Woman left furious after restaurant adds £35 automatic tip onto her bill

There's no doubt that the US has a huge, and often confusing, tipping culture. And it often divides opinion.

Most recently, a woman was left furious after seeing an automatic gratuity charge had unexpectedly been added to her bill at a restaurant.

In a viral clip that has been viewed more than 5 million times on TikTok, we see her shocked response.

The clip begins with the Sugar Factory customer looking angrily at her receipt. She then shouts at the waitress: "What the f*** is gratuity and why is it $44?"

One employee laughs at the woman's question - as she isn't quite pronouncing it correctly - while another explains: "it's the tip."

However, the explanation doesn't exactly clear things up, with the woman then asking if the restaurant is really just adding tips to bills without letting customers know about it first.

"Y'all just putting that s*** on there?" she asks as the worker responds, "yeah."

She then folds up the receipt and says, 'all right,' as the short clip comes to an end.

TikTok users were divided by the woman's reaction to the automatic charge.

One person wrote: "Her reaction alone is exactly why gratuity is added."

Another said: "Lmao this video is the exact reason why gratuity should be added automatically."

However, others criticised the servers at the restaurant chain, which is known for its larger-than-life sweet treats, with one user commenting: "Funny they be adding that gratuity and still have the nerve to be asking for more tip."

Tipping culture has long been the topic of much debate, but one American shopper claims that it's getting out of hand after she was prompted to add a tip at a self-service checkout.

The mystery shopper shared their experience at an airport checkout on Reddit's 'Mildly Infuriating' thread.

“It finally happened. I was prompted to tip at the airport self-checkout station," they wrote alongside a picture of the checkout screen showing four tipping options — no tip, 15 percent, 18 percent and 20 percent.

It left people wondering where the tip actually goes, with one puzzled user commenting: “But who are you tipping exactly? Nobody has provided a service to you.”

Another joked: "Can you imagine if the tip went onto your bill as a negative?!

"I bagged my products perfectly. I’ll give myself 25%.. subtract it from my tab.”

A third said: "Tip who? Myself? Am I the employee now? Are y'all gonna send me a paycheck and a W2? Can I put this on my resume?"