higher wages for the servers... by the customers. Fnbs
Went to a restaurant in LA today and when I got the check I noticed that it was a bit higher than it should be. Then I noticed this 18% service charge. So... We, as customers, need to help pay for their servers instead of the owners paying their servers a living wage. And on top of that they have suggested tip. I called bs on this. I will bet you that the servers do not see a dime of this 18% service charge. [deleted a word so it wasn't a grammatical horror to read]
Ohhh, that's a really good point. I didn't think about that. This hasn't happened where I live. Thanks for helping me understand. That IS really misleading.
And even if it's on their printed menu, you might look at the menu on Google Maps and see one place has a dish for $20 and another place had the same dish for $24. You go to the cheaper place and sit down and see the 18% fee. Are you necessarily going to leave and go to the other one?
Imagine you only have 10 dollars on you and buy a 9.99 item off the menu because of it, only to discover at the register there's a 20% service fee. Not very a very pleasant customer experience, is it?
Thank God where I live this is completely illegal. The prices on the menus are always the final price.
But they can afford to reprint the menu to include a note about the 18% service charge or when their item prices increase 'organically?' This is a BS excuse.
My guess would be that it was sarcasm exactly because of the reason you explained. It contradicts really so hard it almost makes it obvious (not completely, it seems)
It has nothing to do with the cost of re-printing menus, because they have to do that anyway to put the legalese on there about the percentage surcharges.