Oh, I wasn't aware that I had to be in the pizza business to have an opinion on this. But that would certainly prevent this type of thing from happening, no?

Yes, of course you are entitled to your worthless opinion about how a business that is not yours should be operated.

Are you in the restaurant business? If so, how would you have handled the situation? Would you have simply told your employees tough shit, or would you try to make it up to them somehow?

You didn't answer my question, and if you are in the pizza business I am more than willing to listen to how you would've handled the situation as well.

Isn't the fail rate on restaruants somewhere in the mid-80s?

As you noted - they're volume businesses with very small profit margins. You take the $500 and subtract actual costs and you're looking at probably $475. Then you consider payroll taxes, etc... and you're looking at what? $400 left over as revenue? That gets you 150 hours of waiter hourly and that waiter hourly gives the server an opportunity to earn an income that far exceeds what he'd be making elsewhere with a similar education.

Or it pays the electric bill that month. Or maybe the renters insurance. Or 1/4 of the mortgage payment.

And I'm supposed to just go 'eh' when some dumbass that doesn't see my monthlys decides to throw a temper tantrum because he excercised poor judgment and screwed his co-workers?

There's just way too much on the line for small business owners, especially restauranteurs, to allow that kind of thing. This isn't firing him for chirping back at a snarky customer (anyone that's worked at a restaurant for long enough has done that); this is taking him to task for using my brand as his badge when dealing with a billion dollar corporation on a vendetta drive that will likely cost me money.

This just doesn't seem close.

Define "awful"? Is it not fresh? I don't understand your hypothetical. The server might honestly love the good they recommend and you might hate it.

This. And then more of this.

Have we heard the conclusion, yet?

I'm not in the pizza business, and here's an answer to your question: Yes, an automatic gratuity would have prevented Hootie from proving that he deserves to be fired.

Totally agree about talking to the owner first. I understand chiefsnorth position as well because if this was an regular business customer you probably just lost their business for good.

I know I'm late in the conversation, but I agree. I've never worked in a restaurant, but I have a couple of friends that do. At least where they work, servers/bartenders make less than kitchen staff. My bartender friend loves to tend bar, but he's thankful that he's in the kitchen three times per week, as that is "steady" income. He gets paid the same per hour no matter what in there. When he tends bar, how much he makes depends on tips.

You don't think I covered that?

Not the restaurant business, but not something totally dissimilar.

I would fire the guy who caused the trouble, offer the company a free meal or a big discount if it were local and workable.

For the employees that night, I'd probably offer them an extra shift the next week or make some other consideration that will help them replace the income. But it's still their job to live with this occasionally in this line of work.

You wrote: "Some of us didn't finish our meals because it tasted like shit."

What is the waitress knew that it tasted like shit, and told you that it was good?

The employees suffered through a sad learning experience, and never again should they not include gratuity on large groups. This is an essential practice and suggests nothing about "tackiness," as Hootie alluded to earlier.

We're supposed to know this how? My mind reading is a bit off, unfortunately.

Tips: quality of service, period. If you were the dumbass who ate at a shit restaurant, that's on you, and we've all been in this position.