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azazel the cat wrote:

AustonT wrote:

xole wrote:Here's a new story. Pastor writes an unpleasant note on her receipt at an Applebee's(and doesn't do tip in credit, claims to have tipped in cash). Receipt gets posted on Reddit. Server now fired.

Reading is essential, and if you pay for anything you'd already know that her reciept included the tip already as a part of the bill. That's how automatic gratuity works.
From your story (and you know reality)

her credit card was also charged the tip amount.

I'm not fond of automatic gratuity in general, not the concept the name, restaurants should call it something else because it's not gratuity it's a service charge for a group being a particular pain in the ass. 18% as an automatic gratuity is excessive. You want a near 20% tip take 8 in a service charge and earn the other 10. In my experience a group like that will all lay down individual tips well in excess of 20% of the total. If the "pastor" wanted to be a real bitch she should have told them to pick up thier money, quietly paid the bill, and let the server keep her 6.30 before taxes instead of her tax free unreported cash tips.
My wife and I typically leave well in excess of 20% on our food and drink bills. But when the automatic tip is above 10% I happily sign a 0 on the "additional" tip line unless we received exceptional service. I say this not from a large group but just my wife and I, in which case I find automatic gratuity asinine in the extreme.

I would like you to please look at the photo in question, and then tell me if there is anything you would like to retract from your statement. Please note that the Pastor even scratched out the service charge and only authorized her card to pay the subtotal.

I'm not retracting a god damned thing; her total due was 41.22 and Regardless of what she wrote when she signed it she authorized payment of no less than the total due. Here's a side by side from a different restaurant that should adequate display what I'm talking about.

The automatic gratuity is seperated from the bill as a courtesy on the cardholders statement.

SoloFalcon1138 wrote:Auston obviously never served in food service a single day in his life. No resraurant I have ever seen charges a gratuity on a 2-top. When a party exceeds 8 or so, it becomes a huge pain in the a$$, that is why most places notify you of this in the menu. As servers have not seen a raise in average pay for over 20 years, that tip is necessary. Should it be given for poor service? No. But I have seen far too many servers treated like dog&#*@ simply because they are serving food and "not doing something better" as one patron I overheard said. Servers who do a good job and are tipped poorly eventually take it as a comment that they are working too hard for too little kickback. Servers make their money direcrly from your pocket, remember that.

Long story short: if you don't have the money to tip, go somewhere rhat tipping is not customary.

Well
1. You know feth all about me
2. I'm sorry you think my dining experiences are relagated to the On the Border in Modesto and gee I hate to be the one to tell you this: automatic Gratuity on all checks or "a two top" in your servants parlance is in fact widespread.

Wow, dude... Pop a Paxil and calm down...

 Kilkrazy wrote:
"He that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker: but he that honoureth him hath mercy on the poor."
Proverbs 14:31
(Thanks to Boing Boing)

I don't know what the receipt shows. If the pastor went back in anger to have the waitress sacked, I think that is vindictive and unChristian. He should have turned the other cheek.

Should the waitress have been sacked? Once the pastor made a public fuss about it, that probably became inevitable. A more astute restaurant management could perhaps have resolved the situation to everyone's advantage.

Book of NELS, Chapter 4 verse 20

" And lo, the Lord Christ, upon reading the mans writings, said unto the man " Read the fething article, dude."

Pastor is a female, its clear if you read the posted article or if you merely glanced at, it has a picture. Public fuss was on the part of the waiter who posted it online. Restaurant fired the server because she posted a customers private info online. All of this is in the article.

 Ouze wrote:
I think that's about standard for large parties that I have seen in my wholly anecdotal evidence. My mother was a waitress for several years, and I did it briefly, and that's what I've seen on menus.

She wore flats, that's how you knew Sam Jackson staged the robbery as a test.

But yeah, that's fairly standard. I've actually seen much higher in major cities.

 AustonT wrote:


I'm not retracting a god damned thing; her total due was 41.22 and Regardless of what she wrote when she signed it she authorized payment of no less than the total due. Here's a side by side from a different restaurant that should adequate display what I'm talking about.

The beautiful thing here is...you found proof of my argument(one I didn't want to have) for me. Thank you.

See that thing in your receipt called a "service charge"? You are legally obligated to pay that by law. See that thing in the top receipt called a "Tip"? You are not legally obligated to pay that by law.

fact

you have a bunch of white men ruling by a book they "found" and interpreted how many times, and people take the English version of it a FACT. This is like taking a class of second graders and sitting them in a circle, then telling one kid a secret, and having them pass it around the circle. I'd bet all the money on Earth that the story is not only not the same at the end, it is so far from the facts it is scary.

Simple fact

treat others as you want to be treated

we are all one, we all suffer if one of us does

smile



and like hell a "God" is petty and demand $$$

trust me folks, a being as powerful as a "god" is not bothered by human emotions, it is amusing that humans try and pin them on their "gods"

Well I wouldn't auto-attach a tip, nor would I intentionally post someone's receipt to the internet. Honestly why don't Americans simply pay servers minimum wage like we do? Here you only tip for better than expected service or if you were using an alcohol tab.

The Pastor did something you aren't supposed to do in her line of work. She still has her job.

The waitress did something you aren't supposed to do in her line of work. She got fired.

The moral of the story here is to get yourself a job with some kind of status to it, because then when your unprofessional behaviour becomes an internet phenomenon nothing happens to you.

 dogma wrote:
[She wore flats, that's how you knew Sam Jackson staged the robbery as a test.

blisters the size of pancakes, man.

 sebster wrote:
The Pastor did something you aren't supposed to do in her line of work. She still has her job.

That's questionable. So far as I know she hasn't been confirmed by any denomination.

 DIDM wrote:
fact

you have a bunch of white men ruling by a book they "found" and interpreted how many times, and people take the English version of it a FACT. This is like taking a class of second graders and sitting them in a circle, then telling one kid a secret, and having them pass it around the circle. I'd bet all the money on Earth that the story is not only not the same at the end, it is so far from the facts it is scary.

Simple fact

treat others as you want to be treated

we are all one, we all suffer if one of us does

Thats Luke 6:31 and 1 Corinthians 12:26. Luke being written by most historical accounts in AD 50's to 70's. Corinthians also written around the same timeframe. Hasn't changed so much, has it?

 NELS1031 wrote:

 Kilkrazy wrote:
"He that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker: but he that honoureth him hath mercy on the poor."
Proverbs 14:31
(Thanks to Boing Boing)

I don't know what the receipt shows. If the pastor went back in anger to have the waitress sacked, I think that is vindictive and unChristian. He should have turned the other cheek.

Should the waitress have been sacked? Once the pastor made a public fuss about it, that probably became inevitable. A more astute restaurant management could perhaps have resolved the situation to everyone's advantage.

Book of NELS, Chapter 4 verse 20

" And lo, the Lord Christ, upon reading the mans writings, said unto the man " Read the fething article, dude."

Pastor is a female, its clear if you read the posted article or if you merely glanced at, it has a picture. .

In what way does that invalidate my point? Are women priests supposed to behave in non-Christian ways?

 xole wrote:

 AustonT wrote:


I'm not retracting a god damned thing; her total due was 41.22 and Regardless of what she wrote when she signed it she authorized payment of no less than the total due. Here's a side by side from a different restaurant that should adequate display what I'm talking about.

The beautiful thing here is...you found proof of my argument(one I didn't want to have) for me. Thank you.

See that thing in your receipt called a "service charge"? You are legally obligated to pay that by law. See that thing in the top receipt called a "Tip"? You are not legally obligated to pay that by law.

You posted a story about AUTOMATIC gratuity, then argue its not automatic...twice.
I'm not sure if you're slowed or trolling, either way I automatically wash my hands of you.

“We make $3.50 an hour. Most of my paychecks are less than pocket change because I have to pay taxes on the tips I make,”

How the hell is someone supposed to live on such atrociously bad wages? I'm sure that she gets more than that in tips but it can't be much more.

This makes me glad to not have any requirement to tip when I go for a meal.

I tip anyway, but I like having the choice. For example, when I went for a chinese meal with my brother and wife, and the (rather elderly) waitress set the place next to my brother (which was empty...lol) and completely ignored him.
I tipped then, because I spent most of the meal crying with laughter at various displays of ineptitude. Who puts whole garlic cloves in egg fried rice?

If I'd been told I HAD to tip at that point, there would have been fur and feathers flying.

Palindrome wrote:
“We make $3.50 an hour. Most of my paychecks are less than pocket change because I have to pay taxes on the tips I make,”

How the hell is someone supposed to live on such atrociously bad wages? I'm sure that she gets more than that in tips but it can't be much more.

As you're from the UK, this is a fair question.

In the US, we have a minimum wage, which is $7.25USd/hr (4.57GBP). However, there is an exception in the minimum wage law for waitstaff. The way it works is they earn $2.13 as a base minimum wage, and the rest they make up via tips. If they do not make enough in tips to exceed the minimum wage, the restaurant is responsible for covering the difference between the wage + tips until it's brought up to the minimum wage.

That's how it goes, in theory. However in practice this is pretty loosely enforced, and the transient nature of the industry means abuses are generally not well investigated. The waitstaff and the busboys, etc all pool tips and divvy them up in most establishments as well, so that's another way to get burned.

To be honest, the whole system is pretty lame.

 Ouze wrote:

To be honest, the whole system is pretty lame.

It can be. It can also be ridiculously lucrative. My girlfriend works at a very high-end restaurant in the DC area. She tends bar. She's quite attractive. She pulled down around 80K last year, working four days a week.

Another reason to not eat at Applebees

 azazel the cat wrote:
Saw this earlier. Pastor's actions are pretty typical of how I perceive most church leaders to be. Although I do find it quite funny that as the leader of her own church, she only gives 10% to the Lord. That seems a little low. I'm pretty sure most sports team captains will uniformly tell you they give 110% to their teams.


I suspect that the Internet will deliver blissful and cathartic retribution within the month.


EDIT: @Ratbard > do you really feel like someone's reprehensible and dickish moves ought to be carried out without fear of being shamed publicly for their wanton and knowingly-bad actions?

Studies have shown women are the worst tippers.

Yeah, I read about this elsewhere. It infuriates me. I've left cash tips before and always do if I actually have cash on me, because (at least in the old days) it used to be easier to dodge taxes on your tips in cash, while the card based ones got counted programatically, so in theory it makes the tip slightly larger (at least, upfront. I'm sure most wait staff probably get most of their income taxes back)

Personally, the snide overtone of the note left on the bill makes me think that she likely didn't leave a cash tip at all.

The sad thing here is that the esteemed pastor winds up the "victim" while the poor girl that actually works for a living just winds up in the unemployment line. Squeeky wheel gets the kick, and all that, I suppose.

More obnoxiously, what she's (pastor) saying is that she's a freakin pastor: 10% -> "God's" house -> her house. I wish I could invest in myself and feel self-righteous about it. I gotta get me some of this religion.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Seaward wrote:

 Ouze wrote:

To be honest, the whole system is pretty lame.

It can be. It can also be ridiculously lucrative. My girlfriend works at a very high-end restaurant in the DC area. She tends bar. She's quite attractive. She pulled down around 80K last year, working four days a week.

What's cost of living like there though? While 80k would be considerably comfortable single salary range in STL, if DC is anything like NYC, I understand 80k to not be that much, especially if you live in the city and such.

 azazel the cat wrote:

Ratbarf wrote:The Pastor has not perpitrated a dine and dash, nor have I seen anyone alleging they did. In addition, if it had been an official response it would have been done by the manager or higher up. The employee committed several actions which would be grounds to fire her from any regular restaurant or service position such as cashier or bus boy.

And the blanked out credit card info is because they aren't stupid, it doesn't mean the implied contract is not understood.

Did we read different articles, then?

The policy is that a party of 20 has an automatic service charge of 18% added to the menu prices. The picture of the receipt shows that the pastor refused to pay for the 18% service charge.

If my meal is $20 and I only pay $15, I have dined-and-dashed.

EDIT: It seems we did read different articles. Here is the one I read (makes no mention of cash tips) http://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanhatesthis/applebees-server-fired-for-complaining-about-cust

Tips are not mandatory. They are tips, not a bill for service.

Frankly aI agree with the no mandatory tip bs, and this is from someone who tips very well.
Of course Applebees is like the armpit of the restaurant universe anyway...


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Terentius wrote:
Food service people work very hard and get paid less than minimum wage. They're expected to make up for that in tips. As far as I know, social etiquette requests that you leave a 15-20% percent tip. At least the pastor didn't leave those god-awful bible tracts.

You only leave a good tip if the service is good though. Having said that, sounds like the customer is a jerkwad.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Ouze wrote:
The pastor in question was allegedly very sorry about this once it came out, as I read on a site I'm not going to google because you can look it up if you want (Consumerist probably).

The pastor wasnt't sorry about their rude behavior, and she wasn't sorry about marching in and demanding the whole staff be fired, but she WAS sorry when her name was discovered and she was outed as the shatwizard she is.

That being said, no one's really covered in glory on this. I agree the waitress should have been fired for posting the receipt with the name visible and legible on it. Out yourself in corporate's shoes - if you don't fire her, you tacitly endorse her behavior. Maybe they could have just disciplined her instead, I dunno. But she definitely is not innocent of the consequences she suffered. if you don't like getting crappy tips or no tips, well, that's the service industry.

That doesn't make the pastor any less of a totally awful human being.

I hate to say it but I agree with all points.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Breotan wrote:
I disagree about the waitress needing to be fired. The story states that there was no misconduct on her part per Applebees' own regs. I'd have simply given her a day or two off to think about it, but not fire her.

Man, you guys are vindictive.

Oh, and waiters/waitresses, and the like are pretty much treated like dirt by a lot of customers. Depending on the state, a group that stiffs on the tip can actually wind up costing the server money. Talk to your bartender and they'll fill you in.

The Wfie and I, having worked in the dregs of food service and the retail industry, firmly believe that, instead of a draft, all children in the US should be forced to work in retail or food service for at least a year. She's also convinced (and I agree), that how you treat waitstaff is a window into your personality.

Well, I didn't know "service charge" was actually a tip. Thats good to know.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

 DIDM wrote:
fact

you have a bunch of white men ruling by a book they "found" and interpreted how many times, and people take the English version of it a FACT. This is like taking a class of second graders and sitting them in a circle, then telling one kid a secret, and having them pass it around the circle. I'd bet all the money on Earth that the story is not only not the same at the end, it is so far from the facts it is scary.

Simple fact

treat others as you want to be treated

we are all one, we all suffer if one of us does

smile



and like hell a "God" is petty and demand $$$

trust me folks, a being as powerful as a "god" is not bothered by human emotions, it is amusing that humans try and pin them on their "gods"

And here we were having a food time and you went all jerkwad on us.

 NELS1031 wrote:

 Kilkrazy wrote:
"He that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker: but he that honoureth him hath mercy on the poor."
Proverbs 14:31
(Thanks to Boing Boing)

I don't know what the receipt shows. If the pastor went back in anger to have the waitress sacked, I think that is vindictive and unChristian. He should have turned the other cheek.

Should the waitress have been sacked? Once the pastor made a public fuss about it, that probably became inevitable. A more astute restaurant management could perhaps have resolved the situation to everyone's advantage.

Book of NELS, Chapter 4 verse 20

" And lo, the Lord Christ, upon reading the mans writings, said unto the man " Read the fething article, dude."

Pastor is a female, its clear if you read the posted article or if you merely glanced at, it has a picture. Public fuss was on the part of the waiter who posted it online. Restaurant fired the server because she posted a customers private info online. All of this is in the article.

The pastor also demanded a wholesale firing of other people working there as well. Bottom line is that the pastor is a self centered bitch.

SOunds like it

The moral of the story is, if you meet an ass, don't show their receipts. Just explain the situation with words.

Palindrome wrote:
“We make $3.50 an hour. Most of my paychecks are less than pocket change because I have to pay taxes on the tips I make,”

How the hell is someone supposed to live on such atrociously bad wages? I'm sure that she gets more than that in tips but it can't be much more.

Being a waiter or waitress sucks.

If it's not the cheap tippers that piss you off it is perverted old ladies.

When I worked in a nightclub, we had 'RandyGranny' night.
Always seemed to be a thursday when I was glass collecting downstairs in the 60-70's area of the club. They just used to try to grab various parts of you - reverse the situation so it's guy's grabbing at people and the doorman throw them out.
Being attacked by grannies? the doormen laugh.
I got paid £3.01p an hour for that privilege. (pre minimum wage)
No tips either. And I used to get anything up to £40 for three nghts work, which I STILL spent on 40k...lol.

You can't post personal details online without someone's permission, whether they've done right or wrong. The waitress left the company with little choice as people have said.
It's a shame theres no 'Gakhole tax' for the pastor either.

I didn't read the article so let me knee jerk.

Applebee's Sucks Ass. Seriously. I've never had a good meal there. I'd rather eat at McDonald's than go there.

Everyone involved is guilty. The Pastor for paying money to eat at a gakky restaurant. The waitress for bringing gakky food to people. The posters in this thread that failed to see these facts!

For SHAME!!!

 daedalus wrote:

Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Seaward wrote:

 Ouze wrote:

To be honest, the whole system is pretty lame.

It can be. It can also be ridiculously lucrative. My girlfriend works at a very high-end restaurant in the DC area. She tends bar. She's quite attractive. She pulled down around 80K last year, working four days a week.

What's cost of living like there though? While 80k would be considerably comfortable single salary range in STL, if DC is anything like NYC, I understand 80k to not be that much, especially if you live in the city and such.

Not only that I feel like she's in pretty close to as ideal a situation when it comes to wait staff as possible , at least for the purposes of pulling dough. The vast majority of wait staff are just pulling enough money to make rent.

You know all the people I hear on the radio make a lot of money. Maybe I should start making music for a living!

 kronk wrote:
I didn't read the article so let me knee jerk.

Applebee's Sucks Ass. Seriously. I've never had a good meal there. I'd rather eat at McDonald's than go there.

Everyone involved is guilty. The Pastor for paying money to eat at a gakky restaurant. The waitress for bringing gakky food to people. The posters in this thread that failed to see these facts!

For SHAME!!!

Agreed. I've had the misfortune of eating twice at Applebees. I'd rather not eat then eat at Applebees.

 xole wrote:


When we first reported this story, we cautioned that the photo might be part of a hoax designed to stir up some sort of anti-Christian, anti-religious sentiment (as people have pulled similar cons in the past). But it turns out the story is authentic. .

What? Other anti-christian hoaxes? I'm sure there is a tasteless child-abuse joke in there somewhere.