Dan A.
Yelp
Nice comedy club, but I'm pissed that they scammed me into tipping twice, as well as double charged me for tickets.
They include an 18% gratuity in the bill, but after taking your card, they present you with a tipping screen showing tipping options.
I knew that a tip was included, but I figured this was an option to upgrade your tip percentage, so I selected 20%.
Which was an entirely second tip. I checked my credit card to be sure, and while initially they only charged the amount before the added tip, a few days later it was updated to a higher amount, including the added 20%.
So they ended up charging me a 38% tip in total- $20.90 plus tax on a $55 subtotal, for a total bill of $80.78 on a $55 subtotal (and one of the drinks was also more expensive than advertised on the menu).
And that was for two cocktails and two beers, not exactly cheap prices.
Two of my friends made the exact same mistake, independently, so it's not like it was super obvious and I'm the only one that screwed up.
It seems obvious in retrospect, but at the end of the night, when you're on the spot, a bit buzzed, and not expecting to be deliberately conned at a reputable establishment, it an easy mistake to make. You think surely they're not going to ask you to give 20 - 25% ON TOP of 18%,without even saying anything, but that's exactly what they do. Search the reviews and you'll see many such reports.
And if you don't think about it and never check your credit card statement, you'll never be the wiser.
They know damn well what they're doing. They're maliciously taking advantage of our kindness and generosity to cheat us. They could easily turn off or modify that tipping screen, or at least warn us not to use it. It's 100% deliberate, there is no way that this is an accident or honest oversight.
Oh, and on top of the tipping scam, there was a duplicate charge on my card for the tickets. That's right they charged me twice- and I purchased 4 tickets, so I got charged for 8. The only good thing about the tipping scam is that otherwise I wouldn't have noticed.
Maybe it was just a technical glitch on the website, I remember it timed out on me while I was checking out on my phone, but still it charged me twice, but I only got one confirmation email, and no indication of the duplicate charge.
I disputed the duplicate charge with my credit card company of course, and I'll probably dispute added tip already.
If you go here, be very careful about billing, check your receipt for discrepancies, skip the tip screen, and be sure to check your credit card statement carefully after a few days!
If you can avoid all the scams, and come on a night with a good lineup, then you can have a good time atca, reasonable price.
But something about being deliberately cheated really gives me a bad feeling. It's not hard to operate a businesses with integrity, and both the owners and servers clearly are dishonest.
Next time (if I ever come here again) I'm paying cash only, but for tickets I will still check my credit card activity carefully.