"I understand any restaurant can charge a merchant fee if you are paying by credit card," he said. "But they whacked the merchant fee onto our bill before they knew whether we were going to pay by credit card or cash." Lindsay said he also noticed a condition on the menu that highlighted parties of 12 or more would be automatically charged a gratuity of eight per cent. Meaning a bill of $600 would attract an extra $48 gratuity. Consumer Protection visited the restaurant to highlight its obligations to customers in relation to billing.

"It was a routine call to ensure management and staff understood what they can and can't do with regard to billing," a spokeswoman said. She said "the bill is the bill", not "the bill plus a tip". "There is no obligation to pay a tip," she said. A restaurant could also not load a merchant fee onto a bill until it was known how the customer wanted to pay. "If you want to pay by cash then that fee ought not to be on the bill and you need to ask for that to be removed," she said.

If any restaurant suggests it is simply standard practice to add a merchant fee, then Consumer Protection would like to hear from diners. "And a restaurant can't just suggest you convert that fee into a tip," she said. General manager of Jamie's Italian Perth, Steve Taylor, confirmed the visit from Consumer Protection and said that managers and staff had been briefed on their responsibilities. "Our policy is always to ask customers first whether they want pay their bill by cash or card," he said. "On this occasion, it appears that might not have happened and a merchant fee was included - and we apologise for that."

Mr Taylor said tipping was optional, but confirmed an eight per cent gratuity did apply to tables of 12 or more. "But customers don't have to pay the tip if they don't feel it is warranted," he said. "If anyone ever has a problem with an issue like tipping or merchant fees they should bring it to our attention straight away and we will sort it out." The tip slip Another area that could cost consumers if they weren't paying attention is the EFTPOS screen itself.

"Something else that can happen during billing is where a screen on the EFTPOS machine provides an option to enter a tip," the Consumer Protection spokeswoman said. "Some people who are not looking closely often enter their PIN number at this point – and that becomes the unintentional tip amount." For instance, if a person's PIN was 7685 then the tip amount would become $76.85. "The next screen then asks for the PIN and most people say 'I thought I already did that' and enter it again to approve payment," the spokeswoman said. "We call that a tip slip."

Not the first time A post to online forum Reddit more than 12 months ago was also critical of the tipping approach at Jamie's Italian in Perth. The original post read: "Went to Jamies in Perth today for lunch. Food was fine, but when it came to payment, the waiter asked how much of a tip would we like to give to include in the credit card transaction? "I said I am not giving a tip - to which I was told customers usually gave a 10-15 per cent tip, but if I can't afford to, then I don't have to.

"Since when has tipping become an expectation in Perth?" One of the replies in the thread read: "The last time I was [there] with a friend . . . the waiter mentioned the 10 per cent tip thing and I was like: 'What'? "I asked, 'Is this a new system?' - to which she told me: "No, we've always had it." Have you had a similar experience? Leave a comment below