Service Charge? What Service? (Rant)

[petrarch1603]

Recently I've experienced a number of incidences at local pubs and restaurants that really grind my gears. I used to be a regular patron of On Tap, even when they were back at their smaller location near Sun Yat Sen. But it seems recently their service has been getting worse every time I go there. The problems are that servers are hard to flag down. Even sitting at their bar its hard to get the bartender to acknowledge you. Last week I took my mate there for a few drinks and when they gave us our receipt it was wrong. It said we only ordered 3 beers when we actually ordered 4. We had to tell the bartender a couple of times that we actually ordered 4 before he understood what happened. We could've easily just paid for 3 beers and walked out, but I wanted to do the ethical thing. These aren't cheap beers to begin with and with the service charge they come out to be pretty expensive. These days the staff is pretty grumpy. Trying to pay is also kind of difficult as the cash register is in a tight spot next to the kitchen window and there's usually a line of people also trying to pay while the cashier is also mixing drinks and serving customers.

Another time I went to Roxy Rocker just after they opened around 9pm. We were the only customers in there. We order a few simple cocktails and after 15 minutes the cocktails still didn't arrive. There were about 3 workers inside and I waved the waitress over and ask where my drinks are, but she said the bartender was 'out' and he would make the drinks when he got back. We still ended up waiting about 10 more minutes before the bartender got back. The waitress made no attempt to find him and get our drinks. My date said that it was probably because they just opened and they were still getting ready (she was Taiwanese), but I said that is unacceptable, if they need so much time to get ready, they should do it before they open the doors. I've worked in food industry in the states and some of my family owns bars back home, and this kind of service would be unacceptable. As soon as a customer gets in the door, you need to get a cold drink in their hands asap. You're losing money if you don't do that. I know this is Taiwan, I should just accept the chabuduo culture here, but if you're gonna charge me high prices for cheap drinks and poor service, I'm just going to go get a beer at 7-11. At least they have friendly staff there.

And I should also point out there are a few places where the service is pretty good. Most of my experiences at Revolver, Sappho, Bobwundaye, Le Rouge and Alleycats have been really good. Almost all the Roxy places have been utter shite service though. Anyways I just hope this rant can be taken as constructive criticsm.

[cfimages]

Recently I've experienced a number of incidences at local pubs and restaurants that really grind my gears. I used to be a regular patron of On Tap, even when they were back at their smaller location near Sun Yat Sen. But it seems recently their service has been getting worse every time I go there. The problems are that servers are hard to flag down. Even sitting at their bar its hard to get the bartender to acknowledge you. Last week I took my mate there for a few drinks and when they gave us our receipt it was wrong. It said we only ordered 3 beers when we actually ordered 4. We had to tell the bartender a couple of times that we actually ordered 4 before he understood what happened. We could've easily just paid for 3 beers and walked out, but I wanted to do the ethical thing. These aren't cheap beers to begin with and with the service charge they come out to be pretty expensive. These days the staff is pretty grumpy. Trying to pay is also kind of difficult as the cash register is in a tight spot next to the kitchen window and there's usually a line of people also trying to pay while the cashier is also mixing drinks and serving customers.

Last time we went to On Tap the service was so poor (waited almost an hour and our nachos still hadn't arrived) that we simply refused to pay the service charge. We expected an argument over it but when I told the waitress we weren't going to pay, she brought over her manager who deducted the amount from the bill with a minimum of fuss.

We will take our business elsewhere in the future as much as possible.

[tommy525]

what i liked bout a lot of taiwanese restaurants now is that what is the price on the menu is exactly what you pay. No svc charge.

I vote with my feet. If I had really bad treatment at a place, I don't go back. Simple.
Or if the food was off or something, anything of note, I don't go back.

If they give u a bill for 3 beers when it should be 4? Ha, sorry but I would just consider the other "on the house". Id bitch if they over charge me tho.

Call me a politician !

[Chris]

what i liked bout a lot of taiwanese restaurants now is that what is the price on the menu is exactly what you pay. No svc charge.

That's the way it should be.

In the US, you have to pay tax and a tip on top of the displayed price. That is a Bad Thing.

I much prefer paying the displayed price and not a penny more. If you have to, include the tax and service charge in the displayed price.

[Omniloquacious]

Service charges and tips are an abomination.

Why can't we be asked to pay for all kinds of services the same as we pay for anything else? You should have a set price for whatever you're getting, whether service or good. The customer sees and pays that price, and that is it: a straightforward pay and receive transaction.

It's up to the seller to set prices that appropriately cover all of his costs, including labour costs. Pay wait staff a proper wage for what they do, and reflect that in the prices on the menu! What could be simpler? Why do it any other way, especially in a way that is guaranteed to generate at least awkwardness and at worst ill feeling and unpleasantness.

The extortion of service charges and tips often mars the experience of going out to eat or drink. It should not be allowed to rear its ugly head in a place like Taiwan. It's an alien concept that does not belong here, and Taiwan is much better without it.

[914]

While I dislike the North American way of price, plus tax, plus health tax, AND tip on top of all that - and it better be a 15-20% tip, but 25% if high end - I think tip and service charge are fine, however, there must be an acceptable standard of service. Service here seems to be: you get seated and handed a menu, order is taken, and appy, drinks, food, bill brought to you in whichever order strikes the server's fancy on that day. Used dishes piled on your table, no one makes eye contact to get you more water or take your dishes away, no one asks you how everything was. And my biggest gripe, when diners ask a question or send something back, don't be so defensive. And what's with the little tiny napkins? Anyhoo, I'm OT.

Yeah, so I don't mind paying a 10% service charge. I'd gladly up it to 15%, but show me the service! Don't get me all Larry David and serve myself in a sit-down restaurant.

Ps - today I sent a sandwich back and was expecting the "manager" to come with hands on her hips telling me the smoked salmon sammich is supposed to be on rock hard baguette. Phew, she didn't, and they made me another lightly toasted, and I got to keep my teeth.

[Jase]

As the manager & part-owner of On Tap, I feel I need to respond to the above comments. Firstly, many apologies for the indifferent service you received, and thanks for the input. Myself & my business partner, Matt, have been running On Tap for 4 years but have had to learn everything from scratch. We still have a lot to learn and are trying our best to improve in all areas, but we can't do this unless we hear from our customers - negative as well as positive.
Finding staff is without doubt the biggest headache in this industry, in Taipei. Our staff are expected to speak English & work until 3am, all for $110-$150NT/hour. We've found that hiring students has worked best for us, however when they graduate, their parents expect them to get a "proper job", which is certainly not in a bar! We find that we're constantly interviewing, hiring & training new staff & very rarely find one that is considered a "keeper".
The Service Charge issue is one that I happen to agree with - you don't mind paying it, but only if the service has been good. When we re-located from the old place to the new one, we were very keen to keep all of our food & drink prices the same, but as our rent had risen 4-times over, we decided it would be necessary to introduce service charge. However, so as not to piss off regular customers, we brought in the Regular Card, which gives you a 10% discount for cash payments (effectively eliminating the service charge). If you've been to On Tap a few times, just ask for Jason or Matt, and we'll happily give you one of these cards.
I realise that waiting 1 hour for some nachos is unacceptable. I'm pretty sure that this is an isolated incident, but in the future if any such matter arises, please don't hesitate to ask for myself or Matt. We are always on duty, and will be able to deal with the problem and hopefully make sure it doesn't happen again.

Thanks for your time

Jason
On Tap

[cfimages]

Thanks for the response Jason.

[SuperS54]

Our staff are expected to speak English & work until 3am, all for $110-$150NT/hour

plus the 10% service charge they receive surely!

but as our rent had risen 4-times over, we decided it would be necessary to introduce service charge

ah, so it doesn't go to "service", why not call it "our rent is high premium", or more sensibly include it in the prices?

[dan2006]

Our staff are expected to speak English & work until 3am, all for $110-$150NT/hour

plus the 10% service charge they receive surely!

but as our rent had risen 4-times over, we decided it would be necessary to introduce service charge

ah, so it doesn't go to "service", why not call it "our rent is high premium", or more sensibly include it in the prices?

I've never quite understood that Taiwan phenomenon either of having a service charge that the servers don't get.

Building it right into the prices would be better, so that people don't see that nice surprise on the bill at the end.

It grinds my gears enough that I don't go back to places that had a service charge, but if they just upped the price and I thought it was reasonable I would still go.