Stuff you wish you'd said

[Food Lady]

I was just remembering working in food and having someone ask me my opinion on an item, then get annoyed when I hadn't had it. Her response was something like "Ugh, aren't you suppopsed to try all the food?" I told her our company didn't make us do that, but Ishould've said "We don't take food stamps, so I don't eat here."

[Miss Fatale]

I was teaching business writing and discuss the "sandwich technique" for giving bad news.

My students were like, "Oh that's silly, I'd want someone to just give me the bad news."

I replied with something like, "Well, this is helpful for a business situation where you need to create or maintain good will, in your personal life do what you want."

What I thought of later and wish I'd said was, "Guess what, part of college is learning about ways to appeal to people who aren't you, and might not like what you like. Sometimes you have to be open to using different techniques. Further, do you really want me to hand you back papers with nothing but negative comments and no attempt at something positive?"

[PepperElf]

I was just remembering working in food and having someone ask me my opinion on an item, then get annoyed when I hadn't had it. Her response was something like "Ugh, aren't you suppopsed to try all the food?" I told her our company didn't make us do that, but Ishould've said "We don't take food stamps, so I don't eat here."

that's silly of them to get mad at you over that.

heck you could have an allergy to one of the items, or it may be something you personally don't like eating, for taste reasons or other personal reasons.


I mean what's the customer going to do if say, it's a fish-dish and you have a fish allergy? Expect them to beat you up for not being "qualified"? since you can't sample the product?

Not to mention many places don't let you "sample" anyway and consider it a fireable offense (thievery).


Personally I hate the entire idea of asking a server to recommend something. What they like might not be what I like. I might have a server who loves plates full of cooked carrots. Should I be offended if they recommend Dish X that comes with cooked carrots? It's not their job to know that cooked carrots make me gag.

but yeah i know some customers expect that kind of telepathy.

[MoonCat]

Here's what I'd like to say:

"No, sir/ma'am, you are NOT 'very compuer savvy.' How do I know this? I know this because you have called me SEVEN TIMES today complaining about what a hard time you are having with our website, and you are trying to do the simplest thing the website can do for you, and you are still UNABLE TO MAKE IT WORK. Meanwhile, other people are managing to use it without trouble. It's not the site. IT'S YOU."