In an example of how not to do customer service, the owner of a US restauarnt has fired a worker after a customer was referred to as ‘fatty’ on a receipt.
As reported by WJAR NBC10, the waiter was the son of the owner of the Rhode Island restaurant, called All Stars Bar and Grill.
Customer Dillon Arnold was paying for his food when he noticed the waiter had recorded him as “Fatty/2” on the receipt.
“I was signing my slip and I didn’t really pay attention to it yet, and then I just happened to read it and I saw it in the corner and I was like, ‘Wow,’ and my heart just dropped,” Arnold told WJAR.
“I usually don’t care, but this bs got me offended.”
Hear from a victim of body shaming on a receipt at a local restaurant. @NBC10 news at 11. pic.twitter.com/1z2jJbom7U
— Tony Gugliotta (@NBC10_Tony) June 23, 2016
Arnold took to Facebook to complain about the waiter, posting an image of the receipt and asked friends to share the photo.
The father of the waiter and owner of the restaurant, Tony Ambrosio, immediately fired his son, saying the incident was “unacceptable”.
Ambrosio then offered Arnold a $50 voucher for his restaurant, but Arnold told NBC 10 he doesn’t want to take it, claiming going back there would be “so embarrassing”.
The waiter in question, TJ Ambrosio, took to the restaurant’s reviews section on Facebook to apologise, saying that what he did was “immature” and he “acted without thinking about the consequences.”
“Due to my actions, I was terminated, rightly so. I would like you to know that I was not raised that way. I hope you don’t judge Allstars or its employees based solely on my actions,” he said.
Reactions to the incident have been mixed on social media, with some customers coming out in support of the owner and restaurant, and some condemning the waiter’s actions.
“People make dumb decisions sometimes. He obviously did and he owned it. I hope everybody stops beating a dead horse,” said one commenter.
“He caught heat from his dad and caused his dad more bad press for his business. If this was not his fathers establishment he wouldn’t have apologised at all,” said another.
The waiter was forced to deactivate his Facebook account due to abuse from customers online, according to a comment by the restaurant on its Facebook page.
“If necessary, we will be taking legal action against those individuals who have threatened him. Thank you,” the comment said.
The original Facebook post from Arnold has since been deleted.
