Tweet
This past weekend my fiance and I were heading up to spend the weekend with her mother and my parents at her mom's condo. We both had to work Friday and headed up after we got home. Since it was a 2+ hour drive, and I had a gift card, we stopped at "I want my babyback babyback babyback [ribs]" chain for a quick bite.
Yeah....we shoud've gone somewhere else as soon as we saw how packed it was. But we somehow managed to score the best space in the whole lot (the closest non-handicapped space to the front door) and it was only a 15 minute wait, so we stayed.
We were seated within 15 minutes, and our drinks and appetizer arrived within a reasonable time frame.
Then the problems started. First of all, it took the waitress 20 minutes to get back to us to take our dinner order.
Then we had to wait another 45 minutes for our dinner.
Now, before anyone says "But Dave, didn't you say it was packed? It's no wonder they were behind!" I have to point out that during the time after we'd ordered but before our food arrived, about 1/3 of the place cleared out. Then, people who were seated AFTER we had ordered our entrees started getting their entrees first!
During this time, we saw neither hide nor hair of our server. About the time that I was ready to go over to the hostess stand and ask them to please check on our meals, our server came back to apologize for the wait, and that the manager would bring our food out shortly.
10 minutes later, the manager did indeed bring our food out. She said they were short-staffed and apologized for the long wait, and said "Dinner's on us."
OK, fine....I get it, things get busy, and i know what it's like to be short-handed. Clearly though, someone fucked up and lost our order because like I said, people seated AFTER we'd ordered we already half-done with their dinner. The fact that our server disappeared also makes me think they dropped the ball and they didn't want to come over and admit they'd fucked up.
But I'll take a free meal out of it. I hadn't even complained; she just up and comped the check.
Then my fiance realized they'd really overcooked her food, to the point that it was barely edible. We didn't complain about that, since the food was already going ot be free and we just wanted to hit the road already.
Then the server dropped off our check and walked away. Not a single thing had been comped. When she came back I told her what the manager had said, and she took the check to go confer with her.
Cue another full ten minutes of waiting, during which time a different server came and dropped a check holder and walked away without a word. There were several slips of paper on it, and I assumed that it was the original check along with the corrected check.
Except....what the hell?!?!?! This check is for MORE than what our tab was....wait...this is the check for someone else's table.....with someone else's credit card slips, and SOMEONE ELSE'S AMERICAN EXPRESS CARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Me (towards the server who's now almost out of the section): Excuse me! Hey, EXCUSE ME!!!! THIS ISN'T OURS!
Server: Oh...sorry (to someone I can't see) which table did you say to bring this to????
Me:
Finally, our server came back with the check, comped to $0. We did leave her with a cash tip, since - other than taking too long to take our order - none of the above was her fault (well, we're guessing it wasn't).
Like I said, I can understand having an off-night. Even the part where they didn't adjust the check like they said they would I can write-off as a simple mistake, especially since they did fix it in the end.
But giving me someone else's credit card? That's not excusable under any circumstances.
Yeah....we shoud've gone somewhere else as soon as we saw how packed it was. But we somehow managed to score the best space in the whole lot (the closest non-handicapped space to the front door) and it was only a 15 minute wait, so we stayed.
We were seated within 15 minutes, and our drinks and appetizer arrived within a reasonable time frame.
Then the problems started. First of all, it took the waitress 20 minutes to get back to us to take our dinner order.
Then we had to wait another 45 minutes for our dinner.
Now, before anyone says "But Dave, didn't you say it was packed? It's no wonder they were behind!" I have to point out that during the time after we'd ordered but before our food arrived, about 1/3 of the place cleared out. Then, people who were seated AFTER we had ordered our entrees started getting their entrees first!
During this time, we saw neither hide nor hair of our server. About the time that I was ready to go over to the hostess stand and ask them to please check on our meals, our server came back to apologize for the wait, and that the manager would bring our food out shortly.
10 minutes later, the manager did indeed bring our food out. She said they were short-staffed and apologized for the long wait, and said "Dinner's on us."
OK, fine....I get it, things get busy, and i know what it's like to be short-handed. Clearly though, someone fucked up and lost our order because like I said, people seated AFTER we'd ordered we already half-done with their dinner. The fact that our server disappeared also makes me think they dropped the ball and they didn't want to come over and admit they'd fucked up.
But I'll take a free meal out of it. I hadn't even complained; she just up and comped the check.
Then my fiance realized they'd really overcooked her food, to the point that it was barely edible. We didn't complain about that, since the food was already going ot be free and we just wanted to hit the road already.
Then the server dropped off our check and walked away. Not a single thing had been comped. When she came back I told her what the manager had said, and she took the check to go confer with her.
Cue another full ten minutes of waiting, during which time a different server came and dropped a check holder and walked away without a word. There were several slips of paper on it, and I assumed that it was the original check along with the corrected check.
Except....what the hell?!?!?! This check is for MORE than what our tab was....wait...this is the check for someone else's table.....with someone else's credit card slips, and SOMEONE ELSE'S AMERICAN EXPRESS CARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Me (towards the server who's now almost out of the section): Excuse me! Hey, EXCUSE ME!!!! THIS ISN'T OURS!
Server: Oh...sorry (to someone I can't see) which table did you say to bring this to????
Me:
Finally, our server came back with the check, comped to $0. We did leave her with a cash tip, since - other than taking too long to take our order - none of the above was her fault (well, we're guessing it wasn't).
Like I said, I can understand having an off-night. Even the part where they didn't adjust the check like they said they would I can write-off as a simple mistake, especially since they did fix it in the end.
But giving me someone else's credit card? That's not excusable under any circumstances.
Yeah, I don't care if I ever go back.
Comment