In late September, we told you the story about A.S. Swanson (named changed) a so-called “Disney expert” and travel agency owner who ordered a pizza at the Italy pavilion at Epcot then refused to tip her server.
As people showed their anger about her inappropriate behavior, she kept changing her story about why she didn’t tip him, but the bottom line is that he got stiffed.
If you’re in the U.S., not tipping at a sit-down restaurant is a horrid thing to do, even under the best of circumstances. But to not do it at WDW in the age of COVID-19, when the employees don’t know whether or not they’re still going to have a job tomorrow (Disney was already in the midst of letting go of over 6,000 workers and just announced they’re going to fire close to 9,000 more)? Simply horrible.
Here’s what happened since
A.S., bless her heart, has certainly gone through the wringer since the event:
- She’s been called “rude,” “awful,” “inconsiderate,” “a loser,” “shameful and classless,” “trash,” “the C-word,” and the list goes on and on.
- When she started using God as a reason for not tipping (I think that was excuse #2), multiple Christians called her out on that.
- She had to shut down comments on her Instagram because of all the people telling her off.
- She hosts several dozen groups on Facebook, many of which suddenly changed their names to stop including her brand in their titles.
- She has a book on Amazon.com ($88.00 for a 266-page paperback???) that suddenly has many more ratings of 1 (it’s a 1 to 5 scale).
- Story after story has come out about how the ways she recommends people save money at Disney are shady to potentially illegal.
- Her bad behavior even made it into a couple of rag mag publications (here and here) in the U.K.!
So yeah, things don’t seem to be going well for A.S. What can I say? Karma can sometimes bite you in the butt, I guess.
But what about her server?
Welp, some internet sleuths discovered that his name is Valerio, and many people wanted to make sure that he got taken care of.
There’s a Facebook group called DisFoodies where members talk about, what else but, food at Disney parks. When the group owner, Sam C., heard about what A.S. had done to Valerio, he started a fund for him and asked his members to chip in if they’d like. The plan was that they’d give the money to Valerio when Sam and his family ate at the same restaurant, Via Napoli, on October 3rd. Thanks to DisFoodies’ members’ generosity, Valerio got a $250 gratuity on that $116 bill.
PC: Sam C.
PC: Sam C.
But that’s not all! As we mentioned in our original post about this story, another Disney fan, Kyle G., heard about what A.S. had done and started a Go Fund Me for Valerio. That link went far and wide.
On October 10, Kyle and his party also ate at Via Napoli and planned it so they could have Valerio as their server. The bill for Kyle and his family was $16.75, and they tipped him a whopping $1,430!
From Kyle’s Instagram:
Here’s the video Kyle posted from when they presented Valerio with their tip:
So overall, it was an appropriate ending for everyone involved. I’m thrilled that so many people chipped in to assist Valerio. And maybe A.S. Swanson has learned from her experience, as well. Hey a girl can hope, right? 😉
Feature Photo: Loren Javier / flickr
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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
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