3 ms·
An especially egregious case I've encountered was at Berlin train station. Normally in Germany, you've got those distinct card terminals with a display where y
by pronik 8mo ago
An especially egregious case I've encountered was at Berlin train station.
Normally in Germany, you've got those distinct card terminals with a display where you see your total before paying. Some of those have started nagging you for tips which you need to explicitely accept or decline first before tapping your card. Not in this case though: after you've ordered your food, they point you to the combined order/pay display and while you awe at the technology marvel of combining both, you tap your card on that and then you notice that 15% tip has been automatically included and charged. You needed to notice some small text and small buttons in the corner of that display beforehand and actively tap on "0%" or something before tapping your card. I'm already furious they've let this tip begging to be added to the card terminals, but charging tips without explicit consent should be completely illegal.
- nicbou 8mo agoI am pretty sure it is completely illegal.
- port11 8mo agoAnd wonderfully done in a city where people are usually paid a living wage, and even students don’t have to work for free (hi Belgium!)
- RestartKernel 8mo agoAt Schiphol they offer tipping options to presumably prey on Americans, but the attendant physically reached over the counter to reject it after I ordered in (native) Dutch. Can't imagine how much trouble locals had been giving the shop before training staff like this.
- mk12 8mo agoI’ve seen Starbucks employees in the US do this often.
- RestartKernel 8mo agoIsn't this directly taking money out of their own pocket, or are tips going to corporate?
- jmward01 8mo agoWhat takes money out of their pockets is not paying a real wage for a real job. TIP destroys the value of a profession and when you don't think a profession is 'professional' you pay less for it. This is a terrible dark pattern at every level.
- RestartKernel 8mo agoI am not arguing for tipping culture, but I question the incentive for rejecting a tip as a US Starbucks employee. I very much doubt that playing a part in desired society-wide change overcomes the immediate incentive of the tip itself.
- samtheDamned 8mo agoI don't go to starbucks personally but I've been to local ice cream shops, Cafes, fast food businesses, and others and this isn't too uncommon. I'd say it happens about 15% of the time? Its usually at places where tips aren't as expected anyways, but not always.
- missingdays 8mo agoI hate that the tipping culture is infecting Germany now
- spinningarrow 8mo agoTipping culture has been around in Germany for a long time, hasn’t it? It’s surprisingly common there
- missingdays 8mo agoNot to this extent
- majewsky 8mo ago(I'm German. This is my personal stance.) Charging a tip for to-go items is preposterous. When dining in, I will indeed tip, usually by rounding up to the next 5 or 10 euro increment for a group meal, or to the next 1 or 2 euro increment for single meals (e.g. during lunch hours near the office). But this is only if the service is actually good. If a restaurant makes me wait more than 30 minutes for a quick lunch, they will be paid exactly the amount posted on the menu.
- pronik 8mo agoIt's not the tipping culture that's invading Germany, it's the "begging for tips" culture. The worst kind. You buy a piece of bread at the bakery over the counter, pay with card, the card reader is begging for tips. This is exceptionally out of the ordinary, but I'm afraid there is not enough explicit resistance and there is still too much "looking up to the USA" happening so that the society might accept this idiocy as normal some day.
- Akronymus 8mo agoMostly contained to tourist areas though. But AFAICT, it's been spreading recently.
- MarceliusK 8mo agoAnd I think people don't mind tipping when they feel it's voluntary
- direwolf20 8mo agoIt is illegal. They're counting on you to be too busy to sue them. That's why you only saw it in a train station. Ask your bank for a refund for the fraudulent transaction — you probably don't have enough evidence to prove it happened, but they'll still put the complaint on file. Lawsuits and chargebacks are about the only pressure businesses have not to scam you.
- reaperducer 8mo agoAn especially egregious case I've encountered was at Berlin train station. You must have been in Berlin, Wisconsin because we've been assured repeatedly on HN that the tipping plague thing is exclusively an American problem, and never ever happens in Eurosparkleponyland. Ditto for spam calls and texts.
- pronik 8mo agoThe problem is that US is actively exporting all the plagues they call their own worldwide, so that tipping (the mandatory-on-the-card-terminal kind) is currently actively infecting Europe. Which you could have gathered by reading this very discussion.