Woman Angry Gratuity Automatically Added to Restaurant Bill

A Sugar Factory customer had a not-so-sweet reaction upon seeing an automatic gratuity charge that they were not expecting to pop up on their bill once they wrapped up their meal.

Her sticker-shocked response to the receipt was captured in a viral video posted to the Binks So Famous (@binkssofamous) TikTok account which has accrued over 4.7 million views on the popular social media platform.

The clip begins with a restaurant customer looking down at her receipt angrily. She shouts to the waitress about a $44 charge, asking “who is gratuity,” and why it costs as much as it does.

One of the employees looks away from the receipt, laughing, while another one explains that “it’s the tip.” The customer doesn’t break her furrowed brow or concerned look on her face. She asks the wait staff if the restaurant is really just adding gratuity without consulting with patrons first.

“Y’all just putting that s— on there?” she asks, as the worker says, “yeah.”

The guest folds up the receipt as she says, “all right,” before the video closes out. She continued her tirade against the automatic gratuity charge in a caption for the TikTok, which reads: “Nahhhh the @Sugar Factory got me a lil TIGHT !!!!! Tf is GRADTITY !!!!!!!!”

One Reddit user on the site’s r/antiwork sub called out the practice, stating that the chain not only implements a mandatory 20 percent gratuity/service charge and that the restaurant keeps 3 percent of the charge for themselves.

A commenter who replied to the post explained that “the 3% likely offsets credit card fees paid.”

And another Reddit user remarked that the Sugar Factory makes its workers give cash tips to management which are then divvied up among all other servers.

“They also don’t allow them to keep their cash tips. All tips are pooled amongst the servers for the entire day. Everything goes on your check,” the social media user wrote.

Commenters who replied to Binks’ clip didn’t seem to have the highest regard for the customer questioning the gratuity charge. “Her reaction alone is exactly why gratuity is added,” is what on TikToker wrote.

Someone else echoed their sentiment, writing: “Lmao this video is the exact reason why gratuity should be added automatically”

There was one TikTok user who said that he asks restaurants to remove automatic gratuity that’s applied to his bill and that he’s successfully been able to get them to do so.

Another commenter remarked that they weren’t too keen on employees of the chain asking for gratuity when their tips were being automatically included in their orders: “Funny they be adding that gratuity and still have the nerve to be asking for more tip”

And then there were those who thought the restaurant was overyhyped and ultimately not worth its cost: “Sugar factory is sooooooooo expensive once and done there!”

How do you feel about tips that are automatically added to your bill? Do you think that it’s a bit presumptuous on the part of the restaurant that you’re going to love the work of their servers that you’ll want to tip a certain amount?

Do you find it grimy that some servers won’t mention if tips are already added on the order in the hopes that they’ll be able to secure some more cash? Or are you cool with it and think that it’s great the restaurant is looking out for its employees while still allowing servers the chance to potentially earn more money on larger tables and parties that spend more?