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The waitress's own accounting of the incident is exceptionally self serving and false. The signature as originally posted was quite legible. Her original accoun

The waitress's own accounting of the incident is exceptionally self serving and false. The signature as originally posted was quite legible. Her original accounting of the incident was completely fabricated because she didn't actually serve the table, though she represented herself as if she did. For example, the customer's name, Alois, is a man's name, but the customer was actually a female with a male's first name. The waitress asserted that the customer was a man. When she later found out she was wrong she backpeddled and claimed she knew that but that she was protecting the customer's identity. However she publicly posted the customer's name and location, enabling people to track down the customer and begin threatening her. Another detail she got wrong was claiming the customer left no tip. The customer left the tip as cash on the table, as most people in the US do, and something that most servers prefer, rather than pay it as part of the bill. The restaurant also though double charged the customer for the tip, meaning the customer ended up paying 36% rather than 18% on the bill as tip. Because the waitress had not served the table she assumed that the strike out of the tip line meant the customer left no tip at all. In short, the waitress violated a customer's privacy, lied about the customer publicly defaming her, publicly ridiculed her religious beliefs, and instigated an internet mob riot against the customer which continues to this day in the form of threats and harassment and has caused the customer severe mental anguish. If I was an attorney in the area I would be preparing a large lawsuit against the restaurant at this time, and I would certainly prevail in court. Her firing was completely justified and her complaining about being fired in the media and claiming herself as victim when she was the bully is absolutely outrageous.

berlinbrown 14y ago
Exactly. Look at it from the other side, Applebee's has to protect their brand. They can't have waitresses posting information about customers online. That is why she was fired. I was immediately shocked by the waitresses' behavior. That one comment set you off that you had to violate your customer's privacy? Also, I wonder if some media outlets are rightly masking the customer's personal information but I saw some posts with the fullname in the image.
- tlrobinson 14y ago
  "I wonder if some media outlets are rightly masking the customer's personal information but I saw some posts with the fullname in the image." It's also ridiculously easy to find the original receipt by uploading it to images.google.com
jeffdavis 14y ago
How did you get all of these details? I would assume that some are in dispute -- e.g. the tip left on the table (how would we know unless both sides confirmed?).
- berlinbrown 14y ago
  We went from talking about Aaron Swartz, suicide, Cyberlaw, startups and algorithms to a discussion about tips being left on the table. This story has truly gone viral.
rdtsc 14y ago
It doesn't even matter what the original thing was about. The way it was handled by the restaurant's PR team is what turned this small sub-reddit topic to a social media nightmare. In one single night, that PR person, probably drove away tends of thousands (if not more) of customers. It doesn't matter who is right or wrong at that point, them not catching which side the public was on, and just arguing back and forth, is what turned this into a train wreck.
- berlinbrown 14y ago
  It wouldn't have happened if the waitress didn't post that image of the receipt online. She acted with malicious intent and I am glad they fired her.
  - rdtsc 14y ago
    My point was it doesn't matter at this stage. It already happened. Time to deal with it. This kind of stuff happens all the time probably and it shows up in local paper at most, or in some /r/wtf sub-reddit. Regardless of what side you are on, you can't deny that the restaurant lost a considerable amount of business in just a couple of days. That should be a fire-able offense.
- edanm 14y ago
  "In one single night, that PR person, probably drove away tends of thousands (if not more) of customers" How did you get to that conclusion? Based on anecdotal evidence from the past, I tend to think very few people (outside of the HN/Reddit crowd) follow this type of news, and of those who do, almost no one cares enough to actually change their behavior.
  - rdtsc 14y ago
    According to this (this was posted below in the comments by another user): http://rlstollar.wordpress.com/2013/02/02/applebees-overnight-social-media-meltdown-a-photo-essay/ http://rlstollar.wordpress.com/2013/02/02/applebees-overnigh...
chrisbolt 14y ago
Why would someone write "I give God 10% why do you get 18"... then leave 18% tip, just in a different way?
- berlinbrown 14y ago
  Why would anyone write anything on a receipt.
stickfigure 14y ago
You're forgetting the smoking gun: The customer actually wrote "I give god 10%, why do you get 18" on the receipt. There's no way around the physical evidence. Internet judgement has convicted the customer of class-A asshattery and sentenced her/him to public ridicule. The waitress is going to come across as a hero in this story no matter what bureaucratic rule she broke. Any sane business owned and run by humans would have had a good laugh and ignored the whiny customer. Instead we have an example of what happens when you try to formalize every decision from how the steaks are cooked to how to respond to customer complaints. Protip: If your company responds to crises like this, it's long past time to get the hell out. I ate at an Applebees recently. It was exactly the kind of soulless microwaved food I would expect from a nationwide, lowest-common-denominator corporate chain. This story does not surprise me one bit.
- berlinbrown 14y ago
  I don't think the waitress is a hero. She violated a person's privacy. The waitress already received the automatic 18% tip. What is her beef? She didn't like one comment on a receipt? How many tables did she wait on that night? 6-10?
  - sxp 14y ago
    She didn't receive the tip. The meal was $34.93 and the tip of $6.29 was scratched out.
    - berlinbrown 14y ago
      Are you sure? If she paid with a credit card and there is the automatic 18%, what processes deducts the automatic tip? It wouldn't have mattered that she crossed out that printed 6.29.
  - stickfigure 14y ago
    This story is not about the waitress. This story is about a pastor caught red-handed being an self-absorbed asshat, followed by the inept flailing of an incompetent bureaucracy. Against this kind of backdrop, the waitress would have to kick puppies in order to look unsympathetic.
zura 14y ago
I personally don't get whole this tip tradition - just give me the check stating the exact amount I have to pay. And give the appropriate salary to the wait{er|ress}.
- clicks 14y ago
  Thank you. I find the power imbalance in these situations to be very uncomfortable -- half the time in the back of my mind I'm thinking to myself this waitress has a big smile on her face because ultimately all she wants is a nice tip; the smiley front is unauthentic. Just please give the servers and waiters a proper salary and let me go on with my day. The very idea of tipping to me is absurd and silly. What constitutes that a service be tipped anyway? Doesn't the guy who spends 30 minutes explaining to me how I should install my bathroom tiles at Home Depot deserve a tip? Or the cooks in the backhouse -- who, arguably, have much difficult work to do than servers/waiters? The immigrant dishwashers who never even get a chance to have their common dignity affirmed at any step of the way -- because they're not palatable enough in their looks and appearances to be seen by a customer? Or the Sears cashier clerk who does me the favour of looking in the back warehouse to see if the shoes I'm looking for are really not in stock -- and then calls other stores to see if they have them, when he didn't have to do any of that? Just give them a nice salary. Don't try to guilt-trip me by bringing up how they're paid "below minimum wage". And, to put a startup spin on my post: there should be a site that rates the ethical practices of stores/restaurants. Does the restaurant pay its dishwashers a respectable salary? If yes, I will be okay and willing to pay a little extra. If they don't: I'll happily never do business there again.
  - jnsaff2 14y ago
    As an outsider this is my theory: The reason is to quote as low as a number as possible to make people feel this is cheap. And one place can't start "doing the right thing" and paying a decent salary because they would be perceived more expensive and they would also upset people who are used to the status quo. I also find it ridiculous that the sales tax is not included in the price written on the sticker in the stores in the US. But again, I guess quoting a lower price and charging more when the customer has already made up their mind is better for the business.

berlinbrown 14y ago

Exactly. Look at it from the other side, Applebee's has to protect their brand. They can't have waitresses posting information about customers online. That is why she was fired. I was immediately shocked by the waitresses' behavior. That one comment set you off that you had to violate your customer's privacy? Also, I wonder if some media outlets are rightly masking the customer's personal information but I saw some posts with the fullname in the image.

tlrobinson 14y ago
"I wonder if some media outlets are rightly masking the customer's personal information but I saw some posts with the fullname in the image." It's also ridiculously easy to find the original receipt by uploading it to images.google.com

jeffdavis 14y ago

How did you get all of these details? I would assume that some are in dispute -- e.g. the tip left on the table (how would we know unless both sides confirmed?).

berlinbrown 14y ago
We went from talking about Aaron Swartz, suicide, Cyberlaw, startups and algorithms to a discussion about tips being left on the table. This story has truly gone viral.

rdtsc 14y ago

It doesn't even matter what the original thing was about. The way it was handled by the restaurant's PR team is what turned this small sub-reddit topic to a social media nightmare. In one single night, that PR person, probably drove away tends of thousands (if not more) of customers. It doesn't matter who is right or wrong at that point, them not catching which side the public was on, and just arguing back and forth, is what turned this into a train wreck.

berlinbrown 14y ago
It wouldn't have happened if the waitress didn't post that image of the receipt online. She acted with malicious intent and I am glad they fired her.
- rdtsc 14y ago
  My point was it doesn't matter at this stage. It already happened. Time to deal with it. This kind of stuff happens all the time probably and it shows up in local paper at most, or in some /r/wtf sub-reddit. Regardless of what side you are on, you can't deny that the restaurant lost a considerable amount of business in just a couple of days. That should be a fire-able offense.
edanm 14y ago
"In one single night, that PR person, probably drove away tends of thousands (if not more) of customers" How did you get to that conclusion? Based on anecdotal evidence from the past, I tend to think very few people (outside of the HN/Reddit crowd) follow this type of news, and of those who do, almost no one cares enough to actually change their behavior.
- rdtsc 14y ago
  According to this (this was posted below in the comments by another user): http://rlstollar.wordpress.com/2013/02/02/applebees-overnight-social-media-meltdown-a-photo-essay/ http://rlstollar.wordpress.com/2013/02/02/applebees-overnigh...

chrisbolt 14y ago

Why would someone write "I give God 10% why do you get 18"... then leave 18% tip, just in a different way?

berlinbrown 14y ago
Why would anyone write anything on a receipt.

stickfigure 14y ago

You're forgetting the smoking gun: The customer actually wrote "I give god 10%, why do you get 18" on the receipt. There's no way around the physical evidence. Internet judgement has convicted the customer of class-A asshattery and sentenced her/him to public ridicule. The waitress is going to come across as a hero in this story no matter what bureaucratic rule she broke. Any sane business owned and run by humans would have had a good laugh and ignored the whiny customer. Instead we have an example of what happens when you try to formalize every decision from how the steaks are cooked to how to respond to customer complaints. Protip: If your company responds to crises like this, it's long past time to get the hell out. I ate at an Applebees recently. It was exactly the kind of soulless microwaved food I would expect from a nationwide, lowest-common-denominator corporate chain. This story does not surprise me one bit.

berlinbrown 14y ago
I don't think the waitress is a hero. She violated a person's privacy. The waitress already received the automatic 18% tip. What is her beef? She didn't like one comment on a receipt? How many tables did she wait on that night? 6-10?
- sxp 14y ago
  She didn't receive the tip. The meal was $34.93 and the tip of $6.29 was scratched out.
  - berlinbrown 14y ago
    Are you sure? If she paid with a credit card and there is the automatic 18%, what processes deducts the automatic tip? It wouldn't have mattered that she crossed out that printed 6.29.
- stickfigure 14y ago
  This story is not about the waitress. This story is about a pastor caught red-handed being an self-absorbed asshat, followed by the inept flailing of an incompetent bureaucracy. Against this kind of backdrop, the waitress would have to kick puppies in order to look unsympathetic.

zura 14y ago

I personally don't get whole this tip tradition - just give me the check stating the exact amount I have to pay. And give the appropriate salary to the wait{er|ress}.

clicks 14y ago
Thank you. I find the power imbalance in these situations to be very uncomfortable -- half the time in the back of my mind I'm thinking to myself this waitress has a big smile on her face because ultimately all she wants is a nice tip; the smiley front is unauthentic. Just please give the servers and waiters a proper salary and let me go on with my day. The very idea of tipping to me is absurd and silly. What constitutes that a service be tipped anyway? Doesn't the guy who spends 30 minutes explaining to me how I should install my bathroom tiles at Home Depot deserve a tip? Or the cooks in the backhouse -- who, arguably, have much difficult work to do than servers/waiters? The immigrant dishwashers who never even get a chance to have their common dignity affirmed at any step of the way -- because they're not palatable enough in their looks and appearances to be seen by a customer? Or the Sears cashier clerk who does me the favour of looking in the back warehouse to see if the shoes I'm looking for are really not in stock -- and then calls other stores to see if they have them, when he didn't have to do any of that? Just give them a nice salary. Don't try to guilt-trip me by bringing up how they're paid "below minimum wage". And, to put a startup spin on my post: there should be a site that rates the ethical practices of stores/restaurants. Does the restaurant pay its dishwashers a respectable salary? If yes, I will be okay and willing to pay a little extra. If they don't: I'll happily never do business there again.
- jnsaff2 14y ago
  As an outsider this is my theory: The reason is to quote as low as a number as possible to make people feel this is cheap. And one place can't start "doing the right thing" and paying a decent salary because they would be perceived more expensive and they would also upset people who are used to the status quo. I also find it ridiculous that the sales tax is not included in the price written on the sticker in the stores in the US. But again, I guess quoting a lower price and charging more when the customer has already made up their mind is better for the business.