Inattentive Waitress

[Setsunaela]

So, I went out with some friends to an Applebees for lunch. We had just left a store from doing the little baby shower registry scanner party and we were feeling pretty hungry.
We arrived and were seated, received drinks fairly quickly, told our waitress we were waiting on the other two to arrive, and ordered one appetizer to start. Shortly after our two friends showed up, they ordered drinks, which we received, and another appetizer. About fifteen minutes later, we all realized our water and sodas were all empty, the second appetizer had not arrived, and our waitress was nowhere to be seen.. we flagged down a hostess, who directed a different waiter to refill our drinks. Our waitress showed a few minutes later with our appetizer, and took our food orders.

I'm not sure of the time, at least another 30 minutes or so, our drinks were yet again empty, we had not received food, so we yet again flagged down a passing waiter, who apologized and informed us our server was new, and begged our patience, and our drinks were again refilled. After everyone had eaten, she returned to clear our empty plates, and we asked for dessert and the bill together, to save a bit of time. After quite a while, we flagged down the manager. We told him we really didn't want to get the girl into trouble, but that we would have really appreciated a bit more attention, even if it meant maybe they should assign her a few less tables to ease her into managing..
I mean.. I understand a new girl, but maybe a heads-up from her when we first sat down would have vastly improved our patience. I know myself personally, a quick "hey guys, I'm A, I'll be your server today, it's my first week so if you could be a little patient with me.." or something similar exponentially increases my patience with people...
my question is.. were we rude to complain? It took us almost two hours from start to finish, when I have eaten in that applebees before with just as large a group and been in and out in an hour...

[Andara Bledin]

No, you were not rude to complain.

You were actually really good about the whole thing. And if the good people don't make reasonable complaints, then the management won't be aware that there is a problem to be fixed before it gets to the point where the SCs start throwing fits and there's no way to know who was really at fault.

^-.-^

[bhskittykatt]

I don't think you were rude to complain. You didn't throw a fit. You understood she was new, and suggested that management help her adjust rather than discipline/fire her. You gave thoughtful feedback, which I'm sure management appreciated.

[PepperElf]

to me that wasn't a complaint... that was constructive criticism

and it was given politely...

compared to the SCs normally reported on this site.. that was more like a "you'll do better next time, hang in there" with a comforting pat on the back




i wish more people would act like that. it would make life easier for all

[fma_fanatic]

No you weren't rude at all. I suspect that the Applebee's by my work closed for the very same reason. DDD and I went one night and I think we were seated probably a good 15-20 minutes before we realized that no one had come by to ask what we wanted to drink or to ask if we wanted any appetizers. He went and found the hostess who got us taken care of.

I know that some of my co-workers complained about that location a lot, especially with the curbside to go service.

[Gawdzillers]

Just came back from dinner, you were better than my uncle was about it.
Our waitress must not have understood English very well (Mexican restaurant, Hispanic waitress). My uncle and I asked for tea with lime, and she brought us a bunch of lemon. My uncle snapped, "NO, LIMES ARE GREEN." After she went to get limes, he called her all manner of names behind her back.

[superhotelworker]

Just came back from dinner, you were better than my uncle was about it.
Our waitress must not have understood English very well (Mexican restaurant, Hispanic waitress). My uncle and I asked for tea with lime, and she brought us a bunch of lemon. My uncle snapped, "NO, LIMES ARE GREEN." After she went to get limes, he called her all manner of names behind her back.

That's mean

No. you were nice. I've been messed over at applebee's, but that was a trivia night.. friend ordered food at 7.. got it at..10.. and ice cold. We'd been very patient and that just made us sad.

[MoonCat]

That's mean

No. you were nice. I've been messed over at applebee's, but that was a trivia night.. friend ordered food at 7.. got it at..10.. and ice cold. We'd been very patient and that just made us sad.

Wait, you waited three hours to get your food?? Holy crapola. That's ridiculous. Did they even let you know there would be a delay?

[surreal20]

Ok, first off, Applebees is kinda known in my area to have sucky food/service.

HOWEVER, that being said, the thing that ALWAYS got us in REd LObster was that, if you didn't want the person to be in trouble, why complain? That's just a general thought.

No i am NOT saying that you were wrong to complain, you should have. You waited FAR too long for foods and refills. BUt what i AM trying to say is, when you talk to an official about your service, leave out "i don't want so and so to get in trouble" bc you know full well, that as soon as you leave, that person is getting an ear full, REGARDLESS of them being new or not.

That's just how it worked in my store. The customer was treated as if gold, and if something isn't just right and they complained, of COURSE someone is going to get blamed, and a lot of the time it's the server.

Try to keep in mind, it isn't always the server's fault to why your food is late. Red LObster makes you wait until all the food is ready to give to the customers. Granted we have a specially designed computer system that allows us to make food in the correct order at the correct time so that if one dish is done, the other dishes are only seconds behind, LITERALLY.

So if the food is late, it's about half the cooks fault, bc they weren't able to work the system right.