MALAYSIANS are voicing their frustration over restaurants imposing a 10% service charge despite requiring customers to handle their own orders through QR codes.
A recent post on the Saja Viral Facebook page sparked debate after highlighting the issue.
The user shared their experience of dining at a restaurant where they had to scan a QR code to access the menu, place their order, and even walk to the counter to make payment—only to still be charged a service fee.
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“Went to a restaurant for dinner—had to scan the menu myself, place the order myself... After eating, I even had to get up from my table and walk to the counter to pay the bill.
“And yet, I still had to pay a 10% service charge,” the post read.
The post quickly gained traction, amassing over 30,000 likes, with many agreeing that restaurants shouldn’t charge service fees when customers handle everything themselves.
One netizen called Putri Ahmad asked: “That’s what I find weird—if we’re doing everything ourselves, is there still a service charge?”
“Some even have to cook the food themselves,” Razzaaq Ajaq said sarcastically, to which Muhammad Faiz Mohd Puzi replied to say, “Like a steamboat.”
“Pick up the food yourself. They give you that device that beeps (not sure what it’s called), but you wait and wait, and it never goes off,” Rayna Wati commented.
“It’s still considered a service charge because it speeds up the process. Instead of waiting for a waiter to come and take the order—which might take a long time—you can order instantly. Plus, if a waiter gets the order wrong, it causes more delays or extra charges for mistakes. The system also has operational costs, like maintaining the website and QR code scanning,” one user, Public Gold Putrajaya by Adawiyah Abdullah wrote, countering the majority opinion in the comments.
