My take on the NJ Waitress Story

[Fearless]

Ok so everyone remembers the story about the waitress whose friend posted a photo of her credit card receipt from a guest that read "we don't agree with your lifestyle" blah blah blah... no tip. And the second half of the story where a family now claims that they did in fact leave a tip and the waitress is lying.

Well I need to call bull shit on that family's assertion. And here's why:

I am a restaurant manager. Their story does not make sense. Literally based on the photo available online it is IMPOSSIBLE that they left a tip.



First note that the copy that has no tip is the merchant copy (and is the one returned to the waitress). The one that has a tip on it is the customer copy and was not given to the waitress. The guest admits that this is their copy and it is proof that they left a tip. IT IS NOT. It is proof that they had a copy and that they may have left a tip. 99% of the time guests will fill out the merchant copy and take the guest copy home. At a later date they can fill in whatever they want on the guest copy.

Ok here's where it gets complicated. But remember it is impossible that they left a tip. Why? Because the copy the waitress had can only be two things: either BLANK because the guest wrote on and then took home the wrong copy, or filled in with the writing you see above.

If it is blank, the waitress is legally required to close out the check to only the total on the card (duh they can't add a tip themselves). Or if it says no tip, the same thing.

I will also note that the handwriting on the two checks are different.

I contend this is what happened:

The guest did not tip. And (1) the guest did write the note and the waitress showed it to a coworker who posted it online or (2) they were cheap assholes and left it blank, the waitress showed the blank check to another waitress who posted it online after altering the receipt to be anti-gay. Or (3) the waitress altered the check, showed her coworker, who posted it online.

I'm leaning toward it being choice one. Why? Because the guest later lies about leaving a tip. They trot out this customer copy and claim they did tip. This is EASILY verifiable by the restaurant. I could do it in literally thirty seconds from the restaurant if given the check number listed on the top of every receipt.

So the guest is either lying, homophobic and trying to save face or lying and victim of character assassination. I tend to believe the former as it involves less lying on their part.

[SheilaT]

1. And the part where their actual statement from the credit card company

shows the larger total including the tip doesn't count?

[MADem]

2. Many theories on this thread.

http://sync.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=657505


I do not think the customers are lying. Why would they expose themselves to scrutiny if they actually did such an awful thing?

However, the server may not have been lying, either--she may have been the victim of a cruel hate-prank by a co-worker; the seater who said to the customers that their server would be "Dan." Or maybe someone else...?

It is possible to print up a second merchant copy. It's also possible that the customer signed the THIRD (business expense) copy, and left the "merchant copy" blank--to be written upon by ... whomever.

The credit card bill shows that they left a tip. Their account was charged for the cost of the check plus eighteen bucks. Now it's up to the restaurant to figure out who fiddled with their receipts, and why.

Tens of thousands of dollars were donated as a result of this incident. I think it's appropriate for those people who donated to get an answer as to what happened.

[Jesus Malverde]

4. do we know it was tens of thousands...

last I heard was around 3k.

The Facebook page with the original post is going crazy...
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=453425841430201&set=a.192270474212407.34793.192269477545840&type=1&comment_id=2624150&offset=0&total_comments=1208

What leads me to think this is a waitress inspired hoax is how dramatic she was originally on Facebook and sheepish on TV. The restaurant management also came across as pretty shady on the TV interview. They could settle this easily.

These dramatic hoaxes are not unusual. I think part of it is attempts by people to give narratives to what some feel is very real ongoing discrimination.

[MADem]

7. I thought I saw that in the TV coverage....but it might have been in a comment below.

I will reserve judgment because I know that sometimes things aren't what they seem. It is way too easy to accuse the customers of being bigots, or the server of being a dramatist, but maybe, just maybe, there's a third party in there.

If it turns out that one of the two principals in this imbroglio is lying, well, that's on them. If it's a third party, then the customer and the server should go on TV in a united front to make a point that pulling those kind of shit is just uncool, and maybe even criminal.

[yeoman6987]

3. Sorry

No sale. The couple showed the credit card statement. Hopefully this girl is arrested and put in jail for 30 days. She make the entire gay community look bad. I can't imagine why the subject of homosexuality came up in the first place. Did the waitress say, what would you like to drink? Oh by the way, I am lesbian, welcome to Friday's. I am gay, but do not discuss the fact with strangers.

[ryvanwi]

5. Possible explanation...

According to the waitress, she introduced herself as Dayna and the customer responded with "I thought you were going to be Dan." The customer told the news that the hostess seated them and they thought the hostess said "Dan will be with you shortly." They were surprised a female waitress came and joked with the waitress that they were expecting a guy named "Dan." The waitress apparently misunderstood this to be a gender identity related insult.

[JimDandy]

6. But we now know that $111.55 was ACTUALLY charged to their credit card

because the customers have submitted their credit card statement to the media. So why is $93.55 printed after the date on BOTH receipts as the amount charged to the customer's card?

It's possible that someone in the restaurant engineered this to defraud the waitress of her tip. The customers are vigorously denying all the allegations. So as a manager, is there any scenario that could explain both of those receipts and the possibility that the waitress did not get her tip?

[MADem]

8. When you add your tip and sign the receipt, you don't get ANOTHER receipt with

the amounts added together. You take your copy and you leave the restaurant. The server doesn't bring you back yet another receipt with the grand total on it. There's nothing "off" about those receipts in that regard. The only thing that's messed up is the receipt with the hate speech, written by "person unknown" at this point.

I think the customers signed the "business expense copy"--the THIRD copy that people get at most establishments so they can file a company travel claim--of the receipts, took their customer copy, which they annotated, leaving the "business expense" copy (with the tip on it) behind, along with the "merchant copy" --- blank and ready to be written on.

Who did the writing? Who knows? Maybe a forensic handwriting expert can answer that question.

[Jesus Malverde]

9. Waitress in tip tale, a former Stony Point resident, 'lies about everything,' ex-coworkers, friends

A North Rockland High School alumna accused of making up a story about being denied a tip at a New Jersey restaurant due to her sexual orientation has a reputation for lying, former colleagues and friends said.

Dayna Morales, 22, formerly of Stony Point, told reporters last week that a family at the Gallop Asian Bistro in Bridgewater, N.J., stiffed her out of a tip on a nearly $100 bill because she was gay. She produced a receipt with a note that said: “I do not agree with your lifestyle and how you live your life.”

Morales, now of Bedminster, N.J., had posted a picture of the receipt and complained of the injustice on a gay-friendly Facebook page called “Have a Gay Day.” She said she publicized the incident online because “others need to be informed this is still going on.”

<snip>

But Morales has been caught in multiple lies, telling co-workers she shaved her head because she had brain cancer and later telling them it was her friend who had brain cancer, her colleagues and friends said.

They said she also told co-workers at a day care center where she once worked that Superstorm Sandy severely damaged her home in Stony Point, and sent a boat into her living room. Concerned co-workers dropped by her home and found only minor damage to the carpet by her front door and no sign of a boat, they said.

http://www.lohud.com/article/20131126/NEWS/311260034/