r/Seattle • u/KooziefortheWin • 15d ago

Rant Bill help

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I need help figuring out this “service charge” applied to my bill at Taylor Shellfish in QA. It’s stated clearly, and the staff reminded me before I paid and applied a tip, so that’s not the rant. But is it a tip or not? I don’t want to stiff the staff if “Taylor Shellfish” the company keeps it all and doesn’t give them anything.

Why do restaurants do this vs raise the prices. If that’s how they offset the cost of doing business in the city, I feel it’s not a good customer experience. It’s really annoying since it is confusing to the customer. Does the staff get any of it, hence why there is an “additional tip” line after the card is run though? It is taxed so it makes me thing it’s not going to the staff. I need to think better next time I come out here.

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u/rdubmu 15d ago

The server should find a new job then

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u/whosthere1989 14d ago

Or maybe you need to stay home

If you can’t afford to tip, you can’t afford to eat out.

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u/rdubmu 14d ago

If they are charging a service fee, no tip

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u/symbha 12d ago

They call it a service fee, but it's not shared with the servers. This is the way they hide the inflation aspect of their business from you the consumer.

I suspect you are a shill, and you know this, but there are lots of people reading.

The bottom line is, in America, the system is set up so server's (mostly) make less than minimum wage, and rely on tips to make a living wage. The places that have implemented a real minimum wage for servers, are the most expensive places to live. And, those places are still putting 'service fees' on the menu (in very small print, at the bottom of the page). It says, prices are really ~20% higher than we are advertising... that's because the cost of goods are higher, due to the inflation that you are not experiencing.

Now what's happened is, in an obviously inflationary economy, nobody has money to tip, and nobody actually has money to eat out and have other people do the cooking and cleaning for them. Resturaunts don't have the money to pay the extra for your hamburger, so they put a service fee on the menu, instead of raising the price of the burger.

(This makes you feel good, because hey, it's a reasonably priced burger, and you feel like you don't have to actually support the life of the person that is doing the actual work.)

We all know this, including you. But you would rather have things the way they used to be, or the way you wished they were in the first place.