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

[renaissance]

Once I was hitting an ATM one evening and had a guy come up to me with a long sob story about how he was on a 24 hour pass from a nearby naval air station and he lost his wallet and now needed exactly $13.20 to take regional transit back to his base and he was going to be in so much trouble if he didn't check in by midnight and if I wrote down my name and address for him he would send the money back to me etc. He was a good actor, I was a softie, I gave it to him.

About ten days later he tried the same story on me at the same ATM. I just started laughing. He started into a set spiel of hurt and outrage at my lack of support for the troops before he realized that I was laughing because I had already been one of his marks.

Should have offered to give him money the pay phone and see what he said.

[stevemcqueen1]

When I worked in a restaurant, my $2.13 per hour wage ended up only covering my taxes. I'd get my paychecks every couple weeks and they'd usually be a dollar or two. Maybe more if I worked long hours without taking home a bunch of tips. 100 % of my income came from tips. It's tough. Being able to pay your rent and buy groceries absolutely depends on the largesse of others, most of whom don't realize the role of the tip. On slow days, or when I got the smoking section, It'd be a 6 hour shift where I'd make 20 dollars. That's not liveable. I know I made less than that in a shift before. So next time you go out to eat, realize what your tip means to the waitstaff. And honestly, if you have to stiff someone because you ran out of money or whatever, I'd apologize on the check. It feels horrible getting stiffed, it'd feel better knowing it wasn't anything you did.

When I go to bars just to drink I usually tip way over any standard percentage because my checks are small and it takes a decent amount of service. A lot of times I go in expecting to spend about X amount and I'll tip 40 or 50% and hit that amount because I had budgeted it. Big tips like that aren't too much of a sacrifice to me but it feels really damn good when you're a server and you get one.

[headexplode]

But the tip is always automatically added for large parties. And the restaurant will usually tell you as much before they serve you, but at the very least it's written on the menu and it's ****ing common knowledge to anyone who's not a complete dumbass.

What I couldn't understand is the woman saying she crossed out the automatically-added gratuity (as if it just a suggestion) and then was surprised when they charged her anyway. Excuse me, lady, have you NEVER BEEN TO A ****ING RESTAURANT BEFORE?!?!

[jobaga]

Yeah, that's how I am too. If I picked the food up, I'm not giving 10-15% or anything. I'll drop a buck or two in the jar if they have one, but the receipt is being zeroed out. When you stop to think about it, it's interesting how many things have tipping, not that it's required, but just accepted. Food service, barbershops, hotels, heck even the newspaper delivery guy (when we got the paper) had the Christmas envelope. Tipping is pretty much everywhere now, and if I've heard correctly, the concept is pretty unusual in other countries.

I am afraid of the tip jar. I fear the Constanza situation, where you give a tip but no one see you give it

---------- Post added February-1st-2013 at 01:40 PM ----------

Let's just come out and say it. There is a culturally dysfunctional notion among many in African-American society that tipping is for suckers. Is it exclusive to blacks? No. Is it more prevalent among blacks? Ask someone you know who has worked for any length of time as a waiter.

I always thought foreigners where the worst....especially Europeans

[mistertim]

I always thought foreigners where the worst....especially Europeans

I think a lot of that is the difference in cultural norms surrounding tipping and jobs that, in the US, involve tipping. IIRC in most European countries servers get paid a regular salary and tipping just isn't really done in general. Even a server will give you a weird look over there if you leave a tip after eating. So I don't think it is malicious as far as Europeans; they aren't usually being cheapskates, they just don't know any better. That being said, its usually a good idea to research stuff like that before you go to another country.

As far as my personal experiences from my time as a waiter, I definitely had a couple of times where a church group would leave bible tracts instead of tips. And they were generally pretty big tables and tended to get bitchy easily as well. Getting stiffed on a tip really sucks, especially on a large table. I also had a guy leave me no tip once because he was there with his girlfriend and she was flirting with me.

[ABQCOWBOY]

I'd be interested in knowing more about what exactly the Truth and World Deliverance Ministry is. This, apparently, is the church that Mrs. Bell is a Pastor in. It's in St. Louis.

[renaissance]

I'd be interested in knowing more about what exactly the Truth and World Deliverance Ministry is. This, apparently, is the church that Mrs. Bell is a Pastor in. It's in St. Louis.

I don't know, but a google search found this: https://www.facebook.com/WDOMChurch

"ALERT: This is World Deliverance Outreach Ministries of Chandler Arizona where PASTOR CHRIS HOLMES is Senior Pastor. We are in no way affiliated with the Pastor that left the message to the waitress in St. Louis. PLEASE BE ADVISED WE ARE IN NO WAY ASSOCIATED WITH THIS INCIDENT. God Bless."

poor guys.

[Rocky21]

I'd be interested in knowing more about what exactly the Truth and World Deliverance Ministry is. This, apparently, is the church that Mrs. Bell is a Pastor in. It's in St. Louis.

Well this link has an embedded video of the “pastor” preaching. I think this will get you most of the way there. http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documen...ghtbox-popup-1

[Sizzla3000]

That pastor is about as genuine as Ray Lewis on the pulpit.

[Botched]

Once I was hitting an ATM one evening and had a guy come up to me with a long sob story about how he was on a 24 hour pass from a nearby naval air station and he lost his wallet and now needed exactly $13.20 to take regional transit back to his base and he was going to be in so much trouble if he didn't check in by midnight and if I wrote down my name and address for him he would send the money back to me etc. He was a good actor, I was a softie, I gave it to him.

About ten days later he tried the same story on me at the same ATM. I just started laughing. He started into a set spiel of hurt and outrage at my lack of support for the troops before he realized that I was laughing because I had already been one of his marks.

Wow, I'm glad I read this. I totally would have fallen for that. In fact I probably would have given him $20 so he could get a sandwich too.

[greenspandan]

Once I was hitting an ATM one evening and had a guy come up to me with a long sob story about how he was on a 24 hour pass from a nearby naval air station and he lost his wallet and now needed exactly $13.20 to take regional transit back to his base and he was going to be in so much trouble if he didn't check in by midnight and if I wrote down my name and address for him he would send the money back to me etc. He was a good actor, I was a softie, I gave it to him.

the military reference, the recent loss of wallet/id/means of cash, the promise to pay back, the need to get back to base (or to a funeral) are all very common elements of these stories. they will also often try to sell you something, like a $5 jacket from the salvation army, for $40 or something.

[HogNose]

What a jerk. I would hate to see the people that belong to her church. Glad the pastor was mortified by this going viral but it's a shame the server lost her job.

[Stugein]

it's a shame the server lost her job.

It is, but frankly that's a firing offense nearly anywhere. You just can't do that no matter how funny you think the mob on Reddit will find it.

[mojo]

I think a lot of that is the difference in cultural norms surrounding tipping and jobs that, in the US, involve tipping. IIRC in most European countries servers get paid a regular salary and tipping just isn't really done in general. Even a server will give you a weird look over there if you leave a tip after eating.

That reminds of the time a friend and I were in Munich on the last day of a long stay. We had just finished an awesome meal at a steakhouse were in essence clearing out our pockets of German money since we were leaving first thing in the morning. We left the waitress a nice tip, nothing crazy but probably in the 50% range. When we told her that was her tip, she was stunned. To the point that when we got up to leave, the entire staff was standing and waving to us like we were celebrities. It was hilarious.

[Enter Apotheosis]

If you take 10% and double it that will always get you to exactly 20%, not roughly 20%.

Witchcraft!

... or you could just divide by 5.