134% tip
By Lena Kovadlo
@lovebuglena (48410)
Staten Island, New York
October 21, 2025 4:36pm CST
Back in 2018, I went out with my cousins to a popular restaurant in Manhattan called Zuma. I think it was for someone’s birthday. After the waiter brought us the bill we divided the total among everyone except the birthday person. It turned out that each individual would pay $209.
Wow! I definitely didn’t expect to spend that much on a dinner for one. I don’t even think I ate everything that was brought out as I don’t eat pork, shellfish, or seafood.
Since I didn’t have that much cash on me I gave the waiter my credit card. I don’t know how this happened but shortly after I received an email from my credit card:
We noticed you gave an extra generous tip on 02/24/18, for your service at ZUMA NEW YORK:
$89.12 Cost
+ $119.88 Tip
= $209.00 Total
We hope you left this tip because your service was exceptional.
I was very much confused. There is no way I’d leave that much tip, even if the service was Michelin level. That’s somewhere around 134%. I called one of my cousins about it and she didn’t get it, but confirmed that the total that should have been charged to my card was indeed $209. So how did they come up with these numbers?
8 people like this
7 responses
@kaylachan (81275)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
21 Oct
The math isn't mathing. I am assuming that it was meant to include the tip, and someone got their math wrong when splitting or deviding the bill. You deffently overpaid it sounds like.
2 people like this
@lovebuglena (48410)
• Staten Island, New York
21 Oct
Could they have put the tip for the entire party on my card and then figured what the remaining amount would be when deducted from $209 and made that the initial cost amount?
2 people like this
@kaylachan (81275)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
21 Oct
@lovebuglena You know what I think actually happened. When the party devided the bill, they didn't tell the server to split the bill. So the server charged each person indiviually. Your meal only cost 89, so the differance (since you told them to charge 209) was recorded as a tip. When you go to a restaurant, you need to tell staff you're splitting the bill, and to devide it amoung x ammount of people. Otherwise, they'll treat each seperate transaction, just that as a single order. So you didn't pay evenly. Obviously, sea food, pork etc, is going to cost more.
2 people like this
@lovebuglena (48410)
• Staten Island, New York
22 Oct
@kaylachan That makes some sense. Maybe that’s what happened.
2 people like this
@lovebuglena (48410)
• Staten Island, New York
22 Oct
I definitely did not leave that much tip. I don’t know how they did the math but tip should’ve been 20% and the cost obviously more than $89.12, while still adding up to $209.
1 person likes this
@RasmaSandra (91847)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
21 Oct
That certainly looks and sounds like something if fishy somewhere, I wonder if you can still find out otherwise you overpaid grandly, Could it possibly be that it should have been *9.12 plus tip of 19.88 for a total of $109
2 people like this
@lovebuglena (48410)
• Staten Island, New York
22 Oct
My cousin had told me it should have been $209. Her card was charged the same.
2 people like this
@Traceyjayne (6724)
• United Kingdom
21 Oct
It sounds like an awful lot of money to me.
2 people like this
@lovebuglena (48410)
• Staten Island, New York
21 Oct
It is a lot of money for one person.
1 person likes this
@LindaOHio (208412)
• United States
22 Oct
I don't know. I hope you didn't overpay.
1 person likes this
@lovebuglena (48410)
• Staten Island, New York
22 Oct
Based on what my cousin told me whoever paid should’ve been charged $209. The total charged to my card is correct then. I just don’t understand the other math.
1 person likes this
@porwest (111560)
• United States
22 Oct
I have no idea. lol. Honestly, none of this makes any sense to me. I am missing something here for sure. The ONLY thing that makes sense to me is that if you left a $19.88 tip, which is ROUGHLY 20%, someone took it upon themselves to add a 1 at the front.
I would have disputed the charge based on the reported tip amount.
@lovebuglena (48410)
• Staten Island, New York
22 Oct
I do not remember leaving any tip at all. When I called my cousin about the amount, she told me everyone should’ve been charged $209. I was wondering if perhaps the tip for the whole party was charged on my credit card as opposed to being split between everyone. Everybody paid with a credit card so there were many credit cards to process, not just two or three. I’m not totally sure how one of my cousins who I guess was in charge of dealing with the bill came up with $209 per person… The cost per person definitely wasn’t $89.12 because that was a very expensive restaurant.
1 person likes this
@lovebuglena (48410)
• Staten Island, New York
23 Oct
@porwest all I know is that I was charged what I was supposed to be charged in total according to my cousin. How they figured out the tip amount and the total prior to tip I have no idea.
1 person likes this
@porwest (111560)
• United States
23 Oct
@lovebuglena Either way, I hope you were able to figure it out. This would bother me until I had my answers.
1 person likes this
