Automatic tipping to your bill

I've gotten reports of tips being automatically added to peoples bills at The Double Barrel Roadhouse and these were not large parties, only 2 or 4. 20% was added on without the customer being aware until later, this led to double tipping. If you're out having fun and feeling good, this is so uncool. Tipping shouldn't be automatic to insure or reward good service. If any of you see this happening please post to warn others.

I thought I read somewhere that effective this year that was against the law, no matter what the size of your party or bill is.

fredo

Always read your bill!!! Most of the time when they automatically tip, they get less than when they leave it to my disgression.

Is this ever a sore spot for me.
Last summer during the record breaking heat wave I headed to Vegas for a family members birthday celebration, 7 of us went to the Hard Rock Café, 5 of which I was paying for. Only half of the interior lights were working and the A/C was on the fritz too, only working at about 50% which wasn’t nearly enough to keep up with intense heat. The HR Café has an 18% gratuity for parties of 6 or more. First of all most restaurants do 18% for eight or more but whatever. Inside it was hot; it had to have been at least 80 degrees inside. We didn’t feel it at first coming in from 115+ degrees outside, that’s why we didn’t leave right away. The service was terrible and very slow, halfway through the meal some of us asked for refills and we didn’t get them until about 5 minutes after we were done eating. So after having to eat in a sauna and getting bad service, 18% was added to my bill, which I didn’t see in the fine print because the lights above our table weren’t on and to top it all off The waitress gave me my change back in all bills and NOT to my advantage either, whatever loose change I had coming back, she kept. I didn’t notice that until after we had left and I was so uncomfortably hot, I just wanted to get out of there, I didn’t even want to argue about it and the HR didn’t even try offering any discount either for A/C not working.

After I got back home, I e-mailed HR Café corporate offices, told them about everything that happened, they had the restaurants GM call me so I could tell them what happened. She apologized for the bad service, agreed that she had a problem that week with her A/C and told me my waitress should have never kept my change “and she would definitely talk to her". She also took my mailing address and email and said she would send me half off coupons for the next time I’m in Vegas. That was over 10 months ago and I’m still waiting for my coupons. Maybe my waitress took them!!!

Apologies for the length of my rant.

It's true:

https://www.vegaschatter.com/story/2014/5/5/175211/7322/vegas-travel/Vegas+Is+Getting+A+Little+Too+Fee+Happy

I have no problem with automatic tipping added to your bill is ok with me. It would save me money over the long haul. The only major thing I see is you can receive shitty service and still the service person receives the full amount. Tipping to me has always been a way to express your thanks for good service as well as poor service.

Automatic tipping, except for very large parties, really pisses me off, to the point that I will not add as much as another penny to the tip. Since I generally tip at least 20%, then round up to the next dollar, most places that tack on an automatic tip lose with me and if I've had a really good server, I let them know why they aren't getting an additional tip.

And to further spite them, I'll double-check to make sure that the automatic tip is only calculated on the food and beverage, not on tax, concession fees, or any other bogus charge added to my bill.

Now if I'm in a large party and have had truly exemplary service, I will add more than the automatically generated tip.

Yes, see Pg. 2 of the February 2014 issue of the LVA for more information.

RecVPPlayer

Automatic gratuities are not now illegal, it's more subtle than that. Restaurants can still impose an automatic service charge and get to the same place, they are not "illegal." But the tax implications may encourage restaurants to go back to a non-automatic tipping scheme even for large groups.

Here's how the Las Vegas Sun recently described the choice restaurants now face:

Restaurants, bars and nightclubs will now have the option to list the auto gratuity as an automatic-service charge or replace it with a suggested-gratuity amount (usually 15, 18 or 20 percent) that leaves the tip up to the customer.

A restaurant that replaces the old autogratuity with a service charge will have to start treating the money as wages rather than tips.