[Misha888]

Originally Posted by brk-lnt

Your 5 year old unused gift certificate is an entirely different matter, and relates to all manner of gift cards, tip-included or not.

I'm not a huge fan of the over-done "tipping culture" in America, but like it or not a gratuity is essentially non-optional in these cases. Unless of course the service was horrible or something totally abnormal. So you could argue it either way about how/when/where a gratuity should be factored in on something like this.

Additionally, we operate in a free capitalist market, if you don't like the business policies, you don't have to shop there.

I also never said OP's question was unwarranted, just that I thought they were over-reacting (which was in response to the post asking for opinions). Try not to assert statements to me that I didn't make.

Your comment of over-reaction was not warranted. I'll choose my words more closely next time.