A user on TikTok has gone viral after alleging that a Chili’s restaurant capped their tip amount.
After sitting for dinner at the restaurant, TikTok user @thatdumbdiver opted to stay for drinks. When they got their bill for the drinks, they tried to tip $12 for both the meal and the drinks.
Unfortunately, they were soon greeted with an error message.
“Amount entered is over the maximum allowed limit, please enter lower amount,” the screen reads.
“To anyone working at Chili’s just know they limit what people are allowed to tip you,” warns @thatdumbdiver in the text overlaying the video.
“Not sure if this is at every chili’s but it should be looked in to,” @thatdumbdiver adds in the caption. “It cost my server some money today since I didn’t have cash.”
The video currently has over 319,000 views.
@thatdumbdiver Not sure if this is at every chili’s but it should be looked in to! It cost my server some money today since I didn’t have cash. #scam #viral #checkyourchilis @Chili’s Grill & Bar ♬ original sound – Thatdumbdiver
In the comments section, users speculated as to why this limit is put in place.
“If the tip is more than what you ordered it needs a managers approval,” wrote one user. “that is any restaurant.”
“That’s actually the banks. They get a pre authorization of 30% above check. Any more than that and it will be declined,” claimed another. CardFellow claims the true pre-authorization is lower, capped at just 20%, though some cards put methods in place to circumvent the limit.
“They probably had charge-back problems,” offered a third.
Others advised simply tipping in cash to avoid the issue altogether. @thatdumbdiver responded saying he would have if he could; he simply didn’t have the money in cash at the time.
Thankfully, other users and Chili’s fans in comments claimed that this problem seemed localized to @thatdumbdiver’s area.
“Not the chilis I work at,” stated two commenters.
In a TikTok exchange with Daily Dot, @thatdumbdiver shared that the restaurant was located in Louisiana.
“I’m honestly not sure if it’s a common issue,” he said. “The server had no idea about it and told his manager.”
As for why he posted the video, the reason is simple. “I just wanted people to be aware so nobody lost money because of it,” he said.
Update 4pm CT, Oct. 13: In an email to Daily Dot, a Chili’s spokesperson shared the following: “At Chili’s, we offer Guests multiple ways to pay their check and tip our Team Members. One way is by using our secure pay-at-table tablets – or Prestos. In the past, Guests have inadvertently hit an extra number when leaving a tip on our Presto tablets – for example, entering an extra 0 and accidentally leaving $100 instead of $10. We put a safeguard in place with a maximum tip percentage on Presto to protect them. However, if a Guest would like to tip more than the Presto limit, they can leave cash, or we can run their credit card through our point-of-sale which would give them a paper receipt to write in their tip.”
