'Forced' tipping by EFTPOS

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Forums › Finance and wealth management › 'Forced' tipping by EFTPOS

floydbloke

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#311871 22-Feb-2024 11:44

I’m all for tipping for ‘over and above’ service. It has its place to show appreciation for a job well done.

However, the introduction of EFTPOS machines that ask the customer if they would like to leave a tip, and suggesting amounts, triggers my grumpy middle-aged-man mode. To the extent that if I had received service that, in my view, warranted a tip, and I'm presented with a 'begging' prompt, it turns me off sufficiently to now not leave one. It might even stop me from patronising that establishment in future.

Just to add, I'm talking about here in NZ, I appreciate in other cultures tipping is the norm and you may even be financially disadvantaging workers by not tipping, so when visiting there I happily conform.

Speaking of culture and grumpy middle-aged-man mode. Can we stop with all this American malarkey being pushed upon us. In the last couple of decades we’ve seen Halloween, Black Friday sales and probably more. Now this.

Anyway, what do others think.

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#3198717 22-Feb-2024 12:16

This is becoming very common over in Aus with the introduction of American restaurant management systems + POS solutions (eg. Square).
A lot of restaurants use these table top QR codes + online ordering, with prepayment... they'll often throw in 'service fees', 'venue fees', 'credit card fees' and will prompt for tips.

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Qazzy03

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#3198725 22-Feb-2024 12:40

Had the eftpos tipping promt at Burger Liquor Wellington when I went last year.
Was a bit of a surprise, food was great but if they want to charge more, then please increase the prices. If a place has terrible service, I just don't go back. If they have good service, I am a repeat customer and may leave a Google review if above and beyond.

Feels super uncomfortable having to say no thanking to the tipping suggestion especially since 20% is a big portion of the bill.

wellygary

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#3198726 22-Feb-2024 12:47

From the linked article,

""Well, I think it's an option that we didn't activate. I think you can actually turn it off as far as I understand, cause we've just upgraded all our machines and we haven't activated that function."

I think businesses that continue to P.Off their customers by tip nagging will suffer customers voting with their feet,

They can turn it off if they want...

gzt

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#3198730 22-Feb-2024 12:52

Around 20% is minimum and just manners for many places in USA where in some areas it's legal to pay wait staff nothing or almost nothing in some areas as I recall. If you're not tipping you're not paying the people who served you end of story.

This is not the case in NZ.

gzt

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#3198734 22-Feb-2024 12:58

One thing that bothers many people about tipping in NZ is you don't know who it's going to. Add text to the machines explaining the establishment distribution policy. People will be more likely to tip.

nzkc

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#3198751 22-Feb-2024 13:26

gzt: One thing that bothers many people about tipping in NZ is you don't know who it's going to. Add text to the machines explaining the establishment distribution policy. People will be more likely to tip.

Yeah and I was super impressed to see the Hallertau person saying almost exactly this!

Personally I dont want it. I would rather know the staff are earning a respectable wage than being expected to tip so they get paid "adequately".

I was recently in Canada and the US where (as someone else said) the expectation is ~20%. Ive even heard the argument from restaurant owners "but we'd have to put our prices up if tipping was removed". I dont understand this argument as the cost to the consumer evens out. The cynic in me reads it as "but if we dont have tipping I'll have to pay my staff more".

Basically I wont be using the tipping if its pushed at me. Indeed I'll go elsewhere. I much prefer our current culture (not that I think wait staff are necessarily paid enough in all cases).

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Behodar

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#3198754 22-Feb-2024 13:33

I have to agree. I don't want to be stingy, but at the same time I'd rather have an "all in one" bill that includes the cost of the food and the service. Indeed if you think you're tipping for great service but the tips are actually being spread around all the employees, then the money isn't going where you expect it to anyway.

wellygary

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#3198755 22-Feb-2024 13:34

gzt: Around 20% is minimum and just manners for many places in USA where in some areas it's legal to pay wait staff nothing or almost nothing in some areas as I recall. If you're not tipping you're not paying the people who served you end of story.

This is not the case in NZ.

Hospo staffing in the US is basically servitude .. tips get used to make up your wages to the minimum, its not a "nice little bonus" in effect the employer takes it....

From the US department of Labour

"A tipped employee engages in an occupation in which he or she customarily and regularly receives more than $30 per month in tips. An employer of a tipped employee is only required to pay $2.13 per hour in direct wages if that amount combined with the tips received at least equals the federal minimum wage."

https://www.dol.gov/general/topic/wages/wagestips

richms

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#3198766 22-Feb-2024 14:04

I generally mess up the eftpos if I get other crap thrown at me like tips or asking about donations etc. Make them re-enter it on their side.

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ezbee

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#3198772 22-Feb-2024 14:18

Of course the system will make it a lot of keypresses to go past the tipping and make it unclear.

Once it becomes common this becomes an 'expectation' then a 'demand' with 'mandatory' minimums set.
Minimum also keeps inflating which I understand is a gripe in tipping countries.

Where the terminal sends the money?
I expect there is grave temptation for management to skim a collection add a distribution fee.
Staff have no idea what people tipped to keep system honest.

One may remember the very successful restaurant chain that was not really paying workers, a kind of immigration/slavery scam that ran for years.
That was so outrageous eventually things caught up with it, but for many smaller operations?
Now what these types of owners would do with a tipping culture.
Of course you are Honest Joes Restaurant, but pretty quickly you can't compete unless you head down a similar track.

elpenguino

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#3198774 22-Feb-2024 14:19

Thing is, if you vent annoyance about begging for donations or any other policies, it's not the person you're dealing with who thought up that bright idea.

Can you be ar*ed demanding 'to speak to the manager' ?

But yeah, this tipping thing, it's for the birds.

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cddt

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#3198778 22-Feb-2024 14:31

It's been prevalent in the Viaduct area of Auckland for at least a decade, I imagine because they get large numbers of tourists off cruise ships they can scam for an extra fee.

richms

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#3198779 22-Feb-2024 14:37

ezbee:

Of course the system will make it a lot of keypresses to go past the tipping and make it unclear.

Once it becomes common this becomes an 'expectation' then a 'demand' with 'mandatory' minimums set.
Minimum also keeps inflating which I understand is a gripe in tipping countries.

Where the terminal sends the money?
I expect there is grave temptation for management to skim a collection add a distribution fee.
Staff have no idea what people tipped to keep system honest.

One may remember the very successful restaurant chain that was not really paying workers, a kind of immigration/slavery scam that ran for years.
That was so outrageous eventually things caught up with it, but for many smaller operations?
Now what these types of owners would do with a tipping culture.
Of course you are Honest Joes Restaurant, but pretty quickly you can't compete unless you head down a similar track.

The terminal cannot send it anywhere else, all it can do is add it onto the transaction and the total goes to the same place, just like with surcharges.

Then you get the settlement print out at the end of the day and can see how much was sales, how much was surcharge, how much was tips and refunds and work on that. It will pass the amounts back to an integrated POS system but you reconcile from the bank or paymark insights you only see the totals including anything extra.

Richard rich.ms

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#3198780 22-Feb-2024 14:43

gzt: One thing that bothers many people about tipping in NZ is you don't know who it's going to. Add text to the machines explaining the establishment distribution policy. People will be more likely to tip.

One thing that bothers many people about tipping in NZ is that they don't want to live in the USA.

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Senecio

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#3198782 22-Feb-2024 15:08

If the Eftpos machine tries to prompt me for a tip I just hand it back to them and ask "how do I skip this?".

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