The FTC is trying to crack down on "junk fees." Restaurants are fighting to keep fees and surcharges on their checks.

Lawmakers want to crack down on “junk fees,” but restaurants are trying to stay out of the fight.

Surcharges or fees covering everything from credit card processing to gratuities to “inflation” have become more popular on restaurant checks in recent years.

Last year, 15% of restaurant owners added surcharges or fees to checks because of higher costs, according to the National Restaurant Association. In the second quarter, 3.7% of restaurant transactions processed by Square included a service fee, more than double the beginning of 2022, according to a recent report from the company.

Opponents of the practice say those fees and surcharges may surprise customers, hoodwinking them into paying more for their meals at a time when their wallets are already feeling thin. Fed-up diners compiled spreadsheets via Reddit of restaurants in Los Angeles, Chicago and D.C. charging hidden fees. Even the Onion took a swing at the practice, publishing a satirical story in May with the headline “Restaurant Check Includes 3% Surcharge To Provide Owner’s Sugar Baby With Birkin.”

  • @I_Has_A_Hat@lemmy.world
    17•4 months ago

    Add a service fee or an inflation fee if you’d like. I’ll circle it and leave a big fat 0 for the tip. Without it, I’ll leave 20% minimum. Problem solved.

    • arglebargleEnglish
      24•4 months ago

      I am tired of prices going up AND tips going up. It already was a percentage of a total, and now it’s a higher percentage of a higher total?

      I remember 10 percent tip. Was sort of annoyed at 15. At 20 percent with five times the bill it’s gotten way out of hand.

      And now my area is trying to normalize 25 percent, with 30 being “good service”.

      I am about to say fuck it and go back to 15. It’s either that or never eating out again.

      • @FirstCircle@lemmy.mlEnglish
        16•4 months ago

        A “quick haircut” sort of place (kind of a barber, sort of , but super-high-volume and just one worker, the owner) that I’ve been using for a while now has a super-annoying dark-pattern in their payment flow. They book appointments, and take in-person payments using Square. After your cut, when you’re paying via their hand-held kiosk with a card, the screen shows you a bunch of huge “tip amount” buttons, and it’s implied that the customer has to choose one of them, while the provider looks on, in order to finish the transaction and leave (probably not true - they’ve already got your CC info by that point). Guess which button is highlighted/pre-selected and front-and-center! That’s right, 20%. If you want to select another tip, or no tip, you have to select another button while she watches you do so. The owner lists all prices on her square website, and it’s those prices you think you’ll be paying when you book an appointment online, but she still feels the need to be tipped. You KNOW that the provider/barber has configured Square to present that UI to the customer. Not quite the same as the restaurant fees scam, but it’s actually more manipulative though, in my view.

      • @Bluefalcon@discuss.tchncs.de
        6•4 months ago

        I’m tired of tips in general. Every job should pay a liveable wage. Fix the system. The more in the middle class, the more things we can have. Healthcare, education, housing, food, innovation,…etc. Fuck ripping people off so a few assholes can sleep with women just as shallow as them or rape ones that turn them down.

      • Melody FwygonEnglish
        4•4 months ago

        I never advanced from a 10% tip…if I thought the service and establishment justified tipping at all. Otherwise 0% tip.

        Tipping is strictly optional; and anyone pressuring you otherwise is an asshat who doesn’t need your business.

        • @gerbler@lemmy.world
          -3•4 months ago

          Unless your server has to tip out (which they all do) and so by choosing to hit that 0% your server now has to pay to serve you.

          • Melody FwygonEnglish
            3•4 months ago

            Businesses that do this do not get my visits usually. It’s usually pretty evident.

            I’m not going to fund that; and they should be demanding that the system stop and be adjusted so that such cases do not in fact happen.

            • @gerbler@lemmy.world
              4•4 months ago

              The owners do not give half a shit if you tip their workers or not. They get their tipout regardless.

              You can actually help by tackling tipping culture on a city/province/state level. You’re not doing anything by stiffing your server besides saving yourself money and costing your server. If you don’t go out to restaurants then whether your tip or not is no one’s concern.

              Otherwise you’re still rewarding tipping culture by patronising venues that pay their workers a sub-livable wage.

            • @BallsandBayonets
              2•4 months ago

              Your options are tip well, or don’t eat out. It absolutely sucks that owners are making customers subsidize their employees’ wages, but by receiving the service you are expected to pay for the service. Tipping culture does suck. But it helps no one to tip poorly.

              • @I_Has_A_Hat@lemmy.world
                0•4 months ago

                It helps me and erodes tipping culture as a whole. I’m curious how you think we’ll ever get past tipping culture without one of the first steps being “stop tipping for everything”.

                And I absolutely do pay for the service. I pay the listed price of what I’m purchasing. That should be all that’s “expected”. You have been brainwashed into thinking that somehow shouldn’t include the cost of service. Absolutely insane.

    • @gerbler@lemmy.world
      -1•4 months ago

      I’m sure your server will understand. They’re usually the ones in charge of decisions like these. /s