Lehigh Pub Bethlehem!
Students are fuming over alleged treatment coming from Lehigh Pub in Bethlehem. Lehigh University reports that Lehigh Pub Bethlehem had customers Leslie Pope and Lehigh graduate student John Warner as customers on October 23, 2009.
The two claim they were joined by six other friends for a happy hour in which their tab went to $73.87But they claim they were not provided silverware, napkins, refills, that they had to provide themselves. They also claimed their food took over an hour to get, merely salad and wings.
When the bill came, they skipped paying the $16.35 mandatory service charge because they felt the service was “terrible”. End of story, right?
Nope. Bethlehem were called on Pope and Warner and brought them in, charging they for failure to pay a mandatory 18% gratuity, claims TheBrownAndWhite.com! The two have pleaded not guilty.
And why couldn’t they get silverware? They claim their waitress was on a smoking break.
Erin Andrews
Crystal Harris
Shannon Twins
Ikki Twins
on November 19th, 2009 at 5:03 pm
Lehigh Pub Bethlehem! - LALATE (blog) http://bit.ly/1rwTpH
on November 19th, 2009 at 6:08 pm
This is an outrageous story. This restaurant needs to be boycotted.
http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local-beat/Time-In-Prison–70426052.html?yhp=1
on November 19th, 2009 at 6:14 pm
Really? I’m actually in the middle of writing a paper on service recovery, which I suspect has failed in this situation. There are almost 200 comments on Yelp! Maybe the guy who wrote the United breaks guitars video on you tube could help!
on November 19th, 2009 at 7:24 pm
Don’t worry Lehigh Pub, yours is one place you won’t see me. Having some arrested for not paying a tip on lousy service. Pathetic!
on November 19th, 2009 at 7:30 pm
This is the newspaper that broke this story.
http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/today/index.ssf/2009/11/no_tip_leads_to_a_police_cruis.html
on November 19th, 2009 at 8:29 pm
This takes customer service to a new low. Hope they’re out of business soon.
on November 19th, 2009 at 8:44 pm
WHO in their right mind would ever go to this place again? While I understand a restaurant making large parties pay a fixed gratuity, they should at least provide the kind of service a fixed gratuity implies. The fact that any restaurant requests a fixed tip amount actually suggests that they aren’t capable of providing good service. If they did provide great service, they might recieve more!
on November 19th, 2009 at 9:05 pm
It is indefensible to have patrons hauled away in handcuffs for not paying a gratuity. However made that call probably has compensation issues.
on November 19th, 2009 at 9:24 pm
The restaraunt owner should be arrested for theft for not providing “service” and charging patrons 18%!!!
on November 19th, 2009 at 10:45 pm
Bad service will kill a business fast enough, but when the bar manager picked up that phone he signed that restaurants death warrent!!! Wonder how long he’ll have his job…..tick-tock
on November 19th, 2009 at 11:15 pm
More to the point … how stupid of the police department to make an arrest for non-payment of a tip, and call it Theft of Service. This doesn’t belong in Court. Pure waste of Taxpayers money!
on November 20th, 2009 at 1:10 am
I bet the service will be excellent there now since no one will be going there anymore.
on November 20th, 2009 at 8:39 am
Ridiculous! I ate there once and never went back. Never will now that I know how they treat their customers. Im tempted to go in and order a water and some bread pay with pennies and walk out. NO TIP FOR SERVICE THAT SUCKS!
on November 20th, 2009 at 10:51 am
The case Leslie Pope and John Wagner of PA being arrested for not paying a TIP is similar to a no TIP arrest that happened over five years, in Lake George NY. The Warren County DA dropped the charges because of an old federal court ruling that stated TIPs are voluntary. I believe victims then sued the restaurant or the Lake George police for false arrest. In addition the IRS audited the restaurant because a TIP that is enforced is a service charge, which is taxable to the restaurant even is the money is paid to the employees.
Some of the stories about this are still on-line if you Google Lake George TIP arrest.
on November 20th, 2009 at 1:19 pm
In addition to all the bad service … somebody in the restaurant seems to have problems using a calculator. According to the article, the tip was 16.35 on a 73.87 tab, which is a little over 22%, not the “required” 18%!
on December 2nd, 2009 at 9:02 am
What amazes me is the fact that the BEthlehem PD pursued this solely on the basis that the tip amount was “on the bill” It seems now that any restaurant can add any amount for anything, whether the patron received that service or food and force the patron to pay it under the threat of arrest…all because it was “on the bill” The Bethlehem PD has never learned from their mistakes: they love shooting unarmed suspects in the back with sub-machine guns and arresting students who don’t leave a tip at a restaurant.