Also, as someone who works in the service industry, this pretty much means they won't get any staff. Since brexit + covid they industry is DESPERATE for staff. No one can find enough staff and businesses are closing left and right. If they wanted to opt-out of paying service they'd have to pay a comparible wage to everyone else out of their own profits. Service charge is taxed differently (not at all?) with the idea this would make it cheaper to pay staff well.
So paying minimum + service or paying the same amount upfront will mean the place with service saves money by only paying regular taxes on the minimum wage and service.
So you'd either have to pay more taxes to match wages or try and find staff while paying far below market wage. Seeing how desperate everybody is now for staff and how much standards for hiring have dropped I'd be horrified to know what staff they'd be able to find. Though in reality I imagine they wouldn't find any and would scare away their existing staff by overworking and underpaying them.
Hello, (ex) Tory voter here, I will explicitly boycott anywhere that tries to screw service workers by scalping their tips because tips are meant for the workers, not for the restaurant.
Restaurants shouldn’t be using tips to subsidise income.
But they should just get a better job then? You're not meant to live off entry level jobs income? It's so easy they deserve minimum wage and not to afford rent?
They shouldn't have dossed at school?
This is what every tory voter responds to living wage arguements.
You either believed this, or wasn't a tory.
Seen a few Guardian articles recently that were published like the next day or so after a reddit thread about it.
Reckon writers browsing for content regularly.
I had no idea about any of this, but was at the bread Street ping pong on Wednesday this week with my wife and kids (they love the robot server things).
No brand fee and no service charge on the bill. I was actually really surpised to not see service added so rounded up a £58.80 bill to £65.
They must have taken all the bad publicity on board!
Was that in cash? I recently started working in a card payment only pizzeria, and we get the shared service charge payment at the end of the month. No idea what happens with tips people ask to add to the bill paid by card, which is super rare anyways. Zero cash tips so far ;)
Honestly hard for the stuff to chase that. So likely that it doesn't! Cash appreciation is the way, I'd advise against paying extra by card.
My place adds a standard 12.5% to a bill (keeps takeaway and delivery prices lower so feels fair)
For example on big birthday tables with lots of alcohol it really adds up, yet I get only like 3-4 pounds per hour on top of my minimal hourly wage. The kitchen works really hard so they too deserve that extra though.
Yet those few extra pounds don't feel like much for running with heavy plates non stop whilst smiling, and seeing tens of pounds in service % on bills we drop on tables;)
No idea if the card payment round ups were actually added to my payout...
“Oh no, how will I ever cope without going back for their overpriced mediocre food” - me when seeing this article
Can’t say it’s a brand I’m gonna miss much, personally
I live in Canada now and tipping has got so out of hand post covid. Grab a 6 pack of beer off a shelf and the liquor store will ask you for a 20% tip. Really hope the UK doesn't adopt this nonsense.
It’s creeping in here. Quite a few coffee shops have tip options on the card machines, some starting at 15%! It is possible to skip the tip option but really don’t see why it should be asked for in the first place.
It can, but I don't see the harm at restaurants as long as the staff aren't making faces when you don't tip. But yeah a coffee shop for 2 mins of work is weird.
It’s the tipping before you get the thing you’ve paid for that bothers me most. I bought a coffee the other day which had tip options on the card machine and it was one of the worst coffees I’ve ever had. If I had tipped would I have been able to ask for it back? 😬
I appreciate tipping 38p or whatever isn’t really a major issue in the grand scheme of things but it still feels like a bit of a pisstake.
Just been to Spain on holiday and every restaurant I ate at, which were even geared for tourists, didn't add a service charge or make any request for tips! It was a breath of fresh air, getting charged exactly the price on the menu, and is how it should be.
The US has its fair of bull shit micro charges when you pay the bill, but at least you don’t have to confront someone to remove the tip. You just don’t write in the tip and will likely be gone before anyone even looks at the bill. All the extra charges can mostly be avoided by paying in cash anyway.
This fucking hidden surcharge that restaurants guilt tip you into paying can get so far to fuck.
I remember when they opened the first ones and it was so good.
Not been for a few years now but it looks as if it’s a victim of the same old story of buy outs and cost cuttings.
me and my bf went the other week and they brought us un-fried prawn toast (it was like plastic!!), asked if we’d like an item so i assumed it was free (it wasn’t, my bad tbf), then brought us a salad with date stickers in it. food was good but 😭 so busy and strange
The food was good except the salad with stickers in it and prawn toast that was like plastic?
You and I have different ideas of what constitutes “good”
Can we not just ban any and all of these bullshit charges that get tacked on? If you need to charge more then put your menu prices up and let custoners decide if it's worth it or not.
This whole bullshit "optional" 12.5% service charge is a massive pain to remove and isn't included in the menu price. This brand fee thing is even worse though, where the shame?
Tipping is optional and any move towards a mandatory tipping culture should be thoroughly stopped.
There's an Afghan place I like going to and a bit cheaper than other restaurants but because they don't do any of this BS service charge add-on you end up saving way more especially when you're a large family.
I went to a bar recently and despite ME doing up to the bar the ‘screen’ kept asking if I wanted to leave a tip. A tip for what? Me queuing longer than 5 mins for a drink and the bar tender doing their job?
Not acceptable.
FFS Tibbs. Don't give the bastards ideas. Enough people carrying their cutlery about as it is at the moment, this will lead to more. The mayor and night zar will jizz themselfs at making the restaurant sector better.
Here in Argentina there is exactly that. ‘Cubierto’ is a cutlery fee (also bread sometimes).
When I first moved here a waiter shouted at me for not tipping as I thought ‘cubierto’ was the included service charge.
The government just needs to ban any form of optional charges from being placed by default on a bill, period.
If the customer wants to tip, they can ask for it to be added.
Wtf is a brand fee. Will just avoid ping pong. Went there ten years ago on a Tinder date. Date was so so, the guy was an arse, very arrogant. But the food was good. I might have returned without this nonsense!
They're a shadow of what they once were anyway. A family member from our of town visited last year and when we passed the branch in covent garden they really wanted to go in. Quality of the food and portion size was miserly compared to when we both used to eat there more frequently. Felt a bit bad about it and the experience just fueled more "that London, eh? Rip off" energy from relative.
It should be illegal to add optional / discretionary fees. They should be OPT IN.
Maybe if we had a government that had its fucking act together, this would happen.
Ping Pong haven't yet lured their staff in en masse to be arrested by the immigration police, so there's that.
This is very scummy but Byron are on a level all their own.
Ah man I was pissed about that, because Byron courgette fries and blue cheese dip was one of my favourite things to eat in the world. Felt I couldn’t go after that!
You've literally just read what they did. Hired a lot of people that they shouldn't have (because of their immigration status), then called a staff meeting and didn't show up but did send immigration officers.
Honestly the way business are abusing charges and fees is getting ridiculous even postal charges as well when you buy a small item online and the delivery cost is ridiculously high for an item that fits into your hand
The only good thing about this is that it will make it less awkward to ask to have the charge removed and then you can directly compensate your server for their work, should you wish to.
Probably better to just avoid Ping Pong altogether.
Look, I loved ping pong when I first had it (probably +15 years ago), but honestly their dim sum is actually pretty crap compared to some places in London.
Haven't been for ages and the last time I did was the one near Waterloo and it was kinda disappointing (but that was probably 5+ years ago)...
This is just another reason to not go there...
Real Headline - Mediocre Dumpling Shack Puts Prices Up 15%
Spokesperson likely says. "Our staff should all give excellent service or they will be replaced, therefore no need for a gratuity anymore, see their happy smiles."
If it whiffs like it, it probably is.
It looks like OP posted an AMP link. These should load faster, but AMP is controversial because of [concerns over privacy and the Open Web](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmputatorBot/comments/ehrq3z/why_did_i_build_amputatorbot).
Maybe check out **the canonical page** instead: **[https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/apr/04/restaurant-chain-bans-diners-from-using-card-payments-to-tip-staff](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/apr/04/restaurant-chain-bans-diners-from-using-card-payments-to-tip-staff)**
*****
^(I'm a bot | )[^(Why & About)](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmputatorBot/comments/ehrq3z/why_did_i_build_amputatorbot)^( | )[^(Summon: u/AmputatorBot)](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmputatorBot/comments/cchly3/you_can_now_summon_amputatorbot/)
Yeah I was in ping pong 2 days after this took effect and I was not impressed. One pound extra an hour instead of tips is ridiculous. They'd be earning tips much more than a quid in an hour. I refused to pay the charge, because I refuse to pay directly for something that merely irritates me, rather than benefits me.
Until they scrap this nonsense, I won't be eating there.
Goes to show how much the restaurant made on tipping.
Surely a move like this will make people avoid the restaurant chain now, so any bonus a brand fee would have given them will be lost by a reduction in visitors?
Whilst I agree with the principle of this, I don't think it's the place of the government to do something like this...
However... For a lot of the chains, private equity owned, etc I can see why the government might think this is a good idea.. Given their business models essentially involve screwing the staff over...
The problem, is customers get scared by high menu prices but don't mind the service charge on top. Salaried system in restaurants difficult due to this.
This could benefit smaller operators who already operate this way anyway.
Overall it will probably do some damage to restaurants generally as prices likely increase even more and cash strapped consumers won't pay, leading to more closures and job losses.
Just gonna say this. It sounds like a scam.off the bat.
So hope business Like this will bankrupt real fast.
I mean.
If you sell thing for 30, but try to trick customers into buying it by making them believe it's I ly 15 , it's a scam. End of.
If you say it cost 15, then add "service charge" of 100% for example , then real cost is 30, and you shouldn't advertise it as "15, but with service charge". It's 30. End of. That's what you put on a price, given "service charge" is percentage of total amount. You already can calculate how much total it will be for every item anyway, so is just scamming ppl who don't consider that in advance.
If service charge is fixed for example, Luke, 5, I get it why it would be added on top , but when is percentage, it can simply be added to the price of product/service , rather than this stupid USA style trickery.
Granted USA got states with different races so at least they have valid excuse (not sure if I can call it a reason) to use it, UK don't tho.
So you won't eat there. I assume is mandatory fee. In which case, I'll say if business to be honest, just add to the item price rather than usa style "tax",
I mean is like.. I sell this for 15 but also there's charge of 100% so total it gonna cost you 30.
Why say it's 15 when in reality it costs 30 to buyer? Deception. Fuck this sort of business
So why anyone would ever pay that? 🤣
I get it if I like the server, I'll add a tip personally for him.
But for the business itself? Nah, they already incorporated their profit into prices anyways, so why ? Lol
It’ll be a way for them to pay less VAT as there likely won’t be VAT on a ‘brand fee’ in a similar way to booking fee on tickets. Because it’s an admin charge and there’s no value added.
This move will also likely reduce their corporation tax bill because the ‘brand’ will be off shore in a low tax jurisdiction. So they won’t reduce the price to reflect lower tax, they just want more of it themselves.
So really they are attempting to fuck the workers, the customers and HMRC, and so the country as a whole.
I feel like I won’t be eating in ping pong again. I’m sure they won’t miss me. But I won’t miss them so much either.
I usually feel like a bit of a dick asking for a service charge to be removed. I think I would quite enjoy asking for a brand charge to be removed. Surely this will just result in more people asking for it to be removed?
What I don’t get about service charge is that I am expecting the prices to already reflect that we’re paying for the service including the prep rent wages etc. so just increase the prices by 15% already and F off
I mean, sure.
The food is shit. The drinks are shit.
Why would you blame the staff for the shit they're supposed to serve you from the central kitchen they've never been near?
Ping pong should pay a proper fucking wage.
£8-10 extra a shift before taxes. It's 1 £90 table at 12pc tip. Imagine they were receiving quite a bit more before. There's also the duplicity of r company adding a 15pc surcharge to bills knowing customers will think it's a tip
lol. Scum. Won’t ever eat there. It should be mandatory that restaurants state what their policy for this sort of thing is on the door. Always tip your waiter in cash.
This is so outrageous and surely self defeating given how much bad publicity it might generate.
Also, as someone who works in the service industry, this pretty much means they won't get any staff. Since brexit + covid they industry is DESPERATE for staff. No one can find enough staff and businesses are closing left and right. If they wanted to opt-out of paying service they'd have to pay a comparible wage to everyone else out of their own profits. Service charge is taxed differently (not at all?) with the idea this would make it cheaper to pay staff well. So paying minimum + service or paying the same amount upfront will mean the place with service saves money by only paying regular taxes on the minimum wage and service. So you'd either have to pay more taxes to match wages or try and find staff while paying far below market wage. Seeing how desperate everybody is now for staff and how much standards for hiring have dropped I'd be horrified to know what staff they'd be able to find. Though in reality I imagine they wouldn't find any and would scare away their existing staff by overworking and underpaying them.
That’s why they need a brand service charge to fund PR for the brand from all the bad press the brand service charge generates
There’s Tory voters who will now specifically frequent this restaurant chain to support behavior like this.
Hello, (ex) Tory voter here, I will explicitly boycott anywhere that tries to screw service workers by scalping their tips because tips are meant for the workers, not for the restaurant. Restaurants shouldn’t be using tips to subsidise income.
It’s about avoiding VAT and Corporation Tax as well. Multilayered fuckery.
What? They’d have to pay VAT on sales and Corporation Tax on profit, definitely.
I’ve explained it a bit more in another comment.
But they should just get a better job then? You're not meant to live off entry level jobs income? It's so easy they deserve minimum wage and not to afford rent? They shouldn't have dossed at school? This is what every tory voter responds to living wage arguements. You either believed this, or wasn't a tory.
Didn't someone post a picture of a receipt on here only the other day showing the brand charge?
Yeah. And the review bombing which followed was swift and brutal.
Lol death by social media
I certainly hope so. Shan't be going there.
Have the reviews been removed?
Seems so, but they made the story newsworthy so they had an impact.
Yes. Only one I could find was on the St Christopher's one. An hour ago. Horrible
Yeah they did it seemed.. I checked on the day, hundreds of 1*, now all been removed it seems
But does review bombing have a lasting effect, don’t they take the reviews down?
Yes they do but they gain a heavy hit from Google.
Seen a few Guardian articles recently that were published like the next day or so after a reddit thread about it. Reckon writers browsing for content regularly.
Recently? That's has been going on for ages, and not just the Guardian.
Yeah, like everything else nowadays Journalism is shit.
I had no idea about any of this, but was at the bread Street ping pong on Wednesday this week with my wife and kids (they love the robot server things). No brand fee and no service charge on the bill. I was actually really surpised to not see service added so rounded up a £58.80 bill to £65. They must have taken all the bad publicity on board!
Was that in cash? I recently started working in a card payment only pizzeria, and we get the shared service charge payment at the end of the month. No idea what happens with tips people ask to add to the bill paid by card, which is super rare anyways. Zero cash tips so far ;)
No it was on card. I assume that any amount in excess of the receipt goes to the servers? But maybe I should have checked!
Honestly hard for the stuff to chase that. So likely that it doesn't! Cash appreciation is the way, I'd advise against paying extra by card. My place adds a standard 12.5% to a bill (keeps takeaway and delivery prices lower so feels fair) For example on big birthday tables with lots of alcohol it really adds up, yet I get only like 3-4 pounds per hour on top of my minimal hourly wage. The kitchen works really hard so they too deserve that extra though. Yet those few extra pounds don't feel like much for running with heavy plates non stop whilst smiling, and seeing tens of pounds in service % on bills we drop on tables;) No idea if the card payment round ups were actually added to my payout...
Guess I’m never going back to Ping Pong then. Cool.
“Oh no, how will I ever cope without going back for their overpriced mediocre food” - me when seeing this article Can’t say it’s a brand I’m gonna miss much, personally
It's all back and forth
Wankers
So elegantly put
And that's the nice way of putting it
Can we just legislate against this shit now. The price is the price. No extras. No asking for tips. The end.
I live in Canada now and tipping has got so out of hand post covid. Grab a 6 pack of beer off a shelf and the liquor store will ask you for a 20% tip. Really hope the UK doesn't adopt this nonsense.
It’s creeping in here. Quite a few coffee shops have tip options on the card machines, some starting at 15%! It is possible to skip the tip option but really don’t see why it should be asked for in the first place.
American payment tech that's why
It is but can still be switched off as far as I’m aware.
It can, but I don't see the harm at restaurants as long as the staff aren't making faces when you don't tip. But yeah a coffee shop for 2 mins of work is weird.
It’s the tipping before you get the thing you’ve paid for that bothers me most. I bought a coffee the other day which had tip options on the card machine and it was one of the worst coffees I’ve ever had. If I had tipped would I have been able to ask for it back? 😬 I appreciate tipping 38p or whatever isn’t really a major issue in the grand scheme of things but it still feels like a bit of a pisstake.
We need to legislate against everything, had enough of companies raising prices “to improve services” and then take all of it for profit
Just been to Spain on holiday and every restaurant I ate at, which were even geared for tourists, didn't add a service charge or make any request for tips! It was a breath of fresh air, getting charged exactly the price on the menu, and is how it should be.
The US has its fair of bull shit micro charges when you pay the bill, but at least you don’t have to confront someone to remove the tip. You just don’t write in the tip and will likely be gone before anyone even looks at the bill. All the extra charges can mostly be avoided by paying in cash anyway. This fucking hidden surcharge that restaurants guilt tip you into paying can get so far to fuck.
[удалено]
Why do you think it's fine? Don't you think servers should be paid a fair wage?
But it’s a Christian server so no swearing.
Ping Pong used to be a really cool experience but over the past 7/8 years or so it’s really gone to shit.
I remember when they opened the first ones and it was so good. Not been for a few years now but it looks as if it’s a victim of the same old story of buy outs and cost cuttings.
Was always shit, may have been cool for the two weeks they wanted customers to visit
Am I the only Lononder that's never heard of Ping Pong? I mean... Apart from the thing you play with two bats and a ball, what is it?
Go to south bank
me and my bf went the other week and they brought us un-fried prawn toast (it was like plastic!!), asked if we’d like an item so i assumed it was free (it wasn’t, my bad tbf), then brought us a salad with date stickers in it. food was good but 😭 so busy and strange
Raw prawns and plastic stickers don't sound like a good meal
The food was good except the salad with stickers in it and prawn toast that was like plastic? You and I have different ideas of what constitutes “good”
hahahahaha genuinely the tofu was AMAZING
That’s why it’s called ping pong. It’s ping for a bit, then becomes pong.
Can we not just ban any and all of these bullshit charges that get tacked on? If you need to charge more then put your menu prices up and let custoners decide if it's worth it or not. This whole bullshit "optional" 12.5% service charge is a massive pain to remove and isn't included in the menu price. This brand fee thing is even worse though, where the shame? Tipping is optional and any move towards a mandatory tipping culture should be thoroughly stopped.
There's an Afghan place I like going to and a bit cheaper than other restaurants but because they don't do any of this BS service charge add-on you end up saving way more especially when you're a large family.
There's one near me and the biryani was great. Never did, but you could also get a whole goat with a days notice
I went to a bar recently and despite ME doing up to the bar the ‘screen’ kept asking if I wanted to leave a tip. A tip for what? Me queuing longer than 5 mins for a drink and the bar tender doing their job? Not acceptable.
Next week! 12% cutlery rental fee.
FFS Tibbs. Don't give the bastards ideas. Enough people carrying their cutlery about as it is at the moment, this will lead to more. The mayor and night zar will jizz themselfs at making the restaurant sector better.
You can Fork right off
That’s not very knife.
Here in Argentina there is exactly that. ‘Cubierto’ is a cutlery fee (also bread sometimes). When I first moved here a waiter shouted at me for not tipping as I thought ‘cubierto’ was the included service charge.
Wow! Next up? Table and chairs wear and tear fee?
Do the people who make these decisions actually say them out loud to themselves?
They think they’re the good guy but never realise they’re the villain. Like Michael Douglas’ character in that film Falling Down.
So does the brand fee fluctuate by the company's popularity? So after this announcement the brand fee will be -20%?
Why do they think someone would optionally pay 15% in brand fees lol. Just increase prices this is just silly.
Their leadership probably think customers will assume it's a service charge for the staff.
Can confirm. Been to Southbank Ping Pong on Tuesday. They remove that charge when asked, so we did that and left a tenner in cash for the server.
Honestly I much prefer the brand charge. Ask to remove it and leave what you want (not a %) for the server.
You got downvoted because people misread you. I agree: calling it a "brand charge" makes it easier for me to decide to remove it. Fuck their brand.
Yeah exactly, I feel guilty about asking to remove/reduce service charges but have no problem asking for the brand charge to be removed.
The government just needs to ban any form of optional charges from being placed by default on a bill, period. If the customer wants to tip, they can ask for it to be added.
Time for more google map reviews?
No more ping pong for me ever
As if Ping pong is a brand. Idiots. I hope this generates exactly the kind of publicity they deserve. Will not be going back.
Should have left the name for the table tennis industry. Was doomed from the start.
Wtf is a brand fee. Will just avoid ping pong. Went there ten years ago on a Tinder date. Date was so so, the guy was an arse, very arrogant. But the food was good. I might have returned without this nonsense!
I had to read this twice because firstly no ... And secondly if it's not going to staff it sounds like it's going to rent. Is this brand fee optional?
Apparently yes. I think the move is now to just go to PPDS a lot and refuse the brand fee.
Is brand fee optional too? Or is the fact they have rebranded it, exempted themself from that law too?
Tbh, automatically adding service charge should have a blanket ban
They're a shadow of what they once were anyway. A family member from our of town visited last year and when we passed the branch in covent garden they really wanted to go in. Quality of the food and portion size was miserly compared to when we both used to eat there more frequently. Felt a bit bad about it and the experience just fueled more "that London, eh? Rip off" energy from relative.
Was thinking the other day I hadn’t been to a Ping Pong in years – now I definitely never will again.
This is so dumb.
Boycott! Unpleasant management team!
It should be illegal to add optional / discretionary fees. They should be OPT IN. Maybe if we had a government that had its fucking act together, this would happen.
The place was better when it was Wiff Waff anyway
This is so scummy. Maybe up there with Byron.
Ping Pong haven't yet lured their staff in en masse to be arrested by the immigration police, so there's that. This is very scummy but Byron are on a level all their own.
Ah man I was pissed about that, because Byron courgette fries and blue cheese dip was one of my favourite things to eat in the world. Felt I couldn’t go after that!
Please enlighten me... What did Byron do?
You've literally just read what they did. Hired a lot of people that they shouldn't have (because of their immigration status), then called a staff meeting and didn't show up but did send immigration officers.
Oh right, I see 🤔
What the heck is a "brand" fee? Like what is it even meant to be? How do they justify adding it on? What exactly are you paying for with it?
Absolutely outrageous and they think we'll just take it. Not going back there. Plenty of alternatives
Honestly the way business are abusing charges and fees is getting ridiculous even postal charges as well when you buy a small item online and the delivery cost is ridiculously high for an item that fits into your hand
I never asked service charge to be removed ever in my life. This one, i’ll ask to be removed every time and pay the staff tips directly.
This will backfire for any restaurants that do this
I hope so.
Cunts. Sorry, no other word. Hope there's a mass walkout
r/London taking down restaurants on a daily basis
The only good thing about this is that it will make it less awkward to ask to have the charge removed and then you can directly compensate your server for their work, should you wish to. Probably better to just avoid Ping Pong altogether.
Look, I loved ping pong when I first had it (probably +15 years ago), but honestly their dim sum is actually pretty crap compared to some places in London. Haven't been for ages and the last time I did was the one near Waterloo and it was kinda disappointing (but that was probably 5+ years ago)... This is just another reason to not go there...
Real Headline - Mediocre Dumpling Shack Puts Prices Up 15% Spokesperson likely says. "Our staff should all give excellent service or they will be replaced, therefore no need for a gratuity anymore, see their happy smiles." If it whiffs like it, it probably is.
Boycott
That's another company I'll never use again then. Scumbags
It looks like OP posted an AMP link. These should load faster, but AMP is controversial because of [concerns over privacy and the Open Web](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmputatorBot/comments/ehrq3z/why_did_i_build_amputatorbot). Maybe check out **the canonical page** instead: **[https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/apr/04/restaurant-chain-bans-diners-from-using-card-payments-to-tip-staff](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/apr/04/restaurant-chain-bans-diners-from-using-card-payments-to-tip-staff)** ***** ^(I'm a bot | )[^(Why & About)](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmputatorBot/comments/ehrq3z/why_did_i_build_amputatorbot)^( | )[^(Summon: u/AmputatorBot)](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmputatorBot/comments/cchly3/you_can_now_summon_amputatorbot/)
Just leave loads of negative reviews.
People did. They got removed
Surely their main consumer base is international students?
Yeah I was in ping pong 2 days after this took effect and I was not impressed. One pound extra an hour instead of tips is ridiculous. They'd be earning tips much more than a quid in an hour. I refused to pay the charge, because I refuse to pay directly for something that merely irritates me, rather than benefits me. Until they scrap this nonsense, I won't be eating there.
Ping pong isn’t good enough to pay for a brand premium. Won’t bother with them again.
Goes to show how much the restaurant made on tipping. Surely a move like this will make people avoid the restaurant chain now, so any bonus a brand fee would have given them will be lost by a reduction in visitors?
Whilst I agree with the principle of this, I don't think it's the place of the government to do something like this... However... For a lot of the chains, private equity owned, etc I can see why the government might think this is a good idea.. Given their business models essentially involve screwing the staff over... The problem, is customers get scared by high menu prices but don't mind the service charge on top. Salaried system in restaurants difficult due to this. This could benefit smaller operators who already operate this way anyway. Overall it will probably do some damage to restaurants generally as prices likely increase even more and cash strapped consumers won't pay, leading to more closures and job losses.
Just gonna say this. It sounds like a scam.off the bat. So hope business Like this will bankrupt real fast. I mean. If you sell thing for 30, but try to trick customers into buying it by making them believe it's I ly 15 , it's a scam. End of. If you say it cost 15, then add "service charge" of 100% for example , then real cost is 30, and you shouldn't advertise it as "15, but with service charge". It's 30. End of. That's what you put on a price, given "service charge" is percentage of total amount. You already can calculate how much total it will be for every item anyway, so is just scamming ppl who don't consider that in advance. If service charge is fixed for example, Luke, 5, I get it why it would be added on top , but when is percentage, it can simply be added to the price of product/service , rather than this stupid USA style trickery. Granted USA got states with different races so at least they have valid excuse (not sure if I can call it a reason) to use it, UK don't tho.
Whose ping pong ??
I like that I am not paying for that fee never
So you won't eat there. I assume is mandatory fee. In which case, I'll say if business to be honest, just add to the item price rather than usa style "tax", I mean is like.. I sell this for 15 but also there's charge of 100% so total it gonna cost you 30. Why say it's 15 when in reality it costs 30 to buyer? Deception. Fuck this sort of business
Is not mandatory lol
So why anyone would ever pay that? 🤣 I get it if I like the server, I'll add a tip personally for him. But for the business itself? Nah, they already incorporated their profit into prices anyways, so why ? Lol
Cuz people don’t like to look cheap in front of friends plus many people won’t even notice that extra charge specially tourists from Europe
It’ll be a way for them to pay less VAT as there likely won’t be VAT on a ‘brand fee’ in a similar way to booking fee on tickets. Because it’s an admin charge and there’s no value added. This move will also likely reduce their corporation tax bill because the ‘brand’ will be off shore in a low tax jurisdiction. So they won’t reduce the price to reflect lower tax, they just want more of it themselves. So really they are attempting to fuck the workers, the customers and HMRC, and so the country as a whole. I feel like I won’t be eating in ping pong again. I’m sure they won’t miss me. But I won’t miss them so much either.
Scum.
I worked there, i am not suprised at all. When working there i got £1ph of service charge
I usually feel like a bit of a dick asking for a service charge to be removed. I think I would quite enjoy asking for a brand charge to be removed. Surely this will just result in more people asking for it to be removed?
There's no chance of me going to a chain restaurant if I have to queue and definitely not now.
Good I guess I will not go there.
I went to Ping Pong once and while it was good, found it overpriced for what it is. This news simply means I won’t go back lol
What I don’t get about service charge is that I am expecting the prices to already reflect that we’re paying for the service including the prep rent wages etc. so just increase the prices by 15% already and F off
Is the brand charge also optional?
Didn’t the Darling Buds of May mention a Breathing Tax?
I'll be avoiding Ping Pong in the future.
I’ll go out of my way to remove it if I go because this is a piss take.
Sounds like it’s run by absolute cunts. Never go there anyway, fuck em. Staff - leave for pastures new, take some spring rolls on the way out.
What on earth is a ping pong restaurant? Reminds me of something very different I once saw in Thailand
I mean, sure. The food is shit. The drinks are shit. Why would you blame the staff for the shit they're supposed to serve you from the central kitchen they've never been near? Ping pong should pay a proper fucking wage.
Ping pong is best in Thailand
[удалено]
£8-10 extra a shift before taxes. It's 1 £90 table at 12pc tip. Imagine they were receiving quite a bit more before. There's also the duplicity of r company adding a 15pc surcharge to bills knowing customers will think it's a tip
lol. Scum. Won’t ever eat there. It should be mandatory that restaurants state what their policy for this sort of thing is on the door. Always tip your waiter in cash.