<p>The plot thickens –
Apparently Applebee’s is perfectly okay with posting photos of customers’ notes, complete with legible signatures, when the note is <em>complimentary</em>. So much for protecting customers’ “privacy”.
Also, some utterly inept Applebee’s PR person made the whole kerfluffle many times worse by posting multiple times to Facebook (then Twitter) in the wee hours of the morning and deleting thousands of negative posts!
Details here:
Title - Applebee’s Overnight Social Media Meltdown: A Photo Essay
[Applebee’s</a> Overnight Social Media Meltdown: A Photo Essay R.L. Stollar, Journalist.](<a href=“http://rlstollar.■■■■■■■■■■■■■/2013/02/02/applebees-overnight-social-media-meltdown-a-photo-essay/]Applebee’s”>Applebee’s Overnight Social Media Meltdown: A Photo Essay – R.L. Stollar)</p>
<p>While I believe the waitress should have used better judgement, she should not have gotten fired. In fact she may have a potential lawsuit because Applebee’s have violated their own policy by posting other patrons notes and signatures on the Internet. And seriously, Good for the waitress. She outed a mean spirited pastor. Applebee’s should have enforced their own policy that evening with the gratuity already added to the large party. That young waitress will no doubt get hired for another job. She has a lot going on for herself.
Some poster mentioned that if you don’t want to pay a tip then do takeout or eat at the bar. My husband and I love eating at the bar, but we tip 20% there as well. I don’t understand why the service at the bar area would deserve less of a tip. They do just as much work.</p>
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<p>False comparison. None of those people make less than minimum wage because of the expectation of tips.</p>
<p>Here is a good tipping policy to follow. If the person makes minimum wage or more, or has health care or a retirement through the job there is no requirement to tip them. You are free to do so for great service if you like.</p>
<p>If a person is paid below minimum wage if you do not want to tip do not use their service.</p>
<p>“No, when I pay $15 for a small steak at Applebee’s, that price should include the service! Not to pay for the owner’s new sports car.”</p>
<p>Eh?</p>
<p>That is a justification used to convince yourself that you are not screwing the wait staff</p>
<p>This will be a business school case study for sure - what a PR disaster. And all over $6 and change. The self-proclaimed “Pastor” should apologize for her actions and ask Applebees to rehire Chelsea Welch. Chelsea should apologize for posting the receipt online. And Applebees should review and revamp how they respond to any kind of public incident. Deleting posts on Facebook is childish and just fuels the fire.</p>
<p>A lawsuit is definitely coming.</p>
<p>Who will sue?</p>
<p>waitress. if this is true
“Apparently Applebee’s is perfectly okay with posting photos of customers’ notes, complete with legible signatures, when the note is <em>complimentary</em>. So much for protecting customers’ “privacy”.”</p>
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<p>But if you were to look at the history of these topics, you’ll find that people are expected to tip for all of them.</p>
<p>And that “expectation” is an issue between the wait staff and the employer. Not the customer.</p>
<p>My college student daughter works as a waitress at Applebees. She learned from her hardnosed father what makes a good waitress. Attentive, refilling drinks before being asked, checking in to make sure everything is OK, she’s clean, pleasant, always smiling and friendly. I always taught my kids that the tip was part of the cost of the meal…sometimes we only had a certain amount of money to spend on our meal…so we cut back on what we ordered to make sure we had enough left for the tip. She see’s people ordering expensive meals, multiple expensive drinks, and leave her 0. An average night for her runs from 5:00 pm and she rolls in around 4:00 am (her Applebees is open till 2:00 am) Sometimes large parties roll in after concerts, events etc. at 1:30 or so and guess what, they get served. And guess what else, usually they leave little to no tip. The 18% gratituty is “recommended” and no one can be forced to pay it. So, she sometimes ends her very long night, waiting on a table of 10 or more, with no tip in site. If you average out what she makes per hour, it probably comes out to between $ 12.00 - $14.00 per hour. But she says if it weren’t for her “regulars” who are very generous she’d almost be working for free.</p>
<p>I think Applebees was perfectly in the right - and within their rights - to fire the waitress, even if they are OK with other instances of posting a reciept.</p>
<p>It is all a matter of context. When we all shake our heads over zero tolerance policies, it is precisely because context isn’t taken into account. It might be appropriate to suspend a kid for bringing in a realistic looking toy gun and using it to scare people. It is just silly to suspend another kid for bringing a hot pink water gun to the playground. Should the school have to suspend one if it suspends the other?</p>
<p>In this case, the problem isn’t just violating a customer’s privacy, it is humiliating the customer. To use another analogy, just because a restaurant allows its staff to select a “customer of the month” and put their name on a sign in the restaurant doesn’t mean it shouldn’t punish an employee that decides to pick a “worst customer of the month” and do the same.</p>
<p>Not every fireable offence has to be clearly delineated in an employee handbook. I’m going to guess Applebees doesn’t have a policy about whether or not a disgruntled waitress can take the food off the customer’s table and throw it on the floor. Does that mean a waitress fired for such an act can’t sue?</p>
<p>The pastor sounds like a piece of work. She doesn’t necessarily deserve to have this incident come up on a google search whenever she applies for a job.</p>
<p>I agree with everything apprenticeprof just said.</p>
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It’s normal that management ‘spokespeople’ or an advertising department with management approval can make particular public statements/postings but not permit random employees from posting anything they want publicly about the company - especially negative postings about customers for the purpose of publicly humiliating the customer.</p>
<p>The two scenarios aren’t the same - one is normally allowable and the other isn’t. Even the posting waitress realizes she messed up with this and shouldn’t have done it.</p>
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I guess that’s a key point.
Alwaysinterested - Has your D ever had anyone cross out the 18% line?</p>
<p>Yes, the 18% gets crossed out the majority of the time. The large parties are the worst… they want separate checks, and generally will leave $1.00 - 2.00 cash on the table per check…they must think collectively, they are leaving a good tip… when in reality its far below even what is generally an accepted tip of “doubling the tax” which in our state equals about 15%. And as you can imagine, large parties are a unique challenge to any waitstaff.</p>
<p>I really find it impossible to understand people who don’t tip. I absolutely understand asking for a separate check–I’ve been in situations where I carefully ordered something inexpensive and could not afford to split the check and subsidize someone else’s lobster or steak, not to mention their cocktails–but NOT for the purpose of evading a reasonable tip!</p>
<p>Everyone knows what the drill is here. I’d love it if waitstaff made a decent wage and tipping was rare, but that’s just not the way it is. EVERYONE knows that it is common to add an automatic service fee on large parties.</p>
<p>I’ve often seen conversations about certain demographics being lousy tippers. This woman certainly fits the stereotype. When I eat out with my mother, I usually leave some extra money on the table if she’s paying, because I know that like many older people she is not a good tipper. :)</p>
<p>Applebees should have just handled this internally and not fired this waitress. This is a nightmare for them. Who the heck advised them?</p>
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<p>The difference is that the staff who serves your food at the bar/counter are being paid at/above minimum wage and aren’t relying on tips for income. Any tips in their case is an actual extra bonus much like tip jars at Starbucks. Trade-off is that you’ll have a much longer wait during busy times. </p>
<p>Am going by what I observed at one restaurant during my very short career as a dishwasher and from what I’ve heard from friends who worked as waiters. All the waiter friends said if you don’t want/can’t afford wait service, do take out or eat at the bar where you won’t be served by waiters relying on tips for part/most of their income. </p>
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<p>Essentially relying strictly on the letter of the law as a defense doesn’t protect against negative PR…especially when there’s a David vs Goliath bullying perception among the greater public. In this case, the fired waitress vs nasty hypocritical Pastor and Applebee’s respectively. </p>
<p>Too many rules-bound lawyers and bureaucrats forget that to the disservice of their clients. Sometimes to the point of driving their clients/institutional heads to bankruptcy/forced resignations. </p>
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<p>Older people not leaving a reasonable tip is likely caused by ignorance due to changes in tipping etiquette starting sometime in the early-mid '80s due to changes in the way tax authorities tax tips. </p>
<p>While 10% was reasonable decades ago, it is certainly not from my college years onward when I learned from undergrad classmates and their parents that 15% was the absolute minimum and 18-20%+ was the norm for good-great service.</p>
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I didn’t realize that. It would never have occurred to me to cross it out.</p>
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I agree - I realize it’s easier on the waitstaff to have a single bill for the group but this can be a real issue for the patrons and if absolutely enforced will result in fewer patrons for the restaurant. I think the restaurant, although they can do whatever they want, should serve the needs of the customer which IMO needs to include accommodating separate checks if requested.</p>
<p>There are too many times when in a group there’s one non-thinking/non-caring individual (or a few) who’ll order the prime rib while everyone else is splitting a pizza. Some will order bottles of wine while someone else drinks only the water. Sometimes these people are all too eager to ‘split the bill’. </p>
<p>I think it’s reasonable for a restaurant to provide separate bills if requested - especially since they would have needed to anyway if the people were eating at separate tables.</p>
<p>I also agree with you about the tip though - a group check or separate checks should have no impact on the tip - the rate s/b about the same so the total would be about the same.</p>
<p>I like the way it’s done in Europe where there’s no tipping. The waitstaff are professionals who receive a wage and don’t require a bribe in order to provide decent service. It seems that it’s easier on everyone when it’s just built-in to the price of the meal and ensures the waitstaff will not be stiffed.</p>