Applebee's waitress fired for posting customer comment online
AP Graphics
ST. LOUIS The note at the top of the restaurant receipt read simply, "I give God 10%, why do you get 18?"
The snarky comment has created a furor online after a waitress posted it on the website Reddit. She has been fired, while the customer who scribbled the note has been vilified. And the controversy has forced the president of the restaurant chain to explain its privacy policies.
It began Jan. 25 when a customer who described herself on the receipt as a pastor shared appetizers with eight or nine friends at an Applebee's in south St. Louis. Applebee's spokesman Dan Smith said Friday that the group was large enough that an automatic 18 percent tip was added to the bill.
The full cost for the table was $34.93, including the tip, which Smith said the customer paid despite the comment.
If the waitress for the table was bothered, she didn't show it. But another waitress took a picture of the receipt and posted it Tuesday on Reddit, adding her own response: "I'm sure Jesus will pay for my rent and groceries."
Missouri's minimum wage is $7.35 per hour, a dime more than the federal standard. For employees like waitresses, bartenders and pizza delivery drivers who receive tips, the state minimum wage is $3.63, though employers must make up the difference for those who do not earn the state minimum in any given hour.
By Wednesday, the posting went viral. The customer who wrote on the receipt was hearing about it. She contacted the restaurant. The waitress was fired.
Applebee's President Mike Archer said in a phone interview Friday that the company stands behind its workers. But he said there was no choice but to fire the waitress for violating the customer's privacy rights and the company's social media policy.
"We have to protect our guests' privacy," Archer said. "There's a lot of private information on those receipts."
The backlash persists. Thousands have posted critical comments about the customer on Reddit, Facebook and at the bottom of news accounts. Applebee caught heat for firing the waitress and at least two Facebook pages were set up in support of her.
Kansas City, Mo.-based Applebee's has roughly 2,000 restaurants in every state except Hawaii and 15 other countries. Archer himself once worked as a waiter and understands how difficult the job can be.
But he said violation of a customer's privacy simply cannot be tolerated.
"It's not favoring the guest over the employee," Archer said. "It's really a simple rule that we have that was violated."
The waitress did not have a listed phone number. Messages sent to her through Reddit were not returned. The customer did not return phone and Facebook messages seeking comment.
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In today's economy a restaurant should be excited to be making the money a "big" group (in our case 6 constituted a big group) brings in, not putting a surcharge on it.
I know other restaurants do this too, but it soured me on Applebee's and I haven't been back since.
I ordered an entree and spent the next day or two in bed, very! sick from food poisoning. I'm amazed that such companies thrive, we seem to be a nation, sorry, of fools...
And speaking of fools, what that "pastor" did is why people decide to hate God. I look at America and hate that I am one of the people who've made it this way. (I'm 66, I've lived here, I'm responsible too.)
This is why Jesus told us to forgive each other, to not hold grudges, to be kind, to love others, and yes, to pay 18% without complaint. (And no, it's not smart to mention God when complaining, how do you think that makes God feel? Because he loves that waitress too!)
And by the way, my wife and I used to eat out quite a bit -- and wait staff people work very hard.
And if it violated company policy the wait staff had no right to disclose or post it in public.
The comment on the receipt ..... even dumber.
The place is near a collage and it seemed to me that most of the waiters/waitresses were students from the collage.
I still left a 15% tip but I never went back.
By not going back did I take my displeasure out on the owners? Yes, they did not train their employees properly, it's the owners fault.
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by not letting the owners know of the issues w/ the service you received that day ... did you contribute to all those issues re-curring for other patrons of the establishment? yes ... they likely would have done something to correct the problems if they had known they existed.
This story fails to mention the fact that the receipt posted was on a site dedicated to atheists....
I believe the waitress was fired for that, and the excuse to fire her was the fact it was online.
Applebees' has posted many receipts with customer comments and probably without customer knowledge, which is what made the receipt in question a comedy.
Whatever she was fired for, this is a fact, religious bigotry likely had it's hand.
We know the pastor, but what about the actual manager who fired the waitress?
I'm sure it wasn't the president Mike Archer.
I have to take sage bathes after I read a lot of comments on there, it's pure nasty.
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