Christmas dinner was supposed to be an easy win: hibachi takeout, happy kids, no dishes, no stress. Instead, one Texas mom found herself standing at the counter in tears, the card system malfunctioning, and staff pressing her to pay again for food she’d already been charged for.
What should’ve been a simple holiday pickup spiraled into a tense standoff. She may have walked away with the food, but did so feeling shaken, humiliated, and wondering how people could be so cold on Christmas Day. However, she made sure of one thing: Do not go to Sumo Hibachi in Corpus Christi, Texas.
What Happened at this Hibachi restaurant?
This Texas mom, who goes by @Hippitychickedee66 on TikTok, has run to the platform to share awareness around this one hibachi restaurant. Her eight-minute storytime has garnered almost 50,000 views and hundreds of comments. According to her, this experience left her so shaken up that she knew she had to alert others.
“Corpus Christi, Texas, Sumo Hibachi Express, Airline Road on Christmas, just embarrassed the ever-living crap out of me,” she says. “In front of a dining room of people.”
The mom prefaces by saying she likes the restaurant’s food, but the service and the way they treat customers are more important. She says her family doesn’t cook for Christmas, therefore she wanted to treat her kids to a nice meal on that day.
She orders takeout, and when she swipes her card to pay, “nothing seemed to happen.” The employee told her to swipe again, and when she did, the system showed “duplicate transaction.” The mom knew this meant an original charge had gone through. The employee gets the manager, and the mom pulls out her bank statement to show that it did, in fact, get charged to her account. He asks her to swipe again.
At this point, the mom explains that there’s no reason for her to swipe again when the money has already been taken from her account. His solution? He voided the first transaction and wants her to pay twice, meaning she has to pay $67 twice, and wait a few days for the bank to return the money from the first swipe.
Does She Get Charged Twice?
The first transaction being voided on the restaurant’s end creates an even bigger issue. Now, the manager wants her to pay twice when she doesn’t have the money for a second charge.
She says, “That’s not OK. You just put me in a situation and he’s like, ‘You can leave without your food, then. If you can’t pay for it, you can go.’”
She was baffled, since she paid the money, so why not get the food?
“So, I just literally spent the money, you took the money, then you voided the transaction. The money doesn’t come back to me, and I can’t feed my kids…It’s freaking Christmas Day,” she says. “And you’re telling me that I have to leave without the food and without the money?”
The creator says she gets paid the next day, but it “doesn’t help me today.” She goes on to say how she felt humiliated in front of all the other customers. She also entertains the idea of what would have happened if they had chosen to eat in-house.
No ‘managing’ at all
The problem seems to lie in the behavior of the staff. About the manager, she says, “He did not manage the situation at all. He did not act like he was empathetic, sympathetic, anything. He did not act like he cared at all. It was Christmas and that was the situation he put me in.”
The manager then tells her that if it doesn’t go through, they’ll just call her to pay it. She agrees and reiterates that even so, the business needs to learn to manage those situations better. She says customers shouldn’t have to be humiliated in front of people just because of a manager’s mistake. Nor do they have to reveal how much money they have in their bank account. “I ended up leaving with my food with tears streaming down my face and it literally ruined the rest of my Christmas.”
In the comments, she puts an update. “Update: the owner called me and told me he will not be charging me at all and is extremely sorry. What’s crazy is I asked for the owner, I asked them to call him on the phone at least and the manager refused!”
@hippitychickadee66 #sumohibachiexpress #corpuschristi #merrychristmas ♬ original sound – Hippitychickedee66
Some Viewers Take the Restaurant’s Side
The mom went to TikTok to spread awareness, only to receive judgment instead. One viewer says, “Wait, if there’s another adult in the car, why couldn’t he pay?” The TikTok creator responds, “He’s my husband, we share an account. I already paid is the point. Couldn’t they just hand me my food once I showed the transaction had been paid?”
Another viewer says, “Here’s some advice. Don’t spend your last $70 on take out if you can’t afford to wait til the bank does business the next day. Cook a meal for your family. This happens a lot. Even with just buying gas.” The mom again stresses that this isn’t the point she’s trying to make: “Not the point, even if I had the money to pay twice why should I? Why good a perfectly good normal transaction?”
Others defend her
There are also some viewers defending her in the comments. One says, “To the people saying you shouldn’t be going out to eat with your last 70$ like as if grocery stores were open on christmas. she said she got paid the next day. imma spend my last 70$ on whatever the hell i want tf.”
Another says, “I Don’t like when businesses Void transactions because of an issue that is clearly on their end. Voids take days to be put back on and when your funds are limited it puts a huge burden on a family.”
Lastly, a food service worker chimes in, “Hi food service cashier here and we never void a situation. what we can do if refund it back on the card which does show a reversal and a receipt with reversal is given. after that is done we can recharge if ur Okie with it and we click yes to the duplicate charge. that was not handled properly.”
The Mary Sue reached out to the creator via TikTok direct message. We also reached out to Sumo Hibachi via phone, but were unable to make contact.
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