So I was dining at a restaurant with my family from out of town and the service was quite horrid. However, because our party was larger than 8, the restaurant automatically included an 18% gratuity on the bill. Naturally, this upset me because I almost feel like they treated us lousy simply because they knew they would have an automatic tip coming. When the bill came, I paid for it with my new Amex Blue Cash Everyday card, but on the receipt I wrote "horrible service, no gratuity included" and simply wrote the amount of the bill less the automatic gratuity on the total line. Of course, when I saw the charge on my Amex account for the full amount of the bill plus the gratuity, I immediately felt like disputing it with Amex. However, I have only been an Amex customer for 4 months now, so I was wondering if this would raise any flags with them if I do decide to dispute. Does anyone have any experience with this?
Starting Scores (lender pull 3/27/10): 759 (EQ), 752 (TU), 749 (EX)
I just had dinner in a restaurant where it clearly states on the menu that "for parties of eight or more, an 18% gratuity will be added to the bill".
If the service was less than adequate, I'd have addressed this to the manager before paying that bill.
Next time, ask for a separate check for that uncle and aunt and second cousin you don't particularly like. You'll undoubtedly pay for them anyways, but then both checks will be for a party of "under eight" (hopefully).
I don't blame you at all for feeling the way you do! Dispute away (the tip portion). The automatic thing annoys me, too! And in some cases, it deprives the server of the tip I'd actually want to leave (but do anyways, in spite of the "automatic" rules).
@Uborrow-Upay wrote:I just had dinner in a restaurant where it clearly states on the menu that "for parties of eight or more, an 18% gratuity will be added to the bill".
If the service was less than adequate, I'd have addressed this to the manager before paying that bill.
Next time, ask for a separate check for that uncle and aunt and second cousin you don't particularly like. You'll undoubtedly pay for them anyways, but then both checks will be for a party of "under eight" (hopefully).
Not that I don't like these family members, but we actually had three separate checks between all of us, so the bill I paid for was actually for four people, which I also wrote on the check. Granted, I should have talked to a manager about this, but I guess it's too late for that now. Definitely something I'll keep in mind in the future. Good to know I have Amex backing me in the event that I do need to dispute something though.
The food is always good (the restaurant is Yard House, if you're familiar). I go for the happy hour drinks and appetizers and have been for several years. This last time I went was the first time they prevented me from ordering another drink after the one I was drinking was finished. I don't know if it's because they think I was ordering too much (only two drinks) or if they were trying to prevent me from ordering more drinks until the happy hour prices ended. Either way, I have never had that happen before at the place, and that coupled with the slow service and them mixing up our orders and our bills made me decide not to give this place my business any further.