Hot Pot staff charged 'mandatory' 20% tip for 'non-existent' service until customer's reply sent them scrambling
'I told her, if you don't remove it, I'm just going to walk out without paying...'
'Tipping culture' has gone out of control. Whether it's a grocery store with self-checkout services or a premium restaurant, customers are being charged with 'mandatory' tips for no reason. A customer dining out at a hot pot restaurant faced a similar situation, where they were asked to pay a mandatory gratuity tip of $45 on their bill. The customer was pissed because the restaurant service was almost "non-existent," and so they confronted the manager, and threatened to walk out without paying the compulsory gratuity. They (u/schen72) posted the incident on Reddit on December 9.
The customer had come to the hot pot restaurant with family, and their total bill was a little over $300. Over that, the eatery had added a mandatory gratuity tip of nearly $45. They were shocked because nobody had expected it, and the menu hadn't mentioned the tip. "If it did, it was not conspicuous enough for me to notice," the customer explained. Since it was a hot pot restaurant, there was no such great service, other than the servers bringing raw ingredients to the table. "I don't consider just bringing the food to be 'service' by itself. There was no refilling of drinks, nor clearing of empty dishes, unless we flagged them down," the customer recalled. So, they immediately confronted the manager about the gratuity. "She balked, and I told her, If you don't remove it, I'm just going to walk out without paying," the customer explained. Later, the manager removed the tip, but the customer left $5 to make the final total a round number. "Don't accept a deceptive 'mandatory' gratuity ever," they urged the readers.
More than the bill, people nowadays seem to be more worried about the pressure to tip at restaurants. In fact, a survey of over 2000 US consumers by PYMNTS found that 31% of them tend to reduce dining out less because of the expectation to tip. Amongst different generations, Baby Boomers and seniors are the least likely to dine out less, but the younger generations are more bothered by the pressure to tip. The survey found that 44% of Millennials, 42% of Gen Z, and 42% of 'bridge Millennials' prefer to have food at home because of the overwhelming tipping culture.
Meanwhile, a majority of people online supported the customer for refusing to pay the mandatory tip. For instance, u/routine-promotion520 commented, "The entitlement is just crazy with these restaurants. If it happened to me, I would never spend my hard-earned money there again." Similarly, praising the customer, u/aggressive_staff_982 wrote, "Yeah, more people need to do this. Tipping is always optional. It doesn't matter how large your group is. It doesn't matter how much food a table orders. The job description is to take orders, bring food and drinks out, and bring the table the bill. Jobs always have busy and not-so-busy days. But servers are one of the only ones who expect a tip on any day, not just a busy day."
Meanwhile, u/sufficient_garlic149 shared, "I love hot pot, but as a former fine dining server, I hate the expected 20% tip. Like they bring water, bring the ingredients once, and that’s it. The last time I went to hot pot, they asked us to use a QR code to order and to look online with their QR code for any questions. 20% for what? I used to bust my a** for 20%; now people expect 20% for showing up to work."
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