Hell hath no fury like a Facebook scorned. In today’s digital age, most of us assume everyone understands this fact. But every now and again, people surprise us. An ever-increasing element of this reality is that the hounds of Reddit, the Twitter armies, and Facebook vigilantes are more than willing to remind people that we live in a publicized world. You can’t hide behind privacy statements or legal jargon or appeals to company policy to pacify an Internet mob. Once you cross the line of Internet etiquette, the people of the World Wide Web will hunt you down and do their best to ruin you forever.
Applebee’s apparently never took note of this. You’ve most likely heard about their most recent encounter with virality. But in case you’ve been living under a rock, here’s a brief summary:
A waitress at a St. Louis Applebee’s lost her job for posting online the receipt upon which a pastor had declined to leave a tip, with a snarky note saying she gave God 10 percent.
After her dinner on Jan. 25, Pastor Alois Bell crossed out the automatic 18 percent tip charged for parties of more than eight. “I give God 10% why do you get 18,” she wrote above her signature.
Employee Chelsea Welch — a colleague of the stiffed server — took a picture of the receipt and uploaded it to the online site Reddit. She subsequently lost her job, an Applebee’s spokesman confirmed to TheSmokingGun.com, for violating a customer’s privacy.
Yesterday on Fox 2 Now, the pastor issued a (sort of?) apology.
All this information, of course, is so yesterday. “Pastor gets server fired” was Chapter One in this strangely entrancing saga, on par with a slow-motion train wreck from which you cannot tear away your eyes. Chapter Two is where Applebee’s apparently wants to commit suicide in front of our digital eyes.
Applebee’s fired the server in question, named Chelsea Welch. This created a fury of rage on the Internet, with social media users taking to their weapons of choice and lambasting away, thousands at a time, against the restaurant’s decisions. Numerous “Boycott Applebee’s” groups sprung up on Facebook, along with “Rehire Chelsea Welch” and other similar groups. Applebee’s website has a “What’s the Buzz” widget, that shows what people are saying on Twitter about the company. It’s been non-stop attacks, all publicly displayed on Applebee’s own page:
But it started to get interesting last night. Earlier in the day, around 3 pm, Applebee’s made a status updated about the controversy:
Applebee’s social media team decided to respond to the growing clamor by saying, “We wish this situation didn’t happen…Our franchisee has apologized to the Guest and has taken disciplinary action with the Team Member for violating their Guest’s right to privacy.” Around midnight last night, the reaction against this status had grown to a frenzy. There were well over 10,000 comments on the post, most of them negative.
There was a repeated theme to the comments, which the media has so far not covered. Applebee’s, just two weeks ago, had — according to comments — violated another Guest’s right to privacy themselves by posting a picture of a note from a guest that clearly featured the guest’s name. Most interestingly, Applebee’s deleted this picture right when the Chelsea Welch issue went viral. Here’s the original picture, captured by If You Can’t Afford to Tip… via screen shot:
Users of Facebook were sharing this picture left and right, using it to call bull@#$% on Applebee’s reasoning regarding “right to privacy.” Here’s just a small sampling:
By around 2 am, there were around 17,000 comments on Applebee’s original Facebook status. Then began the most bewildering move in corporate social media/public relations that I have ever witnessed. At 2:53 am, the middle of the night, whoever manages Applebee’s Facebook page started making comments on their status update. In response to the over 17,000 comments, the following statement appeared — not as a new status update, but as a comment on the status update. (Had to break it into two pieces to capture it.)
I was, to put it plainly, stunned. Surely this was someone using a fake Applebee’s page to make a comment. Commenting on your own status update during the biggest PR disaster in the history of your company at 2:53 am is the exact definition of social media suicide. Assuming this was a fake Applebee’s account, I clicked on the name. It took me right back to the page I was on. This was an official Applebee’s person. Commenting at 2:53 am.
But that, readers, is just the beginning. Oh it gets better. So much better.
The reaction was immediate:
Legitimate points. I mean, you can’t drop an official response in the middle of post that’s expanding 1K+ posts an hour. It becomes nearly impossible to find after 5 minutes.
Now, before I continue with the train wreck that follows, I’d like to sidetrack for a quick moment and reveal something else: the entire night, Applebee’s is allegedly deleting negative comments left and right, as well as blocking people from its Facebook page. People at this point are getting furious at being censored (again, a small sampling):
So people are getting furious at being censored. Then Applebee’s social media makes a comment on a status update at 2:53 am. Next up: Applebee’s starts repeatedly tagging people in the middle of the night and repeating their same comment over and over… and over. It’s now about 3 am in the morning:
This should come as no surprise, but — people don’t really like this repetition. It kinda gets under their skin. And they don’t hesitate to let Applebee’s know:
You’d think at this point in time someone in Applebee’s social media team would advise whoever is posting on behalf of Applebee’s to just lay low for a while. But no — the unthinkable happens. At 3:06 am, Applebee’s starts tagging people and arguing with them:
Naturally, people don’t take kindly to this:
Around 4:20 am, Applebee’s finally and brilliantly decides to take its comment on its status update and make it an actual status update so it doesn’t have to keep repeating itself via comments:
This now prompts people to comment on both the original status update as well as the new status update. I went to bed at 5 am. As of 5 am, the original status update had 19,027 comments. As of 5 am, the new status update had 2,111 comments.
I check back into Applebee’s Facebook page today at 2 pm. And guess what? That original status update, with almost 20,000 comments that featured Applebee’s complete social media meltdown? It is deleted, along with all those comments. But the problem is, the Internet doesn’t forget things like that. Which Applebee’s should have learned by this point in this controversy. People take it upon themselves to remind Applebee’s about that (now deleted) post:
Applebee’s now makes its most brilliant move, posting, “No posts have been deleted.”
There were many and numerous responses to this, but I think the shortest was the best:
Denial is apparently the company’s PR weapon of choice. But as my saved screenshots show, their original status update is gone. There is still the one posted at 4:20 am, which now — at 2 pm — has gone from 2,111 comments at 5 am to 9,679. And there is a new status update from Applebee’s posted at around 10 am this morning that has 7,292 comments. The status update is as follows:
As of 5:15 pm, Applebee’s social media was continuing to argue with people in the comments section, provoking one person to say, “Applebees, just shut up”:
As of 8 pm when I write this, the tallies for comments are as follows: the original post, now deleted, was at 19,027 when I last saw it; the second post is at 11,216; the third post is at 11,035. That’s 41,278 mostly negative comments — and who knows how many more there were before Applebee’s started deleting comments, not just posts. I wonder why Applebee’s just doesn’t disable comments at this point.
The upshot of this is, the Internet is laughing. And Applebee’s is losing a lot of customers. After personally reading thousands and thousands of comments, I have seen businesses and non-profits and families and individuals all say they are boycotting or even canceling reservations or changing locations for regular business lunches and dinners. Surely there was a better way to handle this that wouldn’t have led to comments such as:
Amidst all the rubble, though, there was one comment that stood out. Because it was a moment of kind-heartedness, which I appreciate after swimming through the filth and sarcasm and anger of the Internet:
***
Updates, 02/02/2013
1. Readers have pointed out to me that Applebee’s did not delete the original post. Allegedly Applebee’s “hid” the post here.
2. If You Can’t Afford to Tip… informed me that they took the original screen shot of the other receipt that allegedly Applebee’s had posted and then deleted. You can view it on their Facebook page here. I changed the original post to reflect that, and am restating it as an update as well.
3. Did Applebee’s block me?
4. I must be unblocked, because now — as of 8 pm tonight — I can see Applebee’s still going back and forth with people. But on Twitter this time. *sigh*
***
Updates, 02/04-9/2013
1. As of 4:45 pm today (02/04), I was told (and verified) that Applebee’s has made public the previously hidden post.
2. This story now has over 1,400,000 views.
3. The following is a list of notable places this photo essay has been referenced:
- NPR, “Big Op-Ed: When Private Comments Go Very Public,” February 4, 2013, http://www.npr.org/2013/02/04/171079146/when-private-actions-go-very-public
- NBC News, “Applebee’s social media faux paus a ‘learning experience,'” February 5, 2013, http://www.nbcnews.com/business/applebees-social-media-faux-pas-learning-experience-1B8251556
- The Atlantic, “Anger Directed at Applebee’s Is More Likely to Hurt Than Help Workers,” February 5, 2013, http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/02/anger-directed-at-applebees-is-more-likely-to-hurt-than-help-workers/272861/
- The Australian, “US restaurant Applebees commits ‘social media suicide,'” February 4, 2013, http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/us-restaurant-applebees-commits-social-media-suicide/story-e6frg6n6-1226570581548
- News.com.au also published the Australian story, February 4, 2013, http://www.news.com.au/technology/biztech/us-restaurant-applebees-commits-social-media-suicide/story-fn5lic6c-1226570581548
- The Herald Sun also published the Australian story, February 4, 2013, http://www.heraldsun.com.au/technology/us-restaurant-applebees-commits-social-media-suicide/story-fn7celvh-1226570581548
- The Huffington Post, “Beware of Internet Outrage,” February 8, 2013, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chez-pazienza/beware-of-internet-outrage_b_2647685.html
- The Huffington Post, “A Tip for Applebee’s,” February 8, 2013, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dennis-miller/applebees-pr-crisis_b_2647328.html
- AOL Jobs, “Online Petitions Ask Applebee’s to Rehire Waitress Chelsea Welch,” February 4, 2013, http://jobs.aol.com/articles/2013/02/04/applebees-waitress-chelsea-welch-facebook-job-back/
- Business 2 Community, “Applebee’s Social Media Crisis: Should the Waitress Have Been Fired?,” February 5, 2013, http://www.business2community.com/social-media/applebees-social-media-crisis-should-the-waitress-have-been-fired-0398039
- Technorati Business, “Social Media’s Power is No Joke! Just Ask Applebee’s!,” February 9, 2013, http://technorati.com/business/article/social-medias-power-is-no-joke/
- Decoded Science, “Applebee’s Social Media Nightmare: Technology 24/7 Isn’t Always a Good Thing,” February 3, 2013, http://www.decodedscience.com/applebees-social-media-nightmare-technology-247-isnt-always-a-good-thing/25209
- The Riverfront Times, “Chelsea Welch, Applebee’s Waitress, Talks Unemployment; Applebee’s PR Melts Down,” February 4, 2013, http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/gutcheck/2013/02/chelsea_welch_fired_applebees_waitress_pr_meltdown.php
- Haverford-Havertown Patch, “Applebees Fires Waitress For Exposing Tip-Skipper, Then Tries to Silence Public on Social Media,” February 3, 2013, http://haverford.patch.com/blog_posts/applebees-fires-waitress-for-exposing-tip-skipper-then-tries-to-silence-public-on-social-media
- Geekosystem, “Applebee’s and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week,” February 6, 2013, http://www.geekosystem.com/applebees-bad-week/
- Intentious, “Social Media Suicide: A Dissection of the Applebee’s ‘Strategy,'” February 6, 2013, http://intentious.com/2013/02/06/applebees-facebook-strategy-social-media-suicide/
- Outside the Beltway, “Social Media Fail (Applebee’s Edition),” February 2, 2013, http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/social-media-fail-applebees-edition/
- The Franchise King, “Applebee’s Restaurant Social Media Fail,” February 3, 2013, http://www.thefranchiseking.com/applebees-restaurant-social-media-fail?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheFranchiseKing+(The+Franchise+King+Blog
- God Discussion, “Applebee’s uses Facebook in response to firing of waitress, creates PR nightmare,” February 3, 2013, http://www.goddiscussion.com/107006/applebeesnightmare/
Why do you think this is news? Trivial garbage…and bad journalism. That is all this is.
We’re not done yet: several employees report that corporate is now requiring franchise owners to compel employees to hit Facebook in an effort to bolster their image. This would be consistent with recent updates recieving tens of thousands of “likes” in the past 24hrs. versus sub-1000 numbers for all previous posts. An unsubstantiated blog post here (http://justanothertina.bravejournal.com/) – now defunct – reads in part:
“I’ve been working at Applebee’s since I was seventeen years old, still in high school. Yesterday evening, my boyfriend came to pick me up, and we were preparing to leave for the night when one of the managers called an emergency meeting. He proceeded to tell us that corporate had sent an email message through their mailing list of all of the Applebee’s franchise owners and that all of us with cell phones couldn’t leave. He explained to us that we had to go on facebook and ‘like’ a comment they made and plaster positive comments all over the page and said that all of the franchise employees would be doing the same.”
Apparently – the social media group at Applebee’s is still searching for rock bottom…
I don’t blame Applebee’s too much for doing this. They know how STUPID so many Americans are, as evidenced by the huge number of idiots posting just on *this* page about how “terrible” it was for them to fire the STUPID server who posted PRIVATE INFORMATION on Facebook. Sometimes ya got to fight fire with fire…
(still is problematic for them to try to coerce employees to do something like that, though..)
It’s not defunct anymore, it was temporarily taken down by bravenet, but shortly restored. And Tina posted again. It rings true to me, but we’ll see if anything comes of it.
Reblogged this on Raymond Holganza.
Reblogged this on Skylark Landing and commented:
Hoo boy. Remember folks, once it’s on the internet, it’s very likely to stay there forever in some way, shape, or form.
Applebee’s is once again blocking negative comments by users on facebook. They simply no longer can take the heat and are once again entering the fray with patently dishonest practices. So much for their highly touted “transparency”.
Not only are they now blocking me, but the have deleted the two comments I did manage to post. It is time to turn up the heat on this company that not only doesn’t back up its employees against abusive customers (_not_ guests), but now they don’t want to have anyone see what they are really up to. I have to wonder how many others have posted negative comments only to see them disappear?
I don’t blame Applebee’s *at all* for cutting off the stupid comments until you idiots have something else to catch your attention.
Funny thing is, most of you will eventually come to your senses (if you have any thoughts of this in the future) and realize that THE SERVER WAS WRONG TO POST PRIVATE INFORMATION!
But, once it blows over, you’ll probably not think of it again, not learn anything at all from it, even come to an opposite conclusion in similar circumstances, depending on what “everybody else” is doing….
I just checked and when I go to Applebee’s I see no “comment” section where I can post any kind of comment. They’ve definitely blocked me (which is okay, because I’m reciprocating by never again stopping at one of their restaurants). This is how they are slowly killing the negative comments on their site, folks. The PR nightmare continues, even as I post this.
As far Burbites comments go, yeah, Applebee’s has the right to block whomever they want, fire whomever they want, and treat their staff like dirt, and allow abusive customers to be rude, discourteous, and even hypocritical in the extreme.
But does that mean it is right? I say that the chain has made a horrid mistake and is not helping their cause any by not at least apologizing for screwing up and hypocritically fire one person, but not the next, for the same cause. That’s arbitrary and to a certain extent, bigoted behavior, especially considering the situation. I see no defense on Applebee’s part that can justify what happened.
But Applebee’s should not feel alone. I’ve worked for companies where the President met with his staff on Friday and told them there would be no layoffs, and the next Tuesday, 60 percent of them had received termination notices. Management is inherently dishonest, and Applebee’s proved that once again. But they did it in the public eye, and that was a mistake. I truly hope we see the demise of this chain over the next year, despite the hardship it will bring to their “Valued Team Members” who they don’t fire for anything as petty as this.
I don’t get it. So many people got upset over Rachel getting fired – if you were a public figure (and even if not!), would you be ok with somebody publishing your personal info online?!
I agree, the person who published the positive note (or gave the orders to do so) should be fired as well, if that is the company policy. Besides the policy, most of the national laws at least here in Europe are very clear about protection of personal data: nobody gest to publish or use ANY of your personal info without your clear consent. What’s wrong with that?!
The FB group that gathered “amazing” 350 memebrs to help Rachel get a job, published her e-mail address! I hope she gave her OK because what I can think of is thousands of people now spamming her – with emails of suport or emails of hate.
Weird, I don’t get it.
After this statement, http://applebees.mwnewsroom.com/manual-releases/Statement-from-Applebee-s-President-Mike-Archer Applebees continues to delete posts and block users from posting on its facebook page if you post a negative comment, comment concerning chelsea welch or if you “like” a negative comment. Applebees has not reinstated any posting privelages to those it has blocked from posting on its page so that we can participate in the so called forum. Some of us have created a second facebook acct. but we still cannot post on the applebees facebook page, here is where we are gathering https://www.facebook.com/PickingApples2013 to talk about the Chelsea firing and the low wage that servers are paid. As you can see, there is not any foul language used ,please visit the site to see the conversations, it may be news worthy.
It would be interesting to read how companies are managing these mass social backlashes. Games-Workshop is going through it now and shut down their FB account.
Is it just me? I think Applebee’s use of Fb was ridiculous, not doubt. But as a person who waited tables at many establishments, you come to recognize that unfortunately, you will not always get a fair tip, in fact, you will not always get a tip. I do think the Pastor was out of line, it seems she tipped but at a lesser amount, but any adult should understand that if you bring a large group to a resturant the gratuity is almost always included with the cost of the meal. Bringing God into it & suggesting that somehow the server was at fault does not present the Pastor in the best light. It is very hard work to serve a large group of people at once. However, what kind of thought process exists when a server takes a photo of the receipt & posts it online? Clearly Welch did not understand that she was making the resturant look bad by mocking the Pastor, but that shows a lack of common sense & courtesy towards her employer. I think Welch did the wrong thing. As did Applebee’s with the way they responded. So senseless all around. Shame on the Pastor, Welch, and Applebee’s! Plus, now the server who actually waited on the Pastor & all of the others who depend on Applebee’s for a living will likely see a decrease in business so they suffer. Sad.
Are you really this bored?
Plain and simple: your tips pay your servers bills.
http://firstandtenwisconsin.wordpress.com/2012/09/26/your-tip-pays-your-servers-bills/
…which is why EVERYONE should BE PAID paid a fair wage. DO AWAY WITH TIPPING AS the INCOME BASE.
R L Stollar, I am quite familiar with this Story and the plight of Chelsea. I am however, confused as to why Ms. Bell has not been called into the picture. After all, as someone who IS a God welcoming man, it apalls me that Alois Bell shoud have such a disregard for the server and attempt to utilize God as her reasoning for NOT tipping, as was her intent. She should hold the majority of the responsibility here and her own integrity and practice SHOULD be brought into question.
Amen to that, from a former server. I am 60, with horrible feet, back problems and arthritic wrist from carting 1000’s of trays to support my children. And I gave every week at church, even though I needed money always for something else.
How sad that this is supposingly a person who preaces God’s word.
Maybe we should find out what denomination they are and boycott that religion, if this is what the people there here from the pulpit.
Dotty
Dotty the bible tells us we will know a person by the fruits that they bare. Anybody can claim their something their really not. Ms Bells actions has shown her to be a liar, a godly woman does NOT act like that!
Don’t believe everything you read on the Internet. Bell DID tip. She scratched the gratuity off the bill because she’d already left a tip at the table.
I realize all the holier-than-thou FB slactivists are more interested in venting than the truth, but there you go.
She claims to have left a tip at the table. The comment she wrote suggests a hostility towards gratuities that doesn’t really seem compatible with leaving a good tip. I call bullshit.
Not to mention the fact that, if she’s a pastor, she has a very petty view of God in the first place. Maybe her parishioners should seek out another pastor.
What American’s pay as their minimum wage frightens me to my core. And that someone who is a practitioner of Jesus Christ”s message could be so cold and blind is amazing.
I would be really curious to see if Applebees suffered any calculable revenue loss after this PR disaster. I’m not sure if there would be any number published about it yet, but if there ever is, it would be grand if you did an update on that as well. Thanks so much for all the info!
Of course the elephant in the room is that if employers in America, particularly in hospitality, actually paid a decent wage things like this would not happen. Staff are an overhead and passing on the wages to customers and calling it a gratuity when it is a wage subsidy, well, it aint customers stiffing servers. It is the server’s employers.