Companies use drip pricing to overcharge consumers

Not tipping your waitstaff? That's cruel - that's part of their pay, which they need to get to minimum wage. Expect to be treated like dirt next visit. I would.

Note that drip pricing for restaurants (e.g. 10-20% non-tip surcharge) is illegal in many jurisdictions (if not "conspicuously advertised" before eating), but some restaurants try to do it anyways (claiming the policy is "conspicuously advertised" on the last page of the menu, or a tiny sign behind the bar).

Sometimes you can just refuse to pay it and they'll back down because they want a repeat customer more. Sometimes they'll insist, but you can still just... not pay it, if you don't plan on going back. It's not like they're going to call the police, and you're paying the main bill.

Unfortunately, it's not infrequent for restaurants to also withhold any unpaid part of the bill from a server's tips. That's usually illegal as well, but most servers would rather keep their job than complain. So you might think you're not paying the restaurant, but then it's the server who suffers.

In other words, literally everything about this sucks.

Starlink?

Contractors have been doing this for decades. Here are two examples of the scam.

The roof of your property needs replacing. You call a few roofers to come by and give an estimate for work. You choose the cheapest roofer, who uses the same materials as the others and has been allegedly in the family-run business for the last 125 years. After the first half of day's work, the shingles of the old roof were removed. The proprietor contacts you and gives you bad news that there are several sections of wood that rotted away and they recommend you not apply new shingle to it as it will never fasten. It will cost additional to replace these parts, naturally, and the cost ranges from hundreds to thousands of dollars. The problem with this situation is that there is always wood paneling that needs replacing. You never just replace shingles without replacing a few wood panels.

The next scenario involves masonry. The limestone steps of your outdoor stairs is cracking and the brick needs re-pointing. You bring in a few contractors to give estimates for the repair work. Once you've contracted work, at the end of the first day you are contacted by the proprietor who informs you that there is nothing but sand holding your stairs up and they cannot work with sand. You have to rebuild the stairs, laying concrete for each step. Only then, can limestone steps be safely installed. It will cost several thousands of dollars more for this work.

Both contractors engage in drip pricing, waiting for you to be along the way with their work, leaving you to decide whether to stop the project, accuse you of breach of contract, and exploit your vulnerabilities for not having a roof or stairs. Both roof and stairs projects required work that the contractors were not forthright about. Both gave a partial price for estimates and wait to have you over a barrel before you pay the full amount.

Waitstaff should expect that any surcharge, aside from taxes, will result in a lower tip especially because those surcharges are usually described as tips on the bill. Whether or not they are actually distributed as tips by the manager isn't my problem.