Do You Have To Tip At A Restaurant?

Question

I recently had a really late meal with a couple of friends at an all nite diner @ midnite. When we sat at our table, we were informed that after 11 pm, there was an automatic 20% gratuity added to the check. We were fine with this since we did have a party of 6. After our hostess left, we waited almost 45 min for the waitress to come and take our drink order and bring the drinks even after asking another waitress to find ours. We then ordered our food and it took almost another 45 min to recieve that. We ate our food and it was very good to say the least, but our waitress never showed back up to refill our drinks or see how we were doing. We finally had to ask someone else to bring us our check. Now on our check, we noticed that the "added" gratuity was almost $20. We were told we had to pay it. Is this true? Did she deserve that large a tip no matter what her service was like?Maybe she had a bad day but i dont think thats any excuse. What do you all think?

We did complain to the manager only to be told that we did agree to the tip as told buy us in the beginning and that no matter how bad the service was, it was our responsibility. Come to find out it was his sister (family restuarant). It was hardly busy that night. Thank you to everyone who answered, this was really bugging me.

Answer 1

A gratuity , or tip, is a voluntary monetary gift in acknowledgement of services rendered. In the case that you mentioned I would have refused to pay the extra twenty dollars, as the service received was terrible.
If push comes to shove, the restaraunt doesn't have any legal basis for demanding a tip, and certainly doesn't have any legal means of forcing payment.
The fact that you agreed to pay the extra amount was contingent upon you receiving adequate service, which you didn't.The Manager of the restaurant should have waived the extra amount because of the long waiting period for service.

Answer 2

First of all I would not agree to any gratuity. If a resturant expects this out of you I wouldn't eat there. You don't know how well your going to be serviced and from the sounds of it, the waitress was down right unprofessional. You should have been seated and drinks should have been ordered right away. She should have asked you if you were ready to order or would you like more time and you should say come back in five minutes. You all should have been compensated for what you went through and I would still to this day call up the manager and complain about it and if they do not offer to make good on this? I'd not go there again. Poor service is uncalled for.

Answer 3

I don't think it is fair to make the tip mandatory, but I do think you should always leave some kind of tip. Servers usually only make about 2.13 an hour. Was the restaurant very busy at all? if they are open all night maybe they were busier than tthey usaully are. As a server myself I can understand how hard it is sometimes, but that is not to say there isn't horrible service out there. I experienced almost the same thing you did, but it was at 8PM at a nice steakhouse in Kansas City and they also screwed up our steaks. We ended up getting our meal for free. If I were you I would complain to the manager if this happens to you again. Sometimes they will give you a discount and that will make up for what you paid in the tip and the bad service you recieved.

I don't know about where you live, but here in Ohio the only restaurants that are open at midnight not always the greatest. I would just get carryout somewhere or pizza next time.

Sorry to hear about your experience and know there are some servers out there who do actually value customer service(even if they are having a bad day). :-)

Answer 4

If you agree to pay the 20% at the beginning of the meal you have contracted with them to pay it. There are ways of making sure you get better service at resturants before the meal is over, you can ask for a new server for example. It sounds like your service was bad and if you had not agreed to the 20% then you would have been free to leave nothing.

Answer 5

You were informed ahead of time & you agreed, so, yes, the tip part stays, Consider it a "mini-contract". Before paying your bill however, you should have asked for the person in charge & explained to him/her about your dissatisfaction with the customer service that wasn't provided & that you would pay the tip this time as agreed. Businesses that don't advertise by any sort of medium (TV/Radio/Signage) depend on "word-of-mouth" advertising. If you and your friends had voiced your complaint to the manager, advised him/her that you would not be returning and that you would not be recommending their place of business to others due to poor customer service, you probaby would have gotten a little something off your bill......(or maybe a "big" something); you never know......

Answer 6

People think that tips are mandatory. They're really about saying how the waiter/waitress did. I give 25% -30% if it's really good. If it sucks 15%. But there is that old song by Live that says, "Come on baby leaves some change behind. She was a ***** but I don't care. She brought our food and on time. She wore a funky braid in her hair." Just remember, waitressing is hard *** work.

Answer 7

You have to pay for the tip if you agree for it first.

I would have definitely complained to the management after though. I'm sure they would have figured out some kind of discount or something leaving you pleased. If not, I would have called a higher customer service call center to complain or the BBB.

Answer 8

Yes since it was clear before you ordered what was required. You still have the right to complain to the manager. Ask for the name of the regional manager if it's a chain or the owner.

Answer 9

I would have refused to pay a $20 tip for such poor service. What could they have done, called the police? With service like you received, I would have gone with $6.00, A dollar per person.

Answer 10

Well they told you at the beginning they were going to add the 20% automatically and you accepted, so sorry, but they were right, if the bill was $100. I wouldn't go back there, though.