People Online Step Up After Gay Server Is Left With A Homophobic Message Instead Of A Tip

If you know anyone who has worked in the service industry or you have job experience in it yourself, you probably have a lot of stories to share that include dealing with rude and entitled clientele. Bored Panda has already covered some stories about “customers from hell”,  but it seems that there are plenty of situations where people find ways to make someone’s day harder than it has to be.

Recently, a group on Facebook called Do Good Tour shared a picture of a receipt from a restaurant in Madison, Wisconsin. On the receipt, someone marked a dash next to “TIP” and left a message that said: “Service was good, but we don’t tip sinful homosexuals.” Someone decided to leave their server without a tip based on their sexuality.

More Info: Facebook

Demanding and rude clients can turn a job in the service industry into quite a challenge

Image credits: zoetnet

The co-founder of Do Good Wisconsin, Eric Salzwedel, instantly reacted to this incident. The Facebook post encouraged people to participate in #VENMOCHALLENGE where they could donate money to this server and later on, they would be surprised with the tip that was collected by their community.

Facebook group “Do Good Tour” posted a receipt that was left for one of the servers working in a restaurant

Image credits: Do Good Tour

250 people participated in this challenge and raised $4,500 that was later given to the server. Bored Panda contacted Eric and asked a few questions about the whole situation. The author of the post found out about the receipt from his friend who couldn’t believe that someone would actually leave such a note. Eric shared: “Seeing the receipt made me angry both as a person of faith and a person who has spent the last 18 months learning about the challenges facing members of the service industry throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The message was left to the server who didn’t get their tip because of their sexuality

Image credits: Do Good Tour

This isn’t the first time that the #VENMOCHALLENGE has taken place. It all started in April of 2020 when Eric and his friend decided to create a group called Do Good Wisconsin to support service industry workers.

Up until now, they’ve held 40 challenges and raised $20,000. So even though this project has gained some recognition throughout time, the co-founder of this group reveals that he was quite surprised to see this particular challenge receive so much attention.

After this incident, the co-founder of this group decided to create a challenge where people could donate some money and later give this “tip” to the server

Image credits: Eric Salzwedel

If you’re curious to find out who this server is, they decided not to reveal their identity. To this, Eric added: “Many of the servers involved choose to go public with their identity and some do not. While it is certainly understandable this particular individual chose not to be outed to the world, the sudden negativity around a program we’ve been running for over a year caught me off guard. Our social media has dozens of videos showing those servers who did wish to publicize their story and local news stations have spoken with a number of them when reporting on our work. While I’d certainly heard of the concept of ‘internet trolls’ before, experiencing harassing messages from strangers firsthand has been disappointing.”

Image source: mahalie stackpole

This is the first time that this challenge has received some negative attention. Eric revealed that he’s been working in fundraising for nonprofit organizations for more than 10 years and seeing messages calling him “a con artist” is surprising. “Do Good Wisconsin has followed similar processes for each #VenmoChallenge so it’s interesting this particular challenge is the only one to receive this kind of negative attention,” he stated.

250 people joined the challenge, tipped the server and donated them $4,500

Image credits: Eric Salzwedel

The co-founder of Do Good Wisconsin also shared some details of what was done after the money was collected. After $4,500 was received, they made sure that the sum was secured and would be well-received as well as informed responsible people, such as the general manager of the restaurant, about the surprise. After the server received their money, they decided to donate a portion of the sum to The Trevor Project, this way spreading kindness forward.

Image source: Victoria Pickering

Eric also explained the purpose of this challenge: “When we started the #VenmoChallenge, our hope was to show kindness to an industry being pummeled by a situation out of their control, help some people pay their bills and inspire others to engage in everyday acts of kindness. It’s been really rewarding to see how many members of my community have repeatedly stepped up to participate and keep this program going for so many months.” He is sure that their “mission will continue” as they are already planning a new challenge.

What do you think about this situation? Leave your thoughts in the comments down below!

Some people online were shocked and in disbelief, as well as criticizing the tipping system

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