Man says Ziosk terminal miscalculated his bill, and every payment option he tried allegedly overcharged him: ‘Double check the numbers’

A $48.72 lunch bill apparently came with an unexpected surprise when one customer tried to leave a 20% tip. A Ziosk payment terminal displayed a tip of $15.90 instead of the $9.75 he expected. Melissa, who posts on TikTok as @melissast, shared the exchange in a video that has racked up hundreds of thousands of views.

In the caption, Melissa wrote, “This happened at lunch today! Thought the tip seemed high and it was an extra $6! Double check the numbers before you pay!” A drink and his phone sat nearby as the Ziosk screen showed a check amount of $48.72.

The terminal displayed tip options of 18 percent, 20 percent, 22 percent, and 25 percent. The man pointed at the screen and said, “20%, $15.90.” After he tapped the 20 percent button, the screen updated to list a tip of $15.90 and a total of $64.62. On-screen text then appeared that read, “20% should have been $9.75! Not $15.90!”

Ziosk tip settings and the amounts shown on the terminal

The man continued looking at the screen and said, “I just looked at it. They do it for all of them.” He tapped the 22 percent option, which displayed a tip of $17.49. He then selected the 25 percent option, which showed a tip of $19.88. On-screen text appeared that read, “Double check before you pay!” as the clip ended.

Melissa’s video presented the tip figures as higher than a straightforward percentage of the $48.72 check would suggest. A 20 percent tip on that amount would come to $9.75. The $15.90 figure shown on the screen equals roughly 32.6 percent of the check. Calculating the tip after tax would not account for a gap of that size on its own. Ziosk is not the only terminal drawing scrutiny, as another diner checked a tipping tablet’s surprising 20% charge after paying his bill.

According to Ziosk’s support, the system handles tip suggestions when comps or discounts appear on a check. The company states that the feature bases tip suggestions on the amount a guest actually pays rather than the original total. To do this, the restaurant must configure the Ziosk solution to compute tax after discounts.

One commenter suggested a flat tip amount as an alternative approach. They wrote, “let’s normalize $5 Tips no matter what the bill is.” Another viewer recommended leaving nothing. They wrote, “can never go wrong with zero.” A third commenter warned that certain choices could lead to no gratuity at all. They wrote, “That is the quickest way to get a $0 tip.” Someone else pointed to cash as a way around the terminal. They wrote, “A tip in cash solves problem.”

One more viewer addressed changes in tipping habits over time. They wrote, “Tipping used to be like 10-15% now it’s 20%. Tip is based on service not how much I spend.” Cash does not always settle things, though, as one diner said a cash tip and an extra 20% were both applied to his bill.