A WOMAN’S $5 tip turned into a $5,000 nightmare after making a single mistake at the checkout screen.
The shocking charge appeared after a quick trip to a vape shop where she went to buy CBD gel for shoulder pain.
The accidental over-tipping incident occurred at a store in San Bruno, California.
Linda Mathiesen, a Peninsula resident, said she only wanted to tip $5, but an extra zero turned her small gesture into a financial disaster.
“He says enter a tip, so I did. I push what I thought was only two zeros. Ended up being three zeros,” Mathiesen told ABC 7 On Your Side.
“But, there’s no decimal point… I’m like, ‘WAIT! I want to delete this!’”
Receipts show her total bill for her purchase as San Bruno Exotic was $129.28.
Mathiesen said she immediately noticed the mistake and begged the clerk to reverse the transaction. He claimed he “couldn’t” do it.
“He said he didn’t know how,” she said.
Despite her pleas, the receipt shows the tip was processed and not voided.
Mathiesen, a special education teacher living on a fixed income, said the clerk later claimed that the store never received the money.
However, her bank statements told a different story.
“He never erased it, nothing! I was livid,” she said.
The charge threw her life into chaos.
Mathiesen said she called her bank, Wells Fargo, within five minutes of leaving the store.
“Who would ever? Like, $5,000?! I don’t have that kind of money!” she said.
According to Mathiesen, she reached out 22 times to Wells Fargo for help.
“Each time, two hours on the phone,” she said.
Mathiesen said she tried to dispute the charge on the same day – but then nothing happened for months.
Wells Fargo eventually reached out eight months later to inform Matheisen that the case had been closed because “too much time had passed.”
The bank typically requires disputes to be filed within 60 days.
Wells Fargo also claims to offer “zero liability protection” as a way to protect their customers from fraudulent charges if they are reported on time.
But Mathiesen, a Wells Fargo customer of almost 30 years, said she acted fast and called immediately.
“I literally called them within five minutes of being in the store,” she said.
Nearly a year later, the charge had ballooned to $5,500 with interest.
“My son is graduating college next week… and I can’t even buy anything for him because I have $5,000 outstanding,” she said tearfully.
Wells Fargo agreed to refund the full tip plus interest after 7 On Your Side got involved.
“I’m so relieved!” said Mathiesen.
Mathiesen is not the first person to fall victim to a tip gone wrong.
In October 2023, a Georgia woman accidentally tipped $7,112.98 at Subway while trying to enter her loyalty number.
She eventually got the charge reversed, but not without hours of calls and panic, as reported by Today.
Wells Fargo didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment by The U.S. Sun.
