I should have spoken up huh?

Last night most of my family took my mom out to dinner for her retirement. There were 12 of us...........

Now, let me begin this by saying I do beleive in tipping and tip very well when the service is good........

The waitress added on an 18% gratuity tip to each persons bill....... I know that alot of restaurants automatically do that when there is a large group, which I've never been to sure I like, but whatever.......

Well, the thing that is bothering me is last night's over all experience was lousy.....the furnace was broken down, so it was cold in there. (I know we could have left but this is in the middle of Amish country with no other restaurant around) They forgot my dinner, so I had to wait 15 minutes after everyone else got their's, with no apology from the waitress. They offered people coffee and drinks once. The food was good. They didn't have any baked potatoes.......just french fries, which I can't eat.......Jerrys soup was ice cold........ There was only one other couple in there, so it's not like they were busy. They added up the bills without asking if anyone wanted dessert.

I guess my point here is, I don't think the tip should have been added on when I don't think the service was up to par, but that's my opinion. I just feel like I should have said something. It's not the money, it's the point of a good tip is for good service, regardless of how many people are there IMO.

I think I'm just cranky this morning because Mom moving to TN is getting closer and closer.........

You could have asked them to remove it from your bill. They will. If the service wasn't to your satisfaction. I had that happen at a big dinner party for my sisters wedding reception. Yep! Next time speak up!

Originally Posted by Phenomsmom

You could have asked them to remove it from your bill. They will. If the service wasn't to your satisfaction. I had that happen at a big dinner party for my sisters wedding reception. Yep! Next time speak up!

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Your right....I should have.

Live an learn. You can still call and talk to the manager and let them know there was a problem. I am sure they would like to know when their customers are not happy.

I've had the same thing happen at restaurants while in a large group - it's like they just don't care because they know they're getting a big tip anyway.

I should have spoken up last time as well!

The group we go in has been known to leave huge tips for meals for excellent food and service particularly if everony is wearing company clothing, so it's not as though we don't like to tip - we just like to be able to tip appropriately.

Originally Posted by Phenomsmom

Live an learn. You can still call and talk to the manager and let them know there was a problem. I am sure they would like to know when their customers are not happy.

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Originally Posted by kittylover4ever

I think I'm just cranky this morning because Mom moving to TN is getting closer and closer........

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If I am presented with a bill with the tip already added in, I say something.

It's up to me to decide the tip, not the waiter to decide how much I'm tipping them.

If I'm presented with a bill that has a tip added in, I remove it and don't leave them anything. I don't care what they say about me for doing that, but it's my money and I earned the right to decide how I'm spending it.

I think it's extremely rude when restaraunts add the tip in automatically. How do they know the waiter/waitress earned the amount thier adding on? Let the customer decide what the service they recieved was worth. I would have asked them to remove the tip, and put in whatever I thought it was worth.

I have only ever seen one restaurant do that. It was when we were out to dinner with my boyfriends family and his grandma tipped her like $40 on top of the tip already added on.

Thats not good Susie. Sorry you had a bad experience. The whole thing sounds really unprofessional.
I agree with Brandi, give them a call. Even if you don't ask for the money back, just give the manager feedback about their waiting staff and the restaurant as a whole so that other people don't have to endure the same, and you can feel confident about going there again.
Isn't it awful when you feel like you should have said or done something but didn't espescially since it was a special occasion.