You Won’t Believe How This Waitress Took Advantage Of Her Customers

Everyone loves a good meal out. I mean it’s not practical to have every meal out at a restaurant, but that makes going out all the more enjoyable. First of all, you’re off dish duty. That in itself is amazing. Even if the food is mediocre, sometimes it just tastes better knowing someone else made it for you. Of course, everyone has their favorite places where you might be tempted to order the same dish again and again. No judgment here! That pasta dish is probably the best thing on the menu so go for it! Anyway, it’s not always the relaxing experience you envisioned beforehand. Let’s really consider the possibilities. So, you finally get to spend a nice meal out with your family. What could go wrong? Well, a lot! We’re here to tell you the story of a woman named Whitney Anderson. Sometimes, you think you heard it all and then you hear the most wild story and you realize you knew nothing. So try to put aside all your preconceived notions and listen very carefully. This story will likely stick with you if you pay with credit cards at restaurants. Next time you and your family, whether that’s a husband/wife or partner or even kids, go out to eat at your favorite local restaurant, we guarantee you will think back on this tale. Especially if you love Mexican food or if you happen to frequent a place called Abuelo’s Mexican Restaurant. That is just the place the family in question went to one evening. You can’t always anticipate the staff you will encounter. Whitney Anderson took her husband and her three children to Abuelo’s Mexican Restaurant. Of course, they went there in the hopes of enjoying a great meal. Seriously, who doesn’t love a delicious Mexican dish? It’s always best to eat Mexican out. That is unless you have Mexican family that can make you home cooked food. We would never pass that up! Well, back to Whitney and her lovely family. They decided to dine out at Abuelo’s Mexican Restaurant. They were hoping to have a pleasant and tasty dinner. However, complications arose once they were done eating…

It is nice to treat your family and friends to a nice meal every now and then. This can serve as a fun treat for your loved ones and a great night out is a reward in itself. There is something truly wonderful about trying out new dishes and taking in the cocktails, canapés, and décor. Sometimes, however, things do not go according to plan.

Smile for the camera

When you eat out, it is the bare minimum to expect accommodating staff members and a pleasant experience. It would be even better if your servers were friendly and charming!

However, smiles and charms can deceive even the best of us. Do not let yourselves be fooled. Staff members with the widest grins can sometimes pull mean and malicious tricks on you that you would never have anticipated!

Free from worry

Whitney Anderson knows this better than anyone else. She discovered this when she walked into the Mexican joint for dinner with her family.

They were hoping for a nice evening out. She certainly did not expect what would befall them.

Abuelo’s Mexican Restaurant

For you, what do you think is the best part of going out for a meal? We bet it is the process of choosing which restaurant to go to. We bet the Andersons discussed which place they feel like going to. While we have no idea who suggested Abuelo’s Mexican Restaurant, this is what they decided on.

Personally, it sounds like a great place brimming with the best burritos in the area and quesadillas that will top the others you have tasted. We doubt the thought that they would encounter a thief even crossed their minds!

Fun night out

At this point, let us talk about what the Andersons went through on that very night. As expected, they walked into the joint, inhaled the wonderful aromas coming from the kitchen, and found a table for the whole crew.

They also enjoyed a great meal, though there was one particular aspect that Whitney enjoyed about the time they spent in the restaurant.

Stellar waitress

The waitress who served the Anderson family did an excellent job. We bet she was probably all smiles, spoke to them in a friendly manner, and attended to all of their needs. Initially, Whitney only had great things to say about the waitress who took care of her and her family.

How can we say this? Well, you should know that Whitney gave her a huge tip. This is actually an important piece of information as the tipping process is vital to what would unfold later on.

Tipping point

All right, so tipping is probably one of the least fun things about going out to eat. However, it is an important part of the dining experience. In many places in the world, the person waiting on the tables builds an inevitable relationship with their customers and it is their duty to provide the best possible experience.

While not strictly necessary, it is an unspoken rule to leave a tip. As a rule of thumb, the amount must be at least 10-15% of the bill, though people often tip higher if they enjoyed the service.

Generous tip

Now, this is the moment when the story picks up. Whitney Anderson was impressed by the service delivered by their waitress and she decided to leave her a $10 tip. For context, their food cost $45 so that was about a quarter of their bill! Whoa.

If you ever worked as a waiter or waitress, you would know that this was a very generous tip. We are sure Whitney thought her waitress would be happy with the amount, though sometimes people behave in unpredictable ways.

Strange sightings

The following day, Whitney hopped out of bed and went about her day as usual. This included checking her bank history. Since they grabbed a meal at the restaurant, she was expecting to see a $55.50 deduction from her bank account.

After all, that was what they spent on the food they ate and the tip they left for their waitress.

How can it be?

However, the amount that she saw was not what she had in mind! Instead, she saw that $65.50 had been charged to her account.

It was precisely ten dollars more than what she expected to see. What happened? Whitney knew that something was off about the whole thing.

A Hunch

She thought back to the previous night, trying to find out where the extra ten dollars could have come from. Whitney came up with nothing – it simply did not add up! However, an idea was taking root in her head. Could it have been the doing of the waitress?

At first glance, it did not seem likely since she trusted the woman and enjoyed the way they had been treated. Whitney already had a hunch that the waitress was responsible for this, though she needed to verify it first.

Don’t Be Hasty

Without wasting any time, Whitney went back to the restaurant on the same day to investigate. She was still hopeful that there was a rational explanation for everything. After all, no one is perfect and maybe the restaurant simply messed up?

She wanted to give the waitress the benefit of doubt and refrained from jumping to conclusions. Whitney wanted to have all the facts first before she began accusing anyone. We have to say this was a smart move on her end and she would soon get the facts straight.

Something’s not right

The moment she arrived at the restaurant, she immediately approached the front desk and asked for the receipt from their table the night before.

A front house team member handed Whitney something similar to a receipt. However, a quick glance at it told Whitney there was something off about the piece of paper she had just been given.

Wrong receipt

Whitney tried again and asked them if the document they gave her was the customer copy or the merchant copy. They took another look at it and noticed that it was the former.

That wasn’t the way it was supposed to be. Frustration was starting to set it and she began wondering if there was something more insidious going on here. After all, the staff members should know she wanted to see the merchant copy.

No merchant copy

Do you have no idea what we are talking about? Well, a “merchant copy” is a piece of document that the merchant, the restaurant in this case, needed to keep as a documentation of the transaction.

Interestingly, the merchant copy was not where it was supposed to be and the restaurant crew could not find it anywhere. By then, Whitney’s gut was telling her that the waitress was the one responsible. In all likelihood, she threw it away to discard evidence.

But that’s not what I tipped

After she pressed the staff members for more information, the restaurant could only find the customer copy of her receipt! Moreover, the total bill included an extra $10 tip to the money that she actually agreed to give!

So what was there reason the bill displayed $20 when she actually only agreed to $10, an amount that is already considered generous for a tip?

Justified accusation

However, the strangest thing about the situation was that Whitney’s signature was placed there. We don’t need to elaborate that everything was distressing and upsetting for her.

This must be why she told the restaurant staff what she had in mind. She let them know that the waitress probably threw away the merchant copy and created a customer copy on her own by replicating Whitney’s signature. This was how she added ten dollars to her tip.

Basic refund

Are ready to hear how things turned even stranger from then on? The staff members decided to contact the restaurant’s owner and briefed him regarding the situation at hand.

There is no denying that Whitney had valid concerns, and the owner told her that she would get a refund. Rightly so!

This means more than $10

Whitney assumed that the proper course of action would be to lay off the waitress involved in the situation.

This is why she was surprised to hear that the refund appeared to be the end of it for the establishment! The owner did not appear to be bothered by the way his employee took advantage of his customer.

Owner doesn’t care

He assured Whitney that they would return her money to her, though she needed to wait ten business days before this.

This was the boiling point for Whitney – how was it possible that the owner did not care about his customers? Everyone could see that he did not want to reprimand his waitress for her actions, even when she committed a criminal offense. If he actually cared about what happened, he should have promised to punish the waitress and refund Whitney there and then.

Past misdeeds

At that moment, Whitney made a great point about the whole situation. She was outraged that the manager was only concerned about giving her the money.

It goes without saying that she was “so angry” that the waitress did this, and they were simply letting her get away with it. She told him that, in all likelihood, the waitress did the same thing countless times before she was finally caught. Whitney was hoping for justice, and we definitely agree with all the points she made.

Irresponsible

In the end, all anyone could do to prevent future crimes from being committed is to punish the perpetrators. This is why Whitney was so angry at the owner.

How was it possible that he was unwilling to at least do something about such an unsavory employee? She was never going to learn her lesson if she could simply walk away from her actions scot-free. Could it be that the owner wanted to shove everything under the rug in order to save the reputation of his restaurant?

A true thief

However, this was not the end of it for Whitney. She could not let things go so easily, especially now that she is aware that the waitress was still out there, ready to steal the hard-earned money of unsuspecting people.

For her, there is no difference between stealing a debit card and fraudulently forging someone’s name and signature to a credit card receipt to increase their tip. Call a spade a spade: thievery is thievery, and it deserves to be punished no matter what.

Social media time

Perhaps the best thing about living in the digital age is that social media has provided regular people an avenue for their concerns. If any story is truly worthy of attention, it could go viral and reach the screens of millions of people from different parts of the globe. Armed with this knowledge, Whitney took to Facebook to publicly talk about her experience.

We all know how popular the social media platform is, though we bet Whitney did not expect the mileage she would actually get.

News station coverage

It did not take long before her story went viral on Facebook. People from different parts of the world quickly shared the story, and it gained a lot of traction. Like Whitney, the other concerned citizens wanted justice to be served. The story actually became so huge that a local news station broadcasted it! Whoa.

The tide finally shifted a little. This is also evident by the fact that some of the involved parties suddenly changed their stance – yup, the owner of Abuelo’s Mexican Restaurant included.

10 days too long

Do not forget that the restaurant owner told Whitney he would get in touch with her after ten days.

Remember, he said that she would get her money back after ten business days? His apathetic attitude towards the situation was simply unbecoming for a business owner.

Now the management is concerned

When Whitney’s story reached far and wide, plenty of people reached out to her to show support. Aside from blowing up on social media, the story was also covered by various news outlets.

Interestingly, the manager also started showing his concern. He got in touch with Whitney much sooner than she expected. It was not even ten days since she first reported her complaint!

Tide shifting

It seems like she had the upper hand this time around. As soon as the general public learned about her experience, the owner probably got worried about the repercussions for his business and decided to accommodate her needs sooner rather than later.

When he rang her up, the restaurant owner said that they would give her the excess amount in cash and that they would even refund the entire bill! However, it seems like he had another agenda up his sleeve.

Bad experience

Apart from offering to fully refund her for the cost of the meal, the restaurant owner tried to apologize for her “bad experience” with them. The art of subtlety was put into play at this point in the conversation. As much as we want to believe that he was sincere in his apology, there is no denying that it came a little too late.

Whitney was simply not convinced by this half-hearted apology. You know how the old adage goes: actions speak louder than words! For her, it meant nothing if they did not do anything about the waitress.

Full refund

The following day, Whitney went back to the restaurant to retrieve her money. However, she refused to leave without telling them exactly what she felt. She wanted them to know that refunding the money does not automatically fix everything.

It was a band-aid solution that did nothing to heal the wound at all. She thought the proper thing to do was fire the waitress, and she simply could not comprehend why the management did not want to do so.

The right thing to do

In life, we all have to make decisions and face challenges that we need to overcome. These problems come in both internal and external forms. Sometimes, the solutions are easy and simple. However, sometimes they are extremely complicated.

Occasionally, the solution may appear simple, though it is actually more complex after a closer look. When you have lived life in a certain manner for some time, it might feel difficult to change things up – even when change means doing the right thing.

Path of least resistance

It seems like this was what was going through the mind of the restaurant owner. At that very moment, he must have seen that the reputation of Abuelo’s Mexican Restaurant was at stake, and he had two choices. He could swallow his pride, admit that his staff member behaved unethically, and apologize for her behavior.

On the other hand, he could go with the path of least resistance by covering up for her and pretending like nothing was wrong. Clearly, he chose to go with the latter option.

Waitress track record

There was more the to the story than we initially thought. Whitney was determined to find out more about the situation, and so she took it upon herself to look up the waitress’ track record. She found plenty of interesting things in there.

It seems like she had been stealing money in other restaurants even before Whitney caught her! She had been fired from those places since she had been caught stealing from the people she served.

Leadership goals

As soon as she learned about this, Whitney felt extremely upset. However, she at least took comfort in the way the other restaurant owners punished the waitress for her actions. As any leader will know, a weak link in the strongest chain is a reflection of the head’s abilities and skills.

A bad leader will proceed by pretending that everything is fine, whereas a good leader accepts the responsibility for this by removing the toxic person in order to move forward.

Unacceptable behavior

Why was Whitney so determined for the waitress to be punished? She was actually looking at the bigger picture, not just at this one-off event. As we previously mentioned, the waitress had a long history of committing the same crime to other people.

Apart from this, there are many other thieves out there who were able to get away with robbing people. They all need to be reprimanded for their behavior, and Whitney was unwavering in her desire to see justice play out.

No Thought

The waitress at Abuelo’s Mexican Restaurant might have thought that she was not doing anything wrong by skimming off ten dollars from her customers. Maybe she even shrugged the crime off by thinking something along the lines of “It’s only ten dollars.”

It is true that ten dollars is not exactly a lot of money and that it would not bring financial ruin to Whitney and the Anderson family. However, there was more at stake in the situation than just that measly amount.

Trusting relationship

It does not matter if the missing ten dollars would have made the Anderson family suffer or not. As a waitress, the perpetrator and critics should know that the point is bigger than that. She tried to elude Whitney by building a good relationship with her family, smiling at them like a great waitress.

They might have only spent several hours at most, though she was able to make the Andersons comfortable and happy. The moment the truth came out, it felt like she put on a play to dupe the well-meaning family.

True connection

In reality, we must not judge anyone since we are all going through different things in life. We don’t know the story of this waitress and why she resorted to desperate measures, such as stealing from her clients. We can only hope that she has learned her lesson by now.

Perhaps her duplicity will even make it hard for her to experience true connection with others. Hopefully, she has already come to realize the importance of loyalty and honesty in the world we live in.