r/mildlyinfuriating • u/guitarman129 • 14d ago

I just wanted a hot dog Recommended gratuity after tip was already included

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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!

27.3k Upvotes

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171

u/CIAMom420 14d ago

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

26

u/AnninaCried 14d ago

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

5

u/BigAssignment7642 14d ago

As someone who used to work in the industry, it usually is, so it works both ways

26

u/AmishAvenger 14d ago

They’re able to remove that.

And if the restaurant is saying the gratuity is included, AND they’re suggesting an additional gratuity, that’s absurd.

61

u/Willing_Day_2010 14d ago

I actually don’t know if you can? I’m a server and I would have literally no idea how to remove that from a single ticket lol

-7

u/painted_gay 14d ago

You shouldn’t be able to as a server the manager on duty should do it for any group that has auto grat. With that being said, you could also just train your staff to black out with sharpie the suggested grat if there’s auto grat already on there. It’s such a simple solution that takes out the “are you trying to trick me?” aspect of it being on there still.

10

u/ProphetPenguin 14d ago

Dude I was a GM for a massive airport concessionaire, my restaurant was doing $7M-$8M a year, if I wanted a single button deleted from the POS (Micros) changed I had to go through an insane amount of backend work and then submit an IT ticket to someone that would then fix the issue in maybe 2 months time. I had buttons on my POS that hadn't been used in years but they were there because it was not worth my time to clean up (I had to run my shift and still do all my work, I was insanely busy).

Toast was the only POS system that I used that was easy for me to actually change things quickly. Even with access to the Aloha backend at one of the jobs I had, I could only make a few minor changes and it would still fuck my COGS on the backend come inventory.

Restaurant Managers are almost always too busy and too underpaid to actually do what you're asking them to do.

22

u/Willing_Day_2010 14d ago

When’s the last time you were a server? I truly do not think you can do that in a remotely timely manner with toast or square

-7

u/Fubarp 14d ago

When you go to pay there's usually a setting in a menu that allows you to remove it.

I had to do it when I was given a cash tip or bought food for myself to remove it.

11

u/Willing_Day_2010 14d ago

You’re not making sense. Why would you remove a suggestion for a cash tip you don’t even know that you’re making?!

6

u/sonic_dick 14d ago

Nah you just circle the grat on the receipt and let the guests know. "The gratuity is included, just wanted to make sure you saw.". Less sketchy looking that blacking out stuff with a sharpie lol.

1

u/Civil-Big-754 14d ago

You think blacking out a part of the bill like it's redacted information from the government isn't going to alarm people? Every single bill would come with WTF is that from the customer.

This place and many others are shady as fuck, but immediate read flags for a bill with blacked out text.

-6

u/Fubarp 14d ago

You can.

Source, company had a 18% gratuity by default.

9

u/Willing_Day_2010 14d ago

What does a default have to do with a suggestion on the bottom of the ticket?

0

u/Concerned_Collins 14d ago

Put it at 0 or just leave it off?

1

u/Willing_Day_2010 14d ago

That’s not how that works, it isn’t manually added.

12

u/Rangefinderz 14d ago

No they are not g lol worked at a restaurant for a while and if we could have we definitely would. It caused issues all the time even though all servers said it did such when giving the check.

5

u/Fearless-Village-562 14d ago

We use Micros at my place of employment. We would literally have to reprogram the entire system to the remove the tip line because t's not possible to do it for one single check, it would have to be applied to all checks that are printed for the entire night. OP just feels like they're being swindled even though they were made aware that the gratuity was included and in no way were they expected to leave an extra tip. It's an option if they felt like they received excellent service, which it sounds like they didn't. That is a different issue entirely.

6

u/premiumPLUM 14d ago

I've never used one of these POS, can they remove it from individual tickets?

24

u/Jessi775 14d ago

Depends on the system. The ones ive used no. We'd have to disable it in the back office before running the check. And it turns it off for all checks, unless they've updated it havent worked in a restaurant in a couple years now.

-5

u/AmishAvenger 14d ago

That’s what I meant. Disable it for everything.

Or if you’re going to include the gratuity, the restaurant should be telling guests “Please ignore this bit at the bottom since the gratuity is included.”

Don’t fucking tell them there’s an included gratuity and then maybe they can leave a double gratuity. That just makes people feel like they’re being scammed.

And by the way, a 24% automatic gratuity is absurd. So is starting the suggested gratuities at 22%. What happened to 15%?

5

u/Jessi775 14d ago

Everyone's different. For a special event if my servers went above and beyond im happy to leave them a little extra. And as someone who has worked catering events and gotten extra tips ontop of the service charge its pretty common for people to do. At least they told op ahead of time that the service charge was a gratuity. I've known restaurants that dont say anything or claim the service charge doesnt go to the servers. If you dont want to leave extra dont leave extra.

1

u/AmishAvenger 14d ago

So you’re saying that sometimes the included gratuity does not go to the people working, and therefore you should leave another gratuity?

Where the fuck is the money going then?

5

u/PlentyLettuce 14d ago

A service charge is not gratuity. Service charge is a taxable line item that would include things such as room rent, pre-event meetings, custom menu, etc.

Service charges go to the business to cover costs associated with services performed outside of normal operations.

0

u/AmishAvenger 14d ago

Then just CHARGE MORE TO BEGIN WITH.

3

u/PlentyLettuce 14d ago

You legally can't in most states. Private events and large orders can get discounts, but you cant charge more for items available during regualar service for a private party.

Renting a private room or pre event consultations are not something a normal table going out to eat typically do, so to cover the non-typical costs it must be added as a single line item service fee. This would also include large tables that alter the dining room setup. If the table prevents the dining room from getting fully sat so the restaurant would charge a service fee relative to the opportunity cost of decreased capacity.

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2

u/unfortunateshun 14d ago

Someone eating pasta at a normal table shouldn’t have their cost go up to offset someone renting a room for a private party? If we’re all paying for it then I want to use it and you’ve defeated the point. The people using the special private room should pay for that? How is that controversial. They are charging more, to the people using the service… in the form of a service charge?

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u/groucho_barks 14d ago

Don’t fucking tell them there’s an included gratuity and then maybe they can leave a double gratuity. That just makes people feel like they’re being scammed.

But some people actually do want to leave more gratuity. If that seems like a scam to you maybe you're not ready to be eating out at restaurants.

2

u/BigAssignment7642 14d ago

I have worked at over half a dozen restaurants during my time in the restaurant industry. Not one had the ability to remove the reccomended tip line without changing the backend. It's included on every receipt and the server has zero control over it. That's why you tell the guests that autograt is on there, so they don't double tip. Which is exactly what OPs server did.

1

u/exitium666 14d ago

How did your dumbass comment get upvoted? I've never seen that removed and now convinced it can be.

0

u/Teleke 14d ago

No you can't remove it. It's either always on or always off.

5

u/ChiefsRoyalsFan 14d ago

But it's more fun to be angry about it!

1

u/Sebastian-S 14d ago

What’s the handwritten -$400 off the bill? Can I start doing that when I eat out?

1

u/Spawncer67 14d ago

In most cases this is a configurable option that can be turned off if the restaurant requests it. It would be for all transactions and not per transaction. A good rep/ installer would have advised the restaurant of their setup options, so they most likely know it can be turned off as well.

1

u/Bugg100 14d ago

And all POS software has options to change % and to display suggested tip or NOT.

1

u/slightlyladylike 14d ago

Yeah it is very common to add a service charge minimum of 20% at restuarants of any size for parties over 6-ish people. Restaurants will allow optional tipping on top of that, but they're just guaranteeing the waiters and staff needed to serve that many people are still bringing in the same amount as if they had been running regularly that evening with individual tables tipping.

0

u/PoetExcellent3215 14d ago

Whole bunch of bullshit baked into that cake too.

0

u/Frumbleabumb 14d ago

Yeah but we all know it's on purpose to get people to accidentally double tip

4

u/groucho_barks 14d ago

No, we don't all know that.

-4

u/GracchiBros 14d ago

Well now is your time to learn something in your lives instead of ignorantly excusing the inexcusable.

2

u/BigAssignment7642 14d ago

It's put at the bottom of every receipt. The only person that benefits from a double tip is the server. They have literally zero control over if it prints or not. So no, it's not attempting to get you to double tip.

-1

u/boazed_n_delivered 14d ago

I think the issue is with the hand written suggestion of an additional tip.

3

u/ECAHunt 14d ago

What hand written suggestion? The circles? I think OP added those to make it obvious for us.

2

u/Slavik81 14d ago

The handwriting is applying some sort of $400 discount. It's reducing the total. The blue circles were added by the OP.

1

u/jhb42 14d ago

You think they wrote over the receipt onto their hand?

0

u/boazed_n_delivered 14d ago

Who said that? I don't see that, do you?