‘Is tipping culture getting a bit ridiculous?’ Man says restaurant is ‘begging pro max’ after bill prompts S$3.49 add-on despite service charge and pre-selected tip

SINGAPORE: Search online for answers about tipping in Singapore and you’ll likely find more people asking the same question. But this week, a diner was prompted to ask whether the tipping culture here is “getting a bit ridiculous” after receiving a S$111.51 restaurant bill and being asked if he wanted to “round up” the amount to S$115. Such a move, he said, was simply “begging pro max”. 

Sharing what happened in r/Singapore, he said his bill already included a 10% service charge. However, after scanning the restaurant’s QR code for payment, he was directed to a payment screen with a pre-selected tip.

In the photo he shared, there were two custom tip options: 3% and 5%.

Good thing he checked. He noted: “If I hadn’t checked properly, I would have ended up paying another tip on top of the 10% service charge. So I manually changed it to 0%.”

Still, there was more.

The payment screen then asked if he wanted to add S$3.49 to “round up” his bill to S$115.

In disbelief, he argued: “I mean, that’s not really ‘rounding off’ in the way I understand it. That’s another 3 per cent approximately added to a bill that already has a 10% service charge. Of course, nobody is forcing us to click it. And I’m not saying restaurants shouldn’t allow people to tip if they want to. But when you combine a service charge, a pre-selected tip that you have to manually remove, and then another prompt asking you to voluntarily add S$3.49, it starts to feel a bit much.”

“At some point, you’re not paying a restaurant bill. You’re playing ‘how many times can we ask the customer for a little bit more money before they leave?’” he added.

He also said he had noticed similar payment prompts at a few other restaurants recently.

“I think if restaurants want to charge more, just charge a higher service charge upfront rather than sneakily adding charges at time of making payment,” he said.

Some commenters said they had experienced the same, while others were sceptical about whether the post author’s story was true.

One commenter said, “Only locals know there’s zero tipping culture and this payment process is an odd one out. Literally never asked to tip once in my life here.”

Another said that Singaporeans should not normalise tipping culture in the city-state. /TISG

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