Waitress who was denied customer's $2,000 tip because restaurant's system couldn't process the payment is given the money by her boss after he received a barrage of bad publicity
A Texas waitress who claimed she was stiffed out of receiving a $2000 tip from a customer has now been given the money by her boss.
Emily Bauer was working at Red Hook Seafood and Bar in San Antonio on Sunday when an unidentified male customer left her the enormous gratuity.
But the mom-of-two failed to receive the money at the end of her shift, with her bosses allegedly claiming they could not process tip amounts larger than $500.
Bauer went to a local news network with the story earlier this week, which led to a barrage of negative publicity for the restaurant.
But the establishment's owner, John Cheng, offered a different story. He claimed the customer's card had declined and he was therefore unable to pass the $2000 gratuity on to Bauer.
On Thursday, however, Cheng attempted to resolve the issue and agreed to pay Bauer $2000 out of his own pocket.
'It's Christmas time, and everybody is struggling,' he told KENS5.
'I'm ready to give it to her as a Christmas gift.'
Texas waitress Emily Bauer has been given $2000 by her employer, several days after she was was stiffed out of receiving the money as a tip from a generous customer
The server, who is a mom-of-two, was left blown away when she picked up the check. In addition to the tip, the bill also featured a sweet message wishing Bauer a merry Christmas
The incident occurred at the at Red Hook Seafood and Bar in San Antonio (pictured)
Bauer apologized for any negative attention she had brought to her employer, and characterized the incident was a misunderstanding.
'Maybe the way it's being explained now isn't the way it was explained to me [at the time]' she told KEN5.
She also said she was overwhelmed by her boss generously giving her $2000 of his own money.
'The fact that the owner of my job is willing to give it to me, even though it wasn't his mess-up, I can't thank him enough for that,' she stated.
Restaurant owner John Cheng says he has decided to pay Bauer $2000 of his own money as a 'Christmas gift'
Earlier this week, restaurant management claimed they had been inundated by abuse after it looked like they had deliberately stiffed Bauer out of the money.
Speaking with DailyMail.com on Wednesday evening, an employee said that they have had 'zero customers' all day because of the bad publicity.
Management took to Facebook in an attempt to prove that the $2000 gratuity never went through on their system.
'Let me say the gentleman's card would not let us post [process] the tip,' a post from the restaurant read.
'We tried multiple times, Emily tried, managers tried... Visa could not force a $2000 tip on his card, it was invalid then later declined. We can not charge a card $500 four times it's impossible and it's fraud.'
The post also revealed that the man who had left the tip had called to see whether or not Bauer had received the money.
'The Gentleman called after he left that evening asking if Emily would be able to receive her tip he was told by management that the tip would NOT process and if he could come by & pay her in cash or a check written out to her he said 'ok' then hung up quickly.'
The identity of the man who left the tip remains a mystery. He has not come forward, and it now appears as if he he played a prank of Bauer by writing the giant tip amount on his bill.
On their Facebook page Wednesday management claimed that the man's credit card declined the $2000 tip, so they were unable to forward the cash on to Bauer
No comments