A customer was left fuming after a restaurant automatically added a generous tip for itself onto his bill without asking him first.
Mark and his wife were eating out at Tilda, a Sofitel Wentworth restaurant in Sydney’s CBD, when they were presented with the bill on Thursday night.
On his receipt towards the bottom was a ‘gratuity’ surcharge of seven per cent.
It meant that on top of the $142.80 he spent on the meals he was also lumped with a $18.50 surcharge in the form of a tip.
Mark’s waiter told him that he was free to remove the tip but he specifically had to ask to do so.
The frustrated diner said his meal was good and Tilda’s service was great but he did not appreciate the fact that he was not asked whether or not he would like to tip.
‘That’s a choice I want to make, not them,’ he told 7News.
‘I wasn’t happy with the way they did it.’
Mark was presented with his bill after a night out in Sydney and it included an automatic seven per cent tip surcharge
Mark said it was not the first time he had been pressured into tipping and that he didn’t appreciate how pushy businesses were becoming.
‘I just don’t like this tipping culture that these businesses are pushing on us. I’ll decide if the waiter has gone above and beyond,’ he said.
Tilda explained its tipping policy in fine print at the bottom of the menu but Mark said he had missed that detail while ordering.
The food he and his wife ate was discounted by 46 per cent thanks to a deal the restaurant had going at the time.
Because of that, Mark said he would have been happy to tip but was highly put off by the fact that he was not asked if he wanted to.
After he got home later in the night he shared his thoughts with others on Reddit and many social media users agreed that Tilda’s tactics were not on.
Tilda, a Sofitel Wentworth restaurant in Sydney’s CBD, does explain its tipping policy in fine print at the bottom of its menus
‘They expect people not to notice and/or to feel shame about asking for it to be removed,’ one person wrote.
‘If I ever want to tip, it should be me making that decision and choosing how much it should be,’ another said.
Unlike other countries, particularly the United States, tipping isn’t expected or mandated in Australia.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted Sofitel Wentworth Sydney for comment.
