Service (sic) charge

I remembered this story at 5am this morning. Don't ask me why, my memory works in mysterious ways sometimes.

One Sunday, Paul, Mon, S & M and I all went out to lunch to a place that I recommended. Now, I have been to this place a lot of times, but always with G-Roov. I've always had a good time, the service has always been fantastic and the food has always been good, or better than good. So when I suggested we go there, I was pretty confident that it was a good pick.

Well. Let me tell you! I was wrong.

Let me just run through the list of things that were wrong with this place:

Menu - at least three things that we asked for weren't on the menu that day
Drinks - came after the meal
Condiments - we had to ask twice for them
Bread - we had to ask twice for this too and then our waitress gave us a dirty look when we asked for more.
Waitress - rude and bored. She didn't even take Paul's coat, he sat the entire afternoon with his coat draped over his lap
Paying - went M went up to pay the bill as by this time we had had enough he was told to promptly sit down as they were dealing with something else at the time and they would come over to the table when they were finished.

So when it came to actually paying (you know, when we were eventually allowed to pay) our bill came to £104.00 which is inclusive of 12.5% service charge (presumptuous of them huh?). So, M counted out the cash less the 12.5% discretionary service charge and passed it on.

As we were walking out, the girl at the front counter pulled me & Mon up and said,

Waitress: "Excuse me, you've short paid your bill."
Us (Me and/or Mon) "Actually, no. We paid the bill less the discretionary service charge."
W: "That's a compulsory service charge."
Us: "No, it's discretionary, we're happy to pay for the food, but we weren't happy to pay for the service as we weren't happy with the service you provided us, so we're not including it in our bill."
W: "But you have to. It's compulsory."
Us: "Since when?"
W: "Since always."
Us: "Well your menu says that a discretionary 12.5% service charge will be added to your bill. We're more than happy to speak to your manager about this if you would like to get them out here."
W: "No, that's fine. Just go."

And to top it off. They didn't go and get my coat from the cloakroom ... I had to get it myself! How appalling is that?

Not sure about you, but I always feel personally responsible if I recommend a place and it doesn't turn out to be as good as I had recommended it. Needless to say, I felt pretty awful that Paul and friends had to endure that for their Sunday afternoon.

I'll be letting others make recommendations from now on. Less stress. Less guilt.