Okay so idk if this is the right sub but I thought y'all would appreciate it.
My mom and I went up to the mountains and visited some wineries. It was just her and me. We went to this one that was just okay. Wine wasn't very good, and the environment/experience was meh, but beautiful views and they served food when a lot of wineries in the area did not.
However, when we got our bill, it was more than we were expecting. We saw an 18% service change on the bottom of the bill. Nowhere on their menu had it mentioned there would be any kind of automatic extra charge.
My mom made some kind of surprised comment about the charge [to me] and our server said, “oh yeah, that's a winery service charge not an auto gratuity charge.” The serve took my mom's card and we both just kind of sat there in shock.
So, let's get this straight: We came to the winery, paid a premium for their wine already, did not do anything crazy, no special tastings or event, it was just any old Friday afternoon. It's just the two of us so not a big group or event and the winery charged us an 18% service charge for…being at their establishment? And none of that went to our server!? So, we were expected to tip on top of that…. (Which of course we did, not the server's fault)
I wouldn't say I am expert, but I have been to my fair share of wineries and have never seen anything like that… 0/10 would never go back.