chxddstri wrote:
my wife brought our 18 year old daughter to a swanky spa for an hour massage. It was a spring break "gift" for our daughter, since she is a loner at school, and spent her vacation week at home with her parents. thought it would be something nice for her.
true to form, my wife and daughter arrived about 5 minutes late for a 5pm appointment (last session of the day). massage started at 5:15pm.
since it was the last session of the day, my wife figured the therapist would go until 6:15. Not at all. She wrapped things up right at 6pm. Understood. whatever. that's her decision.
when its time to pay, my wife finds out that tip is "included" in the price. There is an option to tip more, if you want...but no option to tip less.
Tip is just included in the hourly cost of the massage session.
My wife let it go, mainly because she didn't want to make a big deal out of it in front of our daughter. didn't want her to feel bad about the cost.
Makes me think of a Seinfeld episode about the rental car reservation, with no car available. "I know what a reservation is, sir". "I don't think you do"
I don't think they know what a tip is, and that is why the therapist had no incentive to run the session a full hour.
On the one hand, the tipping thing is what it is. It's not really a tip, if you don't get to decide whether you're leaving it or not based on service. It's just an additional part of the cost, and it lets the spa make it seem like their treatment costs less than it actually does. They get to say a massage is $80 plus $20 tip, but what that means is their massages actually cost $100.
On the other hand, you don't really get to schedule a particular time for a massage, show up late, and then complain about them not running past your scheduled end time. They presumably have other clients, and it's your wife's fault they got there late, not the masseuse's.
Slowguy
(insert pithy phrase here...)