A pastor created a huge backlash on Reddit when he left a note on a St. Louis Applebee’s restaurant bill refusing a gratuity to a server. The server, Chelsea Welch, took a photo of the bill and the note, on which the patron identified herself as a pastor, scratched out the tip and included the words, “I give God 10 percent, why should you get 18?” When the photo was posted on Reddit, it prompted more than 3,700 comments in less than a day.
The server told FoxNews that the tip was automatically added by the restaurant because of the pastor’s large party and was beyond the waitress’s control. “Parties up to eight at my work may tip whatever they’d like,” she wrote, “but larger parties receive an automatic gratuity. It’s in the computer, it’s not something I do.”
Blogs and local news outlets all over the Internet have picked up the story, adding comments similar to The Consumerist: “We understand why someone might be upset about an automatic gratuity. But we can’t recall any religious texts that claim the best way to combat an unpleasant situation is to leave a passive-aggressive note while simultaneously penalizing someone who did not create the problem.”
According to Yahoo News, after the server posted the photo, the pastor complained to the manager of the Applebee’s restaurant, who promptly fired Welch. In an email, Welch told YN that the pastor, who has now been identified as Alois Bell, told the restaurant manager that Welch’s behavior had “ruined her reputation.” Welch was surprised that she was fired, especially since there’s “nothing in the employee handbook” forbidding her behavior.
Bell told a representative of The Smoking Gun that the note on the bill was a “lapse in judgment” and “brought embarrassment to her church and ministry.”
Update: Watch the CNN video interview with both parties here.
Discussion Starter: Shouldn’t pastors and church leaders be the best tippers? How do you handle bad service—with grace or grated teeth?
