Tuesday, October 5, 2010

This is probably always a good idea....

Ever since being taken to restaurants as a child, I have always seemed to live by an unwritten law that it's probably a good idea to be courteous to the people who handle your food preparation. Whether it is somewhere as simple as a greasy fast food joint or a high end restaurant. No reason to give someone any motivation to do the unthinkable and mess with your food.

I eat out probably more than the average person. It's a nasty habit and I probably could save a lot more money if I stayed home and prepared more meals, but that is besides the point really(and hey I do usually try to dig up a coupon). Through the years I have been pretty astonished and how willing people are to just be flat out rude over the most minuscule errors or mistakes with their food order. Like their entire day has just been ruined over it. Sending food back is not out of bounds in all situations, but if it has really come to that point, is it that hard to be civil about it? In more cases than not, it probably isn't even the waiter/waitresses fault anyway.

Chill out people.

5 comments:

Springs1 said...
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Springs1 said...
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Springs1 said...

"how willing people are to just be flat out rude over the most minuscule errors or mistakes with their food order."

You don't seem to get that most of the time, the SERVER is being rude first by not even TRYING to check over the most obvious things wrong and bring it to you anyway. Have you ever had like 4 or 5 or more things wrong on ONE plate of food? I sure have and that really shows if it's your server that brought you your food, they didn't *CARE* at all about your dining experience. So who wouldn't be a bit miffed at them for not caring at all, then they want you to care at the end with a nice tip, right?

I am nice most of the time, but sometimes when you have either the same problem over and over again or many problems with just one order, it's rather hard to keep being nice to someone that isn't being nice to you. The server is nice if they actually CARE about what they bring you for to have checked what they were bringing you. What's the point of the server if they just going to bring you anything under the sun?

It's your opinion if it's minuscule, because to the customer it may be major.

I have lost my temper a few times.

One was due to another waitress(meaning not our waitress) that brought out my burger that was open-faced with the bacon missing(like DUH, SOOO OBVIOUS), the ranch missing, and pickles on the plate that I said no pickles. Now, maybe I can see if one error was on the plate, maybe our waitress didn't put the order in right, but 3 items wrong, NO WAY did she COMPARE THAT TICKET TO WHAT SHE WAS BRINGING OUT. I seriously doubt our waitress actually put in the order incorrectly, because I even told her I wanted my bacon extra crispy.

When you have that in only a party of 2 and when I told that other waitress in a not-so-nice way what was missing this is what she said that PROVES she DIDN'T and couldn't have possibly READ the ticket: "I'M NOT YOUR SERVER." What a bitch to tell me that. Even if I wasn't nice, she wasn't nice FIRST, so SHE should have told me she was sorry. A manager brought out the corrected food, not her.

What is the point of running other customer's food to stay hot if it's not right is beyond me? I talked to the manager after and she fussed her about needing to read the tickets as well as she needed to check her attitude at the door.

Continued next post:

Springs1 said...

"Like their entire day has just been ruined over it."

That time I talked about above, ruined the entire rest of the outing. It was already ruined some by the lazy waiter that brought out the appetizer without the ranch and told us "Your server will bring it to you." Such lazy servers out there, for real. I wasn't mean to him, but I sure as hell wanted to for putting it on someone else when HE brought out the food, so it was his mistake.

At times it has, for real, I can think about it hours later. I am very sensitive and if a server hasn't tried their best, I am very bothered by that they were so uncaring. I couldn't fathom doing that to a stranger like that, why are they that lazy and uncaring like that?

"is it that hard to be civil about it?"

The thing is, even 99% of the time when I am civil, nice, kind, etc. it doesn't help. They don't say they are sorry when they mess things up 95% of the time. They don't try to get something comped from their manager if it's a major error as I would if I were a server to make-up for someone's bad service I created and so I would have a better tip if I showed them I'd call the manager over for them. Most of them act like they could care less.

"In more cases than not, it probably isn't even the waiter/waitresses fault anyway."

Actually, most of the time it is. Anything that your server can notice without touching the food that is wrong or missing is THEIR FAULT for SERVING it to me wrong.

Even when another server is involved, we have had times where OUR SERVERS put in the order wrong into the computer to begin with.

Also, even if another server brings out the food, any condiments could have been offered to be brought out ahead of time so NO ONE forgets them.

So you are SO WRONG about this one.

Most of the problems people have in restaurants are due to their server or another server, NOT the kitchen staff in general.

Mike said...

Whoa. Looks like I struck a cord. Anyways, thanks for the feedback, nice to know at least one person reads this blog, haha.

Your story about poor service is pretty telling, but I think what I was trying to get across in my specific case was the rudeness in general. I understand that in isolated incidents, the service is going to be so over the top awful and inconsiderate that it calls for an escalation, however I still firmly believe that in general, a lot of people overreact to the situation.

The situation you detailed though, of course would be an exception and I could easily understand why in that case it would lead you to be upset, however 4-5 things wrong on a single order in my experience at least, has never happened. Ever.

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