Please wait to be seated!

[Fungus]

How many of you have had to contend with cretins who ignore "please wait to be seated" signs? I have had to ask people to get up because we had a line and they jumped it to sit down, or have had to deal with people cranking off because no one ever waited on them, which was because they had no menus which made people think the order was already taken and then they were still mad at me after I informed them it was their fault. I liked when people would say "we don't have menus!" and I'd say "Oh, weren't you given menus when you were seated?", in the sweetest voice I could muster. Sometimes when people would go sit down and not wait to be seated, I was so tempted to bring out the braille menus since they obviously couldn't see the signs!

[nattie]

That's my favorite! Especially when it's the weekend and we're on a wait and I have the bartables. People come in and say they're going the bar then go the bartables. I get to tell them to go to the hostess stand b/c these tables are on the wait. They always say well the host said it's ok b/c I was going to the bar. Well dummy the bartables are NOT part of the bar! Sorry!

[mattm04]

I had that happen to me when eating at a local chain restaurant, thy have TV's all over the resturant with sporting events on them. That night the Red Sox and Yankees were playing. We had waited about 20 minutes for a table. As the hostess was walking us to our table, some random couple runs by us ans sits down.

The hostess approaches the table...

H - hostess
SC - sc
M - manager


H: sir, we have wait, you will need to check in whit the hostess station. The wait is about 20 minutes.
SC: Why? I sat down first. *grabs for menus, misses* I will have a....
H: Sir, i will ask you one more time to leave the table and wait.
SC: No. Get me my damn drinks.
H: *to us* sorry about this, if you wait in the bar area we will come and get you in a minute or two.

As we wait in the bar area we can see the manager talking to the SC. A minute later we hear the sc screaming "f**k you, this is ridiculous, i am a customer yo have to serve me! I will not leave dick face! Poop! Shit! Cunt!, etc." At this point I can see the hostess on the phone and the bartender. A few seconds later the SC is leaving the restaurant with a manager in tow along whit some rather large customers, screaming random swear/inappropriate words. Everyone heard him.

The manager apologies to us, and we are seated. As we are seated we hear sirens. The guy was arrested for assault on a police officer, creating a disturbance, and some warrants among other charges. The manager comped a portion of everyones meal, depending on what they ordered.

[cloudiko]

Fungus, this is my ULTIMATE pet peeve!!!

I do exactly the same thing you do when confronted with someone who thought they were too important to stop and read the glaringly obvious PLEASE WAIT TO BE SEATED sign situated next to the door: ignore them. It's funny to watch how pissed off they become as they wait five, then ten, then fifteen minutes as absolutely NO ONE pays them an ounce of attention. And yes, they usually do eventually explode into a frustrated, "Can I get some menus!?" I keep on ignoring them, even if I'm supposed to wait on them.

And finally, once all of my tables who actually waited to sit down are taken care of, I will go by and pretend to be surprised with a "Oh, how did all of you get back here?" They glare at me, demand that this place has horrible service, that they've been waiting forever for someone to pay attention to them, and then I drop the bomb of their blatent stupidity square on their heads: "Oh, well...I'm sorry. You see, I only know to take care of tables that were put back here by the hostess and given menus. I had no idea you were waiting for service! Maybe next time you should read the sign up front that says, PLEASE WAIT TO BE SEATED. That way, I can give you the good service you deserve."

I know it's a touch passive aggressive, but I don't really care. The idiots deserve it if they're too impatient to wait in line just like everybody else.


I think the way I treat these types of people is one of many a reason why I'm probably going to hell. Oh well.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Anybody remember Mr. "Give 'em the pickle" guy?

This was one of the stunts he pulled--instead of waiting to be seated at a sit-down restaurant, he just sat himself down at an empty table.

And then decided he was too good to wait to have his order taken, so he whipped out his cell phone and ordered a pizza to be delivered to him at the restaurant.

The saddest part of the whole deal is some managers/corporate suits think this somehow proves a point about customer service.

[Sableonblonde]

Anybody remember Mr. "Give 'em the pickle" guy?

Oh my goodness, yes! *flashbacks* Haha, they showed the one video of his (is there more than one?) during this stupid customer service class they forced us to take one summer at an amusement park I worked at. It was really hilarious because the whole message of the video, it seemed, was that you should give the customers freebies every now and then. And as soon as the video is over, the manager guy running our class was all like, "Now - we don't EVER give out freebies here, EVER, but you understood the message right?" LOL That was so completely pointless. And that guy was a lunatic.

[Samaliel]

I was so tempted to bring out the braille menus since they obviously couldn't see the signs!

That would be appropriately devilish and devilishly awesome !!

[tropicsgoddess]

At the restaurant I worked at last year, we didn't have the "please wait to be seated signs", so sometimes during the slow times customers would seat themselves. What would drive me up the wall was during the busy times, SC's would bug me to death about when they'll be up next on the list to be seated and when I seat them, they would get picky about the table I would put them in and request another one (which more than likely is occupied and tell them to wait again and then they bitch and moan again...).

[Boozy]

How many of you have had to contend with cretins who ignore "please wait to be seated" signs?

Fungus, this is my ULTIMATE pet peeve!!!

Oh my goodness, yes!

YES. Yes yes yes.

Most. Annoying. Thing. Ever.

I'm now having flashbacks to my waitressing days. I don't think there was anything I hated worse. 2 jackasses flopping their behinds down at a 6-top could fuck up my dining room like nothing else.

And when you asked them to move, they'd look at you as if you'd slapped their mother.

[blas]

ADD ME to the list of haters!

The worst was at the Norwegian Restauarant. The majority of the customers were elderly. They had their "favorite" tables. And damn if that little blonde twit was going to try to seat them elsewhere.

They'd depend on me being in the kitchen or busy cashing people out so that they could walk in and *slowly* sneak off to sit wherever they wanted. Naturally, I'd catch them......did they actually think they could get away that fast? Oh that job really kept me on my toes, chasing senior citizens around the restaurant "Excuse me folks, actually I was going this way, if you'd follow me...."

The best part about people who INSIST on seating themselves....they will ALWAYS go to a dirty table! Without fail, ALWAYS.....and then give you the catbutt face and demand it be cleaned and they get menus.

[Imogene]

"Now - we don't EVER give out freebies here, EVER, but you understood the message right?"

"H-what? I'm sorry, I'm not really in the mood to decode the cryptoquip that was hidden deep within the 'message'..."

[Forensic Waitress]

I have to deal with this at the moment and I hate it too.

On Monday night I was in the restaurant on my own and I had quite a few tables and these people came in and sat themselves down while I was running food from the kitchen. Because I was in the kitchen when they did it I thought that a co-worker had seated them but was to self involved in their own work to actually tell me I had a walkin table of 4. So I finally got around to their bread rolls and water to find that they had no menus. Thats when it dawned on me that they had simply seated themselves. They didn't even stay because they wanted our seafood buffet, which only runs on Fridays, so they left having completely demolished the table which I then had to fix up. GRRR.

[Mordecai]

We had a guy who refused to wait in line for Mongol two weeks a go because he was "claustrophobic". Of course, he had to choose the one movie that was selling out everytime and always had a huge line. And did he offer to wait for everyone else who waited in line to go in first? Nope, he decided to stand right in front of the doors, asshole.