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I had posted this story on the Livejournal customers_suck community(is anyone else here there?), but forgot to post it here.
The customers were this deaf couple that I've seen a few times. The guy is usually super nice, translating the woman's ASL. The woman usually communicates to the servers through writing if he's not around. They ask for a very well lit table; I bring them over to one and turn up the house lights a little bit.
The guy orders the chicken egg foo young, no sauce, wonton soup. He politely asks to see what I had written to make sure there were no miscommunication. I'm fine with that, show him my pad, blah blah. He goes to the bathroom.
The woman writes down that she wants wonton soup. Then she starts looking through the menu. Why she couldn't have started looking earlier, I don't know. Every time I try to say something along the lines of "I can give you a few more moments with the menu..." and walk away, she gestures for me to stay. After I've been standing there quite a while, she writes down that she wants shrimp chow mein. I double check, go put in their order, make the soup, blah blah.
I bring out the entrees. She has a complete temper tantrum, screaming and flailing. As you can imagine, I'm SO CONFUSED. The guy starts signing at her, she just keeps yelling at me. He explains that I brought the wrong thing out for her. I explain that she had written down shrimp chow mein and that it was what I brought out. He insists that it's the wrong thing and that I need to ask the other server what she usually gets. I find the other server and am told that she usually gets chicken with broccoli. I ask her if that's what she wants, she gets this really nasty look on her face, writes down to make sure the broccoli is soft because she has a toothache. Okay, okay, fine.
I go to void the old entree and put in the new one. The register where we input orders is next to/on the bar. Behind the bar, there's a mirror that reflects the entire restaurant.. I see her signing angrily at the guy, then gives me the finger. Whatever. The food is brought out, she starts sulkily eating it. They finish, I bring the check, cash them out.
And they just sit there. Not talking or even looking at each other. At one point she waves me over to tell me that, since the ice in her water had melted, some water had gotten on the table. Not a puddle, but drops. I apologize, wipe it up and offer to get her a new glass of water. She just stares at me, tells me that she just wanted to tell me. Okaaay?
Later on, she waves me over and writes down something to the effect of "Do you understand your mistake? Do you understand which was the right dish and which was the wrong one? Will you remember next time?". I nod. She writes "You had better understand, you stupid bitch." and just GLARES at me.
I nod, smile, walk away. They were still there when I left half an hour later. No tip, of course.
I can only imagine the difficulty that deaf people may have in our society. Heck, even a nasty toothache is more trouble than most people can handle. But that is NO reason to treat me(or anyone) like that. I still don't understand what I did wrong. She wrote out shrimp chow mein, that's what I brought out. I wasn't rude to them, I didn't treat them like idiots, I tried my best to help them. But I'm a stupid bitch. Righty-oh.
Everything the woman wrote was on a notepad she carried around with her. If she had written on the placemat or some other piece of paper, I would've shown it to the owner and requested her banned. Unfortunately, I have no proof, and the owner is the sort to back up the customer and not her employees.
I have explained the situation to the other servers and stated that I will never serve her every again. I don't care if we get another nasty October snowstorm and we're the only restaurant open in the entire Buffalo area. Never.
So a few weeks ago, we had a bridal shower at the restaurant. Weddings are not my thing, but anyone who gives me free vegan chocolate-cherry cake is okie-dokie by me! We had opened early for the party, and they were supposed to be done about an hour before we opened. The party ran long, and we were pretty late in cleaning up. So it's me, H(the other server), and the owner. The owner is trying to settle the bill with the mother of the bride, and H just needs to help me clean up and put all the tables back in their original spots. So if someone comes in, I should help them out.
Then SHE walks in, with the guy. The wants to use the bathroom. Oh, look, something I have to do in the kitchen! ZOOM!
Cast:
H- Co-worker
DB- Deaf Bitch
DBF- Deaf Bitch's friend
H: There's someone in the bathroom.
DB: *frantic signing*
DBF: But she has to use the bathroom.
H: Okay, but there's someone in there right now. When that person has left, you can use it.
*signing*
DBF: But she has to go now.
H: (repeats)
DB: HEY! *scowls and signs*
H: There's someone in the bathroom. You need to wait. If you yell like that again, you WILL LEAVE.
I love H.
So H goes back to cleaning, DB uses the bathroom and sits down near the register. I realized she wanted to eat here. Oh, darn. Looks like I have another random thing to do in the kitchen. Soon H and the owner are all finished up and leave. DB is still here. Every time I walk into the dining room, she waves at me. Oops, something else I need to do in the kitchen. She finally left before my first table came in.
Normally, I would never ignore a customer, even if they were at a different server's table. But respect is a two-way street; I refuse to be polite to someone who treats me like a sniveling puppy-stomping monster. And it's not that she was deaf... I've had deaf customers before and have never encountered this behavior before.
The customers were this deaf couple that I've seen a few times. The guy is usually super nice, translating the woman's ASL. The woman usually communicates to the servers through writing if he's not around. They ask for a very well lit table; I bring them over to one and turn up the house lights a little bit.
The guy orders the chicken egg foo young, no sauce, wonton soup. He politely asks to see what I had written to make sure there were no miscommunication. I'm fine with that, show him my pad, blah blah. He goes to the bathroom.
The woman writes down that she wants wonton soup. Then she starts looking through the menu. Why she couldn't have started looking earlier, I don't know. Every time I try to say something along the lines of "I can give you a few more moments with the menu..." and walk away, she gestures for me to stay. After I've been standing there quite a while, she writes down that she wants shrimp chow mein. I double check, go put in their order, make the soup, blah blah.
I bring out the entrees. She has a complete temper tantrum, screaming and flailing. As you can imagine, I'm SO CONFUSED. The guy starts signing at her, she just keeps yelling at me. He explains that I brought the wrong thing out for her. I explain that she had written down shrimp chow mein and that it was what I brought out. He insists that it's the wrong thing and that I need to ask the other server what she usually gets. I find the other server and am told that she usually gets chicken with broccoli. I ask her if that's what she wants, she gets this really nasty look on her face, writes down to make sure the broccoli is soft because she has a toothache. Okay, okay, fine.
I go to void the old entree and put in the new one. The register where we input orders is next to/on the bar. Behind the bar, there's a mirror that reflects the entire restaurant.. I see her signing angrily at the guy, then gives me the finger. Whatever. The food is brought out, she starts sulkily eating it. They finish, I bring the check, cash them out.
And they just sit there. Not talking or even looking at each other. At one point she waves me over to tell me that, since the ice in her water had melted, some water had gotten on the table. Not a puddle, but drops. I apologize, wipe it up and offer to get her a new glass of water. She just stares at me, tells me that she just wanted to tell me. Okaaay?
Later on, she waves me over and writes down something to the effect of "Do you understand your mistake? Do you understand which was the right dish and which was the wrong one? Will you remember next time?". I nod. She writes "You had better understand, you stupid bitch." and just GLARES at me.
I nod, smile, walk away. They were still there when I left half an hour later. No tip, of course.I can only imagine the difficulty that deaf people may have in our society. Heck, even a nasty toothache is more trouble than most people can handle. But that is NO reason to treat me(or anyone) like that. I still don't understand what I did wrong. She wrote out shrimp chow mein, that's what I brought out. I wasn't rude to them, I didn't treat them like idiots, I tried my best to help them. But I'm a stupid bitch. Righty-oh.
Everything the woman wrote was on a notepad she carried around with her. If she had written on the placemat or some other piece of paper, I would've shown it to the owner and requested her banned. Unfortunately, I have no proof, and the owner is the sort to back up the customer and not her employees.
I have explained the situation to the other servers and stated that I will never serve her every again. I don't care if we get another nasty October snowstorm and we're the only restaurant open in the entire Buffalo area. Never.
So a few weeks ago, we had a bridal shower at the restaurant. Weddings are not my thing, but anyone who gives me free vegan chocolate-cherry cake is okie-dokie by me! We had opened early for the party, and they were supposed to be done about an hour before we opened. The party ran long, and we were pretty late in cleaning up. So it's me, H(the other server), and the owner. The owner is trying to settle the bill with the mother of the bride, and H just needs to help me clean up and put all the tables back in their original spots. So if someone comes in, I should help them out.
Then SHE walks in, with the guy. The wants to use the bathroom. Oh, look, something I have to do in the kitchen! ZOOM!
Cast:
H- Co-worker
DB- Deaf Bitch
DBF- Deaf Bitch's friend
H: There's someone in the bathroom.
DB: *frantic signing*
DBF: But she has to use the bathroom.
H: Okay, but there's someone in there right now. When that person has left, you can use it.
*signing*
DBF: But she has to go now.
H: (repeats)
DB: HEY! *scowls and signs*
H: There's someone in the bathroom. You need to wait. If you yell like that again, you WILL LEAVE.
I love H.
So H goes back to cleaning, DB uses the bathroom and sits down near the register. I realized she wanted to eat here. Oh, darn. Looks like I have another random thing to do in the kitchen.
Soon H and the owner are all finished up and leave. DB is still here. Every time I walk into the dining room, she waves at me. Oops, something else I need to do in the kitchen. She finally left before my first table came in.Normally, I would never ignore a customer, even if they were at a different server's table. But respect is a two-way street; I refuse to be polite to someone who treats me like a sniveling puppy-stomping monster. And it's not that she was deaf... I've had deaf customers before and have never encountered this behavior before.
There was another customer who was a little difficult: she was legally blind, and would to place an order and ask really specific questions about certain items. Her orders always took a while, but she placed pretty large orders, and never got rude, so none of us minded. 
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