Thank you to everyone who alerted me to a story that is going down in Myrtle Beach. According to a most excellent website called If You Can’t Afford to Tip, a man was fired from his waiting job after a party of eleven walked on their check. Not only was he fired, he had to pay the tab. All together now: AWWWW, hell NO! The only way this became known was because his wife wrote a Rant and Rave on Craigslist about the situation. You can see the original post here, but here is what it said:
“To the group of 11 people who walked out on their tab at Captain Benjamin’s on Labor Day…..my husband was your server that night and because of you he not only had to pay $400.00 for YOUR tab, he LOST HIS JOB because of this situation. We are a family doing everything we can to make ends meet. We have a one year old son and another baby on the way. If you did not have the money to pay to eat at an all you can eat seafood buffet or had no intention on paying in the first place, stay home like most of us do. Someone has to pay for your actions that night and unfortunately it was my family with our BILL MONEY. I want everyone to realize, if you go eat in a restaurant and leave without paying, more often than not it is the server required to pay your bill. A server who does not make an hourly wage, who works for TIPS ONLY. We now have no income what so ever and you have put us in a horrible situation which I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. The first of the month is always hard for us anyway as that’s when our rent is due and all of our utility bills. You have placed us in a situation where we have no way to pay those bills. That $400 was only part of our rent money and he would have made up the rest for rent and utilities but now has NO JOB TO GO TO because of YOU! Someway, somehow we will make it through but I ask you and all other patrons at a restaurant to think twice about your actions as that was WRONG!”
Craigslist
We cannot know if this is true since Craigslist is not a reputable news agency or anything. I went to the Facebook Page of Captain Benjamin (long lost brother of Cap’n Crunch and bastard child of Bluebeard and Moby Dick) and there are lots of people huffing and puffing about the event but the restaurant has left a comment saying that everything is untrue. Their statement is full of bad grammar and all capital letters and for that reason alone, I want to think they are lying:
SHAME ON YOU WHO SPREADING THIS RUMOR BIG SHAME!!WHY? IF YOU THAT PERSON AND YOU ARE READING THIS COME TO OUR RESTAURANT FILL OUT AN APPLICATION MAY BE WE CAN HELP!
Yeah, I don’t understand what that means. Are you offering a job anyone who is spreading the rumor?
WE APOLOGIZE TO ALL OUR COSTUMERS AND OTHERS THAT YOU HAD GO THRU THIS.
Perhaps this dining establishment is a theme restaurant where all the servers wear funny hats and clothes, for why else can you explain that they have “costumers” instead of “customers?” And what did these poor costumers go thru, pray tell?
IN ORDER TO PROVE THIS ALL IS A LIE WE ARE GOING TO GIVE A BIG SPECIAL BUFFET TONIGHT. BUY ONE ADULT BUFFRT AND GET ANOTHER ONE FOR FREE.Â
Because giving away free food is exactly the same thing as a polygraph test.
This story is all over the place. For one thing, it is illegal to make a server pay for a walkout. Sure, they can fire you if it happens every other night and you’ve been warned about it, but most restaurants are not going to do that if it happens very rarely. If they are, they should be reported to some labor board or something. Secondly, if the man was going to be fired why did he still pay the $400? If I was told I was being fired, I would whip off my apron, grab a beer out of the reach-in, pull the emergency slide exit and get my ass outta there. I certainly would not hand over $400 bucks first. And what server has that much money in their wallet anyway? Do we think the guy wrote a check out to them in between signing his termination papers and saying good bye to the kitchen crew?
I suppose it is possible that some disgruntled employee wrote the Craigslist post just to get back at her employer for giving her too much sidework. It does have the possibility of becoming a public relations nightmare for Captain Benjamin. I honestly do not know what to believe and I leave it up to you to decide who is telling the truth. Here is Captain Benjamin’s Facebook Page if you want to go there and try to decipher the truth. And here is the the Facebook Page for Cap’n Crunch if you want to just forget about all this craziness and remember the good old days when you ate a bowl of sugar for breakfast. And when I say “good old days” I mean this morning.
Update: According to the commenter below, “I am lead server at this establishment. This story is a fabricated lie made up by an employee to his wife to cover his own job related dishonesty. The server did not have a group of 11 people walk out nor did he pay anything. He chose to leave this job on his own free will after being addressed about another situation. Sadly people are reading this false story and passing judgement towards the restaurant and it’s managers without knowing the truth of the matter.” The mystery continues.
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Carol Baumgartner
I worked for Wendy,s for ten years,but the GM,was the worse,mistake,he,s is so bias,isn,t it the term,for discrimanation,lower wages,I walk out in january,because I had another job,got blame for short staffing because I moonlighting,in two other employment,for they paidmoremoney,than wendy paid only 8.38,so unemployment office with their determine (quit)but I appeal this determine,because it violate my civil rights,to earn an decent living
Lynn
Its illegal for an employer to fire you because of a walk out. Its also illegal for an employer to charge you for the lost revenue. Whether it be broken glasses, table walking out on their check, or dropping a drink/meal you can not charge your employee for it. Period.
truff
He’s totally a crackhead. Either stole the money or didn’t show to work after a week sober cause the asshole got fucked up. Addicts are pretty convincing liars even saying some pretty of the wall shit like this. The wife wants to believe this rather than her husband lying and fucking up again.
truff'nuff
Fur real!
Elle
*FOR* real
Ifyoucantaffordtotip.com
I received a response from the wife of the server. I asked her to clarify what actually happened and explain why her husband paid the $400.
Scroll to the bottom of the post to see her response…
http://ifyoucantaffordtotip.com/server-fired-customers-walking-400-tab-captain-benjamins/
Ifyoucantaffordtotip.com
Thank you for the shout out Bitchy Waiter! You are awesome as usual! 🙂
The Bitchy Waiter
you’re welcome.
Laura
My theory is that he got fired or quit then went out & blew $400 on drugs, a hooker or both, then lied to his wife about the events of the day.
LauraForPrez
I agree.
Laura
When I interviewed at a seafood buffet chain, the manager told me I’d be responsible for any walkouts as well as being required to learn ridiculous daily song & dance routines set to perform throughout the dining room every hour regardless of what stage of dining our guests were in I laughed & walked out of the interview!
anne marie in philly
WTeverlovinF? I can see that on the stage, but a restaurant? hellz no! I would not even patronize such a place.
Robert
I recently read a story about a survey call center employee being ripped a new one by a guy who said his wife had been arrested and was in jail for trying to cash the survey check. This woman had participated in a paid survey, received a $20 check made out to cash and had supposedly been arrested and jailed for trying to cash this fully legit twenty dollar check.
We were all speculating about what the woman had actually been arrested for and how long it was going to take the husband to figure out his wife was lying to him.
I don’t know Jo Hart from a hole in the wall but the guy walking out of his job and blowing $400 then lying to his wife about it seems plausible to me. Better to claim you were unfairly fired rather than say you quit and also cleaned out the bank account to boot.
Kenny Ray
i agree with BW, and it solves everything: what Waiter has $400 on him at any given moment? unless he works at NoBU….say i wonder if NoBU’s hiring……
chacha1
I tend to believe the restaurant on this one, although the extent to which businesspeople are willing to show their ignorance via bad grammar, bad spelling, and illogic appalls me.
Even in Florida, I’m pretty sure a restaurant wouldn’t get away with “forcing” an employee to cover a walkout tab … and I agree with BW that a fired server would have absolutely no motivation to comply with any demand of that sort.
PCC
The owners are probably immigrants. I think you should cut them some slack on the grammar and spelling.
EmilyH
For those saying that this doesn’t happen and servers are not forced to cover shortages, you are kidding yourselves. These establishments LEGALLY pay their employees $2.15/hr. They do anything they can get away with. The bartender at my previous job took a credit card to run a tab, then tried to run it after the guest just left. It was declined. “Surprise!” He had to pay for the $150.00 tab ( $50/shift for the following three shifts) or get fired for “mismanagement of money.” So, what were his options, really?
Thomas
Something in the milk ain’t clean. FALSE!!
I work part time in a popular casual dining chain restaurant. I have seen the management try to pull a fast one on young servers by telling them they had to pay the difference if a table either didn’t pay or didn’t leave enough money to cover the bill. I quickly educate them, about our state laws reguarding such matters.
Grammar Police
I hope you’re not also giving them spelling lessons.
Mark
“Reguarding” vs regarding? I didn’t realize we were here to take and English exam. Go troll YouTube and fuck off!
Mark
“An” not “and”…stupid android…
Jo Hart
I am lead server at this establishment. This story is a fabricated lie made up by an employee to his wife to cover his own job related dishonesty. The server did not have a group of 11 people walk out nor did he pay anything. He chose to leave this job on his own free will after being addressed about another situation. Sadly people are reading this false story and passing judgement towards the restaurant and it’s managers without knowing the truth of the matter.