Greg Merson, Recovering Alcoholic, Takes on Waiter Who Attempted to Serve Him Booze

Mortis

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I was reading the tweets and responses... I cant believe the amount of people who are defending the server...
 
Shells

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I can't believe it either!

In my opinion, Greg has every right to be angry - maybe he could have just asked for the manager or something along that line rather than calling out the server, but everything happened the way it happened. It's just really bad business for the restaurant - the server is a server to a patron - he shouldn't think he is above any patron to get the order wrong and think it's funny or whatever. As long as people are supporting the server, maybe we should be concerned for future food and drink orders.
 
playinggameswithu

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Guys he is picking on a lowly waiter. I don't even know who Greg Merson is let alone he was an alcoholic and I play poker regularly.

I used to be a waiter when I was 15 and I served the entire wedding cake to everyone except the immediate family table. I got fired, not a big deal but if you are getting paid min. wage not much better be expected out of you.

Knowing the poisonous environment players put themselves in Greg probably has an addiction to 10 other drugs at least. Shame on him for picking on the weakest of weak especially publicly. Reminds me of the scene from GoodFellas where the waiter gets killed for making a supposed mistake. Unreal people support the degen over the worker IMO.

If the server is getting min.wage or less I'd barely do the job just not to get fired. Usually alcoholism is for excessive losing players not for multi-millionaire world champions.
 
Shells

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I understand he is picking on a server/waiter - I've done wait jobs in my past, too. Now, if it was an honest mistake that the server was confused with an order of water or a shot of vodka, then someone needs to apologize. We all make mistakes. Somehow, with the server's response to Greg's comment that he ordered water and the server says 'So?' then, yeah, I might get a little annoyed.

And the fact that Greg is known to Poker people, has no bearing on the incident. The server may not have known him at all. There is a distinct difference between water and vodka.
 
Marcwantstowin

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I think the server/ waiter should be sacked after his reaction. I mean if he had sorry, I totally b***ered that and its all my mistake, then okay, but his reaction sucks. "So?" - So get a new job, and get a brain cell........pillock.
 
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The Server was out of line and needed to be fired on the spot
 
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I would agree with firing the waiter as well, but I want to point out a few things. if the waiter served alcohol at no charge to the customer then he should be fired for that reason as well. the other issue that I think people are neglecting is why a group of "friends" is drinking in front of someone celebrating sobriety. friends don't do that to friends.
 
Mortis

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I understand he is picking on a server/waiter - I've done wait jobs in my past, too. Now, if it was an honest mistake that the server was confused with an order of water or a shot of vodka, then someone needs to apologize. We all make mistakes. Somehow, with the server's response to Greg's comment that he ordered water and the server says 'So?' then, yeah, I might get a little annoyed.

And the fact that Greg is known to Poker people, has no bearing on the incident. The server may not have known him at all. There is a distinct difference between water and vodka.
This.
 
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Sure the waiter could and perhaps should be fired for this but what I am surprised at is that Greg would waste even one more second of his life wasting time with something like this! He has already apparently wasted some of his life by being a drunk! I of course think that the right decision for Greg to have made in the restaurant would have been to get his water and then forget about it!!
 
WhereDidMyEVGo

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Sure seems intentional if it played out as described with the waiter making a joke about it beforehand and then being flippant afterward. Not sure if I'd have gotten thrown out or left of my own accord though. Waiter should be fired if it was done purposely.
 
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He had every right to react that way. The waiter blatantly gave him alcohol when he ordered a water. I myself am also sober 7 years now. If this were to happen to me I would have made a scene as well.
 
terryk

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I would agree with firing the waiter as well, but I want to point out a few things. if the waiter served alcohol at no charge to the customer then he should be fired for that reason as well. the other issue that I think people are neglecting is why a group of "friends" is drinking in front of someone celebrating sobriety. friends don't do that to friends.
Guess we can't eat donuts in front of fat people too! :confused: Where does it end?
 
krisi77

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if this happened accidentally, I would say that everybody makes mistakes and should be forgiven, but if he did it on purpose it's a different job
 
Kanetuck

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Wow, lots of issues here. First, I must say, I am not a fan of using the internet to punish someone or single them out. It would be one thing to take to the internet and use this experience as a learning experience for the general public, but listing his name is crossing the line. I miss the days where that "So" comment would have meant a quick physical confrontation. Granted, the adult thing to do is to inform him of the situation. However, that happened and no respect was given. So, the proper way to handle the issue would have been to get the manager. But let's be honest, does a restaurant that makes most of its money on alcohol care about insulting recovering alcoholics. I doubt it. Which, is probably why the poker player took to social media to attack. Physical altercation hurts poker player, online doesn't. That one sip could be enough to take away seven years of effort. At the very least, it probably means a month or two of daily meetings and serious effort. If I order a water, it is typically very obvious which glass has water. So given the conversation, I would think the server thought that it would be funny. I just hope that the server can use this situation to understand how serious serving an alcoholic alcohol on purpose really is. The line between being funny and disrespectful moves, and is normally really tested out as teenagers. However, even as adults we can all cross that line on accident. The big difference is how we try to mend the damage caused by our words and actions and unfortunately realizing that there is no such thing as taking it back.
 
Shells

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Wow, lots of issues here. First, I must say, I am not a fan of using the internet to punish someone or single them out. It would be one thing to take to the internet and use this experience as a learning experience for the general public, but listing his name is crossing the line. I miss the days where that "So" comment would have meant a quick physical confrontation. Granted, the adult thing to do is to inform him of the situation. However, that happened and no respect was given. So, the proper way to handle the issue would have been to get the manager. But let's be honest, does a restaurant that makes most of its money on alcohol care about insulting recovering alcoholics. I doubt it. Which, is probably why the poker player took to social media to attack. Physical altercation hurts poker player, online doesn't. That one sip could be enough to take away seven years of effort. At the very least, it probably means a month or two of daily meetings and serious effort. If I order a water, it is typically very obvious which glass has water. So given the conversation, I would think the server thought that it would be funny. I just hope that the server can use this situation to understand how serious serving an alcoholic alcohol on purpose really is. The line between being funny and disrespectful moves, and is normally really tested out as teenagers. However, even as adults we can all cross that line on accident. The big difference is how we try to mend the damage caused by our words and actions and unfortunately realizing that there is no such thing as taking it back.


That is probably one thing out of this whole issue I agree with most. Greg shouldn't have gone as far as he did with hunting him down on twitter. I'm one of those who is VERY careful what I share and type in Social Media - I prefer face to face communication. The server may have to go into hiding for a while after this nonsense. This entire interaction was mishandled terribly.

I still and will continue to believe, the server knew exactly what he was doing, given he would be considered an adult and was old enough to serve alcohol and Greg had every right to be upset (likely should have kept it all within the restaurant) I know, I know, this doesn't mean that all adults behave accordingly but I think most will understand what I mean.
 
terryk

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A free drink? I would enjoy the beverage,,,and if they gave me free chicken wings,i would enjoy those too.:top: and if my friend rolled a joint,i would smoke it,and if another friend put a line of coke on the table,i would decline.But i would't be upset. That would be silly,,, I'm my own person,and i want others to be themselves,,, how hard is it? It's not,if you don't hold yourself as more important than others,,, then it's easy,,, :) Hav a nice day!
 
WhereDidMyEVGo

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Guess we can't eat donuts in front of fat people too! :confused: Where does it end?
He was in a place that served alcohol with a group of people who were drinking. Clearly he has no problem with other people doing what they want to do.
A free drink? I would enjoy the beverage,,,and if they gave me free chicken wings,i would enjoy those too.:top: and if my friend rolled a joint,i would smoke it,and if another friend put a line of coke on the table,i would decline.But i would't be upset. That would be silly,,, I'm my own person,and i want others to be themselves,,, how hard is it? It's not,if you don't hold yourself as more important than others,,, then it's easy,,, :) Hav a nice day!

There's a difference between declining something you don't want and someone intentionally trying to trick you into consuming something you don't want.
 
fingers182005

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im a recovering addict myself, but my drug of choice was heroin. recently i seen a underground poker ring get busted for serving drugs so im going to use that as an example . if i was to join a game and have a person try to serve me heroin i would more than likely be in a big ole fight i would def attack the waiter for tryin to serve me drugs and let me tell you not verbally it would be with my bare hands
 
Shells

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im a recovering addict myself, but my drug of choice was heroin. recently i seen a underground poker ring get busted for serving drugs so im going to use that as an example . if i was to join a game and have a person try to serve me heroin i would more than likely be in a big ole fight i would def attack the waiter for tryin to serve me drugs and let me tell you not verbally it would be with my bare hands


I think it's good to read how another might feel in a similar situation. Stay strong, fingers!
 
AcooltartA

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Obviously the waiter was in the wrong but things definitely got taken a little to far. I feel like if I was in this situation I would maybe file a complaint with the establishment but to put the guy's personal info on blast on the Internet is taking it to a whole different level. In life we must choose our battles. Greg would've looked like the bigger person if he hadn't gone to social media with the issue. Now he is coming out looking like the bully. Definitely a touchy situation...
 
ScooperNova

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Doesn’t seem like he’s experiencing much serenity in his sobriety. I’m guessing he’s upset with most people most of the time if he’s putting so much effort into attacking the waiter. Sure the waiter messed up and was probably a jerk. Welcome to humanity. He’s not exactly taking the high road.
 
quartz

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I actually agree with the doxxing in this case. Misleading or tricking people with regards to food and drink should be taken as an extremely serious issue as the implications can mean life or death.
 
57noona

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The Waiter is way out of line in this case. To say "So" when he found out that he served him the wrong drink. I think he deserves to outed the way he has been. The Waiter acted like he might have done it on purpose. I think he should be fired for what he did.
 
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