Charged a Mandatory 18% Tip? Your Bank Can Refund It

One cup of milk tea, a tip of zero selected on the screen, and the shop still added a mandatory 18%.

Author: Koutian Wu; GitHub: ktwu01

We were hunting for milk tea around Times Square that day, and there were plenty of options: Coco, HeyTea, Luckin a bit farther away, Mubai i milk tea, Vivi, Gong Cha, LeLeCha. Side note, the shop called 50 Lan is pronounced in a way that has nothing to do with either 50 or Lan.

After paying, the emailed receipt showed a tip of zero, so the total should have been exactly that. Instead they charged a forced 18%. One cup each, and at 18% that came to 20 dollars, roughly 5 extra dollars per person.

A friend walked us through what to do. You can go straight to the staff or call the shop. Usually, though, you go to your bank, and the bank refunds it.

Here is how. Wait for the pending charge to post first. If it posts with the extra amount, call your bank. The bank will almost always ask whether you contacted the merchant and tried to settle it. Just tell them the service that day was bad, you do not want to negotiate with them because you know they will not fix it or help you, and it is a small amount that should be easy for the bank to handle. You can also say you have evidence, and you can send the email and photos.

My friend clearly had practice. Ha, that is what being broke teaches you.

Honestly, if I made 150k a year, this tip would not matter. Five extra dollars is affordable. It still bugs me.

If you need more money, raise your menu prices and I can live with that. Higher prices, and whether I eat there is my call. But here you cannot avoid it, every shop does the same. I do not quite get why it has to be so blunt.

My friend’s answer was simple. One shop started doing it, everyone saw everyone else doing it, so they all do it.

So now I read the checkout screen carefully and pick the tip myself. If I do get force charged, I wait for the pending charge to post and call the bank. It is not about the 5 dollars. I just do not want this to become the default.