He Refused To Tip At A Restaurant That Automatically Added An 18% Gratuity To The Tab, And His Wife Was Mortified And Accused Him Of Being Cheap
Just last weekend, this man and his wife went out to dinner at a pretty nice restaurant in their downtown area.
But, upon receiving the bill at the end of their meal, they noticed that an 18% gratuity had been automatically added to their tab.
Apparently, this was just the restaurant’s tipping policy. However, he claimed that he was not informed about the automatic gratuity beforehand, and quite frankly, he admitted to thinking it was “ridiculous.”
He believes that part of the experience of dining out is deciding what tip, if any, to leave for your server based on the service you receive.
“Having it be mandatory takes away customer choice. Why don’t they just include it in the food prices if it’s mandatory?” he asked.
That’s why, after he realized that the gratuity was automatically added to their bill, he confronted their waiter and asked for the charge to be removed.
Well, the waiter told him that, since it was restaurant policy, there was no way for it to be taken off the tab.
“But policy or not, I wasn’t going to tip 18% and add an extra cash tip on top, which is what I guess many people do,” he said.
His wife didn’t agree with his perspective, though, and was actually just mortified by the fact that he was making a big deal about the automatic gratuity. In fact, she even accused him of being “cheap.”
dikushin – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only, not the actual person
Still, he didn’t think he was out of line for pushing back against the added fee.
“The waiter would (possibly) still get 18% without my ‘extra’ tip, so what does it matter?” he reasoned.
Regardless, he and his wife haven’t been able to stop fighting about the tipping incident at the restaurant ever since their dinner date. And now, he’s been left wondering if his wife is overreacting or if his refusing to tip on top of the automatic gratuity really was a jerky move.
Do you agree that automatic gratuities are counterintuitive or not? Regardless, can you understand why his wife was mortified? Do you think he was in the wrong here or not?
You can read the original post on Reddit here.
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