Legality of Service Charge (mandatory tips) in India

  • Thread starter Thread starter Sushubh
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lol. i do not think i have seen it higher than 10%. 20% seems extremely high 😀

the other thing government should have done was to set guidelines that this charge WOULD go to the staff. most restaurants do not pass on the entire benefit. even the big ones.
 
We literally had a verbal fight - I was more on the back of the actual two guys from our side arguing - who were saying that they should inform atleast on menu of this service charge - hotel had some story of it being Rs.500 when crowd is like 5 or more or something.

We were even asking what if we had ordered just a couple of things totalling under Rs.1000 will you still charge Rs.500 for that.

Clearly, they wanted to have more service charge when a huge crowd ends up paying no tip or whatever. But in our case (it was 5 or 6 people I think), it felt too much - more so as a couple of them were very poor eaters.. The food was ok-ish, service, well - I dont think they even served to the plates - just kept it on the table - so not sure what their excuse was for such a high charge
 
amish said:
While on paper it sounds good move but hotel management will simply increase rates accordingly!
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No space science this but the work around I (and friends of mine) do is to go a restaurant which is worth the buck paid for and avoid the restaurants with exorbitant pricing. Basically choosing ones which are value for money.
 
See, Modi govt listens to @Sushubh 😀
Give some more suggestions like you did for removal of Service tax, which could help us all.
 
So does this ruling enable you to call the cops if restaurants refuse to remove the charge?
 
Yup, if they dont accept - refuse to pay & walk out. Next step will be fist fight & then cops will arrive & case will be filed. Quality way to spend an evening.
 

Sigh. I guess I can personally be happy as I don't go out to eat much at fancy restaurants.

Zomato and other portals should update and allow people to post service charge details and their experience about what happened when they asked it to be removed or reduced 😳
 
but if the court has stated that it cannot be forced upon you, how can restaurants force it upon you. you eat first and then refuse to pay service charge. call the cops if the restaurant starts threatening you. one or two cases and the restaurant owner would realize that it is advisable to follow the judgment. hopefully restaurants with obscene charges would now get poorer rating on social platforms. i already rate places which charge for water one star. as it is again against a court judgment.
 
mhsabir said:
We literally had a verbal fight - I was more on the back of the actual two guys from our side arguing - who were saying that they should inform atleast on menu of this service charge - hotel had some story of it being Rs.500 when crowd is like 5 or more or something.

We were even asking what if we had ordered just a couple of things totalling under Rs.1000 will you still charge Rs.500 for that.

Clearly, they wanted to have more service charge when a huge crowd ends up paying no tip or whatever. But in our case (it was 5 or 6 people I think), it felt too much - more so as a couple of them were very poor eaters.. The food was ok-ish, service, well - I dont think they even served to the plates - just kept it on the table - so not sure what their excuse was for such a high charge
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I had this same problem. I just plainly asked them to explain the "service" they gave and they simply cut the charge and gave us new bill without service charge.

However not everyone wants to spoil the mood after having dinner 🙁
 
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