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Dec 04, 2023

A TikToker Refused To Tip On A $2 Ice Cream Cone & The Cashier Gave Her So Much Attitude

"Those tip screens are OUT OF CONTROL." A Ben & Jerry's ice cream cone. Right:

"Those tip screens are OUT OF CONTROL."

A Ben & Jerry's ice cream cone. Right: TikToker Sydney Littlefield.

TikTok users are always ready to pounce on a debate about awkward tip requests, and one woman just served up an ice-cold case of tipping culture gone wrong at a Ben & Jerry's ice cream shop.

Sydney Littlefield, who goes by the username @poorandhungry on TikTok, says she had a super uncomfortable encounter with a cashier who expected her to tip for an ice cream cone, sparking some major anger in the comments.

"I'm not tipping you $1 for a $2 cone," she said in her TikTok rant about the incident, which broke out simply because she was craving a cone.

"I just wanted a cone — a nice, fresh, warm cone," she explained at the beginning of her story.

She says she bought a waffle cone for $2 and then prepared to pay by card.

"I go to put my card in and of course the tipping screen comes up," she says. "In my head I'm like, 'I'm not tipping on a cone. You're literally just handing me a cone.'"

Littlefield says she smashed the "no tip" option on the screen, and the cashier immediately threw her hands up, slapped the counter and looked away.

Littlefield stressed that this woman did it "to my face, to my actual face!"

"On no planet is that ever appropriate," she said. "Even if I got $100 worth of ice cream and I don't tip you, you can't."

Those tip screens are OUT OF CONTROL #tip #tipping #cringe #customerservice

She blasted the cashier for expecting a tip just for handing over a cone. "It was a transaction, it wasn't even an act of service."

She blamed much of the incident on "out of control" tipping screens in her caption, and the whole thing quickly ignited more outrage in the comments.

"Tipping culture is frankly out of control," reads the top comment on her video, which has been watched over 1.3 million times.

Several others said they're OK with tipping at restaurants, but tipping creep has ruined many other parts of life where it's not normally expected.

"In this economy ... tipping for a $2 cone is insane," said another.

Others shared their own tipping horror stories, including one case where an online website asked for a tip, and another when someone was asked to tip at a pet store.

"I ordered mason jar lids online and the tipping screen came up (for the person packing my box)," wrote one user. "Am I wrong for thinking this is crazy?"

Internet users in the past have been outraged to learn about all sorts of unexpected tipping situations, such as one case where a guy was asked to tip for cookies, and many others where the prompt came up during self-checkout.

If you don't know what to do when confronted with one of these requests, here's a tip: just hit "skip"!