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Consumers Share 8 Outrageous Tipping Scenarios (Would You Leave a Tip?)

Employee compensation packages are very clearly broken.

By Chris Lewis, CEPF , Edited by Laura Hohenstein

Updated July 11, 2026

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How many times a day do you swipe your credit card just to have a screen pop up asking you if you'd like to leave a tip? Nobody is going to begrudge workers a living wage, but one does have to wonder why the price on everything has gone up and yet, somehow, workers are still in need of tips outside of their official compensation package.

Consumers are looking for ways to lower financial stress, and tipping culture isn't helping. The rules have become muddied and unclear in the face of economic instability, and folks are taking to social media to share their most outrageous tipping scenarios.

See the wildest stories people have shared about tipping workers in America.

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Tipping on concert merch

Live entertainment is already suffering an excess of expenses at the hands of ticketing agencies such as Ticketmaster, which add exorbitant surprise fees onto the base price of tickets.

Now, concert-goers have taken to Reddit to complain about the tipping surprise at merch stands. "$45 for a T-shirt is kinda crazy to me but it isn't unusual for a concert so whatever, but tapped my card to pay and tip screen pops up," said u/Used-Accountant-2277.

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Tipping a robot

The general rule is that if you have to stand in line for your order, tipping is optional. But what if you're served by a robot?

Redditor u/Practical-Bell6359 posted, "I recently went out to eat at a conveyer belt sushi place. I seated myself and drink orders were done on a tablet at each seat and then your drinks came out delivered by a robot. After the meal, you paid via the tablet. There was no human server. When paying, there was a tip screen with default tip options of 20/25/30%. I'm so confused who the tip was meant to go to…the robot?"

Tipping the eye doctor

What's the health care situation in America like? Redditor u/JustBeNice97 says the weirdest place they were asked to tip was "The optometrist for my insurance-covered vision test."

Yikes! Functioning eyeballs shouldn't be a luxury service requiring a tip, and being covered by insurance makes it all the more horrifying.

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Tipping after being hit on

Shoutout to all the women who've been asked out by service workers in their home! This is incredibly common and cringe.

Redditor u/Beneficial_Mix_8803 shared "Guy who performed carpet cleaning service once in my old apartment. I paid him a lot of money, demanded a tip and then had the nerve to stand there and hit on me. Stranger dude in my house who just lectured me for not tipping him was asking me on a date."

The worst part? He didn't even do a good job cleaning the carpet.

Tipping a third-party delivery driver

The sociological rules governing tipping of delivery drivers is a hot topic of debate, with folks like u/yogibear47 taking to Reddit to ask, "What's the food delivery tipping culture nowadays? Look, at the end of the day, I want to do right by the drivers, and if I'm being a cheapo jerk by not adding another 20% tip, that's fine, I'll take the Reddit roasting." The problem here is calling it a "tip" when in reality it is functioning as a market bid.

Your delivery order is sent to the nearest driver to accept or reject based on the amount offered, so a pre-tipped amount is more like a bid against everybody else ordering food at the same time. Drivers are paid as "independent contractors" and are responsible for their own costs related to gas, vehicle maintenance, etc., and aren't obligated to accept your order just because it was offered to them.

Regulars who never tip

What do waitstaff do with customers who come in regularly but never tip? According to a post found in r/EndTipping, the first thing they do is talk about it amongst themselves. An alternative solution was presented in the comments.

"The conversation is easy, you ask if there is a problem with the service and if not, why aren't they tipping? And then say going forward you either tip or we ask that you do not come back." Whether or not you agree with tipping culture, the servers taking care of you in a restaurant deserve a livable wage. Alternatively, the server could politely alert them ahead of their order that an X% gratuity fee will be added to their check.

Make Money: 8 things to do if you're barely scraping by financially

Tipping on top of a cover charge

"A new jazz bar restaurant just opened in our town. I decided to check it out knowing there is a $25 cover," explained u/AndroidREM. "I paid the cover charge using a credit card and the door girl hands me the payment device asking how much I wanted to tip."

A door charge to pay the performers seems reasonable, but it doesn't sound like this tip is going to the band.

Waiting 90 days for a tip

A server discovered her employer put a three-month hold on her shockingly huge tip from a generous customer, even after confirming it was intentionally large.

"I go look at the check and it's a $1,000 tip on a $40 order and my manager and I just look at each other stunned for 50 seconds," Redditor u/Moist_Worldliness409 posted. "My shift manager then calls my GM and my GM tells me I have to wait 3 months to get the tip in case the customer calls his bank and disputes the transaction."

This sounds like a modern-day encounter with the fae. Call the restaurant a "tavern," and it might as well be a fairytale.

Bottom line

Tipping used to be based on extraordinary service, but somewhere along the way, it transitioned into a wage subsidy to lower business operating costs. The basic cost of living is skyrocketing at a rate far outpacing salaries, so it's no wonder those at the bottom of the compensation ladder are begging for tips and looking for ways to earn extra money on the side. If you can afford to be generous to those who make less than you, be generous.

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