I’ll leave a tiny tip. A dollar to two so they know I didn’t forget. Going out to eat now has gotten out of hand. $20 for a burger or sandwich. Chinese and Indian used to be cheap. Now, it’s $20 an entree also. Only worth it for a special occasion. We are eating at home a lot more. We are learning how to cook a lot of awesome tasty things. It’s fun for the family and a lot healthier and saves a lot of $$.

Anonymous wrote:Hotels have a 3-5% recovery fee to cover credit card service fees. More businesses are doing the same.

I have seen this too. This fee should be refunded if a debit card or cash is used. But I’m not sure you can even pay without a credit card. It’s not fair to charge a credit card recovery fee if there is no alternative way to pay.

Separate industry, but my kid’s club sport uses a billing service that charges services for credit card AND bank transfers. I write checks to avoid the fees. There is no way to pay online without paying a service fee.

Anonymous wrote:The Twitter account BarredinDC has been discussing this over the past few days, coming from a discussion on how Dacha uses its service fee (allegedly doesn't go to employees at all). There was also a Post article yesterday about the tipping...sorry I don't have a gift link but if you have a DCPL account you can access the Post for free.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/05/25/dc-tipping-guidelines-after-initiative-82/

In this article, it says if you can’t figure out what the “service charge” is and who it goes to, you should tip on top. So restaurants are rewarded for not being up front about it?

I see processing fees sometimes. It's all the same. Just owners wanting to make more money. Insane. The services are not even good most of the time.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The problem is everyone is doing this. Are we never going back to every restaurant?

I have nearly stopped going to restaurants. I’m finding the price isn’t worth the meal I’m getting.

+2. Only eating out maybe once a month or less--maybe once every few months. The price just is not worth it anymore. Still dine out overseas where the value is there.

I've found that places like olive garden taste the same as more expensive Italian places so we just go to OG now and the kids love it. We stopped going to mid-upper places as they are just crap now.

Restaurants caught on that charging a service fee, in addition to their high menu prices, is generating extra cash for them. A A new barbecue place is opening up in Olney and they’re already advertising a 4% service fee, which is crazy to me.

You’re not getting more than 20% extra on top of the food ordered minus taxes, period. I don’t care if you call them recovery fees, service fees, livable wage fees. etc. sum them all up. I will only pay the difference up to 20%.

Anonymous wrote:I see Founding Farmers still has a 5% fee to pay for health insurance, sick days, immunizations, mental health etc. They own a locations, 85 million in profits and millions in forgiven PPP loans.

Absolute greed.

Plus let’s not forget in 2017 they didn’t pay overtime nor sick leave and had to settle the lawsuit with employees.

The crime at Founding Farmers is the terrible food. Enough reason not to go there.

The today show just had a segment about this. They said that the government is stepping into require transparency so that the fees are not sneaky and people know before they order. They interviewed a guy who has an automatic 18% gratuity and service fees because he needs helping health insurance and higher wages.

He has them printed on the menu, but tell me how many people will walk out of a restaurant after they sit down to order? They should probably be notified on a window before you go inside.

Before I place an order at any restaurant I now ask if there is any fee added onto the check. If there is a fee, I leave. Plenty of places to eat at.

Hotels have a 3-5% recovery fee to cover credit card service fees. More businesses are doing the same.

I see Founding Farmers still has a 5% fee to pay for health insurance, sick days, immunizations, mental health etc. They own a locations, 85 million in profits and millions in forgiven PPP loans.

Absolute greed.

Plus let’s not forget in 2017 they didn’t pay overtime nor sick leave and had to settle the lawsuit with employees.

Yes. It’s going to the restaurant and I’m not a cheapass.

Just eating out at fast casual places has gotten insane. We ate at a local burger place, where you order at a register or with a QR code, get your own drinks, plasticware, bus your own table, etc, no one checks on you, and it was $80 for 4. And I’m supposed to tip too? And the service at some of our favorite restaurants has really taken a nosedive. It just isn’t worth it anymore.

I tip normally where there are “recovery” fees unless it explicitly says that the fee goes to the workers.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The problem is everyone is doing this. Are we never going back to every restaurant?

I have nearly stopped going to restaurants. I’m finding the price isn’t worth the meal I’m getting.

+2. Only eating out maybe once a month or less--maybe once every few months. The price just is not worth it anymore. Still dine out overseas where the value is there.