Since when does Waitress = Slave?

~~SengaKitty~~ · #1 09-23-2008, 12:15 AM

So, I finally went back to work today, after a week of the restaurant not having any power thanks to Ike. Thinking that MAYBE people will realize that the servers have pretty much been out of a job for a week, and thus tip a little higher to help out, I go in hopeful... Only to have my hopes smashed. Out of five or six tables, one table left a $10 on a $54 tab.... not bad... If the rest of my tips hadn't totalled out to $12 more.... I ended up with $22 before tipping my bar tender (as is customary) 10%.... Left there with $35 only because I was given $15 extra for coming in two hours early to help get everything ready.... One table in particular stands out. A little background? We are not a fast food restaurant. We are a made to order, old fashioned down home cooking place. Thus, it takes TIME to get your food! Especially when we have a bit of a rush.

So I take the order of these two older ladies, put it in the computer and go off to take care of my other customers... These ladies are waiting for ten, maybe fifteen minutes (a normal wait, even a little short in a rush), when I pass by, my hands full of dirty dishes from another table.

The older of the two ladies flags me down, and in a rude and I-demand-your-attention-right-this-second tone, says "Ma'am! We've been waiting forever! Where is our lunch?!"

Me: I was just going to check on it ma'am, as you can see we are a little busy... It shouldn't be much longer but I'm on my way now...

SC: Well we can't wait here all day! Are they even making it back there?!

Me: Yes ma'am... If you'll just be patient, I'll be right back.

I go in and of course, their food was the next coming off the grill.... Stupid women... And of course, on their $25 tab, they left $1.50.... ARGH

blas · #2 09-23-2008, 12:39 AM

I have never undertipped because of wait time for food. If a restaurant is packed, it WILL take a while.

Even if it weren't busy, the food taking a long time is more often than not the cook's fault, not the server. Most server's don't cook AND wait tables at the same time. Why punish the server for something that isn't their fault? Meanwhile, the cook gets a flat hourly wage, and the server may not have enough money to get gas on the way home.

Apathy · #3 09-23-2008, 01:14 AM

Whoa, wait a minute here. You're saying it takes more time to get food when the restaraunt's busy? That doesn't make sense! You should make my food faster in that case, right? I mean, like the kitchen should be running faster or hotter... or something like that.
You should have told the old lady that, "No. They're not making your food back there. They're playing cards instead. It'll be another hour or five."

AnaKhouri · #4 09-23-2008, 01:43 AM

My parents live in the same city as you. If you want, PM me which restaurant it is and I'll make sure to come in next time I'm in town and leave you a big, fat tip.

AdminAssistant · #5 09-23-2008, 02:25 AM

Quote:

Quoth RedHeadPhoneGirl

We are a made to order, old fashioned down home cooking place. Thus, it takes TIME to get your food!

*whine*

I long for a place with down home cooking. *curses the MidWest*

mattm04 · #6 09-23-2008, 02:45 AM

Quote:

So I take the order of these two older ladies, put it in the computer and go off to take care of my other customers... These ladies are waiting for ten, maybe fifteen minutes (a normal wait, even a little short in a rush), when I pass by, my hands full of dirty dishes from another table.

The older of the two ladies flags me down, and in a rude and I-demand-your-attention-right-this-second tone, says "Ma'am! We've been waiting forever! Where is our lunch?!"

I hate when people do that to me. I will be in my back room, carrying a heavy/akward box or stack of trays and a custoemr will see me and yell out "Helllo." The will get all offended when i don't drop the whole pile on the floor and run over to serve their selfish ass.

DEATHBYCUSTOMERS · #7 09-23-2008, 03:26 AM

seriously, I've noticed that when I go out I tip better then a lot of people which is weird in a sense cause I'm only making 48 cents more then minimum wage at the moment. but a couple of places I ted to go to often one has mostly girls one gay guy and a sweet manager and because its an alternative place and the girls are all tattooed instead of getting great tips they get hey baby why don't we go home together...or some other shitty line. last time we went there we left a freaking 20 dollar tip and this other guy left the change he got back not the bills just the change. (this is why everyone right out of high school should be forced to work a Customer service job of some kind) the other place the regulars tip well but once they had a supper busy night supporting an online dating site doing a speed dating thing for the night and out of the whole night our regular waitress Rachel got 7 bucks.and one girl did the whole "is there like gonna be another bartender?" to which my fiance replied "do you even know what the fuck you want? 'no' then shut up bitch!"

hope everything goes better for you but if not kick em all hehe.....(sorry its so long)

BethB · #8 09-23-2008, 03:32 AM

I used to work as a cashier at a family restaurant and the tips people would leave were horrible. I felt bad for the servers sometimes having to smile and kiss butt and for what...a $2 tip? i usually tip around 20% and that's because I have rarely had bad service. Only once did I get extremely peeved. Long story short. went to Denny's on sunday morning, wait expected, no big deal. Got seated and ordered drinks and appetizer. got the drinks in 2 minutes. so far no problems, until an hour passed without ever seeing our server again. we flagged down a manager and were told that only one cook was working and he was working as quickly as possible. I'm guessing he meant that guy we kept seeing leave to his truck for a smoke break every 20min.Finally got the cold appetizer but still our server never came back to take our food order. turns out our server didn't put in our order and instead of owning up to her mistakes she ignored not only us but 2 other tables. We were slightly peeved when others were being seated and served...BY HER!! I emailed the company but no response. Apparently they don't give a hoot either. But other than that I am very generous

tropicsgoddess · #9 09-23-2008, 05:34 AM

Damn, it's always the high-maintenance SC's that tip the least or stiff ya. When I was a hostess for a local Italian restaurant, we had a slow night that time and we got a couple that came in and camped out for maybe 1 1/2 hours (according to the server). It was close to the time where we were getting ready to close and usually I wait until the last couple remaining was finished eating before I would start blowing out the candles and cleaning up the room with a busser. But when I got word from the server how that couple was sucky and left a crappy tip (the check IIRC was around $35 dollars and they only ordered cheap stuff and were pretty rude), I got the busboy to start blowing out the candles and clean the floor with me to give that sucky couple a subtle and big hint to GTFO (we used one of those silent cordless Shark vacuums) and about a 1/2 hour later they were gone.

CorDarei · #10 09-23-2008, 09:14 PM

the percentages kind of make me wonder... when i was younger, 15% was considered a good tip... now it's up to 20%.... when is it going to hit 30%, or even 40%? why don't restuarants just start paying their servers normal wages... i guess this may be more for fratching... but to be more on topic, i think that if you're going to a place where they pay servers under min. wage, then you should know to tip.