OT La Fuente Scam

[MUCrisco]

For those who get mad at Off topics posted on the basketball board...relax.  It takes you more time to respond and complain than it does just to skip over a topic that is clearly marked.

For the rest of you, I got this e-mail from my buddy with whom I have season tickets.  I thought I'd pass along this info to you guys.

Local Milwaukee scam!  After eating/drinking here myself on occasion....and knowing that I am usually a bit "off center" after a couple pitchers of margaritas...I doubt I'd have ever caught this.  Maybe spreading the word will do some good for others as well:



I am not sure if anyone has brought this to your attention or not?

My wife & I went to La Fuente on Saturday for dinner with two friends and our collective four kids.  Dinner was dinner but what set us off was when we received the bill.  What they do is any party 5 people or more (kids included), they automatically put a 15% gratuity on your bill but disguise it as a "Service Charge".  What makes this all worse is that fact that at the bottom of the bill they "For Your Convenience" tell you what 15, 18 & 20% gratuity will be for your total bill after taxes and after the 15% that they already added to your bill!!!!  So basically if you don't catch this, which 99% of the people probably don't, and you give them only the 15% that they conveniently provide for you and don't catch the "Service Charge", you are paying the wait staff an over 33% tip.  And now that I look even closer to our bill typing this I realize that they charge extra to put cheese on tacos & charge extra for the cheese, sour cream & guacamole for my fajitas...  These are things every other Mexican restaurant gives you as part of the meal.  This place is a joke...

When we went to the manager to ask about this, he called over this larda$$ of a security guard to try and intimidate us.  To say the least we will never eat there again and hope you can help spread the word and protect future patrons.

I hope this made sense.  I am providing you a copy of our receipt so you can see this for yourself. 

[mu_hilltopper]

Somebody call Chopper 4 with Powerzoom!

[spiral97]

When we went to the manager to ask about this, he called over this larda$$ of a security guard to try and intimidate us. 

I am not sure I would want to eat at a restaurant that felt the need to hire a security guard anyhow 

[Avenue Commons]

This goes on at all kinds of restaurants all the time. It's not a "scam" in that a "service charge" isn't disguised. You should be able to figure out what it is on your own. If you were there with you, your wife, and four kids (6 people) you should know that typically restaurants charge extra for parties of 6 or more. Sorry to hear this happend, but you've got to pay attention.

[muwarrior87]

I've been there and they don't say the cheese and other stuff on tacos and fajitas are more on the menu...just throwing that out there.

[MUsoxfan]

I'm a bartender at a country club that charges an automatic 18% of every purchase as a "service charge" (tip).    On the bill is a line for "additional gratuity".   So while not uncommon, it needs to be properly advertised to customers

[mu_hilltopper]

This was a long story on channel 6 tonight.  Also said the owner of La Fuente was getting hate mail on the topic.

I think that's pretty sad.  Bottom line, there are many restaurants that display the 10-15-20% gratuity rates at the bottom .. and a ton of places that charge 15% for 5+ parties.

  It's not like anything was in small print. I'll bet a ton of restaurants have the same systems.  There's no dastardly trickery going on.

  The customers screwed themselves when they didn't notice the obvious.  I don't think there's any trickery going on here.  It's about people who aren't reading and understanding their bill, blaming the restaurant for their OWN poor reading skills.

[MUMac]

Well, if this part of the email was correct:

"When we went to the manager to ask about this, he called over this larda$$ of a security guard to try and intimidate us.  To say the least we will never eat there again and hope you can help spread the word and protect future patrons."


I certainly see every right to blame the restaraunt and it's management.

Also, while gratuity for 8 or more is customary, it many times does dip into 6.  Seldom 4.  It should be appropriately listed in both the menu and disclosed on the bill.

The better restaraunts will fill in the service charge for you, thus taking away the potential for a double dip.

[MUsoxfan]

Well, if this part of the email was correct:

"When we went to the manager to ask about this, he called over this larda$$ of a security guard to try and intimidate us.  To say the least we will never eat there again and hope you can help spread the word and protect future patrons."


I certainly see every right to blame the restaraunt and it's management.

Also, while gratuity for 8 or more is customary, it many times does dip into 6.  Seldom 4.  It should be appropriately listed in both the menu and disclosed on the bill.

The better restaraunts will fill in the service charge for you, thus taking away the potential for a double dip.

The root of all this is cheaskates.   If people tipped properly all the time, there would be no reason to have to charge it automatically.    Bottom line is, if you can't afford to tip last least 20%, you can't afford to go out

[MUCrisco]

This goes on at all kinds of restaurants all the time. It's not a "scam" in that a "service charge" isn't disguised. You should be able to figure out what it is on your own. If you were there with you, your wife, and four kids (6 people) you should know that typically restaurants charge extra for parties of 6 or more. Sorry to hear this happend, but you've got to pay attention.

This didn't happen to me.  I just got the forwarded e-mail.  While growing up, my mom always made me inspect the bill at restaurants so I still do that today.  I will say that I've never had good service at La Fuente.  Karma's a b**** I guess.

[mu_hilltopper]

When I read that line about the manager calling over security .. it's obvious there are two sides to this story.  I'm guessing the manager's story would go something like this: "So a customer comes up to me and starts bitching about how I'm trying to trick him into double paying his tip.  I explained to him that the policy about groups/service charge was carefully stated on the menu, yadda yadda, tried to be reasonable, but he became belligerent enough that I called security over and asked him to leave."

Now, I have no idea if that is true.  But it's completely plausable.  Extraordinarily few managers resort to calling over their security guys when their customers are polite.   That makes me think there's another side to this story.  

La Fuente has been in business, what, 20+ years?  They're not in the business of scamming people.  This is a common restaurant receipt, and your friend was pissed he either didn't catch it himself, or did catch it, and didn't like the manager's response, which was probably something like, dude, we're not trying to hose people, we've got this receipt system, it's all spelled out, just read your receipt and you'll be fine, if you don't like it, sorry, but there's the door.

[MUCrisco]

When I read that line about the manager calling over security .. it's obvious there are two sides to this story.  I'm guessing the manager's story would go something like this: "So a customer comes up to me and starts bitching about how I'm trying to trick him into double paying his tip.  I explained to him that the policy about groups/service charge was carefully stated on the menu, yadda yadda, tried to be reasonable, but he became belligerent enough that I called security over and asked him to leave."

Now, I have no idea if that is true.  But it's completely plausable.  Extraordinarily few managers resort to calling over their security guys when their customers are polite.   That makes me think there's another side to this story.  

La Fuente has been in business, what, 20+ years?  They're not in the business of scamming people.  This is a common restaurant receipt, and your friend was pissed he either didn't catch it himself, or did catch it, and didn't like the manager's response, which was probably something like, dude, we're not trying to hose people, we've got this receipt system, it's all spelled out, just read your receipt and you'll be fine, if you don't like it, sorry, but there's the door.

This wasn't my friend either.  He just forwarded the e-mail to me.  It appears that this e-mail has been going around Milwaukee if it was on the news. 

[Schoolyard]

1st of all La Fuente is for Amatuers and Suburbanites.

2ndly, it's ok to to put a mandatory service charge on and it's ok to put the tip-o-meter on but not both, that's a shady as it gets.

But for those of you at Las...come on, try something new.  Sheep.

[Chili]

I received the same email from someone other than Crisco's friend and this is a copy of the receipt in questions. Also, if you put the service charge in and do not let your customer know that is horrible and unscrupulous service.

[spiral97]

The only thing that bothered me when I looked at the receipt is that the gratuity calculations are wrong.  Gratuity should be calculated pre-tax and pre-service charges.  The service charge was a 15% gratuity of the meal cost (so $14.07) and correctly calculated.  Yet the bottom "conveniently provided" calculations indicate that 15% is $17.00 - meaning that the calculation was done post-tax and post-gratuity (on the entire $113.35 total).  They're advising you to pay tip on the tip!

None of this is unique to this restaurant - I never trust the provided guidelines and have seen this time and again..  Personally I strive for 20% rounded up to the nearest dollar for good service.  I usually shake my head when I see it on the receipt and mutter something about "us lazy americans".. I mean come on, it's a real easy calculation to do: shift the subtotal right one digit and then multiple what's left by 2.  If it was really bad, I probably forget to multiply by 2.  If it is downright horrid, that's when they get the token penny - definitely more clear than not leaving anything like some people have told me to do as this way it says "no, I didn't just forget to leave you the tip, moron".  (Note, I've only had to do this 4 or 5 times in my life so far.)  On the other hand, if the service was spectacular, I have no issues multiplying by 3 or just adding extra on top.

[mu_hilltopper]

... if you put the service charge in and do not let your customer know that is horrible and unscrupulous service.

Well, fortunately for La Fuente, they must not fall into that category then, since they clearly, in regular sized font, put "Service Chg" on the receipt for anyone to see.  About the best argument one could make is that they don't understand "Service Chg" is synonymous with "Gratuity".


P.S. On the fox6 news story, the owner now says they are using yellow highlighter on any "Service Chg" lines that appear on bills. -- Is that enough?  Will color blind people complain that they need an audible warning too?  Maybe they could get a mariachi band to come serenade each table of 5+ with a song, extolling the virtues of reading their bill carefully.

[Canned Goods n Ammo]

I don't think they are really "hiding" the service charge... but putting the gratuity calculator at the bottom implies that gratuity hasn't been added.

Also, on the same piece of paper, they are referring to it as a "service charge" and then 1/2 inch later they call it "gratuity".

I don't think they were intentionally being "shady" (lord knows that place already makes crazy money), but the receipt is confusing especially considering the hustle and bustle of that joint. They push people pretty hard to get in and get out (not that I blame them for that).

[MU gimp ONE]

all i know is that i wish i was a waiter at La Fuente while at Marquette.  $31 on a $113 dollar bill!!!, i could have gotten used to drinking miller lite rather than Busch Light every weekend if i was making that scratch on every table.

[Chili]

... if you put the service charge in and do not let your customer know that is horrible and unscrupulous service.

Well, fortunately for La Fuente, they must not fall into that category then, since they clearly, in regular sized font, put "Service Chg" on the receipt for anyone to see.  About the best argument one could make is that they don't understand "Service Chg" is synonymous with "Gratuity".


P.S. On the fox6 news story, the owner now says they are using yellow highlighter on any "Service Chg" lines that appear on bills. -- Is that enough?  Will color blind people complain that they need an audible warning too?  Maybe they could get a mariachi band to come serenade each table of 5+ with a song, extolling the virtues of reading their bill carefully.

Verbally call out. I waited tables while at MU at some fine dining places and if I ever put the charge on the bill I ALWAYS discreetly told the person who asked for the bill. Not verbally communicating it is shade ball move.