Pastor Who Left Sanctimonious Tip Gets Waitress Fired from Applebee’s

[Bazza]

Hell hath no fury like a pastor scorned by the Internet.

After a copy of her Applebee's receipt began circulating online yesterday, Pastor Alois Bell of the St. Louis-based Truth in the World Deliverance Ministries phoned up the restaurant and asked to have everyone involved fired.


"My heart is really broken," the 37-year-old told The Smoking Gun. "I've brought embarrassment to my church and ministry."
Last Friday, after evening services, Bell and her congregation headed to Applebee's for dinner as they did on many nights.
But a disagreement over the establishment's auto-gratuity of 18% for parties of 8 or more would soon propel the pastor to the heights of Internet infamy.

"I give God 10% why do you get 18," Bell wrote on her credit card receipt after crossing out the tip amount she was obliged to pay.

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What do you all think about this?

18% doesn't seem like too high for gratuity for me - if the service is good I'll easily add that much. I don't eat out much though so I it's easy to be generous.

I think she was just being a cheapskate! :rolleye2:

 

[OreBama]

That pastor is trash. God should never have been brought up in this situation. You should bring glory to God and this act does not do that.

 

[MattinBama]

She should stop blaming God for her being a cheapskate and a terrible person.

The good thing is this thread will likely bring about another reincarnation of the waitress hating repeat banned poster.

 

[DiamondDust]

Applebee's is getting taken to task for the whole issue of the person being fired. The waitress didn't get fired... it was the employee who tweeted out the receipt. Applebee's said it violated company policy.

The thing being... Applebee's would do just that on their own social media outlets.

 

[BamaPokerplayer]

God gets 10% of gross the waitress gets 18% of a food tab, stupid preacher, easy game.

 

[gmart74]

Some people are just plain trash. Unfortunately, a lot of them go eat lunch and dinner on sundays.

 

[twofbyc]

A preacher gives only 10%? I read she had a huge congregation of, like, 15.....wonder if God is going to call her to heaven if she doesn't raise $3000 to pay for all of this trauma.

 

[CajunCrimson]

Lipstick on a pig......

 

[Bazza]

It looks like the pastor didn't even tip 10%.

Despite her comments about what % should be considered.

Surprise.....what a hypocrite! :rolleye2:

 

[Relayer]

The pastor was being a jerk.

But she didn't get anyone fired. That as the result of posting on twitter.

 

[Bazza]

In response to those saying the pastor didn't do anything to get the waitress fired:

After a copy of her Applebee's receipt began circulating online yesterday, Pastor Alois Bell of the St. Louis-based Truth in the World Deliverance Ministries phoned up the restaurant and asked to have everyone involved fired.

And did the waitress violate company policy?

"I didn't break any specific guidelines in the company handbook - I checked," said Welch, who had no complaints about her service prior to this week. "Because this person got embarrassed that their selfishness was made public, Applebee's has made it clear that they would rather lose a dedicated employee than lose an angry customer. That's a policy I can't understand."

 

[Relayer]

I think we've established that the pastor is a jerk.

So, Welch "checked the company handbook" and it didn't say "don't post company receipts on the internet". Ok, have at it.

But, when you start posting business like this on the internet, you embarass your company and you give every other potential customer out there the notion that maybe they end up online if an employee of this company thinks their tip/behavior/whatever doesn't measure up to whatever a particular employee think it should be. Is this good for business? She thought the company would be ok with this?

However wronged this employee feels (and she was stiffed, no doubt), a very poor decision to broadcast it to the world. She played with fire and she got burned, too.

 

[RedStar]

The pastor is a jerk, but that doesn't mean an auto gratuity of 18% is right. That's absurd.

 

[Bazza]

I think we've established that the pastor is a jerk.

So, Welch "checked the company handbook" and it didn't say "don't post company receipts on the internet". Ok, have at it.

But, when you start posting business like this on the internet, you embarass your company and you give every other potential customer out there the notion that maybe they end up online if an employee of this company thinks their tip/behavior/whatever doesn't measure up to whatever a particular employee think it should be. Is this good for business? She thought the company would be ok with this?

However wronged this employee feels (and she was stiffed, no doubt), a very poor decision to broadcast it to the world. She played with fire and she got burned, too.

I agree with this. She should have removed the restaurant and diner's name at least before posting anything online. Or just not have done it at all.

I don't see her getting fired though, if the pastor didn't call up and ask for her to be fired - along with other employees apparently.

 

[Bazza]

The pastor is a jerk, but that doesn't mean an auto gratuity of 18% is right. That's absurd.

The 18% is not automatic. It is just a suggestion - to help diners with math I guess.

A diner can leave any amount they want.

I don't agree with putting that line on the invoice though but that's how they do it I guess.

What do you the pastor should have left if she thought 18% was too much?

How much would you have left?

She left 0%.

 

[Tide1986]

I'm still puzzling over how 8 people managed to spend only $35 at Applebee's.

And was all this ruckus over a $6 tip worth it? It was a measly $6.

Anyway, I'm no fan of a tip being automatically added to your bill -- there's no incentive for a server to do a good job if tips become an entitlement of sorts.

 

[RedStar]

The 18% is not automatic. It is just a suggestion - to help diners with math I guess.

A diner can leave any amount they want.

I don't agree with putting that line on the invoice though but that's how they do it I guess.

What do you the pastor should have left if she thought 18% was too much?

How much would you have left?

She left 0%.

I think it entirely depends on the service. I've had service that was so pathetic they didn't deserve a tip, so I didn't leave one. But I've been known to leave 20% for great service. I typically leave around 10%-15%. I can probably count on one hand how many times I've left 0%. The service has to be utterly pathetic for me not to leave anything.

That being said, I'm still baffled at the idea of tipping. It's something the restaurant industry has ingrained in us that we need to do. Maybe it shouldn't be up to the customers to supplement the staff's wages. That's the owners job.

I tip because at this point it's the biggest douchebag move ever to not tip, but the premise is absurd. No one tips their garbageman, or their postal carrier. No one tips their accountant or their taxi driver, so what made us pick waitresses & waiters to bestow this extra financial gain upon?

Tips are supposed to be something you earn, not something that's expected. At that point, it's not a tip, it's just me supplementing your salary. Trust me, if the service is good, I'm more than happy to tip. They earned it.

 

[RedStar]

The 18% is not automatic. It is just a suggestion - to help diners with math I guess.

And nope, the auto-gratuity is just that. Automatic. The 18% was printed onto the paper. The part that said $6.29.

It's what the restaurant expects the customer to pay when they've got a larger party. If it's expected, it can't be considered a tip. That's not what tips are. That's just the owners way of expecting us to supplement his staff's salary.

 

[Tide1986]

No one tips their accountant or their taxi driver, so what made us pick waitresses & waiters to bestow this extra financial gain upon?

Tipping a cab driver is pretty typical.

 

[RedStar]

Tipping a cab driver is pretty typical.

Well I've only been in a cab once, so I guess I'm a bit clueless about it.