Restaurant set internet on fire by charging 'absurd' health insurance fee in bill receipt

Restaurant set internet on fire by charging 'absurd' health insurance fee in bill receipt 

Featured Image Credit: Yelp/reddit/u/maxell505

By The Giggle:

A restaurant has sparked outrage after charging an "absurd" fee to pay for health insurance for employees, and has since doubled back on its policy in a lengthy Facebook post explaining why they do it.

We've all been in a situation where we've been hit with an unexpected charge, whether it's one of Airbnb's "add-on" fees that double your stay price, or one of the "simultaneous processing, admin, and handling fees" that come with concert tickets.

But one Reddit user was faced with something they'd probably never seen before: a "Health Insurance fee".

The customer's total bill for the night was , including food and drinks ($50.50 plus $4.49 sales tax). But there was another surprise: $2.02 charge for "Health Insurance".

A message on the receipt read: "4% Health Insurance, pretax, on all full time employees." "We prioritize the welfare of our team members and provide health insurance coverage to all our staff.."

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The small percentage doesn't cover everything, but it allows us to offer health insurance to everyone.

"In an increasingly difficult industry, this small charge allows our staff to have access to the doctor for any mental or physical ailments that may arise," the restaurant stated in a statement.

Thank you for understanding."

The diner posted a photo of their bill on Reddit, saying they had been charged a health insurance fee by the restaurant. 

Many people agreed with the diner that the fee was "absurd" and "we care about our employees" but not enough to pay for insurance.

 

One person commented that "We're passing it off to you!" 

One person expressed, "It's absolutely absurd to display that on the customer's receipt."

The restaurant has since responded to the backlash online, saying in a statement, "To the two top customers who sat at Table 15 last night, thank you for understanding. 

JenChan's Chinese food and pizza is owned by The Chans, the family behind the restaurant. My wife talked to you like we always do.

We enjoy conversing with our visitors and cordially invite you to our house. We want to make sure everything goes well, and you said it did.

Based on what has transpired in the past few hours, it appears that a paragraph was overlooked on the menu and you were unaware of the health insurance fee that was implemented.

We post this paragraph on the menu and on the receipt to prevent this from happening. This fee has been available for over a year, and we were inspired to include it after another couple restaurants in the area did the same.

This is a small family-owned business, and I encourage you to look up the number of small independent restaurants that have closed in Atlanta alone this month, as well as across the country this year.

Please do not go out of your way to criticize the insurance companies who make a lot of money off of one star reviews, but instead focus on doing their best.