Chelsea Welch, a waitress who worked at Applebee's in St. Louis was fired from her job after she posted a receipt online that went viral.
Chelsea waited on a rather large party that was hosted by Pastor Bell of the World Deliverance Ministries Church in Illinois.
Chelsea said that everything went smoothly that night but when she got the bill back from the Pastor, the automatic 18% gratuity that is added to parties of 8 or more, was scratched out and in it's place was a 0 with this written next to it;
"I give God 10%. Why do you get 18?"
Chelsea, thought it was funny, although insulting and posted it on Reddit after she got home.
It immediately went viral and was shared on every social media website.
Pastor Bell was mortified when she realized that it was all over the news and online.
She did say after the fact that she was sorry for doing what she did and regretted the whole thing, but she also was upset and angry that it was posted online and made her look bad to her church family and embarrassed them as well.
She complained t the Applebee's restaurant where it happened and said it ruined her life.
She told Fox2now;
“It was just dumb, It was dumb of me and I can say that because I take responsibilities for all my actions.”
"My heart is really broken, 've brought embarrassment to my church and ministry."
Applebee's apologized to her for violating her right to privacy and fired Chelsea.
The Pastor did say she left $6.29 on the table.
Chelsea says that it is not fair that she was fired and Applebee's states that she was fired because she embarrassed someone and it was done on religious grounds.
She understands that she probably should not have posted it online but was both annoyed and amused at the fact that anyone, let alone a pastor would use God as an excuse to not tip someone for their service.
Chelsea told yahoo;
“I come home exhausted, sore, burnt, dirty and blistered on a good day. I’ve been stiffed on tips before, but this is the first time I’ve seen the Big Man used as reasoning.”
Chelsea has recently posted on her Reddit account that she was not the server who was stiffed on the tip, and said this after realizing how angry with Applebee's and the pastor people were;
“I would like to stress that this was not my table, and I was not the server that missed out on the tip. I represented myself as the server and I purposely described the note writer incorrectly so that everyone would have the right to their privacy. I wanted to protect the identity of everyone involved, and just make a joke on reddit. I never thought this would get personal, let alone popular. However, this person has since decided come forward here and you can read all about that there … While I appreciate the offers of money to make up for the tip, I am not the person who lost the money.”
Many on Twitter are asking for a boycott of the restaurant chain as well.
What are your thoughts, should Chelsea have been fired? Was the pastor right for complaining?
Let us know.
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