Waiter Suck and a Question

[Chanlin]

Ok, so to be fair the waiter in question was actually pretty damn good at his job. He was attentive, had three other tables that I could see which he was also serving just as well. My Dad and I went out to eat last night, the other tables in question were a party of 5 adults and an older couple. This is just to set the scene I suppose.

The restaurant was Olive Garden, which is only incidental I suppose and has no real bearing on the story here.

In any case the service we got was fairly damn good, but the one thing that put the suck into the whole thing was when we paid $42 for a $31.65 bill the waiter asked if change would be necessary. When he walked away I made the comment that he was doing so well until he dropped that line. My dad still left a decent sized tip of $7. In re-examining the evening I realize some of what seemed like him trying to be attentive were possibly him being a little full of himself.... maybe I'm just being harsh.

When we sat down he immediately took our drink order and pointed out some new specials.

He brought out the salad and bread sticks with the drinks.

He remembered that we asked for no onions in the Salad and also when the salad was empty brought out a new one just the way the old salad had been done with roughly the same amount of cheese (we like our cheese) as the old one.

Drinks were never empty for more than 3 minutes and the one error, my dad got a refill of raspberry iced tea when he had plain, and he hates flavored tea, was corrected without any fuss.

Desert was offered, and at that time he pointed out some new deserts and did not push at all when we said no thank you.

So my question is this: Am I being too harsh on the one slip up of asking if we needed change, or is that like a cardinal sin of waiter suckitude?

[Shabo]

So my question is this: Am I being too harsh on the one slip up of asking if we needed change, or is that like a cardinal sin of waiter suckitude?

Too harsh indeed! If you are putting cash in to pay for the bill, servers can't always assume that you put in the correct amount + tip (and they certainly aren't going to stand there and count it in front of you!). If you are asked for change, it's not a big deal to say, no thank you, but if you are not asked for change and you are expecting it, you won't be too happy with the server. In addition, sometimes servers are too busy to cash you out right that second, so if you don't need change, they'll leave your money in their pocket and cash out a few tables at a time when they aren't so swamped. Wow man. If you would take away tip money for something so trivial when he did such a great job with 3 other tables... maybe you should work food service for a bit.

[RammsteinGirl]

I think you're being overly critical. Maybe he didn't mean it the way it sounded. It's hard to know unless you're actually in a person's head. Since you said he did a very good job waiting on you otherwise, I'd let it go.

[Record Store Tough Guy]

Most of the time they ask. I think it's a case of "better safe than sorry" rather than hubris. $42 is an odd amount, although in this case it was intended to get $10 in change back, which doesn't lend itself to being split up, unless specifically requested. It's possible he was hoping the even ten was for him, which I don't think is sucky at all.

[tollbaby]

I think you're being overly critical as well. He likely hadn't eyeballed the amount, and was just asking a standard question (I hear it pretty much every time I eat out). That was pretty nit-picky.

[Chanlin]

I can't say why, I've just always considered this an inappropriate question.

Thanks for the answers

[Becks]

I would think it's a pertinent question.

As I read the responses, I see that I'm not alone.

[Chanlin]

I suppose in the end it all comes back to the reason for asking the question. I have never ever been able to think of a valid reason for it until I had seen the responses above. I've always just been of a mind its safer to assume the answer is yes rather than ask the question.

[Enigma]

I agree with you for the most part, the question rubs me the wrong way. But I also think that the odd amount (42$- most people would give either 32$, 35$ or 40$) I understand the wanting the ten dollars back, but most people don't do that. But I think that's been dicussed enough-

I wanted to say that what you went over in you're post (which I assume was you questioning if he was just full of himself) really just seems like he was good at his job. How could him refiling your drink, doing everything the right way, and being polite about his mistake make him full of himself? You can always tell when a waiter is cocky, and it just doesn't sound like that too me.

[trunks2k]

I think it's an over reaction. Any time I've paid cash at a restaurant, I've been asked that question. Most of the time, the waiter has just seen that I'm giving cash not the amount of cash. I could have $40 on a $20.50 bill, or I could have $25 on the same bill. In the latter case, I could very well be using the change as a tip.

If you say "no change necessary" then the waiter can save the trouble of coming back to give the change.

[Chanlin]

I wanted to say that what you went over in you're post (which I assume was you questioning if he was just full of himself) really just seems like he was good at his job. How could him refiling your drink, doing everything the right way, and being polite about his mistake make him full of himself? You can always tell when a waiter is cocky, and it just doesn't sound like that too me.

I suppose I didn't clarify this in the original post.

Why I say that I feel like he seemed full of himself was just the way he carried himself, his tone wasn't snarky, more like a butler or something (picture Alfred from Batman). I agree that I'm being overly critical but I just wanted to at least point out where my observation was coming from.

I don't know, being critical for being too good just seems odd. And maybe that one question just rubbed enough that I'm looking for some excuse to feel justified at being annoyed by it.

[Bagga]

Well... I think the question the waiter asked was a bit iffy. It kinda puts the customer on the spot, so it is not appropriate, imho. Especially as being given 42 dollars is a fairly good indication of what's going on. In a situation like that, I reckon a waiter would get a lot better response if he asked "Would you like a ten, or 2 fives?"

[Shabo]

Especially as being given 42 dollars is a fairly good indication of what's going on. In a situation like that, I reckon a waiter would get a lot better response if he asked "Would you like a ten, or 2 fives?"

But in a situation like that, the waiter would have no idea how much money you've just handed them. Yes, I know the question irks some people, but if the customers had any idea how busy servers can get, asking that question could mean the difference between the server being able to get to their next table right away and cashing out your table's check later and having to make their next table wait another few minutes while they finish getting your change. It's hard for people who have never worked as a server to understand how insanely busy servers are. I used to plan my next motions ahead while I was walking around, like bring food to table 1, get drink order from table 2 and 3, then get drinks for tables 2 & 3, see how table 1 is doing, etc. If I don't have "run bill up to counter for change/card swipe" included in that plan, it disrupts my thinking and kind of throws me off. I would also grab any cash bills that didn't need change and keep them in my pocket until I had time to cash them out. It made my routine much smoother and kept customers happier because I could get to them all faster. Also, we only had 2 cash registers, and the hosts usually were using one or two of them, so I would have to wait for a bit. For a server, 4 tables is busy, but not unmanageable, so it (probably) wouldn't have killed the waiter to get you change without asking, but it (probably) would have disrupted his flow.

[Chanlin]

But in a situation like that, the waiter would have no idea how much money you've just handed them. Yes, I know the question irks some people, but if the customers had any idea how busy servers can get, asking that question could mean the difference between the server being able to get to their next table right away and cashing out your table's check later and having to make their next table wait another few minutes while they finish getting your change.

And this gets right to the heart of why I asked this question. I wanted to find out what could justify asking such a question and I agree despite not having worked in food service that I do much the same thing on tech jobs I have worked, especially when installing a computer system/network for someone. Or my current job in which I have plenty of responsibilities to attend to for several of our dealers as well as wlnp, answering calls, and processing files with mass transaction requests. Its all one can do to keep things straight sometimes.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

I can't say why, I've just always considered this an inappropriate question.

Thanks for the answers

If you can't say why, then you might want to rethink your feelings about it.

I've worked at the Olive Garden, and let me tell you, it ain't set up to make it easy on the servers. It's set up to run them to death. And that's on a good night. Guy wanted to save himself some running, so he asked if he needed to return both to the cashier and then to your table. If the answer was "no", then his night got a little bit easier.

He sounds like an awesome waiter. Don't nit pick him. IMHO, he did nothing wrong.