Restaurant charging 'absurd' health insurance fee leaves people outraged
Topics: US News, Food and Drink
Jess Hardiman
Featured Image Credit: Yelp/Reddit/u/maxell505
Topics: US News, Food and Drink
A restaurant has left people outraged after charging an ‘absurd’ fee to cover health insurance for staff, having since doubled down on its approach in a lengthy statement on Facebook explaining why it does it.
We’ve all been hit with frustrating unexpected charges at one point or another, whether it’s one of Airbnb’s several add-on fees that double the price of your stay, or the simultaneous processing, admin and handling fees that appear when you’re buying concert tickets.
But one Reddit user faced something they’d likely not witnessed before, having been hit with a ‘Health Insurance fee’.
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The customer had spent $50.50 on food and drink, with $4.49 added on as sales tax.
However, there was another surprising fee below that, with a charge of $2.02 for ‘Health Insurance’.
A message at the bottom of the receipt explained: “On your bill there is a 4% Health Insurance Surcharge, pretax. We are committed to the well being of our team; they are our family.
“The small percentage does not cover everything but it does allow us to offer ALL of our full time employees health insurance.
“Our industry is an increasingly difficult one to survive in, this small charge afford our staff the ability to go to the doctor for mental or physical ailments they may face.
“Thank you for understanding.”
Posting their photo of the bill on Reddit, the customer said: “This restaurant charged me a health insurance fee.”
Many others agreed that the fee was ‘absurd’, with one commenting: “We care about our employees… but not enough to foot the bill for insurance. Soooooo we’re passing it off on you!”
Another said: “Showing that on the receipt for the customers to see is absurd. Just charge a little more for the food and leave that extra fee off the receipt.”
The diner had eaten at JenChan’s in Cabbagetown, Atlanta, which has since spoken out about the backlash online after a Facebook user commented underneath the restaurant’s profile picture - which featured The Chans - the family behind the establishment: “I’ve never seen a family that needs to be beaten up more, make that Healthcare come in handy.”
The restaurant, which specializes in Chinese food and pizza, said in a statement: “To the two top who sat at table 15 last night.
“My wife chatted you up like we do. We like to talk to our guests; we invite you in our home is how we feel about it, so we try to personally make sure everything is going great, you said it was. Everything seemed fine.
“So based on what has happened in the last few hours it appears the paragraph printed on our menu was missed and you were caught off guard by a health insurance fee we implemented. I am truly sorry about that.
“We post it on the menu itself and the receipt to avoid this. It has been on the menu for about a year now, we were inspired by another couple of restaurants here to do the same.”
The Chans continued: “We are a small independent restaurant, and I would ask that you just look up how many small independent restaurants have closed this month alone in Atlanta, much less across the country, much less this year.”
They added: “Please... go blast the insurance companies making a killing with one star reviews but not the small family owned business trying to do their best. We really are just trying to do our best.”