Illegal Tipping???

During the July 4th weekend, I visited some friends in San Luis Obispo. We all headed out to Mothers Tavern and The Library for the evening.

Let me preface this by stating that I'm a decent tipper. I usually tip 15%-20% or more depending on the service. Very rarely do I tip under 10% or at all. At Mothers and The Library, I opened a tab with my credit card and when I closed my tab, I didn't leave a tip because I was sort of tipsy. I just signed my name and left.

A couple days later I noticed that both places had added a 10% tip to the total. I was a little suprised. However, since it was only 10%, I shrugged it off. I would have tipped if I hadn't been so tipsy. However, the idea of them adding their own tip w/o my knowledge made me a little angry.

This past weekend, I had brunch at The Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo. The check totaled $38.22 ($10.00 of that was for purchase of 2 eclairs to go). So the meal was actually just $28.00. I had left $4.00 in cash as tip and signed the bill neither adding additional tip nor totalling the amount. When I walked out, I felt very uneasy. I should have placed a -0- in the tip field and carried the subtotal to the total.

To my horror, when I looked on line later that week, the server had added $5.00 in tip to the bill bringing the total $43.22 - this on top of the $4.00 that I already left on the counter. I was furious!!!!

I called up Madonna Inn and the Night Manager was pretty empathetic and surprised at what happened. She advised me to send/fax copies of the receipt and my bank statement and they would rectify the problem. I know it is silly to go through all this trouble for $5.00, but unless it is stated somewhere that a 15%-20% gratuity would be added to the bill, I don't think the server should have the right to add their own tip. There are times when I just don't feel like tipping because the service was just horrible!! But in this case.... I had left a cash tip!!

Is this common practice? Is this legal?