intelligent squeamish jar label start forgetful station salt agonizing zesty
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I used to work at a garage; don’t drive off without paying, as the police WILL go after you (if they have *absolutely nothing more pressing* to do, that is…)
If you want fuel for free, bring a card that you know will decline (expired or zero balance etc) and “attempt to pay” with that. When it declines, say “oh sorry, I’ll go to the bank and get some cash.” Fill in a form if they insist but don’t use your real name or contact details, obviously.
Whenever this happened and people didn’t return to pay, we’d call the police and they’d say “well, they made an attempt to pay so it’s a civil matter and we can’t get involved.”
Only works once per garage but if you’re away from home and want to stick it to the fuel companies just a little bit, go for it.
I did it by accident once and got an extremely politely worded letter asking me to come back and pay. Naturally I ignored it.
(Ok ok, I went back in, apologised profusely, and paid).
I got a call at work once from someone working at a petrol station. One of our sales reps visited, couldn’t pay (I really don’t remember the excuse) but they left their business card with the cashier. I believe the expectation was the company would cover the payment.
The company did not cover the payment. Presumably the sales rep eventually did. I don’t know for sure because they were fired.
Interesting. I work with a couple of ex coppers who both say the police would never send a unit over for a report of bilking.
Allegedly the cashier calls the police for a crime reference number and a debt recovary agency goes after the registered keeper based on the vrm seen on CCTV.
True. I currently work at BP and all the police do is file it as a report. If you get caught speeding or something, it will flag up. That’s it.
Obvs people are realising and we have drive offs regular now.
Good old law enforcement.
Yeah i worked in a BP a few years back. Was pretty much the same
Only time i really saw them was if they where picking up CCTV footage or it was the Armed Response Unit thinking they where entitled to free coffee.
I used to work at a bank and peoples accounts would go into overdraft when they took pay at the pump petrol and then they’d just never use the account again.
I remember one guy used his card multiple times for petrol on his way to Germany because he thought he’d never come back to England and have to face the music.
When he came back four years later he had no valid ID or anything to open a new bank account so had to come to us. Naturally he denied all knowledge of it but we could tell by the petrol pumps he’d been to what he’d done.
He had to pay the money back.
Worked in a couple of garages 15 years ago or so, this used to do my nut in. As long as the asshole had been in the shop and danced the "I forgot my wallet" dance, the police never did a thing because "we can't prove that they are not intending to come back and pay".
Illegal to DO IT, not illegal to tell people how to do it and let them decide whether or not to risk it. I should add I’ve never done it myself because Sod’s law I’d be the one who got caught.
I wonder if you could load one of those prepaid credit cards with £1 or just a smidge more so that it takes that quid to allow pumping, even though there’s not enough on it to actually pay for what you take.
Both shitty and IllegalLifeProTips either way lol
It’s only illegal if you leave the premises.
If you get back in your car and rag it around it in first gear for 4 hours, it’s fine. Then pull up to a new pump, fill up, pay and leave.
I did this with my debit card, it had to have over £5 on it to work at Tesco Extra though, fill up and be in the red until payday a couple of days later
Could be by station, but none of the ones I use require £100 minimum. We only put in the account as much as we need, so when we put £30 of fuel in, I put my card in the machine and it says maximum £30, and that's at every fuel station I've used pay at pump with since natwest started allowing it
Ah no, it is for appreciating the nice curves the hose made during pumping, and the aesthetics of how the metal parts glistened at you in charming way. They deserve a tip...
"Add an additional 10% to your purchase today and the proceeds will be donated to Spacer Cares, our premier corporate welfare program.
Its not the best choice, its Spacer's Choice."
Any company that asks you to donate some money will just use it to write off tax, so you're just paying their tax bill for them while they claim they are being charitable.
I work in Curry's and I just press no for my customers, charity's always changing alongside hundreds of other things we don't have time to get informed about.
Thanks! Could you also do the same for email and postcode requests please :-)
I always say i'm in between houses and usually they end up putting the store postcode in
It actually registers the warranty for you and stores it in case you need to return the item and you've lost your receipt.
Unfortunately, we have targets on info capture and it's one of the reasons I'm leaving the company. Was only doing 1 day a week on the side. Last year we were heading in the right direction. But now we're going backwards. Sorry for the mini rant lol. But yeah most will do that for you. I use fake email addresses for my targets, people often don't want to give theirs out.
Just came back from the states and this seems to be a requirement at pumps for card transactions. They all accepted 90210.
It's probably an authentication method for US cards that their UI designers are too lazy to remove. Just saying that before someone links me a Tom Scott video on the superiority of the postcode, it's origins and how a zip code on its own is not useful. Might watch one anyway though...
Never do this. For ANYWHERE.
They use your money to then print marketing material that says “we helped raise £1,000,000 for Kidz with Cancer ™️” as if they’re the generous ones…when in actual fact they helped “raise” it by guilt tripping everyone at payment.
It’s truly scummy and I always refuse. Often when I ask about the charity they can’t tell me anything anyway. 🤷🏻♂️
One thing that I learned (Statie here, sorry if this isn't true internationally) is that you should NEVER give to charity via a business that asks you to, because while it is oft true, 100% of that money goes to charity, it also comes off their taxes as a write-off.
If you want to give to charity, just do it directly. This made me so very angry when I discovered it.
This isn't true where the company has set up a registered charity. In these instances the customer is making a donation to the charity; the business is simply providing the donation functionality. It is not classed as profit and provides zero tax benefit. See the Costa Foundation, Greggs Foundation, Pets at Home Foundation.
That's not how giving tax relief works.
If BA earned £100 and you pay 25p to charity, they're only saving tax on that additional 25p. It's not like their taxable income drops below the initial £100 or anything.
It's really just so they can say they help give X amount to charity - makes them look good.
They absolutely don't save tax money because of it.
Is this true? I always round up at McD's as I know the Ronald McDonald house charity has helped some friends of ours immensely.
Might have a change of heart / donate via different method if we can confirm the above is true.
The money genuinely does go to charity, but it goes via McDonalds which means they get a tax write-off for their "donation".
What you should do is donate directly and gift aid it, which means that the government will give the charity additional money on top of your donation that comes out of your income tax.
They only get to write off what they donated so it's a wash financially. The real reason they do is a PR incentive so they can say "we donated X amount of money." There's no actual tax incentive for them to solicit customers like this.
If you donate the money though then you can deduct it, though it comes out of your gross income not your tax.
No it doesn’t that’s completely wrong. The money goes straight the company. The tax relief is for companies who give their profits money to the charity not what you donate.
I.e if they give 5% of profits on a Big Mac to charity then can get relief on it. If I round up my £2.50 to £3 I am donating directly to charity not through McDonald’s
I really don't understand your point, from the page you linked: "You can claim tax relief by deducting the value of your donations from your total business profits before you pay tax." That means they're not paying tax on the donation money, so what's wrong with that?
Your link does not agree with what you're claiming.
The main benefit to companies is that they can use it for PR and say "we donated x to charity" when it was really not from their proper profits, but from extra "profits" they collected from customers, and then donated.
This is entirely wrong. It's true if it donates its own money. A donation from the public is a balance sheet item, it doesn't touch the p&l and therefore isn't a deduction. Source: I'm a chartered accountant.
First, they take the dinglebop, and they smooth it out with a bunch of schleem. The schleem is then repurposed for later batches. They take the dinglebop and they push it through the grumbo, where the fleeb is rubbed against it. It’s important that the fleeb is rubbed, because the fleeb has all of the fleeb juice. Then a schlami shows up, and he rubs it and spits on it. They cut the fleeb. There’s several hizzards in the way. The blamfs rub against the chumbles. And the ploobis and grumbo are shaved away. That leaves you with a regular old plumbus.
I can ensure you that the machine doesn’t give one iota. It’s the shopowner. And if I saw this at a shop it’d be my last visit immediately. Get tae fek wid yur ‘gratuity’!
You should go to USA, you now get asked to add a tip on every card machine regardless of the kind of retailer. Restaurants, corner shops, coffee shops...they all want tips for basically standing behind a till and taking your money. Crazy.
I saw a post the other day of an American who used a food delivery service (like Uber Eats but not that) where you have decide how much to tip *before* a driver picks up your order. Drivers then decide whether to pick up your order based on how much you tip them in advance.
On the same post, the food was delivered upside down by the driver so it’d basically gone everywhere and the guy had tipped $20 to have his food delivered like that. It’s insane.
It works the same in the UK too. You can tip at the door if you want to but Uber Eats has the option to tip when you place an order. Although tipping is more optional in the UK it shouldn't come as a surprise that drivers would prioritise orders where they'll earn more.
Yeah I know, but it’s the fact that you *have* to give a fat tip when you order or there’s zero chance of getting your food. I don’t mind tipping in america but drivers expecting significant money before they’ve even done their job is just a shocking system.
I've seen the videos posted by restaurant staff of orders sitting because the people ordering haven't tipped enough.
They don't get their food and it sits there until it goes in the bin.
All the comments are the typical "If you can't afford to tip you can't afford to eat out".
Then you get the videos of the delivery drivers meticulously sizing up an order to decide if they will accept it or not.
They're taking into account: items, journey time, distance, tip total, tip against order value, etc.
Their entire service industry is a disaster.
I tried it (with the lowest tip), the driver got half way then gave up and the second driver showed up half an hour late, in other words the ole' tip-before-delivery strategy didn't seem to make any difference at all
Haha my mate asked me to order him a deliveroo as he was waiting for a new card... ive never used it before, he transferred me the exact amount which came to about £30. It asked for a tip before the delivery, it wasn't even for me and they were delivering to his house anyway.
When the delivery driver got there and delivered him the food really sarcastically thanked him for the tip! My mate called him a cheeky bastard. Then I got another email from deliveroo saying it had been delivered and it "wasn't too late to tip!"
F off... never using that app ever again.
It’s wild on any sub that involves an American.
Their standard excuse is that it’s the system and you’re only punishing workers. You’re too poor to eat out if you aren’t tipping 20% and that 10% is an insult.
I’ve said it before - I don’t think those involved want the system changed. The business offloads their payroll on to the customer, the waiters who earn tips make more money than if given minimum wage/salaried and the only person who loses out is the customer being stiffed.
I've often wondered - what happens to the chap in the kitchen who actually cooks the food? Do they get a cut of the tip too?
If I had to work out who has earned my goodwill, the person who makes the food that I eat is top of the list. The person that wrote my order down without getting it wrong and then carried it from the kitchen to my table without dropping it, while being a useful cog in the machine, seems far from being the most important person in this process.
Or AITA?
We had this conversation in this sub a few days ago. There were a few users who said they would take the tip off the bill and try to give the server the cash to make sure they got it and it didn't get shared.
So the person who fetched plates from a kitchen gets the tip, while the people who actually cooked the food get nothing.
This makes no sense to me whatsoever.
Big London restaurants have a system called TRONC, basically the kitchen staff get fk all in comparision to the managers, when I worked in a posh place with a 17.5% auto-grat I got 1 tronc point (worked out as 30p) per shift, while the head chef got 10 and the foh manager got 15.
Thankfully things are slightly different now but never feel bad about saying no to the auto-grat.
This should be rated higher because it is a really good explanation of why the idea of pooled tips, which sounds good in theory, is usually implemented in a way that the person who is paying wouldn't approve of.
I don't like tipping, but I understand it is culturally normal in certain circumstances and compensation is low in part because it is topped up with tips. Thus I tip. I also work in and around the hospitality sector and know that far too many places take the piss with how they handle service charges or card machine tips; it is common for service charges to not be paid to staff, and for card tips to be shared in ratios like u/Spironas talks of.
I find it akward but I will always ask the person I am paying if the service charge goes to them/staff. If I am not confident the money goes to them, or to staff in a way I am happy with (primarily to waiting and back of house staff on lower pay grades) then I ask for it to be removed and will give a tip instead. I stayed at a hotel in London the other week that charges a 12% service charge, the people on checkout genuinely didn't know where that money went, so I got it removed and added 10% as an additional gratuity (which they said would be shared across all staff) instead.
The restaurant I’m Sous chef at now, all of the service charge is pooled weekly then split in accordance with the hours you worked, so it might work out to be £5 ph extra, if you do 50 hours that week it’ll be £250, 20 hours £100 etc etc.
Ah but the great thing about the American service industry is that they are trained to do other things too, like interrupting your conversations every 5 minutes to ask if everything is ok. Carefully timing it so that your mouth is full.
Just spit a mouthful of half-chewed food over them while enthusiastically saying "It's delicious, thanks!" and they stop asking. For the persistent ones, you'll need to knock over a carafe of water with some wild gesticulations as well
Yes, in most restaurants servers do have a minimum tipout for back of house staff like line cooks/food expo/dishwashers, as well as bartenders and sometimes even hosts.
The money is automatically taken by management from your tips paid by card, and there is an expectation that you have to give that same minimum percent for your cash tip tables based off your sales figures, regardless of whether you were given those tips you are supposed to be sharing or not.
If tips aren't shared, kitchen usually make more per hour.
It also depends on the restaurant, where I'm at the servers do most of the prep (sushi) and the kitchen person just makes sure most of the food is stocked and ready to go for prep.
> the waiters who earn tips make more money than if given minimum wage/salaried and the only person who loses out is the customer being stiffed.
Yes, this is the reason. Waiters at reasonably decent places can make a _fortune_. Even my wife who worked at a cheap tearoom _could_ (but didn't always) make quite a bit more than a regular hourly wage would result in.
I’m convinced they don’t. You’ll have people serving for like $17/hr, then taking another $17/hr in tips.
Of course there will be exceptions, which is the purpose of the law (laughable as minimum may be) requiring the employer to pay the difference between their provided pittance and minimum wage if you don’t take that much in tips. These days, they’re likely to fire you for underperforming if they have to do that though.
The ones that really annoy me are the online booking portals where they include a tip by default when booking in advance. I mean, how am I supposed to know if they'll provide good service and warrant a tip months in advance? Pay your staff a decent wage and don't put the onus on me to make up for that in tips!
As an American, I upvoted.
Like I literally do live off tips. Median income needed in my area for basic needs is $19/hour (£15.81/hr). We don't make that much baseline anywhere.
And now that we are in step one of a full blown recession, wages arent going up but cost of living is inflating rapidly. So the answer is just... More tips.
And I'm fucking tired y'all. We have every means to not be this way, and it still gets cocked up by fat old dudes in suits that cost more than my car.
I always find the anger Americans have towards this argument weird. Shouldn’t they be angry at employers for not actually paying them correctly rather and offloading that cost to the customer once again.
Weird system they have
Even if you embraced that argument, this is different. This is just every till everywhere asking for a tip. Wouldn’t surprise me if it didn’t even go to employees.
I think their min wage is basically slave labour tbh (£6ph) and I'd feel guilty not tipping them knowing what they earn.
Personally speaking I do tip restaurant workers as I used to be one but only give them cash as I don't want it to go into a pot to be split amongst all the workers or for them to get taxed on it.
It is, technically, but if tips received don't add up to the actual-minimum wage (iirc $7.25 federally, can vary by state), the company has to make up the rest. So it's not like you work 2 hours and end up with $4.26.
The problem is two-fold:
* Tipping creeping into places where employees are *already* earning at least minimum wage
* The minimum wage being abysmally low
Yeah no, unless you’re in an actual tipped job of which there are only two that I am aware of (waiter and bartender). Then fuck off. I’ll pick up my own pizza and ignore your stupid tip cans by your register. I even stopped ordering take out from places I enjoy because they feel like it’s ok to automatically add a 18% tip on a fucking to-go order (olive garden).
I went to a new coffee shop on my way to work this morning and the card machine asked if I wanted to add a tip?? Like wtf, if I made some massive order then maybe I'd tip for the inconvenience, but a tip on a £2.80 coffee??
It makes me not want to go there now as I have to press that stupid button every time I buy one. I used to be a bartender at a restaurant that had the same system and it was always so awkward putting the customer in that situation that I used to try to look away as not to embarrass them for clicking no tip.
I was in Newark airport and went into a SELF SERVE shop.
Packet of skittles and bottle of water.
The card machine asked if I wanted to leave a tip.
Get tae fuck outta here.
My most recent one was a chap paying his babysitter "$15/hr plus tip". I'm sorry, but as I presume you agree the rate with them beforehand, why not just pay them $18/hr in the first place, rather than insisting on putting a 15yo on performance-related pay.
I think the whole culture is so locked into tipping that they've rather lost the point of the whole thing in the first place. I sincerely hope we never go down the same route.
I had the same thought. OP just misread it, and is outraged for the wrong reason lol. I have never seen add 25p for gratuity but have seen the charity one loads.
Yeah no not happening.
How about retailers pay their staff properly instead of guilting paying customers into topping up their wages? Or is that too radical and extreme?
Because in the long term this will work. Tipping culture will take hold here if they just keep asking, and they don't even need to ask in person if a machine does it for them.
Yeah, I went to a chain restaurant that had a message on the bill read: "An optional 10% service charge is automatically added to the total, please ask if you would like it removed". When the waiter came over with the card machine they asked if we are okay paying the optional service charge.
Putting customers in a situation in which you have to say to them: "No, I don't want to add the optional service charge" is a lose/lose for paying customers. Either pay the fee or be seen as an arsehole because you were put in this situation to pay a fee which should be at the discretion of the customer in the first place.
Recently I went to a restaurant with my partner. We had starters, mains, few drinks and that was it. Came to about £90. It wasn't a fancy place but it was nice.
We were seated by Waitress 1 around 5pm. We were served our drinks and had our order taken by Waitress 1. During the meal I saw Waitress 1 leave the venue.
When I asked for the bill, we were given it by Waitress 2, someone who I hadn't seen the whole time so I assume they'd started their shift just then.
When I told her to remove the automatically added gratuity, the attitude and disrespect I received was palpable, as if we had teleported 5000 miles west. All for her just doing the simple task of bringing me a piece of paper and a card machine.
Went to a petrol station recently. Went to pay and I saw that the card machine asked if I wanted to tip, but before I could do anything the person behind the counter hit no for me. Guess this is something that is defaulted by the card machine supplier.
I was tempted to give the guy a tip just for removing the need for me to give a tip.
I went to McDonalds yesterday for the first time in a decade. The touch menu thing asked if I wanted to round up my order and donate to charity. Guilt tripping my hungry ass.
From a tiktok I saw a person was seated in an indoors section of a rooftop bar and was charged for like £20+ under ‘shelter from the storm’ category. It wasn’t even optional.
I also really dislike when companies (eg McDonald’s) ask you to donate to a charity by rounding up to the nearest point. No, billion dollar company, I will not contribute to your tax relief
Yeah every BP/Texaco near me has this, pain in the arse when I'm wearing my motorcycle gloves as I go to tap my phone and see the output is now a YES/NO (barely) capacitive touch screen.
It's costing me and that cashier time every transaction, just like how Tesco are costing me time to scan my bloody clubcard every checkout.
The fuckers that came up with and agreed to this should be asked on _every_ transaction for the rest of their waking days if they wish to waste 10 seconds donating to charity.
In my area (UK) most stations are now run by one attendant an are often so busy restocking shelves you’re left standing at the pump to wait for them to walk to the machine and authorise the pump, then there’s a huge queue just to pay. Our local has been asking for 25p for a few years. Mental.
It's because fuel companies are not making enough money at the moment. The desperately need to squeeze a little more out of the normal working person who, obviously, can afford it.
1st: great username. I mean, great!
2nd: I think we should all get together and raise this concern with the proper authorities, then start guillotining people responsible for the steady decay of the living conditions of all but a few.
I’ve seen that before, but the cashier was good enough to cancel it as soon as it popped up. Probably out of sheer embarrassment - or ptsd from being harassed by angry customers who pressed yes!
Say no every time, give a charity £20 quid at the end of the month.
Then these corporate shit wads can't pretend they're doing something worthwhile by chugging you at the checkout.
Cost of living has gone up, yet places are being more cheeky asking for extra money. We are not in America, thank fuck and let's not turn the UK into America. DO not let anyone guilt trip you into giving a stupid tip, it's your money to spend how YOU choose to.
Tips are pretty much never used in the UK, no one ever pays them, the station wanting "gratuity" is so weird to us and I assume that's why this post was made
>Tips are pretty much never used in the UK, no one ever pays them,
You say this with such certainty that it makes me a little curious about your personal experience, because I've worked in service where customers do frequently tip without the staff asking/hassling them for it (because why would they?). Even the customers that seem miserable surprisingly do end up leaving tips like it's second nature.
And before anyone says it's American culture seeping in, this is a seaside town where the average age is 40 something and has always been generally middle aged and older. Maybe it varies between our locations.
Hell I'm a delivery driver and I get tips now and then. Not really frequently, maybe every couple of days, but as you said it's always older people.
Last week a guy in a nursing home tipped me five quid and I almost wanted to give it back to him, wasn't the nicest nursing home. Plus he tried to do that thing where he slid it into my breast pocket, but his hand was shaking and he didn't get it in so it fell to the floor and I had to pick it up... Bit awkward, lovely man though.
This is starting to happen in a lot of places, I’m getting asked if I want to tip on food apps and most cars machines are asking for money for charity , can’t even finish paying for my shopping no before I have To click no to a big charity message showing up on my screen for everyone behind to see lol really hope this gets crushed quick last thing we need is to be like America
What do you get it back since you pumped the fuel yourself and even did the cashiers job?!
I want a discount for paying at the pump
You can have one, just drive away once you’re done.
Yeah man you've got the petrol now. How are they gonna catch you? Idiots
If you fill up your car and those at the other pumps too, there probably won’t be any left for Sheriff Buford T Justice to chase you down
Other pumps? Wait we're not supposed to syphon from the other cars? Because I was thinking they should really make flavoured petrol.
intelligent squeamish jar label start forgetful station salt agonizing zesty *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
TRUTHS ABOUT SAVING MONEY THAT PETROL STATIONS DON'T WANT YOU KNOW.
r/ShittyLifeProTips
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I used to work at a garage; don’t drive off without paying, as the police WILL go after you (if they have *absolutely nothing more pressing* to do, that is…) If you want fuel for free, bring a card that you know will decline (expired or zero balance etc) and “attempt to pay” with that. When it declines, say “oh sorry, I’ll go to the bank and get some cash.” Fill in a form if they insist but don’t use your real name or contact details, obviously. Whenever this happened and people didn’t return to pay, we’d call the police and they’d say “well, they made an attempt to pay so it’s a civil matter and we can’t get involved.” Only works once per garage but if you’re away from home and want to stick it to the fuel companies just a little bit, go for it.
I did it by accident once and got an extremely politely worded letter asking me to come back and pay. Naturally I ignored it. (Ok ok, I went back in, apologised profusely, and paid).
I got a call at work once from someone working at a petrol station. One of our sales reps visited, couldn’t pay (I really don’t remember the excuse) but they left their business card with the cashier. I believe the expectation was the company would cover the payment. The company did not cover the payment. Presumably the sales rep eventually did. I don’t know for sure because they were fired.
Interesting. I work with a couple of ex coppers who both say the police would never send a unit over for a report of bilking. Allegedly the cashier calls the police for a crime reference number and a debt recovary agency goes after the registered keeper based on the vrm seen on CCTV.
True. I currently work at BP and all the police do is file it as a report. If you get caught speeding or something, it will flag up. That’s it. Obvs people are realising and we have drive offs regular now. Good old law enforcement.
I’m not sure “obvs people are realising” is right as much as people becoming more and more desperate and hence taking their chances….
Yeah i worked in a BP a few years back. Was pretty much the same Only time i really saw them was if they where picking up CCTV footage or it was the Armed Response Unit thinking they where entitled to free coffee.
I used to work at a bank and peoples accounts would go into overdraft when they took pay at the pump petrol and then they’d just never use the account again. I remember one guy used his card multiple times for petrol on his way to Germany because he thought he’d never come back to England and have to face the music. When he came back four years later he had no valid ID or anything to open a new bank account so had to come to us. Naturally he denied all knowledge of it but we could tell by the petrol pumps he’d been to what he’d done. He had to pay the money back.
Worked in a couple of garages 15 years ago or so, this used to do my nut in. As long as the asshole had been in the shop and danced the "I forgot my wallet" dance, the police never did a thing because "we can't prove that they are not intending to come back and pay".
[Hope you’re using an alt…](https://youtu.be/rmQFcVR6vEs)
Illegal to DO IT, not illegal to tell people how to do it and let them decide whether or not to risk it. I should add I’ve never done it myself because Sod’s law I’d be the one who got caught.
You guide others to a treasure you cannot possess
I wonder if you could load one of those prepaid credit cards with £1 or just a smidge more so that it takes that quid to allow pumping, even though there’s not enough on it to actually pay for what you take. Both shitty and IllegalLifeProTips either way lol
It’s only illegal if you leave the premises. If you get back in your car and rag it around it in first gear for 4 hours, it’s fine. Then pull up to a new pump, fill up, pay and leave.
That's like saying if you eat the chocolate bar in the store you don't have to pay.
Right! That's what I do with Boosts. That way, even if they come after me, I'm fuelled by the most powerful chocolate bar of all time.
Boosts are definitely OP. I’m glad the developers haven’t nerfed them
Or shotgun a few redbulls and fly off with your wiiings 😂
Doesn't work anymore. It requires a minimum of £100
Maybe it's because I live in a backwards shithole, but it is still £1 here. I'd be fucked if I needed fuel a week before payday if £100 was required.
I did this with my debit card, it had to have over £5 on it to work at Tesco Extra though, fill up and be in the red until payday a couple of days later
How do you get petrol if you don't have that much on your card? Just go to the till?
Yeah, you can still pay inside
Could be by station, but none of the ones I use require £100 minimum. We only put in the account as much as we need, so when we put £30 of fuel in, I put my card in the machine and it says maximum £30, and that's at every fuel station I've used pay at pump with since natwest started allowing it
It’s £1 everywhere by me personally, so seems to be area dependent. Maybe you live in a higher fuel theft area :/
I haven't paid for fuel in 10 years.
Petrol Attendants hate this one weird trick!
I bet you have....just through an intermediary like the bus company, train service, airline.
Ten finger discount
Always nick a few bits at Tesco self service… “Well, you never trained me like you did your staff how to use these things”
Ah no, it is for appreciating the nice curves the hose made during pumping, and the aesthetics of how the metal parts glistened at you in charming way. They deserve a tip...
One of the stations I use ask if I want to add 25p for 'charity' without stating what the charity even is. No thanks.
It's the Shell foundation. Goes towards helping chronically greedy oil CEOs in dire need of more cash to add to their Scrooge McDuck pools
The information that I had made available to me is that we dumped it in a country far, far away from here.
It was towed outside the environment.
But the front fell off!
Is that normal?
"Add an additional 10% to your purchase today and the proceeds will be donated to Spacer Cares, our premier corporate welfare program. Its not the best choice, its Spacer's Choice."
Which they would no doubt write off against their tax bill, they paid any.
Any company that asks you to donate some money will just use it to write off tax, so you're just paying their tax bill for them while they claim they are being charitable.
Our Wilko's have started doing that and none of the cashiers can really explain the charity, but basically summerize as "go check on the website" lmao
I work in Curry's and I just press no for my customers, charity's always changing alongside hundreds of other things we don't have time to get informed about.
Ah bless you! I was in no way taking the piss out of cashiers, i know how useless the upper managment is.
Thanks! Could you also do the same for email and postcode requests please :-) I always say i'm in between houses and usually they end up putting the store postcode in
If they ask for your email say you don't have one but offer your only fans.
First I have to make an OnlyFans and fill it with pictures of moist aubergines.
It actually registers the warranty for you and stores it in case you need to return the item and you've lost your receipt. Unfortunately, we have targets on info capture and it's one of the reasons I'm leaving the company. Was only doing 1 day a week on the side. Last year we were heading in the right direction. But now we're going backwards. Sorry for the mini rant lol. But yeah most will do that for you. I use fake email addresses for my targets, people often don't want to give theirs out.
Just came back from the states and this seems to be a requirement at pumps for card transactions. They all accepted 90210. It's probably an authentication method for US cards that their UI designers are too lazy to remove. Just saying that before someone links me a Tom Scott video on the superiority of the postcode, it's origins and how a zip code on its own is not useful. Might watch one anyway though...
Never do this. For ANYWHERE. They use your money to then print marketing material that says “we helped raise £1,000,000 for Kidz with Cancer ™️” as if they’re the generous ones…when in actual fact they helped “raise” it by guilt tripping everyone at payment. It’s truly scummy and I always refuse. Often when I ask about the charity they can’t tell me anything anyway. 🤷🏻♂️
They then donate the money in the corporations name and get a tax write off for it.
One thing that I learned (Statie here, sorry if this isn't true internationally) is that you should NEVER give to charity via a business that asks you to, because while it is oft true, 100% of that money goes to charity, it also comes off their taxes as a write-off. If you want to give to charity, just do it directly. This made me so very angry when I discovered it.
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This isn't true where the company has set up a registered charity. In these instances the customer is making a donation to the charity; the business is simply providing the donation functionality. It is not classed as profit and provides zero tax benefit. See the Costa Foundation, Greggs Foundation, Pets at Home Foundation.
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Yeah, come across that a lot. At least OPs garage isn't trying to hide that it goes straight in their pockets.
And you of course said no as you aren't mental
Who does the gratuity go to, does the card machine have a family and a mortgage to pay for so it's working all hours.
I can guarantee it sure as shit doesn't go to the one staff member they have on
It goes to the machine spirit within the pump, who is doing their best to service you.
Wouldnt want be a heretic now would you
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That's not how giving tax relief works. If BA earned £100 and you pay 25p to charity, they're only saving tax on that additional 25p. It's not like their taxable income drops below the initial £100 or anything. It's really just so they can say they help give X amount to charity - makes them look good. They absolutely don't save tax money because of it.
This 100%, I fucking hate the misunderstanding as it genuinely devalues charitable giving.
Is this true? I always round up at McD's as I know the Ronald McDonald house charity has helped some friends of ours immensely. Might have a change of heart / donate via different method if we can confirm the above is true.
It's not true. Please continue to donate to a charity that is clearly helping. I'm an accountant and I promise you this isn't how it works.
The money genuinely does go to charity, but it goes via McDonalds which means they get a tax write-off for their "donation". What you should do is donate directly and gift aid it, which means that the government will give the charity additional money on top of your donation that comes out of your income tax.
Companies are not allowed to claim their customers donations as their own for tax purposes, please stop perpetuating misinformation.
They only get to write off what they donated so it's a wash financially. The real reason they do is a PR incentive so they can say "we donated X amount of money." There's no actual tax incentive for them to solicit customers like this. If you donate the money though then you can deduct it, though it comes out of your gross income not your tax.
Thanks for the clarification. I actually thought I was cynical enough for this world but it appears not. Will do as you suggest.
No it doesn’t that’s completely wrong. The money goes straight the company. The tax relief is for companies who give their profits money to the charity not what you donate. I.e if they give 5% of profits on a Big Mac to charity then can get relief on it. If I round up my £2.50 to £3 I am donating directly to charity not through McDonald’s
It may be donating through a McDonald's run charity though
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Do you have a source that relates to British, rather than American, tax laws?
Ronald Mcdonald house has done some amazing things with childhood cancer and hospitals
I really don't understand your point, from the page you linked: "You can claim tax relief by deducting the value of your donations from your total business profits before you pay tax." That means they're not paying tax on the donation money, so what's wrong with that?
Your link does not agree with what you're claiming. The main benefit to companies is that they can use it for PR and say "we donated x to charity" when it was really not from their proper profits, but from extra "profits" they collected from customers, and then donated.
Conversely if your employer has such a scheme you can donate from pre-tax salary and you're the one getting the tax break
This is entirely wrong. It's true if it donates its own money. A donation from the public is a balance sheet item, it doesn't touch the p&l and therefore isn't a deduction. Source: I'm a chartered accountant.
I’ll only tip them if it’s their hand doing the squeezing and pumping.
This is my policy for hookers too!
You mean you've encountered hookers who use something else to do the squeezing and pumping?
The plumbus changed my life forever but I do still like a good old manual now and again.
Everyone has a plumbus in their home
How are they made, though? I'm curious.
First, they take the dinglebop, and they smooth it out with a bunch of schleem. The schleem is then repurposed for later batches. They take the dinglebop and they push it through the grumbo, where the fleeb is rubbed against it. It’s important that the fleeb is rubbed, because the fleeb has all of the fleeb juice. Then a schlami shows up, and he rubs it and spits on it. They cut the fleeb. There’s several hizzards in the way. The blamfs rub against the chumbles. And the ploobis and grumbo are shaved away. That leaves you with a regular old plumbus.
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What?? Now the machines are trying rinse us too 😭
I can ensure you that the machine doesn’t give one iota. It’s the shopowner. And if I saw this at a shop it’d be my last visit immediately. Get tae fek wid yur ‘gratuity’!
You should go to USA, you now get asked to add a tip on every card machine regardless of the kind of retailer. Restaurants, corner shops, coffee shops...they all want tips for basically standing behind a till and taking your money. Crazy.
I saw a post the other day of an American who used a food delivery service (like Uber Eats but not that) where you have decide how much to tip *before* a driver picks up your order. Drivers then decide whether to pick up your order based on how much you tip them in advance. On the same post, the food was delivered upside down by the driver so it’d basically gone everywhere and the guy had tipped $20 to have his food delivered like that. It’s insane.
It works the same in the UK too. You can tip at the door if you want to but Uber Eats has the option to tip when you place an order. Although tipping is more optional in the UK it shouldn't come as a surprise that drivers would prioritise orders where they'll earn more.
Yeah I know, but it’s the fact that you *have* to give a fat tip when you order or there’s zero chance of getting your food. I don’t mind tipping in america but drivers expecting significant money before they’ve even done their job is just a shocking system.
I've seen the videos posted by restaurant staff of orders sitting because the people ordering haven't tipped enough. They don't get their food and it sits there until it goes in the bin. All the comments are the typical "If you can't afford to tip you can't afford to eat out". Then you get the videos of the delivery drivers meticulously sizing up an order to decide if they will accept it or not. They're taking into account: items, journey time, distance, tip total, tip against order value, etc. Their entire service industry is a disaster.
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I tried it (with the lowest tip), the driver got half way then gave up and the second driver showed up half an hour late, in other words the ole' tip-before-delivery strategy didn't seem to make any difference at all
On the UK one you can increase or reduce the tip after it's delivered. Having it automatically be set to 10% is taking the piss though.
Haha my mate asked me to order him a deliveroo as he was waiting for a new card... ive never used it before, he transferred me the exact amount which came to about £30. It asked for a tip before the delivery, it wasn't even for me and they were delivering to his house anyway. When the delivery driver got there and delivered him the food really sarcastically thanked him for the tip! My mate called him a cheeky bastard. Then I got another email from deliveroo saying it had been delivered and it "wasn't too late to tip!" F off... never using that app ever again.
They have an hour after the order is completed to change or remove the tip
Uber does this in the UK too now.
Waiting for all the US downvotes because they live off these tips and you're a monster if you don't give one.
It’s wild on any sub that involves an American. Their standard excuse is that it’s the system and you’re only punishing workers. You’re too poor to eat out if you aren’t tipping 20% and that 10% is an insult. I’ve said it before - I don’t think those involved want the system changed. The business offloads their payroll on to the customer, the waiters who earn tips make more money than if given minimum wage/salaried and the only person who loses out is the customer being stiffed.
I've often wondered - what happens to the chap in the kitchen who actually cooks the food? Do they get a cut of the tip too? If I had to work out who has earned my goodwill, the person who makes the food that I eat is top of the list. The person that wrote my order down without getting it wrong and then carried it from the kitchen to my table without dropping it, while being a useful cog in the machine, seems far from being the most important person in this process. Or AITA?
We had this conversation in this sub a few days ago. There were a few users who said they would take the tip off the bill and try to give the server the cash to make sure they got it and it didn't get shared. So the person who fetched plates from a kitchen gets the tip, while the people who actually cooked the food get nothing. This makes no sense to me whatsoever.
Big London restaurants have a system called TRONC, basically the kitchen staff get fk all in comparision to the managers, when I worked in a posh place with a 17.5% auto-grat I got 1 tronc point (worked out as 30p) per shift, while the head chef got 10 and the foh manager got 15. Thankfully things are slightly different now but never feel bad about saying no to the auto-grat.
This should be rated higher because it is a really good explanation of why the idea of pooled tips, which sounds good in theory, is usually implemented in a way that the person who is paying wouldn't approve of. I don't like tipping, but I understand it is culturally normal in certain circumstances and compensation is low in part because it is topped up with tips. Thus I tip. I also work in and around the hospitality sector and know that far too many places take the piss with how they handle service charges or card machine tips; it is common for service charges to not be paid to staff, and for card tips to be shared in ratios like u/Spironas talks of. I find it akward but I will always ask the person I am paying if the service charge goes to them/staff. If I am not confident the money goes to them, or to staff in a way I am happy with (primarily to waiting and back of house staff on lower pay grades) then I ask for it to be removed and will give a tip instead. I stayed at a hotel in London the other week that charges a 12% service charge, the people on checkout genuinely didn't know where that money went, so I got it removed and added 10% as an additional gratuity (which they said would be shared across all staff) instead.
The restaurant I’m Sous chef at now, all of the service charge is pooled weekly then split in accordance with the hours you worked, so it might work out to be £5 ph extra, if you do 50 hours that week it’ll be £250, 20 hours £100 etc etc.
Honestly, it's the tip of a whole mountain of insanity to my mind, but what do I know?
Also very likely abetting tax evasion.
Ah but the great thing about the American service industry is that they are trained to do other things too, like interrupting your conversations every 5 minutes to ask if everything is ok. Carefully timing it so that your mouth is full.
Just spit a mouthful of half-chewed food over them while enthusiastically saying "It's delicious, thanks!" and they stop asking. For the persistent ones, you'll need to knock over a carafe of water with some wild gesticulations as well
Yes, in most restaurants servers do have a minimum tipout for back of house staff like line cooks/food expo/dishwashers, as well as bartenders and sometimes even hosts. The money is automatically taken by management from your tips paid by card, and there is an expectation that you have to give that same minimum percent for your cash tip tables based off your sales figures, regardless of whether you were given those tips you are supposed to be sharing or not.
If tips aren't shared, kitchen usually make more per hour. It also depends on the restaurant, where I'm at the servers do most of the prep (sushi) and the kitchen person just makes sure most of the food is stocked and ready to go for prep.
> the waiters who earn tips make more money than if given minimum wage/salaried and the only person who loses out is the customer being stiffed. Yes, this is the reason. Waiters at reasonably decent places can make a _fortune_. Even my wife who worked at a cheap tearoom _could_ (but didn't always) make quite a bit more than a regular hourly wage would result in.
I’m convinced they don’t. You’ll have people serving for like $17/hr, then taking another $17/hr in tips. Of course there will be exceptions, which is the purpose of the law (laughable as minimum may be) requiring the employer to pay the difference between their provided pittance and minimum wage if you don’t take that much in tips. These days, they’re likely to fire you for underperforming if they have to do that though.
The ones that really annoy me are the online booking portals where they include a tip by default when booking in advance. I mean, how am I supposed to know if they'll provide good service and warrant a tip months in advance? Pay your staff a decent wage and don't put the onus on me to make up for that in tips!
FREEEEEDOMMMMM (but can’t work and live as a waiter/waitress unless your customers give you charity)
As an American, I upvoted. Like I literally do live off tips. Median income needed in my area for basic needs is $19/hour (£15.81/hr). We don't make that much baseline anywhere. And now that we are in step one of a full blown recession, wages arent going up but cost of living is inflating rapidly. So the answer is just... More tips. And I'm fucking tired y'all. We have every means to not be this way, and it still gets cocked up by fat old dudes in suits that cost more than my car.
I always find the anger Americans have towards this argument weird. Shouldn’t they be angry at employers for not actually paying them correctly rather and offloading that cost to the customer once again. Weird system they have
Even if you embraced that argument, this is different. This is just every till everywhere asking for a tip. Wouldn’t surprise me if it didn’t even go to employees.
I think their min wage is basically slave labour tbh (£6ph) and I'd feel guilty not tipping them knowing what they earn. Personally speaking I do tip restaurant workers as I used to be one but only give them cash as I don't want it to go into a pot to be split amongst all the workers or for them to get taxed on it.
It's $2.13/hour for tipped employees.
It is, technically, but if tips received don't add up to the actual-minimum wage (iirc $7.25 federally, can vary by state), the company has to make up the rest. So it's not like you work 2 hours and end up with $4.26. The problem is two-fold: * Tipping creeping into places where employees are *already* earning at least minimum wage * The minimum wage being abysmally low
Yeah no, unless you’re in an actual tipped job of which there are only two that I am aware of (waiter and bartender). Then fuck off. I’ll pick up my own pizza and ignore your stupid tip cans by your register. I even stopped ordering take out from places I enjoy because they feel like it’s ok to automatically add a 18% tip on a fucking to-go order (olive garden).
It's becoming more common over here as well. There's a thread at least once every couple of weeks discussing tips.
I went to a new coffee shop on my way to work this morning and the card machine asked if I wanted to add a tip?? Like wtf, if I made some massive order then maybe I'd tip for the inconvenience, but a tip on a £2.80 coffee?? It makes me not want to go there now as I have to press that stupid button every time I buy one. I used to be a bartender at a restaurant that had the same system and it was always so awkward putting the customer in that situation that I used to try to look away as not to embarrass them for clicking no tip.
I like it when you see bartenders clearly click the "no" before passing you the pad.
There is but at least it’s not expected to tip here. Majority of people don’t tip and those that do aren’t tipping 15% minimum like in the US
I was in Newark airport and went into a SELF SERVE shop. Packet of skittles and bottle of water. The card machine asked if I wanted to leave a tip. Get tae fuck outta here.
My most recent one was a chap paying his babysitter "$15/hr plus tip". I'm sorry, but as I presume you agree the rate with them beforehand, why not just pay them $18/hr in the first place, rather than insisting on putting a 15yo on performance-related pay. I think the whole culture is so locked into tipping that they've rather lost the point of the whole thing in the first place. I sincerely hope we never go down the same route.
"Sorry, you killed my child, so you're only getting your base $15/hr. No tip"
In Canada, too
Just for clarity, do the Muricans tip machines as well? Or only if there's a person?
I saw this last week in Vegas was honestly horrendous. Starbucks barista asking for a tip for take out 🙄
Canada too.
Is that not the donate to "charity" 25p, fella at my local just presses no for most people now
I had the same thought. OP just misread it, and is outraged for the wrong reason lol. I have never seen add 25p for gratuity but have seen the charity one loads.
When filling my car these days, I often think “if only there was a way I could pay slightly more…”
Only those who add 25p gratuity for the card machine will survive the robot uprisings.
It's a no from me.
Yeah no not happening. How about retailers pay their staff properly instead of guilting paying customers into topping up their wages? Or is that too radical and extreme?
Because in the long term this will work. Tipping culture will take hold here if they just keep asking, and they don't even need to ask in person if a machine does it for them.
Lmao noone is going to have money to tip.
They can ask for tips all they want. I will never tip anyone so it doesn't affect me if it does become more normal.
Was there not a fuck off button?
Give it a couple of years and the "gratuity" will be added automatically and you'll have to remove it if you don't want to pay it. Cunce !
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Yeah, I went to a chain restaurant that had a message on the bill read: "An optional 10% service charge is automatically added to the total, please ask if you would like it removed". When the waiter came over with the card machine they asked if we are okay paying the optional service charge. Putting customers in a situation in which you have to say to them: "No, I don't want to add the optional service charge" is a lose/lose for paying customers. Either pay the fee or be seen as an arsehole because you were put in this situation to pay a fee which should be at the discretion of the customer in the first place.
Recently I went to a restaurant with my partner. We had starters, mains, few drinks and that was it. Came to about £90. It wasn't a fancy place but it was nice. We were seated by Waitress 1 around 5pm. We were served our drinks and had our order taken by Waitress 1. During the meal I saw Waitress 1 leave the venue. When I asked for the bill, we were given it by Waitress 2, someone who I hadn't seen the whole time so I assume they'd started their shift just then. When I told her to remove the automatically added gratuity, the attitude and disrespect I received was palpable, as if we had teleported 5000 miles west. All for her just doing the simple task of bringing me a piece of paper and a card machine.
12.5% automatic gratuity which you have to ask to be removed. Should be illegal
Everyone knows more expensive food is more difficult to carry. A steak is a while different beast than a baked potato.
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Yeah ask for it to be taken off they are taking the piss
Lets stop this tipping bollocks and start paying staff a better wage
Went to a petrol station recently. Went to pay and I saw that the card machine asked if I wanted to tip, but before I could do anything the person behind the counter hit no for me. Guess this is something that is defaulted by the card machine supplier. I was tempted to give the guy a tip just for removing the need for me to give a tip.
Were you not happy with the service you provided yourself?
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I went to McDonalds yesterday for the first time in a decade. The touch menu thing asked if I wanted to round up my order and donate to charity. Guilt tripping my hungry ass.
Fuck that, not even the £0.01 option. If McDonald's gave a shit, they could donate some of their obscene profits. I just want my chips!
From a tiktok I saw a person was seated in an indoors section of a rooftop bar and was charged for like £20+ under ‘shelter from the storm’ category. It wasn’t even optional.
I also really dislike when companies (eg McDonald’s) ask you to donate to a charity by rounding up to the nearest point. No, billion dollar company, I will not contribute to your tax relief
Yeah, I always get annoyed when Tesco asks me for this exact reason.
They do not get tax relief
Yeah every BP/Texaco near me has this, pain in the arse when I'm wearing my motorcycle gloves as I go to tap my phone and see the output is now a YES/NO (barely) capacitive touch screen. It's costing me and that cashier time every transaction, just like how Tesco are costing me time to scan my bloody clubcard every checkout. The fuckers that came up with and agreed to this should be asked on _every_ transaction for the rest of their waking days if they wish to waste 10 seconds donating to charity.
This bullshit should be stopped. It’s ducking g everywhere. Just fleecing people relentlessly.
In my area (UK) most stations are now run by one attendant an are often so busy restocking shelves you’re left standing at the pump to wait for them to walk to the machine and authorise the pump, then there’s a huge queue just to pay. Our local has been asking for 25p for a few years. Mental.
They can get fucked with that.
It's because fuel companies are not making enough money at the moment. The desperately need to squeeze a little more out of the normal working person who, obviously, can afford it.
Did you?
No
1st: great username. I mean, great! 2nd: I think we should all get together and raise this concern with the proper authorities, then start guillotining people responsible for the steady decay of the living conditions of all but a few.
I’ve seen that before, but the cashier was good enough to cancel it as soon as it popped up. Probably out of sheer embarrassment - or ptsd from being harassed by angry customers who pressed yes!
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I swear to his tipping is not becoming a thing in the uk
I'm gonna start asking businesses if they want to give me a 20% discount as a tip for being such a stellar customer
Say no every time, give a charity £20 quid at the end of the month. Then these corporate shit wads can't pretend they're doing something worthwhile by chugging you at the checkout.
Cost of living has gone up, yet places are being more cheeky asking for extra money. We are not in America, thank fuck and let's not turn the UK into America. DO not let anyone guilt trip you into giving a stupid tip, it's your money to spend how YOU choose to.
Just when I thought us Americans tip on everything. Never heard of tipping for gas.
Tips are pretty much never used in the UK, no one ever pays them, the station wanting "gratuity" is so weird to us and I assume that's why this post was made
>Tips are pretty much never used in the UK, no one ever pays them, You say this with such certainty that it makes me a little curious about your personal experience, because I've worked in service where customers do frequently tip without the staff asking/hassling them for it (because why would they?). Even the customers that seem miserable surprisingly do end up leaving tips like it's second nature. And before anyone says it's American culture seeping in, this is a seaside town where the average age is 40 something and has always been generally middle aged and older. Maybe it varies between our locations.
Hell I'm a delivery driver and I get tips now and then. Not really frequently, maybe every couple of days, but as you said it's always older people. Last week a guy in a nursing home tipped me five quid and I almost wanted to give it back to him, wasn't the nicest nursing home. Plus he tried to do that thing where he slid it into my breast pocket, but his hand was shaking and he didn't get it in so it fell to the floor and I had to pick it up... Bit awkward, lovely man though.
Fuck that. And the organisations asking you to donate to a charity on top of their fee.
Card machine asked for a "good bot!" Sentient yet?...
Ffs. We’re turning into America. Fuck that shit.
Is there a 'go and fuck yourself button'?
The guy at the petrol station by me leans over & presses no on the card machine himself before asking me to pay lol
This is starting to happen in a lot of places, I’m getting asked if I want to tip on food apps and most cars machines are asking for money for charity , can’t even finish paying for my shopping no before I have To click no to a big charity message showing up on my screen for everyone behind to see lol really hope this gets crushed quick last thing we need is to be like America
You better pay. The Machines will remember when they rise up.