You might want to be more attentive the next time you’re tempted to hit the “no receipt” button on a signature pad. A Starbucks customer went viral on TikTok after revealing that a “certain barista” was skimming $2 to $3 dollars per drink from her card using the pad’s built-in tip option.
In a recent video, Zo (@zosfakeaccount_) said that she visited Starbucks for her caffeine fix “every single day.” But it took her over a month, she said, to realize she had been “tipping” more than she intended to.
“Beware for this Starbucks scam,” she wrote in the text overlay.
@zosfakeaccount_ Idec but did i not notice this loooool
♬ original sound – Zo
Essentially, Zo said that Starbucks’ tip screen let one worker at the chain virtually pick her pocket.
“I get a drink from Starbucks every single day,” Zo said, noting that the chain recently came out with a new check-out feature that lets customers tip a certain dollar amount. “Before you tap your card… there’s a tipping option. So it’ll be, like, $1, $2, or no tip.”
Zo said that she does typically leave tips, but alleged that a “certain barista” was claiming tips that Zo did not authorize.
“I look back and my $7, $8 dollar drink is now $9, $10 dollars,” she said.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Zo via TikTok comment and to Starbucks by email. As of Monday evening, Zo’s TikTok had over 402,800 views.
In the comments, a handful of viewers advised Zo to start collecting a paper trail.
“Ask for your receipt?… You could bring it to a manager,” one person said.
“Check the receipts,” another advised.
“Coming from a barista always ask for your receipt,” a third person wrote.
Several current or former baristas, meanwhile, called out the Starbucks’s employee’s bad behavior.
“As a barista here, that’s very wrong of them doing that,” one said.
“Im a supervisor and they will actually get in trouble for answering the tipping question,” another worker said. “Like we can’t do that, so stay aware always.”
And at least one viewer said that they’ve had a similar experience to Zo’s. “This happened to me,” they wrote. The only reason why I found out [is] because I order the same drink every day but the prices were different all the time.”
