Sucky Waitress (Long)

[Dawnchaser]

Went to a restaurant on the coast known for its tasty gingerbread. It's a ways away, but the drive is nice enough and it's something to do on a weekend. Been there before many times and never had a problem.

Walked in and the place was total chaos. Not hard to believe on a Sunday in the middle of summer, really.

Seated ourselves as the posted message said to, and waited...and waited. Still, I was with my husband and one of our friends, and we were in no hurry so no biggie.

While we were waiting our waitress was over at a nearby table going on and on about how she didn't want to be there today; obviously the customer at this table was a regular.

Eventually the waitress came over and asked if we were ready to order. We said yes and there was barely a half second pause before she snaps, "Well? I'm ready!" We placed our orders.

She wandered off. My friend D went to the bathroom, husband K knocked over his water glass. (We are both very clumsy.) We mopped it up as best as we could with the three napkins we had at the table. Waitress came over well after it was cleaned up and dry, and threw a rag at us. Obviously pissed off, even though the mess was done and dealt with. (I didn't expect her to come rushing over to help since it was just water and the place was packed.) Then threatened to beat the person who spilled the water...said in a _mostly_ joking manner so I wasn't terribly worried.

Food came out, we ate. She came out at the end and was like, "Oh what's this?" and threw a ticket at me. I said we'd like some gingerbread please, with whipped cream instead of ice cream (the default). K is lactose intolerant and did not have any Lactaid pills with him.

Sure enough, 3 gingerbread pieces all with ice cream came out. We apparently looked surprised...and she said something to the effect of oh that's right, you didn't want ice cream. Side note - D thinks this was deliberate - I'm not sure myself. So we got K's piece of gingerbread fixed, as D and I didn't care enough to have ours sent back.

At the checkout she demanded to know why K was paying for all of our meals. I didn't want to tell her that D just didn't want to have to deal with her anymore and wanted to get the hell out of there...so I said, well K and I are married, and we owe D some money so this is a partial payment.

The only tip left on this adventure was whatever amount rounded it up to a whole number because K is slightly OCD about things like that...I didn't want to leave anything. Still it was a very small tip left on a fairly large bill.

I've never in my life dealt with this level of rudeness. Maybe she wants to be fired? I don't know. I can't figure out what on earth we did to offend her to this extent. We eat out a lot as a group, leave good tips, and are on good terms with the waitresses we get over and over. I believe she's been working there for awhile, and we've never had a problem before (though I don't remember for sure if she ever actually waited on us before).

[Lace Neil Singer]

I don't usually recommend making complaints, due to most things not being serious enough to warrant one... but I think this is definitely serious enough. After all, your friend could have gotten very ill and besides, the level of service was terrible. I hope this doesn't put you off going back there, as that sounds like a great place to go eat.

[blas]

Having worked in a restaurant before, (but then again, this can apply to ANY job), I understand the feeling of not wanting to be at work. WHO REALLY wants to be at work? But still, one cannot go about advertising how angry they are to be at work, and one cannot give extremely terrible customer service where it is not warranted. Especially since the OP did not have several modifications, was friendly and polite, and understood that it was busy. That waitress should have been glad that the OP and her guests were patient and understanding of the circumstances.

That was a very sucky employee. I wouldn't have left her a PENNY. And I leave anywhere between a 25 and 30% tip everytime I go out to eat and the service is good/great/excellent.

[RavenStarr]

You were a lot nicer than I would have been. I would have reported her to the manager. there was no excuse for her to act the way she did. I would say that she did not deserve a tip at all.

Also, I would have told her it was none of her business, why K was paying for all 3 meals. She needs to be fired.

[Think Blue]

She's lucky you didn't complain. As for the ice cream on the gingerbread it sounds like she did that on purpose, but I guess you'd have to be there to really know.

[Dawnchaser]

I don't usually recommend making complaints, due to most things not being serious enough to warrant one... but I think this is definitely serious enough. After all, your friend could have gotten very ill and besides, the level of service was terrible. I hope this doesn't put you off going back there, as that sounds like a great place to go eat.

Nah, we'll be back...just not for awhile. The gingerbread is fantastic, the food is mostly so-so but the prices are decent, and the gravy (I like them on french fries) is amazing.

If it were just me I definitely would've complained...but K and D are both people who are fairly traumatized by confrontation so I didn't want to make things worse for them.

[Brighid45]

There's a big difference between someone who is obviously in a bad mood or having a bad day and still being polite and attentive, and someone who is simply being an arse because they think they can get away with it for some reason. The first person I'll tip generously because they're being professional, which is hard under trying circumstances, but what the job requires (imo anyway). The second needs to be complained about to management.

That waitress's behavior was uncalled for and inexcusable. I'd say if you go there again someday and get the same treatment, it's time to complain. Just send anyone who is squeamish about confrontation, out to the car while you go to management and lay it out for them. No one should have to put up with that kind of treatment from wait staff.

[karma_gypsy]

That waitress's behavior was uncalled for and inexcusable. I'd say if you go there again someday and get the same treatment, it's time to complain. Just send anyone who is squeamish about confrontation, out to the car while you go to management and lay it out for them. No one should have to put up with that kind of treatment from wait staff.

I agree, being a customer, you pass with flying colors - the waitress should have been tipping you! Customers that are patient are hard to come by these days.

The waitress, even though her attitude was inexcusable, although I wouldn't leave a tip, I would hope that she was just having a really bad day - some people just hide their bad days better than others.

Although, you weren't the only people she served and you probably weren't the only ones who got the badittude, she probably would have gotten at least one complaint that day.

[MadMike]

We had to deal with a bad waitress once as well. I don't normally do this, but not only did I not leave a tip, we also complained to the manager. While I was pretty sure I was justified, I still felt kind of bad, so I posted my story here. Not one person faulted me, not even those who had jobs waiting on tables...

I took the family out to Friendly's for dinner one night. At first, everything was fine, until the waitress accidently spilled a drink all over my wife and all over the table. That wasn't what made us mad. It was an accident, and could have happened to anyone. But what happened next was inexcusable.

The waitress promptly vanished after that. She didn't come back to give us our check, ask us if we wanted dessert or needed anything else, or even to clean up the mess. We finished our meal with soda and ice cubes all over the table. Every so often, we'd see her briefly appear in an empty section, and then quickly vanish again.

We ended up going up front and asking the manager for our check, and also told him what had happened. He was nice enough to give us a container of ice cream of our choosing to take home with us. But he looked pissed when he heard what happened. I'd hate to be in that waitress's shoes when he got a hold of her.

Not surprisingly, we never saw her again.

[Mighty Girl]

Ok, obviously she's got issues. But there's one thing I want to know. Why on earth was she questioning you about who paid the bill? Why would she care who pays the bill, as long as it gets paid, then she should just shut up. That one just floored me.

[Dawnchaser]

Ok, obviously she's got issues. But there's one thing I want to know. Why on earth was she questioning you about who paid the bill? Why would she care who pays the bill, as long as it gets paid, then she should just shut up. That one just floored me.

I know, I didn't really understand that either. I just kind of gaped at her for a bit because it was so...random and unexpected. Frankly from her behavior earlier I would've thought she'd just be as glad to see us go as we were to leave. Personally when I'm in a work situation and I just want to get rid of someone, I do whatever needs to be done (ring up the bell and run the card through in her case) and talk to them as little as absolutely possible.

Maybe she was just trying to insinuate that D and I were mooching off K, and thus perhaps stir up trouble in the group when we left. Or maybe she got some weird sort of threesome vibe and was trying to find out if that was the case.

In any case I hope it's really bugging her and she's still over there on the coast wondering about it, never to know...because I know perfectly well that she didn't entirely buy the excuse I gave her. Curiousity killed the cat...maybe if we're real lucky it will eventually get her too

[Becks]

I, personally, would have asked to speak to a manager about her. She was one of the posterchildren for Sucky Employees.

And, correct me if I'm wrong, but I heard that it's better to leave a small insignificant tip* if you're displeased, because then the waitperson will KNOW (hopefully, anyway...) that they weren't up to good standards, because if there's no tip, they assume that the customer "forgot" to leave one.

*If it's a place where tips are pooled, and there are cooks and buspeople, maybe try to give them a small bit themselves, somehow... (I'm not explaining/describing it quite right.)

[CherryCokeKissez]

I, personally, would have asked to speak to a manager about her. She was one of the posterchildren for Sucky Employees.

And, correct me if I'm wrong, but I heard that it's better to leave a small insignificant tip* if you're displeased, because then the waitperson will KNOW (hopefully, anyway...) that they weren't up to good standards, because if there's no tip, they assume that the customer "forgot" to leave one.

*If it's a place where tips are pooled, and there are cooks and buspeople, maybe try to give them a small bit themselves, somehow... (I'm not explaining/describing it quite right.)

I agree, I think it does send the message of displeasure a little better than no tip at all.

I do work at a restaurant, and my standards for other restaurant employees are justifiably high but I'm also fairly laid back about certain things (like food taking a long time isn't necessarily the server's fault). Her behavior was in no way something I would let go. I'm not one for confrontation either and I don't like to complain to managers because then it looks like you're scamming for free food. I send an e-mail to the restaurant so all the managers there see it and know about what happened, and their corporate office if I get bad enough service. I've only ever had to do that once and helped someone do it another time. Believe me, corporate offices do not like to see that kind of stuff and if it's written well enough they take it very seriously...

[Pagan]

Years ago, we were in a restaurant and actually heard two waitresses arguing over who was going to wait on us. And not, "It's my table. No, it's mine." It was the other way, neither one wanted to wait on us. So....my dad leaves a 2-cent tip when we leave! Not surprisingly, the place closed soon after!