. . . I just hope that when these service charges are automatically added that at least a percentage of this goes to the people who have been serving us as let's be totally honest here, if I've gone out with a group of friends and we've enjoyed nice food and drinks comma the people serving us have sacrificed their own social lives in order to allow us to have fun
One thing I've never got my head around in recent years is - when tips and service charges are added directly onto a single card or contactless transaction - how confident can you be that more-or-less the sum you're giving will go to those who actually delivered the service?
Back in the days of cash tips, you would know your £ note(s) or dollar bill(s) would go directly into your waiter or barperson's pocket, or at least into a kitty behind the bar for dividing up at the end of the shift.
Now that it's all rolled into one amorphous transaction, how does the serving staff at the coal face get paid their 'just desserts'?
In the case of big chains, the electronic funds likely get pinged straight to BigCorp Inc.'s HQ in Luxembourg or Ireland - and good luck getting a penny back from them. And even among smaller, independent businesses, there are probably as many rapacious operators as nice, fair owners who treat their staff like family.
I usually try to use
@jfollows's approach in #14 - pay the main bill by card
sans service & have some cash on hand to leave as a tip.
Maybe someone working in the hospitality trade can enlighten me on how this generally works these days.