****************************************************************************************************
NBC News.com Business
Reaction is growing to the story of an Applebee’s waitress fired this week for posting a customer’s receipt online. It’s raised the issue of customer privacy, corporate policy and how to treat the people who serve us and count on tips as part of their income.
As we reported on Thursday, a waitress at an Applebee’s franchise in the St. Louis area waited on a table, and as is customary for parties larger than eight, the bill came with an automatic 18 percent tip added. That didn’t sit well with the person paying the bill, Pastor Alois Bell of the World Deliverance Ministries Church in Granite City, Ill.
Pastor Bell crossed out the automatic tip and wrote “0” on the receipt, along with this message: “I give God 10% why do you get 18?”
Applebee’s says another waitress, one who did not wait on that table, took a photo of the bill and uploaded it to Reddit, where it soon went viral.
The pastor complained to the restaurant manager, and Chelsea Welch, the waitress who posted the receipt (which included the pastor’s signature), was fired.
“I thought the note was insulting, but it was also comical,” Welch told TheConsumerist. “I posted it to Reddit because I thought other users would find it entertaining.”
Pastor Bell has apologized for her action. She told The Smoking Gun that she did leave a $6.29 cash tip (that’s 18 percent) on the table.
“My heart is really broken,” she told them. “I’ve brought embarrassment to my church and my ministry.”
NBC News shared this story with the Emily Post Institute, the experts on social and business etiquette.
“The customer was absolutely out of line,” said Anna Post. “In my opinion, what the pastor did was not only rude, but the message was just snarky. What she did was wrong. I appreciate that there are people who are frustrated with how tipping works in America; this is not the answer.”
In other words, for the servers at a restaurant, that tip is part of his/her salary.
Related articles
- Applebee’s fires waitress for exposing pastor’s ‘give God 10%’ no-tip receipt (familysurvivalprotocol.com)
- Applebee’s Fires Waitress Chelsea Welch After Posting Receipt From Pastor Alois Bell (americanlivewire.com)
- Applebee’s Waitress Canned After Posting Pastor’s Tip (khq.com)
- Applebee’s waitress fired after posting pastor’s no-tip receipt (wtkr.com)
- Applebee Waitress Fired After Posting Pastor’s ‘Give God 10 Percent’ No-Tip Receipt On Reddit (newstalkcleveland.com)
- Applebee’s fires waitress for putting pastor’s snarky receipt note online (pix11.com)
- Applebee’s Fires Waitress Who Posted Receipt from Pastor (praisecharlotte.com)
- Applebee’s Fires Tip-Complaint Waitress (drudge.com)
- Applebee’s waitress fired after posting receipt from Alois Bell, no-tip pastor (mercurynews.com)
As a pastor myself, this is the perfect Sunday school example of using the Lord’s name in vain, and this incident is a total embarrassment to anyone of the cloth. I think that Pastor Bell has clearly not acted in the best interests of her church, congregation, or christianity itself. A pastor who uses the name of God on a bill for a meal, to justify leaving a smaller tip, or no tip at all, is an absolute abuse of their chosen profession as a pastor. I wonder if this pastor expects to pay less than everyone else when she gets her oil changed, applies for a loan, or does any other personal business! Shame on you Pastor Bell, and shame on your church administrators for not dismissing you at once upon seeing this awful act. I wonder if Pastor Bell throws the collection plates into the air, and whatever God wants he takes, and whatever falls back to the ground Pastor Bell keeps! Amazing that something like this even happens!
It is a sad thing to see and it is things like this that give Christians a bad rap. The hypocrisy is sickening and their manipulation of their position not to mention the name of God is appalling. Then to add insult to injury Pastor Bell called demanding that everyone be fired. What kind of Pastor is this???