If you’re dining out, chances are you’re going to spend a good amount of money. When the bill comes, the words “suggested gratuity” are printed on it. BuzzFeed News has reported that a lawsuit has taken place that is urging customers to check your receipts.
Marcel Goldman filed a lawsuit against one of the Cheesecake Factory chains, which is based in California. Apparently, customers are being duped into paying more than they should be.
When people split the bill, the restaurant puts the suggested gratuity based on the entire bill, not on each customer’s share.
In most cases, customers are too distracted, drunk or too lazy to do the math. So they leave their tip based on the suggested gratuity.
Goldman claims that her share of the bill was $38.50. The suggested gratuity ranges were between $11.50 and $16.94. That exceeds the 15 to 18 percent standards.
Those numbers were based on the total bill that was being shared. The $11.50 is about 30 percent of the $38.50 that she was already paying. The $16.94 is about 44 percent of the bill.
According to Goldman, she left a $15.40 tip, which was written as a 20 percent tip on the bill, but is actually 40 percent of the split bill, BuzzFeed reported.
Goldman sent a letter to the Cheesecake Factory headquarters about the error, but she said that the error was still not corrected.
Julian Hammond, Goldman’s attorney, told BuzzFeed that consumers need to be aware of this. Hammond also asked why consumers are the ones who have to do the math when the suggested gratuities are not even correct.
Goldman’s suit also claims that this unethical practice has been going on for over four years at over 200 locations which are operating under the Cheesecake Factory and Grand Lux Café names.
A spokesperson for the Cheesecake Factory says that it’s up to the consumers to figure out how much they want to tip. I guess honesty is out the window when greed is involved.
