An Arkansas woman is upset after the restaurant she frequents recently added a 20% self-tip on her drive-thru order without asking.

The woman, TikTok user @momma_og3, claims that a restaurant she frequents (which she decided to leave unnamed) forced a 20% tip for her drive-thru food order.

The clip underscores ongoing frustrations with expanding expectations around tipping, even in quick-service settings where customers wouldn’t usually tip. It also raises questions about whether some workers might be exploiting payment systems to tack on unauthorized gratuities, gouging unsuspecting customers who don’t review their bills.

“I just had a restaurant try and do me dirty,” she started, dressed in a costume as it was Halloween. “I go to this restaurant every once in a while, and I get a family meal with chicken pitas. Normally, it’s $50-something dollars. She hands it to me—$68.” The TikToker assumed the price variation was due to inflation.

Woman Catches Restaurant Drive-Thru Self-Tipping

“Then she hands me a little tablet to sign,” she continued. “She had put on there 20% as a tip already, and just gave that to me as the price. No, ma’am. I put ‘no tip.’ It’s $57.”

She was incredulous, as the restaurant had a drive-thru, where she picked up her food. “I am shocked she just assumed I owed her $68,” she said. “If I wouldn’t have caught that, I would have been out the $11 that I don’t think they should get. I don’t know. Who’s in the wrong here? Are they trying to cheat me? You don’t tip in the drive-thru. I think no.”

Viewers Express Outrage Over Tipping Culture

The comments section agreed with her. “THEY are absolutely in the wrong. That’s theft,” one person said. “That’s illegal. It would be theft,” another concurred.

One wondered what the tip would be rewarding. “Twenty percent added tip on a drive-thru order? No. Absolutely not,” they said. “A tip for what exactly? Making the food? That’s what you’re already paying for!”

There are many similar instances, even some viral moments. One includes a TikToker named Drea, who documented an incident at a donut shop drive-thru where the employee set the payment machine at an angle and had already selected the highest tip option before handing it to the customer.

According to the TikToker, the employee’s hands were “kinda shaky,” and she seemed to be trying to prevent the customer from changing the tip amount.

Another TikTok video shows a server keying in a 25% tip without asking permission from the customer. When the customer, who was the server’s dad, questioned him, the server said, “I do that every single time. Without fail.”

Why Consumers Are Experiencing ‘Tip Fatigue’

Depending on where you live, this could potentially qualify as petty theft under the law, but it’s more likely that these issues get settled outside of the legal system. If this happens to you, and you’re not able to catch it before the charge clears, it’s probably best to contact the establishment and ask them to refund the tip.

There is the worsening “tip fatigue,” which continues to be an ongoing issue for restaurants. “Consumers, bombarded with tip prompts at coffee shops, self-checkout kiosks, and even non-service venues, are growing resentful,” says a WebProNews report.

According to a July report from the payment company Square, tip amounts are on the decline and that is impacting employee pay. That’s happening while food prices continue to increase due to inflation.

The reality is that there’s a connection between tip fatigue and the lawlessness in these employees’ actions. People are eating out less, which is resulting in lower revenue, fewer tips, and likely fewer shifts for workers. The broad squeeze of inflation will probably lead to many more of these sorts of events across the wider spectrum of retail.

All Hip Hop reached out to @momma_og3 for more information.

@momma_og3 Tipping culture is out of control. #restaurant #tip #mexicanfood #drivethru ♬ original sound – momma_og3