Gratuity Added?!?!?!

So you can ask anyone who has known me for any length of time, all restaurants used to have a picture of me hung up in the back with a warning "BE NICE TO HER...SHE WILL CALL THE COMPANY AFTER SPEAKING TO THE MANAGER". I've never had a problem complaining when service or food was bad......EVER. However, in the last few years I've tried to be more forgiving of mistakes. I've asked for the manager frequently when we've had great service to compliment the server or meal. We normally tip at least 20% for good service.

NOW.....for the issue at hand. I was thinking the other day about those places that add a gratuity automatically for parties or 6 or more, 8 or more, whatever. One of my daughters brought up a good point. If they know the tip is going to be added anyway, do you think they just intentionally go slow or don't try as hard to do a good job for that party? Hmmm. Something to think about anyway.

There's been twice in my life that I've approached the manager and refused to pay the added gratuity because the service was THAT bad. Neither time did I have any problem having the tip removed from the bill.

What if it's great service though and they're just gypped the server out of the extra tip I would've given by just adding that 18%?? If service has been exceptional, we'll usually hand the server a little extra on the way out but.....I guess it's just a practice I disagree with in general.