Mumbai Grahak Panchayat wants to conduct a survey to find out if city is in favour of paying a mandatory charge or depend on the quality of service
Only after the survey is conducted will it be known whether a waiver is a good idea or not, or whether hotels and restaurants should altogether stop charging service charge, says Advocate Shirish Deshpande, President, MGP. Representation pic
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Consumers in Mumbai can now tell the Centre exactly what they feel about the mandatory service charge levied on them by hotels and restaurants.
The Mumbai Grahak Panchayat (MGP) wants to convey the sentiment and mood of the city residents to the central government, in regard to the levying of a compulsory ‘service charge’ ie tips, by restaurants and hotels on their bills. MGP is the largest consumer organisation in Asia.
Also read - Service charge by hotels/restaurants not mandatory: Government
Within the next 48 hours, the MGP — a voluntary organisation registered in 1981 under Public Charitable Trust Act with the aim of safeguarding consumers’ rights against trade malpractices — will release a 10-question survey on Whatsapp, Facebook, and Twitter.
The questions will aim at capturing the mood and public sentiment of the city, and aim at clearing the ambiguity over whether consumers can exercise the right for a ‘waiver’ for the service charge levied by establishments in case of poor service dished out by the latter, or whether they (consumers) are in favour of paying a mandatory service charge. The results of this survey will then be conveyed to the central Ministry of Consumer Affairs.
“As of now ambiguity exists over whether a customer can ask for a waiver in case the service offered is not up to the mark,” said Advocate Shirish Deshpande, President, MGP. “Only after this survey is conducted will it be known whether a waiver is a good idea or not, or whether hotels and restaurants should altogether stop charging service charge on their bills and leave it upto the customer to pay (tip) however he/she wants to.”
The three-step-process
In the first phase, consumers can take pictures of their bills that have service charge on them, and Whatsapp the images to MGP on 9987555665, before/on January 23. This will enable the MGP to build a database of the establishments carrying out this sort of trade malpractice. The second phase comprises the 10-question-survey, and is due to be let loose on the public via social media platforms such as Whatsapp, Facebook, and Twitter, within the next 48 hours (a deadline for filling in the survey has not been fixed yet.) In its third phase, the MGP will summarise the feedback received by them and convey this public perception to the Ministry of Consumer Affairs.
Centre doing its bit
The Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food, and Public Distribution had earlier called for clarification from the Hotel Association of India over the issue of hotels and restaurants charging a mandatory service charge in the range of 5-20%, in lieu of tips, which a consumer is forced to pay irrespective of the kind of service provided to him. The latter replied stating that service charge is “completely discretionary,” and should a customer be dissatisfied with the dining experience he/she can have it waived off.
The Department of Consumer Affairs had also asked the state governments to advise the Hotels/Restaurants to disseminate information through display at the appropriate places in the premises that the service charges are discretionary/ voluntary. However, the number of cases of a service charge billed to the customer remain as common as ever.
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