‘It’s $2, dude’: Starbucks employee says customer asked them to refund his tip
A Starbucks employee and TikToker has sparked debate after claiming that a customer asked him to refund a $2 tip.
In a video with over 201,000 views, TikTok user Joaquin (@dovvatok) asks fellow Starbucks employees for advice on how to refund a tip after recently having trouble doing so.
According to Joaquin, they were working at Starbucks when a customer accidentally selected a gratuity of $2. The customer soon asked for the tip to be refunded, which caused problems for the staff as they did not know how to refund the gratuity.
“I’ve never refunded gratuity before…So I’m trying to give him a Service Recovery card — I have no clue what I’m doing,” Joaquin says.
“For, like, ten minutes I’m trying to figure this out because the Service Recovery card is not working. So, we’re both standing there, and in my head I’m just thinking, it’s $2, dude. It’s not that serious,” he continues. “Like, I get we all have different budgets, but it’s also like, it was never that serious.”
@dovvatok #stitch with @._.jillzz ♬ original sound - Joaquin De La Torre
While many gave Joaquin actual advice about what a Starbucks worker should do in this situation (“...just void the entire transaction and then ring them up again,” advised one commenter), the conversation soon turned to focus on tipping at Starbucks in general.
Since Starbucks began allowing for credit card tipping at its locations, the topic has been fiercely debated on TikTok. Joaquin even stitched another creator's video about their insistence to not tip when ordering at Starbucks.
In Joaquin’s situation, many users claimed they would simply let the staff have the $2 tip, with some citing similar experiences in the past.
“I accidentally gave my tattoo artist 200 instead of 100 for his tip,” wrote one user. “And fr that’s on me he got a fat tip that day.”
“I would DIE before asking for $2 back,” added another.
“Everyone being like ‘$2 adds up’... if you cant spare TWO DOLLARS you don’t actually have the money to be buying fancy drinks,” shared a third.
Still, some took the side of the reluctant tipper.
“Sometimes people need that $2 for gas or something; sometimes there’s less than a dollar in their account; it can matter ya know,” offered a user.
“$2 May not seem like a lot but a Coffee could be someone’s small treat they had to budget for. Can’t shame them for that,” detailed a second.
The Daily Dot reached out to Joaquin via TikTok comment and Starbucks via email.
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