Sanctimonious Pastor Alois Bell had an St. Louis Applebee’s server fired after posting receipt from disgruntled customer to Reddit
Well isn’t God’s people just GOOD ALL THE TIME?...NOT!
A St. Louis Applebee’s server fired after posting receipt from disgruntled customer to Reddit
A pastor rankled by an automatic gratuity wrote, ‘I give God 10%. Why Do You Get 18?’ Chelsea Welch, who did not serve the pastor herself, said she thought sharing it would be comical.
Applebee’s has said its employees have no right to disclose customers’ personal information, but server Chelsea Welch said her understanding of the handbook is that she broke no rules.
Alois Bell said the snide note she left on her Applebee’s receipt was a “lapse in (her) character and judgment.” A former Applebee's server says she was canned from her job after posting a receipt from a customer who stiffed a fellow waitress at a St. Louis location of the restaurant chain.
The receipt, published on Reddit by Chelsea Welch, features the scrawl of pastor Alois Bell, who wrote "0" in the blank space for additional tip and added, "I give God 10%. Why Do You Get 18?" in response to the automatic gratuity added to her bill.
"I originally posted the note as a lighthearted joke," Welch told Consumerist.com. "I thought the note was insulting, but it was also comical. I posted it to Reddit because I thought other users would find it entertaining."
The snide receipt quickly went viral, outraging many Reddit users, who offered to pay the unidentifed waitress's tip.
Bell, a pastor at Truth in the World Deliverance Ministries Church, eventually caught wind of the note's popularity and called the Applebee's to complain.
Applebee's spokesman Dan Smith confirmed that an employee was terminated, but declined to specify whether it was Welch.
"Our Guests' personal information - including their meal check - is private, and neither Applebee's nor its franchisees have a right to share this information publicly," Smith told news outlets in writing. "We value our Guests' trust above all else."
Bell called Applebee’s to complain after learning the receipt was drawing heavy interest online. Some Reddit users offered to pay the waitress who received the note a tip.
Bell, 37, said her note was a "lapse in my character and judgment" that "has been blown out of proportion."
"My heart is really broken," she told The Smoking Gun. "I've brought embarrassment to my church and ministry."
Bell said that she left a $6 tip in cash following the Jan. 25 dinner, though she later realized that the 18% gratuity had already been charged to her credit card.
An automatic gratuity is added for groups of six or more. Bell shared a dinner with four other adults and five children.
Welch, who did not serve Bell herself and only snapped a photo of the bill later that night, says that the note was “offensive” whether or not the pastor left a tip.
“I’m not sure who ended up with that money at the end of the night,” she said. “But you can’t really argue with what’s plainly written, and what was written was insulting.”
Welch added that she has checked the Applebee’s handbook and does not believe she broke any guidelines that would require her termination.
"But because this person got embarrassed that their selfishness was made public, Applebee's has made it clear that they would rather lose a dedicated employee than lose an angry customer,” Welch said. “That's a policy I can't understand.”
Some Christians keep embarrassing God...SMH!
