TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Clarification on Lee's Service Charge

On fabila/Louise's recent visit they encountered a new server at Lee's and an additional charge on their bill. It was somewhat confusing, so I reached out to Lee's, specifically Jordan, for some clarification. The report indicated the server was pretty new, so Jordan knew who it was. Below is the text of the message Jordan sent me. I thank him for the clarification.

"Hey JD
Thank you so much for getting in contact with us about this situation my friend. This is something we take very seriously and you are right, we don’t put 15% service charge on every bill but we do allow our servers to have some discretion when to apply it for certain groups. We absolutely don’t condone the server’s behavior. We brought it up with him, he is new but it is very clear the 15% goes completely to the server no extra should be requested or expected. Rest assured we have handled the situation but can’t thank you enough for bringing it to our attention JD!
All the best,
Jordan"

Thanks for the clarification but this "we don’t put 15% service charge on every bill but we do allow our servers to have some discretion when to apply it for certain groups" seems to be arbitrary. Either put SC on all or none.

Yeah, that doesn't give me a warm fuzzy either.

I can see it added to a larger party and posted as such on the menu but not arbitrary.

My take is Jordan was referring to larger parties and nothing else.

Fine, if they are referring only to larger parties, which is really common. But he didn't say that.

Every time we went to Lee's, the waiter manually added 15% SC to the bill.

My guess would be larger parties might have it added. Locals likely would not have it added. Europeans (who are not accustomed to tipping) might have it added. If the server knows the party, thay can use their own judgment.

I am only passing on what I was told, and it is word for word. Lee's doesn't seem to have a lot of turnover in the staff, so I would think the servers would use decent discretion in whom the SC is added to. The main thing I was hoping to clarify was the misinformation that was given about 10% of it being tax and 5% going to the staff. I got more than that and I thank Jordan for addressing it.

"As I posted, the waiter told me that 10% was tax and 5% went to the staff."

Some people will only go with the 15% that is added so if the server knows a customer usually tips more, they might be cutting themselves short by adding the SC in every case. Just my opinion.

After reading Jordan's response again, he used the term "certain groups" I guess that could be the size of the group or the language the group was predominately speaking.

I'm glad they clarified that part, about the s/c going to the server, but I still don't like discretion given to the server.

I am not positive, but I think Mark's Place might operate the same way.

Interesting.

I actually don't mind if SC of 15% is added. I normally tip a bit more but if they charge 15%, that is what they get.....unless the service is outstanding. If the service is bad, I'm not going back anyway.

If the service is bad pay in cash and reduce the SC if it's not stated on menu since your not going back.

It is very simple, printed right on their menu is "Service charge not included, payable in cash only".

I really appreciate JD reaching out directly and getting clarification from the establishment. In a brief exchange, often it is not easy to get a detailed explanation.

Below is a copy of their menu downloaded directly from their current Facebook page.

More and more, I’d rather just go European and the service comes with the food.

I dont need a guilt trip here in the states whether they are making $2/hr without my tip or the wonderment if someone is gaming me on SXM.

We recently went to an Auntie Anne’s pretzel shop in Boca Raton and the young girl went batzo when when my wife didn’t tip her with the credit card machine for a cup of pretzel bites. I guess everybody in Boca tips $10 for a $5 pretzel.

Alecu7’s bill didn’t seem like it was for a big party and the server still added it on.

SC wasn’t handwritten on my check, and we were 2 people.

Looks like it's still arbitrary. Not a good policy.

My main objective was to get clarification on what you were told about the sc/tax thing. How Lee's employees handle the service charge when it comes to determining when and to whom it is added is up to them. While the misleading tax and service charge thing you were told was addressed, the overall service charge and when and how it is applied is still somewhat confusing.