The wife alerted me to this story. She knows me. She knows I get burned up with this kind of crap.

http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/local&id=7128490&status=ok

This couple go to a restaurant / pub kinda place, along with some friends, to have dinner. Apparently the service was quite bad to the point that the group had to get their own drinks, napkins and such along with the amount of time to wait for the food.
So when the bill comes, of course the tip is added onto the bill. We’ve all seen that for large groups. I’ve always been opposed to such acts of assumption.

Anyways, this story is ultra-mega BS! Tips are for the service NOT for the food and drinks.
As we all know, the wait staff get paid less than the minimum wage so they have to work for the tips. The tips are the flexibility of the customer.
The idea of the tip is too simple: Do a good job then you get tipped well. Do a bad job then you’re your tip is quite less or none. Otherwords, DO YOUR JOB! This is why I’ve always hated when the tip is added onto the bill. WHERE is the incentive to do a good job when you know your tip will be added regardless of your service? Yea I know, most wait staff are still good when that automatic tip add-on is done but WHY should it be placed on? What if I DO encounter a bad service? Yea, the knee-jerk answer to that would be “Well, you should then talk to the manager”. NO! Again, repeat my statement above…. The tips are the flexibility of the CUSTOMER!! It’s not flexibility of the MANAGEMENT! The option of punishing the bad service with a low tip (or none) is up to the CUSTOMER. Place the low tip and leave. Simple. I shouldn’t have to waste MY time further by also waiting for the management!! If the customer wishes to complain to the management then that’s their right. FORCING the customer to pay for a bad service AND having to talk to the management is BS!!
Now, just like most people, I too have a favorite restaurant. This place I know the owner by having a great conversation one time at our table. I complimented the great service and management. His answer? Quite simple! He pays good for the good managers and dumps the bad ones, therefore continuing the great service. He will not tolerate any complaints. This would be the place that I would take time to make sure the management heard my complaint because I know the management would do something about it.
Now should I HAVE to complain to the management? NO! It’s my right to just pay for the meal and leave and maybe never come back.
The name of the establishment isn’t shown yet BUT I would love to know so to promote the fact that this place doesn’t care that when customers get a bad service, they punish the CUSTOMERS for not tipping.
They should make it illegal to automatically add the tip to the bill or at least mark on the bill as a SUGGESTION not MANDATORY!!
I understand the reasoning behind the adding of the tip in the bill for a large group. The wait staff work hard for a large group and they should be tipped accordingly, just like any number of customers from 1 to 1000, but the automatic add-on of the tip in a large group just takes away the need to make sure the wait staff do their JOB.
The people that should be arrested are the low lifes that do not tip for a good service. THOSE are the ones that made the restaurants add that little rule of adding the tip onto a large group bill.
The fact that this management punished the customers instead of the wait staff is beyond ludicrous. The name of this establishment will leak out eventually and once that does then the establishment should then be punished with less amount of customers. How can anyone really go to an establishment knowing that they could get bad service …. AND HAVE TO PAY FOR IT!!???!?
This shouldn’t even have to go to court.
“So let me get this straight. You folks visited a restaurant and had bad service?”
“Yes, you’re honor.”
“This place FORCED you to pay for this bad service?”
“Yes your honor”
“What?? Oh boy.. Case dismissed. NEXT?”
This restaurant should be EMBARASSED that they did this to their customers. They have their thinking backwards. They think that THEY are doing the CUSTOMER a favor by existing for them while it should be the CUSTOMER doing THEM a favor by choosing THEIR place to eat. What? They think they’re the ONLY place to have a meal?? Come on!!