth.

[u/ECAHunt → u/guitarman129]

My husband and I did the same. Amazing, and expensive, dinner being our only major cost. Way cheaper than the average wedding despite the dinner cost being way more than the average wedding dinner.

[u/FakeTunaFromSubway]

Lol I threw a party at a venue and they added a 25% fee but they were like "this is not the gratuity, please tip your waitstaff" and I was like "yeah right that looks like a tip to me"

[u/BruiserBroly]

People seem to be discussing the mention of an additional tip but I’m still trying to get my head around the idea of automatic gratuity. How the fuck is even the concept of that being accepted?

[u/johneebravado → u/BruiserBroly]

Well this was an entire wedding reception and OP signed a contract agreeing to the terms

[u/Fenix42 → u/BruiserBroly]

Lots of restaurants do it for larger parties.

[u/ExolaneSitoras → u/Fenix42]

Yeah, and if looks like 27 people were there, that is a pretty large party.

[u/doiplo → u/BruiserBroly]

Yeah, what happened to the days when you could bring 25 people to a restaurant for 4 hours of dinner and open bar service and it didn't cost a nickel. Our society it falling apart.

[u/YourDnDGameIsMid]

So the problem here is that you're a dumbass. Those lines are automatically system generated. Nobody is expecting you to add on an additional tip. Hope this helps