Frenchman says a Paris waiter handed him a tip machine thinking he was American, but told him to put $0 the moment he heard him speak French

A French man says he witnessed Paris restaurant workers apparently targeting American tourists with tip prompts on payment machines, a practice he claims disappeared the moment he revealed he was French.

Julien Samani (@julien_samani) shared the experience in a TikTok video that has since drawn widespread attention to what some travelers describe as a growing pattern in the French capital.

Samani, who describes himself as born and raised in France, says he visited Paris twice in the span of two months and noticed something unusual each time he went to pay at a café or restaurant. According to Samani, servers would hand over a card payment machine and say, “Oh, it’s just gonna ask you a little question,” a phrase he says is commonly associated with tip prompts in the United States.

Samani was clear in his video that tipping is not a standard practice in France. “We don’t do 15%, 20%, 25% service charge in France. That is not part of the culture,” he said. “At most, you would leave a couple of euros here and there as like an extra tip, but you never ever pay for service.”

Samani says a server who spotted his LA hat handed him a tip prompt, then told him to enter zero after hearing him speak French

The incident that Samani says confirmed his suspicions took place at a café during a recent lunch. He said he was wearing an LA baseball cap when a server he had not previously interacted with came to bring him his bill. According to Samani, the server charged his card and then handed him the machine, saying, “Oh yeah, it’s just gonna ask you a little question.”

At that point, Samani said he responded in French. The server’s reaction, according to Samani, was immediate. “He went, ‘Ah, tu es français?'” Samani recounted, which translates to “Oh, you’re French?” The server then reportedly told him not to worry about the tip prompt and instructed him to enter zero. “Just put zero, put zero,” Samani said the server told him.

Samani said the exchange made the situation clear to him. “Wow, I see what you’re doing here,” he said in the video. He suggested that restaurants in Paris may be attempting to take advantage of the large number of American tourists who are accustomed to tipping.

“There are so many tourists yearly in Paris that they’re like, ‘You know what? We’re gonna capitalize on that and let’s try to make extra money,'” he said. Tipping disputes have also been reported closer to home, including a case where a Texas Roadhouse server allegedly changed a customer’s tip after the meal. 

A similar account was shared in March 2026 by a woman in a Facebook group focused on travel to Paris. She wrote that she was dining at a café near the Eiffel Tower when the server asked where she was from and, upon learning she was American, used a calculator to add a tip to her bill. 

“He increased my bill from 58 to 67 to cover his tip,” she wrote. She added that the server stood nearby while she opened her wallet, which she said made the experience uncomfortable despite otherwise enjoying the food and service.

Viewers who came across Samani’s video shared their own experiences and reactions in the comments. “Taxi driver in Milan asked me for a tip last week,” one person wrote, suggesting the practice may not be limited to Paris. Another said, “Hearing this I’m not wasting my time or money,” while a third commented, “So we get screwed no matter where we go. Got it.”

One woman who commented on the Facebook post claimed the practice appeared to begin after France hosted the Olympics. “I’ve gone to Paris numerous times over the last 45 years and this issue of waiters asking for tips only started after Paris hosted the Olympics,” she wrote. The tipping conversation has extended to public figures as well, with some pointing to how much Trump tipped the DoorDash grandma after a widely publicized McDonald’s delivery.