BUZZFEE: Applebee's Server Gets Stiffed By Pastor Who Gave Her Tip To God, Promptly Gets Fired By Applebee's

[elkabong82]

The "Worst Tipper Club" from my years as a waiter (generalized, as there are always exceptions):

Teenagers (the absolute worst of the bunch)

Sunday, just got out of service, crowd

Rednecks/white trash

African Americans (code name Canadians)

Firemen/EMTs, even after a discounted check because they are civil service workers (police tip well)

Families with rambunctious and messy children (the bigger the mess, the lower the tip)

People visiting from other countries

Old people

Soccer moms

[Larry]

Tips are only voluntary if we choose to ignore that wait staff get paid half of MINIMUM wage and the other half is earned from tips (something that is awful IMO).

So your point is that when the restaurant chooses to intentionally underpay their staff, then it becomes mandatory for the customers to ignore the stated, agreed-upon, prices, and pay more, anyway?

Wal-Mart underpays their staff, too. (Well, OK. I've seen a lot of people at Wal-Mart who appear, to me, to be being overpaid, for the pathetic job they're doing. But work with me, here.) Is it mandatory for people who shop at Wal-Mart to pay more than what the cash register says?

[Dan T.]

Yes, tips are not really "voluntary." They are part of an understood social contract... if you dine at a place with table service, you tip your waiter. If you don't want to tip, don't go to a restaurant with table service. Period.

[AsburySkinsFan]

So your point is that when the restaurant chooses to intentionally underpay their staff, then it becomes mandatory for the customers to ignore the stated, agreed-upon, prices, and pay more, anyway?

1 Timothy 5:18 for the scripture says, "You shall not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain," and, "The laborer deserves to be paid."

Wal-Mart underpays their staff, too. (Well, OK. I've seen a lot of people at Wal-Mart who appear, to me, to be being overpaid, for the pathetic job they're doing. But work with me, here.) Is it mandatory for people who shop at Wal-Mart to pay more than what the cash register says?

What Wal*Mart pays an employee less than minimum wage?

[elkabong82]

So your point is that when the restaurant chooses to intentionally underpay their staff, then it becomes mandatory for the customers to ignore the stated, agreed-upon, prices, and pay more, anyway?

Wal-Mart underpays their staff, too. (Well, OK. I've seen a lot of people at Wal-Mart who appear, to me, to be being overpaid, for the pathetic job they're doing. But work with me, here.) Is it mandatory for people who shop at Wal-Mart to pay more than what the cash register says?

Wal-mart doesn't pay their staff $2.15/hr, they have to pay at least minimum wage.

The stated. agreed upon price has employee wages factored in to it, so you're paying less for your meal because the wait staff makes wages based off tips. If the wait staff made minimum wage or higher, like at Wal-mart, then the price for your food would be higher.

[endzone_dave]

I usually tip based on how hard/miserable the job is. I tip food servers very well, they bust their asses. I tip the people who clean up my hotel room every day. Someone like a airport shuttle bus driver doesn't always get a tip, their job seems pretty cushy.

[renaissance]

The 10% is the percentage called for in the Bible. In my church (and I assume many churches), the 10% tithe goes to rent, utilities, pastor(s) wages, the our regional and national conference, our school system, wages for missionaries overseas and national and international outreach efforts. I suspect you already know this, but I wasn't completely sure if you were asking rhetorically or not

When I first saw the receipt I thought she meant to say 100%. I didn't even think of it in terms of money for some reason, I guess because she ended up not giving any tip. Not even 10%.

Also with regard to "shaming" the tipper, I don't see any issue. Who actually outed the pastor? Did someone else recognize her signature/name, or did she come forward first? Regardless, once you write something like that I think you're asking for attention. It's a prickish thing to do so I don't feel one bit bad for her being called out. Especially when I'm pretty sure the Applebees menu says that 18% gratuity will automatically be added to your bill for parties of 8 or more.

[DRSmith]

Tips are only voluntary if we choose to ignore that wait staff get paid half of MINIMUM wage and the other half is earned from tips (something that is awful IMO).

The tithe (which is NEVER mentioned in the New Testament) is a false comparison, because that isn't tipping God to help God pay His bills.

The pastor most likely knows ALL of this and still decided to act shamefully.

The waitress did pretty much what Shelah did to Judah (Genesis 38) when she publicly shamed him for not doing what was right. The biggest difference was that Judah recognized that he was wrong, and this pastor got the waitress fired.

Actually this tithing ignorance is something I believe was started with those who just wanted to justify their own greed when it comes to taxes and tipping. The mix of politics with religion is really bad when people are not honest.

Yes there was tithing, but there was laws above that for helping the poor everything from laws about how much crops one could take from their own field leaving some for the poor to laws on helping the poor and then forgiving the money owed in the seventh year.

[endzone_dave]

Question: How much are you supposed to tip at buffets? I find it hard to tip someone for telling me where the plates and cups are.

[AsburySkinsFan]

Also with regard to "shaming" the tipper, I don't see any issue. Who actually outed the pastor? Did someone else recognize her signature/name, or did she come forward first? Regardless, once you write something like that I think you're asking for attention. It's a prickish thing to do so I don't feel one bit bad for her being called out. Especially when I'm pretty sure the Applebees menu says that 18% gratuity will automatically be added to your bill for parties of 8 or more.

Yes....yes....and...yes!

I bet the pastor thought this was terribly clever, and that it would stay anonymous...Numbers 32:23 But if you do not do this, you have sinned against the LORD; and be sure your sin will find you out.

[skinsmarydu]

Back in the early 90s when I worked at Applebee's (yes, for about 6 years, off and on), we begged for the gratuity addition to be put on the menu everytime we heard a new printing was coming out. We were told in a memo from top brass that it would never happen. I so hope they've changed that, like ren said.

(I stopped working there when the pasta starting coming in pre-cooked, vacuum-packed in a bag.)

[AsburySkinsFan]

Question: How much are you supposed to tip at buffets? I find it hard to tip someone for telling me where the plates and cups are.

Yeah....that's a hard one I'll admit.

---------- Post added February-2nd-2013 at 11:16 AM ----------

(I stopped working there when the pasta starting coming in pre-cooked, vacuum-packed in a bag.)

What a coincidence, that's about the same time I stopped eating there.

[Kosher Ham]

The "Worst Tipper Club" from my years as a waiter (generalized, as there are always exceptions):

Add on our military service members.. and you have a complete list.

[Dont Taze Me Bro]

Naw, I am just a student intern struggling like the rest of the city. But like I said, if I got it, I don't mind helping out anybody, but that's me. And I can't hate on you because you want to make sure your money is going to something good. Doesn't mean you are stingy, just means you reward hard work and whatnot. I respect that.

I feel ya man. I really want to help out people that need it, but it's just so hard for me to not think someone is scamming, especially when its based off words coming out of their mouth. The other day, me and the wife were eating lunch at a local resturaunt. Some lady comes up to us after the meal and said she was selling suckers to raise money for her families medical bills, etc. etc. etc. I lied and told her I didnt have any cash (Im not always a jerk lol).

My stance was this, the resturant is family owned and they let her do it, maybe they felt sorry for her. What they should have done was offer to sell them at the cash register for her and give her all the money donated/spent, instead of letting her bug people having lunch, granted she waited until we were done eating, but I did see her approach others that were mid-way through a meal. If she is a friend of the resturaunt, then they should have taken that approach, and maybe when I was paying the bill, if they said something like, "Hey a friend of ours has come into hard times and is selling suckers to raise what money she can for her families medical bills, would you like to buy a sucker to help her out?" I'd probably have bought one.

Hell, when I see someone on the side of the road with car trouble, my first instinct is to offer help or at least a phone call to get them help. But reality sets in and there are bad people out there who run that scam only to rob you when there is nothing wrong with their car. Its really sad the world has come to this, but in reality, it has and thats whats caused a lot of people (myself included) to keep on driving by, ignoring people asking for handouts, or flat out saying no.

[authentic]

This so-called "Pastor" and Applebees should be completely ashamed of themselves.

---------- Post added February-2nd-2013 at 12:15 PM ----------

Love your neighbor.....guess that means stiff them on the tip then get them fired for shaming you publicly.

yes, there are special divine "perks" when you're a man or woman of the cloth. It doesn't get much better than that. I'm sure God is pleased.

[TheGoodBits]

I started using 20% as my standard when I was a teenager, mostly to try to offset to perception of teenagers as crappy tippers. Still use 20%, occasionally as high as 25-30% for particularly good service and will demote them to 15% if they're below average.

Don't eat at a restaurant if you don't want to tip your waiter, you should know going into it what the prices are and be able to do simple math to understand what you are expected to tip. If you have a $40 bill, it's $2 more to bump them from 15 to 20%. Dont be a cheap *******, tip people in the service industry more than expected minimum.

[Ludomaniac]

I almost ALWAYS tip well, especially at casinos cause cash if flying around there. Routinely i will walk up to a random bar in a casino and get an $8 drink and throw a $20 at the bartender then bounce

[G.A.C.O.L.B.]

I delivered pizzas--Papa Johns and Dominos--for like five years while I was in school. I kept track of ALL the ****ty tippers; in a little address book with name, address and tip amount. I always wanted to start a website where people submit the info of ****ty tippers. Kinda like a way to put people on blast and shame them into tipping right. ****tytippers.com or something. Like I had serious discussions with a webpage developer about it but nothing came of it. Just wasn't sure how we could verify the info that people submitted

[Dan T.]

Question: How much are you supposed to tip at buffets? I find it hard to tip someone for telling me where the plates and cups are.

In some buffet setups, the wait staff has to clear your plate multiple times in addition to bringing you drink or water refills. In those situations, they're working almost as hard as a waiter with menu service, so they deserve something...

[Redskin4ever]

Question: How much are you supposed to tip at buffets? I find it hard to tip someone for telling me where the plates and cups are.

With buffets or places where your order at the counter and they bring your food to you, I normally tip a buck or two per person. Depending on the price of the meal, 2 bucks could be 20%. If the servers don't ever really show up but once or twice, leaving a buck seems to be too much.

[Bliz]

The "Worst Tipper Club" from my years as a waiter (generalized, as there are always exceptions):

Firemen/EMTs, even after a discounted check because they are civil service workers (police tip well)

Families with rambunctious and messy children (the bigger the mess, the lower the tip)

Those two stun me. Especially the firemen. When I worked for a charity (well, it ended up being a fake charity, it at least a dishonest one, but that's another story) I found that firemen were reliably generous with their donations and volunteering. I frequently commented on it, because I was so impressed by the consistency of their generosity, despite not making a ton of money

The second...I have a 4 yo and a 1 yo. They make messes at restaurants (and at home). I always feel bad about it. It's not uncommon for me to apologize to wait staff for the mess, and I always throw in a little extra if there's a lot of food on the floor or something.

[Cheers, Beers and Mountaineers]

The second...I have a 4 yo and a 1 yo. They make messes at restaurants (and at home). I always feel bad about it. It's not uncommon for me to apologize to wait staff for the mess, and I always throw in a little extra if there's a lot of food on the floor or something.

You're in the minority. At least in my experience most parents with very messy children don't bother trying to keep their kids in line, apologize, or leave a decent tip. So kudos to you. We really do appreciate when parents try to make an effort.

And while we're talking about ******* customers, I absolutely hate those who linger, even try to order more things when they are the only customers left and the place is clearly closing down. The kitchen staff has already left and the waitstaff is cleaning and doing all the other necessary sidework before the night is over. They ****ing know they're holding everyone up, they just don't care. They also leave bull**** tips.

[big#44]

I delivered pizzas--Papa Johns and Dominos--for like five years while I was in school. I kept track of ALL the ****ty tippers; in a little address book with name, address and tip amount. I always wanted to start a website where people submit the info of ****ty tippers. Kinda like a way to put people on blast and shame them into tipping right. ****tytippers.com or something. Like I had serious discussions with a webpage developer about it but nothing came of it. Just wasn't sure how we could verify the info that people submitted

Brilliant idea, and i'm actually surprised it hasn't been done already. The only way I could think of verifying it would be with a picture of the receipt maybe?

[Bubble Screen]

I delivered pizzas--Papa Johns and Dominos--for like five years while I was in school. I kept track of ALL the ****ty tippers; in a little address book with name, address and tip amount. I always wanted to start a website where people submit the info of ****ty tippers. Kinda like a way to put people on blast and shame them into tipping right. ****tytippers.com or something. Like I had serious discussions with a webpage developer about it but nothing came of it. Just wasn't sure how we could verify the info that people submitted

While I understand your plight, I don't feel this would have been a good idea for you to go through with. You more than likely would have ended up in some sort of legal trouble, if you ever did go through with it. But, more importantly, you would have been stooping to the same level of the cheap ****s that stiffed you.

I'm a believer in karma. Maybe I'm foolish to think that, but I do. I feel that people that do these type things, end up getting paid back for it down the road. And if they don't pay for it that way, they will eventually have to answer for it in the end.

Point is, you can't change stupid. Some people learned this type of behavior (cheapness) at an early age, from terrible parenting. And then there's some people that are just, well, ...stupid. It's like drivers on the road. There are ALWAYS gonna be idiots driving every day. You can't change their behavior. You can't make them use their turn signal, or get their slow ass out of the left lane. You just have to learn to roll with it. I'm constantly reminding myself of that all the time.

---------- Post added February-2nd-2013 at 02:44 PM ----------

Those two stun me. Especially the firemen. When I worked for a charity (well, it ended up being a fake charity, it at least a dishonest one, but that's another story) I found that firemen were reliably generous with their donations and volunteering. I frequently commented on it, because I was so impressed by the consistency of their generosity, despite not making a ton of money

The second...I have a 4 yo and a 1 yo. They make messes at restaurants (and at home). I always feel bad about it. It's not uncommon for me to apologize to wait staff for the mess, and I always throw in a little extra if there's a lot of food on the floor or something.

You are a good man.

[IONTOP]

Question: Because this story got so big, do you think it reached people who are ignorant about tipping? Like they were brought up with the 10% rule and now they realize it has evolved to 15%-20%?

I hope it does...