The more something is in your face, the more it starts to get on your nerves. If you’ve got your ear to the ground, you’ve probably noticed a significant rise in dissatisfaction among people in regards to tipping.

People are saying that it’s “everywhere,” further emphasizing that they feel guilty for refusing or are even being pressured into doing it by some employees, but that’s a different story.

In our story, a woman was apparently hit with “bad tip” by a credit card machine after refusing to do so, leading to her not feeling so good about it.

More info: TikTok

The unspoken obligation to tip is starting to become a bit too much to people, especially when they are made to feel bad about not doing it

Image credits: RDNE Stock project

“Tipping is getting out of hand”

“I went to a really popular smoothie establishment two days ago to get my fiancée an acai berry boost. She rings me up, I added protein to it. She rings me up – it’s a little bit more expensive than it was listed on the menu. Fine, I literally added protein – totally fine.

It was noticeably more expensive than it should have been if I added protein. Okay, so she’s like, ‘okay, your total is $10.51.’ So in my head I’m like, ‘oh, that’s an expensive smoothie.’ But it’s literally Long Island, like fine.”

Image credits: @breathe_strength

“Then she goes, ‘do you want to round up?’ I’m like, ‘no.’ How about you round down?”

“I didn’t say that. So then I pay with my card, and I’m prompted to leave a tip, and it’s automatically highlighted at 20%. And in my head. I’m like, ‘I’m not tipping.’

Literally just grabbing my smoothie and leaving. I do tip if I sit at the establishment or I’m actually using their thing, but I’m literally paying top dollar for this smoothie. So I click no tip. Then an alert comes up on the credit card machine, all in caps.”

Image credits: @breathe_strength

“It says ‘BAD TIP.’ When I tell you, I stood there and waited for my smoothie, embarrassed”

“I literally got shamed from a credit card machine. And honestly, I’m wondering if the person who rang me up just happened to add a little bit more because I’ve heard that was a thing that people do. Does anybody else experience that?”

Image credits: @breathe_strength

Watch the full video here:

@breathe_strength HAS THIS HAPPENED TO ANYONE ELSE #tipping #tippingculture ♬ Spongebob Tomfoolery – Dante9k Remix – David Snell

People challenged Charlotte’s idea that the machine said “bad tip” by countering it with saying “it’s actually bad tap,” as in your credit card wasn’t read properly

Even as a broke university student, I would try my best to tip servers if they did a good job (which is approximately the bare minimum and not being mean, in my opinion). But that’s in the case that I was actually being served.

I’m not such a big fan of just simply tipping for the sake of it. Buying something at a store? Nah. Getting a coffee to go from a place I’ve never been before? Nope. Ordering something online? Never.

Charlotte Muller, the poster of this TikTok, was seemingly thinking along the same lines while ordering a smoothie, which was already pretty expensive at $10.51. With the smoothie costing as much as it does, she refused to round up her order’s price as a tip, then refused to give the automatically selected 20% tip as well, because come on.

Maybe it’s kind of like haggling – you start with a large price, hoping that they’ll take the slightly lower one, thinking they’ve won. “Ahah, I don’t have to tip 20%, 10% will do!”

And for her “lack” of charity, “BAD TIP” was apparently thrown up on the screen, which would probably make the worst person embarrassed and at least a little guilty.

Whether it actually said that is another thing, because there have been at least 4 different comments who mention having worked or been at a similar or even the same smoothie shop and what the thing says is actually “BAD TAP”, as in “you tapped your card on the machine wrong” not “you are scum of the earth for not tipping more, bastard.”

Image credits: The Lazy Artist Gallery

Bored Panda actually managed to reach out to Charlotte for a comment and she came clean up front, saying that it may have said “bad tap” after all, but that still doesn’t change the fact that tipping is getting more and more out of hand. Neither she nor we are against tipping – it’s more a question of how to tell who you should tip when more and more businesses are asking for your cash.

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Charlotte agrees with the idea too and it’s even corroborated by the comments on her video. According to them, many people mentioned that businesses that would have never been asking for tips are now doing so: “I’ve seen comments saying that their online orders prompted them to tip, that t-shirt sales at concerts prompted them to tip, and that DIY establishments (like self serve frozen yogurt places) are also prompting people to tip.”

It’s not a common thought, but it’s likely that this kind of financial shaming to get more tips significantly affects people’s wellbeing. You may say “if you can’t tip, don’t go out to eat,” but what if a person really can’t tip, but would like to go out and feel special? After all, tipping isn’t a requirement – it’s a tip. It’s only made out to look like a necessity because business owners don’t want to pay their employees.

Charlotte agrees with the fact that the shaming is getting to people: “For sure. I think that many people are opting out of visiting establishments out of ‘tipping anxiety’ — the feeling of embarrassment or shame for choosing not to tip. Social anxiety, people pleasing, peer pressure and stress are all factors at play here, making these moments even more uncomfortable and negative for mental wellbeing.”

Charlotte also has a some really nice suggestions to protect yourself from the negativity and discomfort of not being able to tip: “I think the key is coming up with a value system for ourselves — ex: choosing to tip when sitting down at a coffee shop vs. grabbing coffee to go. If we can come up with “rules” that feel good to us regarding tipping, and constantly honor those rules, then we are prioritizing what aligns with our values rather than giving into peer pressure. If people cannot support establishments financially due to lack of funds, perhaps there is another way to support the staff + business, like a shout-out on social media, or a positive review!”

Image credits: Karolina Grabowska

Besides this incident, it really seems that Americans, where the culture of tipping is one of the most egregious ones, are getting fed up. According to a June 8th Bankrate survey, 66% of them have a negative view of tipping. 41% say that businesses should pay employees better, rather than rely on tips as much, and 32% are annoyed by pre-entered tip screens, such as the one Charlotte mentioned.

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In my travels online I’ve come across more than one food delivery app community. Yep, when they said that you can find everything online, they weren’t kidding.

The more popular ones I can mention are DoorDash and UberEATS on Reddit.

Where am I going with this, you may be asking? Well, if you spend any amount of time there too, you will certainly encounter all the begging and even threatening that happens all so drivers can get more tips.

These incidents are probably quite rare, but some of them are so egregious, it would repel me from using the app for sure. People will make up entire sob stories about how difficult their lives are and how extra dollars from you would save their entire lives.

You also frequently see people saying that they’re running out or already are out of gas, waiting on the side of the road and only need that extra $10 to deliver your order to you!

So people are a bit done with the whole tipping thing overall, but most of the time they do understand where the problem lies – not in the personnel or drivers themselves, who just want to make a living wage or a little extra cash. It’s with the business owners who refuse to pay a respectable amount to their staff, letting it all ride on the charity of customers.

Charlotte’s video went pretty viral, collecting 2.3M views, 261k of which were turned into upvotes. The video got over 3.2k comments, where people expressed their own frustration with tipping and how much worse it has gotten in recent years.

Share your own thoughts about the video or tipping culture in general in the comments below!

Commenters discussed their own tipping habits, saying that it’s getting more and more difficult to discern when to actually tip

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