Mom refuses to pay for teen daughter's eyebrow lamentation when they just wanted simple threading, service worker argues with her despite other customers being on the mom's side

Author image for Briana Viser
Briana Viser • Writer and Editor
Jul 23, 2025 2:00 PM EDT

Welcome back people of the internet. We all are familiar with the infamous and indelible caricature, Karen. She's caught sitting at the local restaurant, making servers get their daily steps in in just a matter of minutes. The back and forth demands of too cold, too hot, or a made up allergy will have any normal worker coveting unemployment money from the government. Karen's can show up anywhere, and they have really made a name for themselves globally. 
 

So when is it okay to complain at a business? To demand to see the manager? To expect better service? These are questions that only an individual can answer. Cultural contexts matter. For example, in the United States, the slogan "the customer is always right" really denotes where the culture is coming from. Other countries are less sympathetic to the throes of bad service. 
 

In the story below, the mother takes her daughter to get her eyebrows threaded. Instead of doing the simple task, the worker decides to take matters into her own hands. 

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  • 01

    AITAH for not paying for a service I didn't ask for?

    Cheezburger Image 10532456192
    via A's Images / Canva

    This image is for illustration only, and the subjects are models; the image does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 02
    I took my teen daughter to get her eyebrows threaded for the first time today. I signed in on the iPad and selected eyebrow threading as a service. When it
    via u/Houseofmonkeys5
  • 03
    was her turn, she was in a seat about five feet from the waiting area, so I just sat in the seat closest and told the woman what we wanted. I saw her spreading
    via u/Houseofmonkeys5
  • 04
    something on her eyebrows so I stood up and said "we're doing threading" in case she was trying to tint her brows or something.
    via u/Houseofmonkeys5
  • 05
    She just nodded and said, "yes, threading". Then she put some plastic wrap over her brows. So I went over again and said we
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  • 06
    didn't want a tint and only threading. She told me it wasn't a tint, just laminating. I said we didn't ask for laminating. She said she asked my daughter if it was
    via u/Houseofmonkeys5
  • 07
    okay and she said sure. Also, it was $49. My daughter texted me and said she was sorry and she hadn't realized it was going to cost that and she didn't really
    via u/Houseofmonkeys5
  • 08
    Cheezburger Image 10532455424
    via Latino Life / Canva

    This image is for illustration only, and the subjects are models; the image does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 09
    know what she was agreeing to and that she would pay for it. She's very much the kid who struggles to speak up and I know she was feeling bad about it. She
    via u/Houseofmonkeys5
  • 10
    didn't want me to say anything else till it was over because she was afraid the woman would mess up her brows. So, once it was done, I told her it was totally
    via u/Houseofmonkeys5
  • 11
    unacceptable and unprofessional to upsell a kid without asking the parent who was right there and paying for it. She told me she asked my daughter and that was
    via u/Houseofmonkeys5
  • 12
    good enough. I asked for her manager, who happened to be right there and i asked her if she really believed that was an okay business practice. At this point,
    via u/Houseofmonkeys5
  • 13
    another person waiting came over and also told this woman that she was totally wrong and she should not have been upselling a child without permission. The woman kept
    via u/Houseofmonkeys5
  • 14
    insisting she was right to just ask my kid without asking me, even though I was right there and had come over twice to confirm we wanted threading. (This was our
    via u/Houseofmonkeys5
  • 15
    first time there, so I didn't really know what she was doing right off the bat). In the end, she told me to just leave and not pay, but
    via u/Houseofmonkeys5
  • 16
    I did pay for the threading because I told her I had agreed to pay for that service and I was going to pay her for it (she did do a nice job on that, though the lamination looked crazy till we
    via u/Houseofmonkeys5
  • 17
    got home and scrubbed her brows). So was | TAH for essentially being a Karen or was I justified? My daughter felt AWFUL about the whole thing and made
    via u/Houseofmonkeys5
  • 18
    Cheezburger Image 10532456704
    via MilanMarkovic from Getty Images Pro / Canva

    This image is for illustration only, and the subjects are models; the image does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 19
    sure she knew i wasn't upset with her, because she hadn't been told the cost or what was happening up front.
    via u/Houseofmonkeys5
  • 20
    Gloomy-Increase-... 21h ago NTA. That stylist was way out of line. She'd been given her instructions about the service that was to be provided and then added
    via u/Gloomy-Increase-8726
  • 21
    something on her own. I don't even know what threading and laminating are and I'm a full grown woman, so I can imagine
    via u/Gloomy-Increase-8726
  • 22
    that your daughter wouldn't have known she was being upsold.
    via u/Gloomy-Increase-8726

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