APRIL 17 — Recently there’s been a fuss about the 10 per cent Service Charge being imposed by restaurants and hotels on customers and the abolishment of it by the Government. I am a frequent patron to restaurants and I have been putting up with the 10 per cent service charge despite the bad service offered!
To name a few incidences, I went to a restaurant in a Mall and after I was shown to a table, I had to wait for 15 minutes before the menu was given to me. The waitress was rude and I was told that all the food is nice when I asked her to recommend their famous dishes. She seems reluctant to serve any customers and to make my dining experience worse, I had to wait more than 30 minutes for my meal to be prepared and I notice many patrons just paid for their drinks and walked out of the restaurant. Printed on the bill is the 10 per cent service charge which I have to bare for such treatment. If you’ll ask me to complain, what will the restaurant do? Will it be worth forking out extra 10 per cent for such service?
My friend and her family from Europe who visited Malaysia in January for the first time was surprise that they are “force” to pay 10 per cent service charge despite the bad service given at the restaurants and hotels they went to. She told me that in their travel experiences, a tip (here is known as service charge) is given base on the quality of service shown by the staff. If the waiter/waitress/employees serve them with a smile and always helpful, a higher tip will be given which is above the 10 per cent and vice versa.
My question to MTUC, all the food and beverage operators and hoteliers, if you have to stay in a hotel which is not well kept, being serve by a rude waiter/waitress/employee, to wait for your food or room service for more than 30 minutes, rodents running around the restaurants; just to name a few, do you think we as your customer will be happy to be forced to pay the 10 per cent? I strongly believe you’ll say NO if given the choice! If MTUC, hoteliers and restaurants operators say that the service charge is part of the employee’s salary, then you’ll have to relook at where your funds are being channelled.
But not all restaurants are as bad as I experienced. I have my regular restaurant, which my whole family has been patronising for more than 10 years. The reasons are simple; they are always friendly, helpful, and efficient and they’ll come to help with my mom’s wheelchair. Not only that, every complain is accepted with a smile and even the manager personally attend to it and apologize; that I will be happy to tip (service charge) the waiter/waitress/employee personally and during Chinese New Year, ang pows will be given to many of them. For overseas hotels, if they give a 5-star service, tips are normally left in an envelope and given to the cashier during check-out and for housekeeping, I’ll leave a tip by the bedside table.
It’s time for hoteliers and restaurant operators to relook at the service rendered to your customers and I’ll be one of those who are happy to personally tip your waiter/waitress/employees for their service. Simple philosophy; satisfied customer happy tipper.
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or organisation and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail Online.
