No Vinegar! = Free Food

[Legal Eagle]

So myself and the girlfriend are at spoons again. She gets the fun of ordering so i don't have to deal with the server from the sucky bartender story. She goes and orders two meals, pays then comes back. We go and get condiments to find theres no vinegar. No problem right, we'll just ask for some. Food comes and we ask for viengar. Server1 goes to get us some. We start eating (not the chips, neither of us can stand chips without both salt and vinegar).

10 minutes later he still hasn't returned, so we grab server2 and ask for some vinegar. Off he goes to the magical cave of vinegar.

10 minutes pass in which no staff come to our part of the restraunt, obviously afraid they'll be asked to go on a perilous journy to find the sacred vinegar.

Server1 returns (in one piece, i was getting worried) to take plates. No mention of vinegar until i ask him "sorry i couldn't find any they must be out or something, go speak to the manager i'm new". So off i go to see the manager thinking we'll get free deserts or something.

five minutes later i'm back with a full refund. I'm tempted now to make a scene next time i'm in there to see if they'll give me a £50 gift voucher for a dirty knife.

Am i missing something is it normal to offer refunds unasked for such little things?

[CanadaGirl]

five minutes later i'm back with a full refund. I'm tempted now to make a scene next time i'm in there to see if they'll give me a £50 gift voucher for a dirty knife.

Please don't

[Crazeyal]

WTH???

The manager does the NICE thing and gives you free food because the "New guy" was stupid and didn't follow obvious proceedure... AND YOU COMPLAIN?!?!?!?

We aren't supposed to bash each other.

I am NOT bashing you...

I am pointing out a pretty obvious mistake on your part. It's the manager's job to ensure customer happiness and maintain the restaurant's image. Shit happens. When it does, it's the Manager's job to see if someone is being a SC, or if a staff mistake occurred. You should have been notified that A) The dumbass couldn't find vinegar. B) Dumbass SHOULD have asked for help from the Manager instead of shrugging it off and walking away. C) At the VERY least, Dumbass should have let you know he was giving up his INCREDIBLY hard task.

I say this with a soft tone and no ire.

You are acting like a Sucky Customer. Why bash someone who did right by you? I'd eat at that establishment again, to show my appreciation for being treated right.

[i4wolves]

I did not see you as complaining. All that happened was they could not figure out why the manager gave them a refund when all they did was ask about the vingear. They did not make a sene. They were just curious if they did make a sence if they would have gotton money because when all they did was ask about something they got a full refund. At least that's how I understood the story. Correct me if i am wrong.

[Legal Eagle]

the line about me trying to get a £50 voucher was a joke.

my point (which seemed to have been lost) was that they were grossly overcompensating and leaving themselves open to being taken advatage of, i know people who would raise a fuss every time thye went if they knew they would get free food. All this behaviour does is breed sucky customers.

[Crazeyal]

A 20 minute wait plus an incompetant and RUDE waitstaff is EXACTLY the reason for management to get involved. You sound like you are trying to be on the side of the staff, which is admirable, but face it.. they fucked up. The manager did the right thing. It won't be abused if the staff doesn't provide the fodder.

The Morons in Management area is FILLED with wanna-be's who bend over at a HINT of dissatisfaction. Now, getting you a free dessert could have been a satisfactory fix. But shredding the check when you didn't get service twice over and had to ASK for management involvement is pretty standard.

[Broomjockey]

Yeah, I'd say that the manager was pretty much in-line. I'd be pleasantly shocked at that turn of events.

But yeah, no vinegar in and of itself wouldn't be cause for a refund, but the fact that you had to ask two seperate people to check, and neither came back and said "sorry, can't find any," thus ensuring that even if you DID eat chips without said vinegar, they'd likely be cold and possibly nasty by the time this revelation was imparted, makes a refund okay.

I'd just have to say though, did you indicate you were planning on getting dessert? If not, then he might not have thought to offer it depending on the time of day (early, or really late it might have been the thought that you'd just like to move on), making a comped meal the default action.

[Bright_Star]

Weren't you being a tad bit sucky expecting something FREE because of one missing item? You have to understand that when in an eating establishment that things don't always run smoothly. Now, I can understand getting something free if your ENTIRE meal was messed up but expecting it because of no vinegar?
Am I missing something here?

[Broomjockey]

Am I missing something here?

Sort of. Legal was thinking maybe a free dessert for the trouble, as an expected part of the meal wasn't available. But the manager gave - unasked for - a full refund for the meal, and Legal was quite shocked that the manager did this. I've had similar situations where I mention something, and get a heck of a chunk knocked off, a lot more than I personally felt I deserved.

[blas]

Heavens to Betsy....

If I got a freebie every time McDonalds screwed up my burgers, I'd have all 3 meals of the day covered for the next month and a half.

I sincerely hope you were joking about the last part about the free voucher for raising a stink next time.

[customersruinmylife]

By the sounds of things you don't even like going in Spoons, so why do you continue to go there? Leave the poor guy alone, he was probably overwhelmed by the hoards of cheap ass chavs yelling at him all the time. I used to work in a Spoons, and it is seriously AWFUL.

[Becks]

I'm tempted now to make a scene next time i'm in there to see if they'll give me a £50 gift voucher for a dirty knife.

I, personally, saw this as a joke. Reading further down the thread, I'm assured that it WAS meant in a joking manner. Yay me.

CRML, there are a few places that I've gone to that had crappy service and yet I still went back. Why? Good food? Decent prices? Hoping that the bad service was a one-time only thing? All of the above.

[Andara Bledin]

The last part of the OP being a joke seemed rather obvious to me, too. I got the impression that Legal Eagle thought the comped meal was a bit overcomping for the lack of vinegar.

Of course, when you consider that vinegar can be an important part of enjoying chips (I like salt only on mine, unless I have a Frosty or honey mustard or good tartar sauce handy for dipping) and add in the fact that two separate servers were consulted and neither of them returned within what could be considered a reasonable time (the second one not returning at all, although he may have thought the first one was handling it, and the first one only mentioning the vinegar when asked), then you move into the realm of comping the meal as apology for the overall dining experience being subpar.

I've only ever had one problem with a meal out, and that was at a fairly fancy restaurant. They forgot the appetizers. We didn't really care as the rest of the meal was filling enough, but we mentioned it to the waiter to ensure that it wasn't on our bill. The manager came over to apologize and offered us free deserts. They were quite tasty.

As for fast food screwups, if it's minor, like forgetting to leave the tomato off, then I FIDO (F*** It, Drive On). If it's major, like giving me the entirely wrong sandwich, then I'll complain. The standard response from pretty much every place I've called has been to give me a replacement sandwich when next I was in.

^-.-^

[BookstoreEscapee]

I read the OP as being a tad incredulous at getting a full refund for something so small...I would have been surprised, too. And he doesn't say he asked for free desserts, just that he thought the manager might offer something along those lines for the inconvenience. That was very nice of him though. (And I knew you were joking about making a scene next time, too.) And maybe they'll see that this "new" server might need a tad more coaching...

My family went out for dinner one night at a local restaurant that does very good business (and only takes cash to boot), and we all got our dinners except for my dad. They didn't bring his meal out until the rest of us were finished eating. (He ended up having them wrap it and eating it at home.) The server told the owner what happened and he came out and offered my dad half off a drink from the bar...gee, how generous...

[kibbles]

Weren't you being a tad bit sucky expecting something FREE because of one missing item? You have to understand that when in an eating establishment that things don't always run smoothly. Now, I can understand getting something free if your ENTIRE meal was messed up but expecting it because of no vinegar?
Am I missing something here?

I don't think anyone was expecting anything free for a missing item, but the OP did seem to be ignored by the staff even after many attempts.