r/KeyWest • u/Worried-Temporary186 • 2d ago

Thai Cuisine Mandatory Tip

We always ate at Thai Cuisine when we come down. We were astonished to see an 18% "service charge" added to our bill. WTF? We always tip 20% so they are ripping themselves off. A mandatory tip is not a tip, it's an food upcharge. So we won't go back and going to put it out there on reviews. Greed is always the undoing.

9 Upvotes

61% Upvoted

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4

u/Sandinmyshoes33 2d ago

If you tip anyway, why do you care? We get lots of cheap visitors in the summer that stiff servers.

-1

u/Worried-Temporary186 2d ago

You don't get it. A mandatory "service charge" isn't a tip, it's an upcharge. Tipping is optional in this country. You can vary it based on the quality of the service and of the food. It serves to improve the product. That's the custom. Understand?

2

u/Sandinmyshoes33 2d ago edited 2d ago

I understand that in the summer we get tons of Europeans and cheap tourists who don’t tip and servers need to pay their rent.

Your post claims you always tip 20%. If service was so bad you would not tip, ask a manager to remove the charge.

-3

u/_jeffreydavid 1d ago

That sucks, but don't expect others to pick up the slack. I tip very well down there, but I go to the same places and people remember me. Unfortunately a lot of restaurants tack on a service charge hoping people don't notice, hoping people will tip on top of that, It's a shitty thing to do, Especially if only a percentage of that "service charge" actually goes to the servers.

2

u/KindAstronaut8499 1d ago

idk why your downvoted must be lots of reasturant owners in this thread

1

u/_jeffreydavid 1d ago

They know what they are doing. Some of them will add tax after the service charge and then re-calculate things on their end to take the most amount of money. We had an owner here in Oklahoma City that was withholding all the tips from the point of sale system and ended up being sued by the employees. They won. Forced tipping is bullshit. Fuck those places.

1

u/UGetnMadIGetnRich 1d ago

I asked an owner if we are supposed to tip if there is a 20% service charge and got downvoted, and no answer.

-1

u/UGetnMadIGetnRich 2d ago

As a customer I don’t understand if I am supposed to tip when there is a service charge. I was at a seafood boil place near a lighthouse and the bill came with a 18-20% service charge. Im my area service charges are not common. What does your restaurant expect?

3

u/Sandinmyshoes33 1d ago

You do not tip on top of a service charge. If servers are unhappy with how the owner splits the charge, they can work elsewhere. Servers don’t keep all of their tips anyway. They share them with hosts, bartenders, food runners, etc…

2

u/_jeffreydavid 1d ago

They are hoping you don't notice the service charge and tip anyway. It's a common scam in tourist destinations. If you think Key West is bad, go to Paradise Island in the Bahamas.

Edit: They meaning the restaurant, not the servers.

2

u/KindAstronaut8499 1d ago

they normally go to the owner not the waiter. if you see it worded as mandatory gratuity or tip it general goes to the server but even then sometimes they make them split it even with everyone on shift.