"Is it even legal?": Outrage over pub's "sneaky" surcharge
<p>A Sydney hotel has come under fire online after one customer exposed the popular venue for an unexpected - and apparently undeclared - “late night surcharge”. </p>
<p>And after taking to Reddit, that same customer found a wave of support from users who agreed the additional fee was ridiculous, with some even questioning the legalities of it. </p>
<p>And while they hadn’t initially revealed the name of the sneaky establishment, after a number of requests from fellow Redditors for a “name and shame”, they eventually disclosed that it had been Sydney’s iconic Oxford Hotel.</p>
<p>They began their tale by sharing that they’d just been out with a friend, and had been buying “jugs of beer as rounds”. </p>
<p>The first was “purchased at 9:18pm for $24.36”, and wasn’t an issue for the two friends. </p>
<p>However, trouble arose at 10:37pm when the poster’s next round came about, and the total came in at $33.50. </p>
<p>“I paid for it not looking at the price but Apple Pay has notifications when you pay for things,” they explained, “and I noticed the price difference in the notifications. </p>
<p>“When I asked the same staff member who served me he said there was a ‘late night surcharge after 10pm’.” </p>
<p>They went on to note that they’d never even heard of a late night surcharge before, and were dismayed by the “30% increase! Not exactly a small increase.” </p>
<p>“There’s no signage to notify anyone of the fee after 10pm. I’ve never even heard of this practice in Australia,” they said, before asking whether anyone else had had a similar experience before, and “is it even legal?” </p>
<p>When someone noted that “surcharges and semi-forced gratuities are becoming commonplace now unfortunately”, they suggested checking out menus beforehand to determine whether or not a particular establishment would be issuing additional fees. </p>
<p>But as one user pointed out, the hotel in question didn’t list the late night charges anywhere on their website. </p>
<p>Someone else said that while “late charge surcharging is nothing new”, what the customer had paid “seems somewhat excessive”. </p>
<p>“Every time I go out in Sydney these days the whole experience just leaves a bad feeling because I feel like I've just been had by someone,” another said. </p>
<p>“Ahh, the reverse happy hour. A sad hour, if you will,” one offered. </p>
<p>“So sick of this. It needs to stop. Australian Culture is being killed before our eyes by these greedy establishments not willing to pay their staff living wages,” someone else lamented. </p>
<p>And as one bartender added, “so many bars will bump their booze prices up at 10pm and midnight to ‘help pay for staff loading’, but won't actually pay their staff penalty rates. just a little bit of extra money for the big wigs”.</p>
<p><em>Images: Facebook</em></p>
