On 3/1/2023 at 11:17 AM, NoshowJones said:

If you are just having a one off meal and not returning to a restaurant, look at the price for the meal, have the exact money and just refuse to pay any more.

Just show the menu to the waitress/waiter. point out the price, pay it then say bye bye.

And then the staff just point to the service charge and VAT notation that is usually shown on the menu somewhere and you say "bye-bye" after you've paid the proper bill.

5 minutes ago, JayClay said:

Where I come from gratuity is VAT exempt

Where we come from the service charge is paid to the restaurant, regardless of its intended (staff) destination, it is not a gratuity paid directly by the customer to the waitress, that is why it is VAT-able.   

14 minutes ago, JayClay said:

22 minutes ago, Liverpool Lou said:

Staff working in restaurants that do pay the staff the 10% service charge still get their 10%, the VAT doesn't affect them. 

So?

"So" what?

40 minutes ago, Liverpool Lou said:

Where we come from the service charge is paid to the restaurant, regardless of its intended (staff) destination, it is not a gratuity paid directly by the customer to the waitress, that is why it is VAT-able.   

I don't know how you know where I come from, but assuming you are also from the UK then many places do charge service directly these days and those changes are VAT exempt.

 

 

17% more for that inexpensive meal, IF, you don't read menu correctly.

 

One of life's 'user errors' ... ????

 

Just be happy the VAT is still discounted @ 7% instead of 10%

1 hour ago, KhunLA said:

17% more for that inexpensive meal, IF, you don't read menu correctly.

The places that do this trickery tends to be the more expensive places, like the 69 baht Singha sparkling water I bought two days ago without VAT and service charge, and probably extra if I had said yes to the ice cubes.

 

 

As for reading the menu correctly, you can see the menu for The Coffee Club online, I can’t see anywhere where they state, that prices in that menu are subject to 10% service charge, yet that was my experience when I ordered there.

27 minutes ago, lkn said:

The places that do this trickery tends to be the more expensive places, like the 69 baht Singha sparkling water I bought two days ago without VAT and service charge, and probably extra if I had said yes to the ice cubes.

 

 

As for reading the menu correctly, you can see the menu for The Coffee Club online, I can’t see anywhere where they state, that prices in that menu are subject to 10% service charge, yet that was my experience when I ordered there.

If the menu doesn't state the policy, as your menu does, they if it concerns you, you probably should have asked.

 

New policy or you got scammed ....

https://thecoffeeclub.co.th/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/TCC_BK_RefreshMenu_NEW.pdf

Edited April 19, 20233 yr by KhunLA

Google:

'restaurants cautioned over 10% service charge'

 

will bring up a BP news-blip stating charge is not mandatory to pay, IF, not noted on the menu as an added charge.

5 hours ago, Liverpool Lou said:

And then the staff just point to the service charge and VAT notation that is usually shown on the menu somewhere and you say "bye-bye" after you've paid the proper bill.

Yep!

4 hours ago, KhunLA said:

17% more for that inexpensive meal, IF, you don't read menu correctly.

 

One of life's 'user errors' ... ????

 

Just be happy the VAT is still discounted @ 7% instead of 10%

Nope, it's 17.7% more. 

VATis levied on the base price plus the service charge. 

On 2/28/2023 at 10:23 AM, JayClay said:

That's exactly what the person you quoted was talking about.

 

If the menu says 7% vat and 10% service charge the you'd expect a bill of 100 bt to have two additional services charges; 10bt and 7bt making a toal of 117bt

 

However it's common practice to add the vat first, making the bill 107bt then adding 10% service to make 117.7bt total.

Other way around in my experience. 10% service charge first, then 7% VAT on the subtotal.

 

For example:

 

5 hours ago, Liverpool Lou said:

Staff working in restaurants that do pay the staff the 10% service charge still get their 10%, the VAT doesn't affect them. 

Depends on the restaurant. I have it on good authority that casual wait staff at a certain Western-owned international hotel chain don't get a share of the service charge. 

 

I've also been told that foreign managers, who are already on decent packages, get a share of the service charge. 

 

No wonder the taxi and tuk tuk drivers try to "rip off" the tourists, they're just following the example set by the purer-than-the-driven-snow foreign companies ????

3 hours ago, KhunLA said:

New policy or you got scammed

Presumably new policy. The menu you found is from 2017 and the text on that menu is not on their current menu (but their current menu also does not mention that there is an additional service charge).

 

If I go to a Coffee Club branch again, I’ll ask them how the customer is supposed to learn the real price, prior to ordering.