A Woman Asked For Her Tip Back On Bubble Tea & People Are Outraged Over How It Was Handled

A woman who accidentally dropped a $7 tip on bubble tea says it was a major ordeal to get her money back, and its set off a much larger conversation about tipping at different kinds of restaurants.

The debate emerged from Reddit's AmITheA**hole community, where a 24-year-old woman asked if she was wrong to request a refund on her accidental tip.

"This one's been keeping me up at night," she wrote.

She explained in her post that she ordered two drinks and sandwiches at a lunch counter-style restaurant that does not do table service. The bill came to about $35 dollars and she decided to pay by card.

She says she put her card in the reader, took her hand away and then saw the top options appear on the screen.

"Before I could click 'skip' — or touch the machine at all — the button for 20% lit up orange and automatically charged me a $7 tip," she wrote. "The woman at the register immediately printed and handed me the receipt for $42."

She says she got "flustered" and explained the accident, but the cashier made it awkward by giving her a blank stare.

"'So do you want to take off the tip?'" the cashier asked.

The woman said yes, and so the cashier called over a manager and that manager also delivered an awkward stare before asking her to confirm her choice.

"As they were printing off a special receipt in silence, I wanted to melt into a puddle on the floor," she wrote. "The manager handed me the tip refund receipt without saying anything, and I said an awkward 'thanks' before scurrying off to the side to wait for the food."

The woman says it was extremely awkward because while she always tips 20% for table service, she doesn't like to tip in these situations.

The woman asked her boyfriend and her family about it, and while some of them said she should've let the $7 go, others suggested that the surprise tip was a shady move.

Redditors showed up in the comments to say that the woman was not at fault here.

"They weren't surprised it added your tip automatically, they were surprised you called out their bullsh*t," reads the top comment on the page. The commenter added that he typically drops a $1 tip on Starbucks drinks, touching off an even larger debate around tipping for non-alcoholic beverages.

"I was with you until the dollar per drink at Starbucks," wrote one user. "What now?!"

"A good rule of thumb is if I have to wait in line for something it's a no tip thing," added someone else.

Opinions were pretty split on whether to tip on coffee, although many suggested that the "accidental" tip was verging on something more sinister.

"No one should be shaming you for trying to get THEIR error fixed," wrote one user. "I'd be pissed if they tried to steal money from me."

"I would've wanted the tip back purely for the reason that it was forced," wrote another person. I get that it's a bit awkward to ask them to refund it, but you didn't do anything wrong."

Another user suggested that the bubble tea joint is a "horrible a**hole" in this case, and "they should have apologized to you."

What would you do if you were charged an accidental $7 tip?

This article's cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.