During this 10 days or so where almost the entire country of Vietnam grinds to a halt so the population can celebrate the Lunar New Year with their friends and family, the things that do remain open have a tendency to charge significantly more for their goods and services. This is something that has been going on for ages and if you don't like the sound of being required to pay a lot more for stuff for these 10 days or so you need to prep beforehand to make sure that you don't need it.
There are a few places that actually charge the same price during this time of year and they tend to be a lot busier than other places because of this. However, some establishments claim that they have to pay their staff 2-3 times as much as they normally would have to and this is believable and understandable. Where I start to have a problem with this policy is when the business is not up front with it and this is what happened to me the other day.
I didn't put the name of the shop on here because in all other capacities other than the secret charge that they didn't tell me about until it was too late for me to cancel, I was really happy with everything else I had there. Honestly, it was the best Chicken Tandoori (why did they spell it wrong?) that I have had anywhere in Vietnam since moving here.
If you look at the 2nd to last line on that you'll see a charge of 93,000 and this is the "service charge." This place, and most places in Vietnam don't have service charge normally but they do have it during Tet. I don't mind that this is in place and understand why it needs to be there but the problem I have with this joint was that they were sneaky about it. They didn't mention it and there was no sign like the other shops will have indicating that this is what they will do on the bill.
Also, this was for a take-away dinner.
According to a friend of mine that owns a couple of pizza places they charge extra service charge during Tet for people that are dining in, but not for take-away. To me this makes a bit more sense but then again, it isn't up to me how they are going to run their business.
I thought it was kind of shady of them to not mention this at any point during the ordering process and I am too shy to kick up a fuss after the fact. I will say this though, had they mentioned that they were going to charge 30% extra for a take-away I would have chosen to go to one of the 7 other Indian restaurants that are in our immediate area. I think they knew that I would do this as well and this is why they didn't tell me. I've been to 2 other Indian places since the start of Tet and they did not charge service charge for take away.
So the lesson here is that you should ask a shop if they have Tet service charge before you order. I don't mind helping out by paying more during holiday periods but the shops that are sneaky about it like this one kind of ruin the whole experience even towards the honest businesses.
I suppose $4 isn't the end of the world but the money isn't really the point, the principal of the situation is. If they will rip me off on this tiny bit of subterfuge I don't think they would have a problem serving me something they dropped on the floor.
Just ask before you order anything anywhere and then you'll have better legs to stand on than I did in this situation.