A real estate agent in Atlanta says a $15 takeout order turned into a $55.01 charge after a $40 tip was added to the bill, and she says she never authorized the tip. Adrienne, who posts on TikTok as @yoadriennesellshomes, shared her account in a video on the platform, saying her bank flagged the charge first.
The video shows Adrienne speaking to the camera from what appears to be a living room, wearing a blue shirt. She says Capital One emailed her that morning asking if she “meant to leave a 266% tip on my order.” An image of the email is displayed on screen, with the subject line reading, “Did you leave a 266% tip at TST* NUEVO LAREDO CANT?” The email body lists the bill as $15.01, a 266% tip of $40.00, and a total of $55.01 on a Platinum Card ending in 1713.
Adrienne said in the video that she went to the restaurant she identified as the Laredo Navarro on Chattahoochee Avenue in West Midtown Atlanta. She told staff she had placed a to-go order on Sunday and had not left a tip, and she said the X she put on her receipt turned into $40.
She says the restaurant initially called the charge an accident
Adrienne said a young woman at the restaurant looked at the email and replied, “yeah, that, that’s a lot,” then offered to pull up the receipt. Adrienne said the employee went to the back of the store and returned a few minutes later with the receipt. Without speaking to her, Adrienne said, the employee looked at it and repeated the name “Lindsay, Lindsay, Lindsay,” before saying, “I need to talk to the owner. Um, can you give me a minute?”
Adrienne said the employee spoke with the owner on the phone, then handed the phone to her, saying, “the owner wants to talk to you.” Adrienne said the owner introduced himself and told her, “we’re gonna make this right,” adding, “I’m sorry that this happened.” She said he offered to refund the charge, telling her, “we can refund it, we can put it back on your card, it’s no problem, we’ll take care of it right now for you.”
The owner also asked if there was an amount she would prefer to have put back on her card, Adrienne said, but before she could answer, he continued talking and said, “Well, we’re gonna give you back the $40 tip.” Adrienne said she replied, “No problem, but, and I appreciate your willingness to help me and that you wanna take accountability for it, but I just wanna be clear, this wasn’t an accident.”
The owner insisted the charge was accidental, Adrienne said, telling her, “Well, yeah, it was an accident because sometimes this stuff kind of just happens.” He gave an example, saying he had once been to a restaurant where a $99 total had a $10 tip that somehow turned into $99. Adrienne said she pushed back, telling him, “yes, so no, because I didn’t leave a tip. And I put an X in the tip space because again, I got takeout. So there’s no way that you can accidentally rerun my card for $40 when I didn’t intend to leave anything.”
Adrienne said she then asked the employee who rang her up, “So was that not scratched out on my receipt copy?” She said the employee hesitated, and that she “didn’t want to say yes, but she didn’t say no,” which Adrienne interpreted as confirmation that the employee made the error. Adrienne said the owner then told her, “I’m just gonna— I’m gonna stand by my staff,” which she said ended the conversation for her.
The video’s caption says the restaurant refunded the full order
The video’s caption says the restaurant agreed to refund the full amount of the order after the discussion. Adrienne said in the video that the restaurant ultimately refunded her money, explaining that the restaurant was not able to refund just the tip and had to refund the entire order. She said the charge was intentional, adding that she had marked an X on the receipt, making an accidental $40 charge, in her view, impossible.
Adrienne said in the video that she does not typically check her bills or receipts as they are charged to her card, and that she knows she needs to be better about it. She credited Capital One with catching the charge, saying the bank “catches issues like that.” She said she wanted to share the story so that other people could “be mindful of checking their receipts to ensure that their tips are not changed as well,” and she asked viewers to share similar experiences. Adrienne’s warning to check receipts for altered tips is one example of charges customers never agreed to, such as when a woman in Hawaii was hit with a kitchen appreciation fee on her restaurant bill.
According to the video’s creator, the video’s caption ends with a message to viewers: “CHECK 👏🏽 YOUR 👏🏽 TRANSACTIONS 👏🏽 Because I definitely did not authorize THAT tip.” The caption also includes hashtags including #Restaurant, #scam, #Storytime, and #moneytok.
Some commenters on the video expressed surprise at the charge and praised the bank for flagging it. One wrote, “Ok Capital One , cause they knew damn well that ain’t make sense 😭😭😭” Another wrote, “Capital One said ‘oop IKYL, let me check with my girl’.”
Others focused on the tip itself. One commenter wrote, “adding an unauthorized tip is illegal… ppl can go to jail for that,” while another wrote, “I would press charges since they wanna play.” One commenter shared a similar experience, writing, “Girl I will never forget a waitress in Atlanta write her own tip in and gave me the receipt by accident. The hell I RAISED”. The tipping debate in the comments extends beyond unauthorized charges to what customers feel obligated to tip at all, as one man refused a 24 tip just for cracking open a beer.
A few commenters also addressed the owner’s response. One wrote, “Standing by a staffer who is stealing is CRAZY!!!”, and another wrote, “Standing by a staffer who is stealing is CRAZY!!!”.
