In the service industry, the customer is always right — even when the customer’s making millions and giving you pennies.
Employees at a Maryland restaurant banded together to out DeAngelo Williams as a bad tipper Sunday after the Steelers running back left a minuscule tip on a hefty bill.
“Just now at work I had Deangelo Williams come in and I waited on while tending bar,” an employee at Ledo Restaurant in College Park wrote on Facebook, according to TMZ. “His check was $128.25. He left me $129 with no tip but .75 cents. So there you go Stealers fans, your running back is cheap as s**t!!! Smh.”
The heads kept shaking on Twitter, where a co-worker took the issue directly to Williams.
Johan Malcolm left a long string of tweets addressed to Williams — while frequently tagging both ESPN and Stephen A. Smith in hopes of making the tip snub public — in an attempt to guilt the 11-year NFL veteran, who was in town for a Monday night game in Washington.
The story usually ends there, with a celebrity possessing more than 230,000 followers not even noticing the small dent in his mentions. But Williams noticed — and wasn’t backing down.
In dozens of public tweets, Williams detailed his horror story with the restaurant. His jeremiad included a wait of more than an hour and a half for food, his drink going un-refilled and a particularly bad mix-up in his order.
Williams said he used to wait tables and he’s familiar with the industry. He contended leaving a tiny tip was actually a favor; he sent a subtle message without alerting the server’s boss.
Well, her boss now knows.
The co-owner of the restaurant, Jimmy Marcos, told TMZ the server will be fired over her handling of Williams.
“We were in the wrong,” Marcos said, with a message to Williams (and the world that now sees his establishment in a bad light). “I want to offer anything I can do. I’ll be sure to apologize in person next time he visits and pick up his next meal.”