Hidden Ripoff - Bip Bip in Playa del Carmen

We went to Playa this week and 5 of us ate at Bip Bip Restaurant on 5th Ave. Nice setting, table on the street, breezy on a hot day. All was well until the bill came.

The bill was only the yellow copy so it was hard to read in the first place (red flag #1). The amount circled as Total did not agree with Sub Total (Red flag #2). Upon close inspection, the word Propina was obscured by the carefully drawn circle which had extra pen strokes at the top of the circle, clearly to hide the tip. All we could read was the letter P. There was nothing on the menu to indicate that a tip would be added. The normal customer tendency would be for the customer to add an appropriate tip to the Total.

In our case, that would have been $200 pesos. THIS WAS CLEARLY AN ATTEMPT TO GET MORE THAN A DOUBLE TIP BY EITHER THE WAITER, ACTING ALONE, OR BY THE POLICY OF THE RESTAURANT. Had we not caught this treasonous act (LOL) the tip would have been $342 on a $922 bill; not a bad scam if you can get away with it.

I reviewed Bip Bip on Trip Adviser. Also tried to email the restaurant but the only email I could find was no longer in service. They have no website that I could find.

This really tees me off. If this is the policy of the restaurant, one can only imagine how much extra tips they are screwing their customers out of. If the server unilaterally did this, with the power to add it, like if a party of 8 or more, and then obliterate it with his clever circle, then several parties each day are getting screwed by this crook. He should be fired.

SO, ALL YOU GUYS AND GALS GOING TO PLAYA DEL CARMEN, BEWARE OF BIP BIP.

 

Stacia loves to go out to eat while in Playa, so this is good info! We'll attempt to watch those bills close!