"Footlights service charge"

A review of Footlights Restaurant & Bar by Jman written on Tuesday 30th of November 1999

Footlights is one of these restaurants which takes the liberty of adding a tip to your bill.

Let us consider the implications of this dastard:

Call me old fashioned, but I think a company openly assuming you will pay more than the written price for their product is a bloody cheek and incredibly presumptuous.

For a start, in my opinion, one awards a tip for outstanding service. It should not be the norm, unless the normal service is outstanding. But it isn't. It is merely adequate.

Secondly, Footlights the company does not pass this tip on in full to its staff. Some of it is kept as profit - so in effect you are paying twice for the meal.

Even if the staff did get to keep the money, do they deserve it? Why should I pay £3 servcice charge for someone to ask me what i want, and walk 20 meters from the kitchen to my table a couple of times? Total time spent working because of my order: 3 minutes? You can't have £1 per minute, my friend. That would have harmful consequences for inflation.

Thirdly, the staff's wages should come out of the price of the meal. Otherwise, what are we paying for? We may as well get a takeaway. The cost of labour is like any cost, taken into consideration when determining the product's price. You don't go to a shop, buy a packet of fags and then pay the person on the till for serving you. Why the hell would I pay someone to accept money from me?

The notion of paying people money to accept more money from you is also propagated by Cambridge's cartel of letting agencies who charge you an 'application fee' - a fee you pay in order to be allowed to pay them money every month to live in one of their sh1tty little rooms.

Fourthly, let us ask ourselves why they do this? They know that psychologically, most people would be too embarassed to cross out the extra profit.. ahem i mean service charge. You would be seen to be making a point if you crossed it out - almost like you're saying the service was crap. Whereas in actual fact, the point is more like: 'Yes the service was fine. Thank you. Your wages are going to be paid by your employer regardless, so we dont need this presumptuous 15% skank do we?'

What will Footlights add to the bill next? Perhaps:

40 mins rent of one table: £1.60

Share of Accountancy fees: 45p

Share of building maintenance: 60p

Electricity & Lighting: 35p

Cooker Gas & Depreciation: 45p .

NOTE: Reviews are submitted by visitors of our site. The contents of this page are in no way representative of the entity being reviewed, Footlights Restaurant & Bar, and are merely third party opinions. Cambridge Online accepts no liability in respect of any material submitted by visitors and published by us and we are not responsible for its content and accuracy. For further details, see our Terms & Conditions.