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Applebee's fires employee after complaining about being stiffed by one customer

3K views 32 replies 23 participants last post by  dan the marino 
#1 ·


An Applebee's waitress who posted a receipt with a note from a pastor complaining about the automatic gratuity added to the bill on the Internet was fired on Wednesday after the pastor complained to her manager.

Chelsea Welch, the waitress, wrote in an email to Yahoo News that the pastor (who has since been identified as Alois Bell) told Welch's manager at the St. Louis-area Applebee's that the ensuing firestorm had "ruined" her reputation.

"I give God 10%," Bell wrote on the receipt, scratching out the automatic tip and scribbling in an emphatic "0" where the additional tip would be. "Why do you get 18?" (There were more than eight people in Bell's party, triggering the auto-tip.)

Welch, who snapped a photo of the bill from a fellow server and uploaded to Reddit, defended her right to post the receipt. "I thought the note was insulting, but also comical," she told Consumerist.com. "And I thought other users would find it entertaining.”

Bell, a pastor at Truth in the World Deliverance Ministries Church, was not amused, and she called Welch's manager to complain.
“[It was] a lapse in my character and judgment,” Bell told the Smoking Gun, adding she did not expect her easily recognizable signature would be, as her friend informed her, “all over Yahoo. You went viral!”

[Related: Pastor leaves waiter note on receipt: ‘I give God 10%. Why do you get 18?’]

“My heart is really broken,” Bell added. “I’ve brought embarrassment to my church and ministry.”
A spokesman for Applebee’s said it apologized to Bell for violating her "right to privacy" and confirmed that Welch “is no longer employed by the franchise."

Welch was surprised that Applebee's fired her, "especially because there was nothing specific in the employee handbook admonishing this behavior."

"I had no intention of starting a witch hunt or hurting anyone. I just wanted to share a picture I found interesting," she said. “I come home exhausted, sore, burnt, dirty and blistered on a good day. And after all that, I can be fired for ‘embarrassing’ someone who directly insults their server on religious grounds.”

Welch also isn't buying Bell's embarrassment. “If this person wrote the note, obviously they wanted it seen by someone," she said. “I’ve been stiffed on tips before, but this is the first time I’ve seen the Big Man used as reasoning."
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/applebees-waitress-fired-pastor-receipt-193820748.html

Applebee's is now facing boycott threats.
 
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#25 ·
As far as the 18% gratuity, the original article this one was sourced from stated that the pastor was seated at a table for 20, where more than $200 of food was ordered after Sunday service. The 18% was auto-added by the software, because the waiter had to serve a damn table of 20.

Around here, in the buckle of the Bible Belt, my friends in the service industry hate waiting on Sunday Afternoons/Wednesday Nights. People roll in with a party of 20, let their kids run everywhere, push tables together, complain about how hungry they are after their long church service, and then don't tip. Or, even worse, they leave religious pamphlets shaped like money in lieu of a tip. Or they try and proselytize. It is generally agreed to be the worst shift of the week.

(There seems to be something wrong with that. I don't know what. But it doesn't reflect well on Christianity as it is practiced around here.)
 
#32 ·
See this is the one thing i hate about religion, not religion itself or any particular religion. Just these self-righteous assholes who think they're above everyone else just because they are of a certain faith. It pisses me off to the most extreme degree and its worse when they shove their beliefs down other people's throats. That Pastor really thinks that God would be happy about them patronising and acting like they're above someone else? This world is stupid.

I work in a restaraunt myself so day in and day out I have to bend over for assholes who always think they're right and are just annoying to work for so i sympathise with the girl.
 
#2 ·
ya know mot pastors have more money than most of the people who go to their churches they should have given a tip to the person making peanuts. and to even write something back was very rude and they should no better, now the waitress shouldnt have posted it, but i do understand how they feel
 
#6 ·
ok, um. I don't feel bad for the girl here. I dont condone what the pastor did, because those tips are a majority of a servers' salary. But fuck, Im not even friends with people from work, but I dont use facebook as my outlet to vent about shit that happens there. No one wants to see it, and no one would REMOTELY understand if I posted about a bad day at work. Keep your work and personal life separate, and you won't have that fucking problem.

Edit: also, the fuck is this shit? How do 8 people eat at applebees for 35 dollars? If the story is correct, and there were 8 or more people in the pastors party, and they ate food for 35 dollars, FUCK YOU, GIVE THE WAITRESS A TIP YOU CUNTS.
 
#8 ·
you never talk about work on Facebook. Everyone knows.

anyone using God as a reason to not tip is going to Hell; where in the bible does it say not to tip? In fact I'm more sympathetic for the girl because that pastor acted like a fucking douche. And what, is he friends with a teenage girl on Facebook too?
 
#12 ·
Did you read the article? No where did the pastor say, "you didn't work hard enough for this tip" so why do you assume she didn't work hard? The pastor didn't want to tip her more than she tipped God. PRAISE THE LORD!!!!

You know nothing, Jon Snow. :hitgirl
 
#20 ·
I'm a happy tipper, so it puts my back up when there's an automatic service charge.

The 10% to God thing would wind me up even more though.

Okay, your tip has gone to God, but now there's an additional 5% tax on your meal payable to Peter Pan. And please don't forget to give 2% of every dollar you spend to the fairies and goblins that live at the bottom of your garden.
 
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