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Because I handled suck the right way and the boss was happy.
*
Last night when he'd gone home and I was serving the last few customers before closing, a woman walked in, plunked a big box on the counter, and said, "You need debit paper?"
"I don't know," I said. "I think we have enough."
"No, you need some."
"Did we order it?"
"...nnnnooooooo."
"We don't need any."
"You the boss?"
"No, the boss isn't here."
"Call him, I'll wait. Ask if he needs roll paper." (The box was full of the sort of rolls that go in the cash register and credit card reader for printing receipts.)
I wasn't about to call him while he was probably sleeping (he's the chef and he gets up super early) so I opened a drawer to pretend I was looking for our roll paper supply. Lo and behold there were three rolls in the drawer. "Actually, I'm just checking now and I can see that we have enough."
This whole time my voice was creeping into a direction of hard-and-icy. I didn't really mean for it to do that, but I inadvertently started it when I realized she was one of those pretend-they-already-ordered-the-shit door-to-door salespeople. I'm not sure if she decided she was in deep water (I wish!) but she started to say something and then changed her mind, handing me a business card sticker. "Call Mr. K if you need roll paper. Give this to your boss."
She lingered a bit and looked at the food, and asked if it was Chinese food. She was Asian, I'm not but my boss is, so maybe she was surprised to see a white girl seemingly running the Chinese noodle shop. I said yes, trying to modulate my voice towards cheerful, but not really succeeding. She said thanks and left.
Distract me from paying customers... rrgh.
*
Today a woman ordered a half order of noodles and a half order of dumplings. I said I could get her a combo plate which would be the same thing.
"Are you sure that's two half orders?"
"Yes, that's how the two-item combo works."
So she agreed, and I gave her X dumplings and a half order of noodles, and she got a diet pop. Now, we were busy, but I think I did ask her at some point "how's the food?" and she said it was fine.
When she asked for the bill I brought it to her and she said she had trouble seeing the type, so I read it out to her. She got this frosty look and said, "Why is it $10?"
"See, here's the price of your combo, and there it is on the menu, and here's the price of your drink."
"But I wanted HALF orders."
"These are half orders. A half order of dumplings is X dumplings, and this is a half order of noodles."
"I didn't want to pay that much. I asked you several times if this would be the half orders I wanted, and you said yes. Once I got three dumplings in the two half order meal and it was cheaper than this."
It was the half orders, of course. I'm not sure what in her mind constituted half orders. She seemed to be implying that she wanted a half-order-sized box with two types of items in it -- something my boss and I had just been talking about and he had expressly said we shouldn't do for customers. (His example was something like, "imagine if a customer wanted one forkful of filet mignon and one oyster and one sip of Beaujolais Nouveau -- no way.")
I said, "The boss just stepped out, let me get him and we'll figure out what we can do for you." So I went next door to the fruit stand, where the boss sometimes goes and hangs out with the old Italian guy there. Boss wasn't there. I remembered that he'd actually gone out to buy something we were out of, so I went back and said to the lady, "He's actually just gone out on an errand. If you wait a few minutes we'll deal with this."
"I can't wait, I'm in a hurry and I need to leave soon." Okay, she'd said in the beginning that she wasn't sure she had time to eat in, and had looked at a clock and decided she did. But she sure was there for a long time eating that tiny meal in a hurry.
I kept a stone face through all of this, admittedly not making eye contact with her. I was more frustrated than worried because I knew I was in the right, but I wasn't sure what I could do for her. I was not about to comp her meal for whining, or even give her a discount -- the boss would be seriously pissed off if I did. I was trying to think of something to say when the boss walked in. I went to wash dishes and he listened to her argument.
I am pretty sure it was not the exact same argument that she gave me. Or maybe it was, I'm not sure. But if she was scamming, she made the mistake of saying that she thought two half orders would be cheaper than a combo. Bossman said, "no, half orders are $5 each, and the combo of two items is $7. My employee was trying to save you money. A half order of dumplings is four dumplings, which is what you got." This is the point of combos, as I understand it.
"I thought I got three." (I thought she'd meant before that she got three the last time she was here... what?)
"Nope," I chipped in from my sudsy haven, "I gave her four, it says right on the chart that a half order of dumplings is four."
"She was saving you money," said the boss, and the lady gave in and paid.
After she left, one of our regulars came up to pay her own bill, and gently mocked the woman for being either stupid or a scammer. The boss told me that I handled it exactly right, too, and that this woman had come in before (not frequently, thank goodness) and always pulls this kind of thing. I'm still not sure what I would have done if the boss hadn't walked in at that moment. I could have logicked my way out of it, but we all know that customers only listen to boss logic and not employee underling logic, even if it's the same.
*
Last night when he'd gone home and I was serving the last few customers before closing, a woman walked in, plunked a big box on the counter, and said, "You need debit paper?"
"I don't know," I said. "I think we have enough."
"No, you need some."
"Did we order it?"
"...nnnnooooooo."
"We don't need any."
"You the boss?"
"No, the boss isn't here."
"Call him, I'll wait. Ask if he needs roll paper." (The box was full of the sort of rolls that go in the cash register and credit card reader for printing receipts.)
I wasn't about to call him while he was probably sleeping (he's the chef and he gets up super early) so I opened a drawer to pretend I was looking for our roll paper supply. Lo and behold there were three rolls in the drawer. "Actually, I'm just checking now and I can see that we have enough."
This whole time my voice was creeping into a direction of hard-and-icy. I didn't really mean for it to do that, but I inadvertently started it when I realized she was one of those pretend-they-already-ordered-the-shit door-to-door salespeople. I'm not sure if she decided she was in deep water (I wish!) but she started to say something and then changed her mind, handing me a business card sticker. "Call Mr. K if you need roll paper. Give this to your boss."
She lingered a bit and looked at the food, and asked if it was Chinese food. She was Asian, I'm not but my boss is, so maybe she was surprised to see a white girl seemingly running the Chinese noodle shop. I said yes, trying to modulate my voice towards cheerful, but not really succeeding. She said thanks and left.
Distract me from paying customers... rrgh.
*
Today a woman ordered a half order of noodles and a half order of dumplings. I said I could get her a combo plate which would be the same thing.
"Are you sure that's two half orders?"
"Yes, that's how the two-item combo works."
So she agreed, and I gave her X dumplings and a half order of noodles, and she got a diet pop. Now, we were busy, but I think I did ask her at some point "how's the food?" and she said it was fine.
When she asked for the bill I brought it to her and she said she had trouble seeing the type, so I read it out to her. She got this frosty look and said, "Why is it $10?"
"See, here's the price of your combo, and there it is on the menu, and here's the price of your drink."
"But I wanted HALF orders."
"These are half orders. A half order of dumplings is X dumplings, and this is a half order of noodles."
"I didn't want to pay that much. I asked you several times if this would be the half orders I wanted, and you said yes. Once I got three dumplings in the two half order meal and it was cheaper than this."
It was the half orders, of course. I'm not sure what in her mind constituted half orders. She seemed to be implying that she wanted a half-order-sized box with two types of items in it -- something my boss and I had just been talking about and he had expressly said we shouldn't do for customers. (His example was something like, "imagine if a customer wanted one forkful of filet mignon and one oyster and one sip of Beaujolais Nouveau -- no way.")
I said, "The boss just stepped out, let me get him and we'll figure out what we can do for you." So I went next door to the fruit stand, where the boss sometimes goes and hangs out with the old Italian guy there. Boss wasn't there. I remembered that he'd actually gone out to buy something we were out of, so I went back and said to the lady, "He's actually just gone out on an errand. If you wait a few minutes we'll deal with this."
"I can't wait, I'm in a hurry and I need to leave soon." Okay, she'd said in the beginning that she wasn't sure she had time to eat in, and had looked at a clock and decided she did. But she sure was there for a long time eating that tiny meal in a hurry.
I kept a stone face through all of this, admittedly not making eye contact with her. I was more frustrated than worried because I knew I was in the right, but I wasn't sure what I could do for her. I was not about to comp her meal for whining, or even give her a discount -- the boss would be seriously pissed off if I did. I was trying to think of something to say when the boss walked in. I went to wash dishes and he listened to her argument.
I am pretty sure it was not the exact same argument that she gave me. Or maybe it was, I'm not sure. But if she was scamming, she made the mistake of saying that she thought two half orders would be cheaper than a combo. Bossman said, "no, half orders are $5 each, and the combo of two items is $7. My employee was trying to save you money. A half order of dumplings is four dumplings, which is what you got." This is the point of combos, as I understand it.
"I thought I got three." (I thought she'd meant before that she got three the last time she was here... what?)
"Nope," I chipped in from my sudsy haven, "I gave her four, it says right on the chart that a half order of dumplings is four."
"She was saving you money," said the boss, and the lady gave in and paid.
After she left, one of our regulars came up to pay her own bill, and gently mocked the woman for being either stupid or a scammer. The boss told me that I handled it exactly right, too, and that this woman had come in before (not frequently, thank goodness) and always pulls this kind of thing. I'm still not sure what I would have done if the boss hadn't walked in at that moment. I could have logicked my way out of it, but we all know that customers only listen to boss logic and not employee underling logic, even if it's the same.
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