I hear ya. I’ve used them 3x in 15yrs so of course it’s a case by case.
Now they are adding a service on top of a tip.
Nothing currently gets my blood boiling like the tipping fiasco.
I went to buy take out food last week and the owner forces you to pick one of four %s for tipping. There isn’t an option on the screen unless you click a small button of “options”. I later found out, after tipping 10% (the smallest option) that options leads to cancel the transaction or no tip.
After working in 4 casual, non-serving (but we delivered) restaurants I have the firm opinion that as long as a restaurant doesn’t “serve” e.g. provide table service or delivery, any added tip is for superior service and goes DIRECTLY to the person who helped me. I don’t want to reward tipping a restaurant that splits tips or gives tips to owners, only. I sure don’t enjoy it being forced, either.
If table service or delivery are occurring, I don’t tip less than 18% unless it was poor service.
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Just build the fee into the price. I won’t patronize any Jon & Vinny that does this kind of bullsh!t, in SoCal.
Patrons don’t need to see transparent pricing, but internally, the restaurant should be figuring out their margins accordingly and paying their people a decent wage.
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I agree, what’s the point of a separate charge so you can pay your employee more. That should be built into the price of the food. I don’t know of any other industry that is doing this. Amazon does not charge you a living wage fee when you by a product from them. Its already built into the price of it.
i dont tip for picking up take out or at a starbucks, which is essentially like tipping at a fast food place imo, but i do overtip on wait staff on any service better than average; still dont leave tips for pathetic waitstaff, they can figure out they suck or think i’m a no-tipper; i dont care; i know why i didnt tip them.
and not to be political but with news the irs is supposedly looking harder and people paid on tips now, i now pay on the card, tip in cash. all sorts of people scamming the govt and theyre going after wait staff ? sad.
I usually tip at Subway. Especially if the sandwich maker is attentive and shows care/skill.
You haven’t bought a car lately? They try to tack on a bunch of BS. My favorite is when they try to add the inventory tax. Umm that’s their cost, not mine. They can’t legally collect that tax. I have them take it off or just walk.
They tried to add a $995 “options fee” on me once. I asked what that meant and they said it goes on every car they sell. I told them not this one if they want to sell it to me. 
Have you ever looked at all of the crap they add on at hospitals. They added a maternity kit to mine once and I pointed out that I’m a guy. I was told they put that on all bills and wondered what the problem was since it’s covered by insurance. And people wonder why insurance costs so much. I made them remove it.
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It’s to pay for the indigent. Have you ever been to Ben Taub maternity? It’s all free delivery.
I don’t think Southwest Memorial pays for indigents at Ben Taub, or even SW Memorial. It is a for profit hospital.
Southwest Memorial is Memorial Hermann Southwest. MH is a non-profit org while Ben Taub is part of Harris Health System hospital, a government, public health system. Everything at BT is free unless you have methods of payment (e.g. insurance, etc.).
I don’t know if MH charges fees to make up for non-paying emergency cases, but that would make sense. My wife’s hospital did that and also had a charity fund set aside.
The rule is if you go to any emergency room, they have to treat you. A certain demographic takes advantage of it. That’s why all these emergency clinics are popping up, its faster than going to er that’s chock full, you just have to pay or have insurance. Another hidden consequence.
If you’re talking about urgent care clinics, that’s definitely not the only (or main) reason those are popping up. Not saying it has nothing to do with it but probably quite small impact.
Those clinics can’t do much of anything for true emergencies. It’s if you’re sick or have emergencies that don’t rise to emergency room level. Most are basically just m replacing family doctors. They can’t do a lot for you if you have a real emergency.
What demographic are you implying?
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It’s 20% which I’m ok with bc they don’t make an hourly wage of much at all. The solution is to go to an hourly wage but then that increases the cost and tipping makes them more accountable with service so I’m ok with the 20%. It’s expensive going to restaurants nowadays but it’s either tips or the prices go up bc of the hourly wage.
I’ll comment that there are some emergency rooms that appear to be urgent care clinics. They will definitely bill like ER’s as well. Urgent clinics are great, but there are more small ERs popping up.
When I used to do MMA, I was injured in a sparring accident (my sternum hit my heart), and thank goodness for River Oaks ER. There wasn’t a wait in there, and I did every single possible test that could have been done.
That said, insurance for ER has shot up that I decided I couldn’t afford any additional injuries. It also became hard to explain to my stuffy colleagues why this accountant had bruises and bandages on a regular basis.
Fair enough. It’s not all that you see popping up everywhere though.
Its not just us.