Dining Disaster-What would you do? (Extremely long)

[fish3k1]

Why though? Isn't not eating there again the simpler solution?

If you want the business to fail, yes. If you want it to have a chance to pull itself back though, you have to let them know where the problems are. You can't fix it if you don't know it's broken.

[marasbaras]

I think Luna is doing the right thing.

No tip. Tips ARE optional. If a server gives bad service, why should we tip? Is it the customer's fault that they RELY on those tips to survive? One would think that would be incentive to give decent service. (note: I was just in Hong Kong and left HK$100 tip for a HK$183 meal ... when service is good, I tip well ... didn't hurt that the Dim Sum was amazing)

Also, she knows the owner. Why stop eating there when she can help this person stop their business from failing? Seems like a decent thing to do. If I owned a restaurant and this were happening, I'd want to know about it.

[myswtghst]

I have to agree that you did the right thing, and are planning on continuing to do the right thing by notifying management of the incident - writing is a good way to go, as well, as it gives you the chance to edit and calm down before sending, if necessary.

I rarely leave no tip, but in a situation like this, I can see how it'd be deserved. You gave her the benefit of the doubt and politely voiced your concerns, giving her a wide-open opportunity to apologize or even attempt to fix them, and she ignored it.

She's being paid to serve you, and will be paid more if she serves you well - it was her decision to slack and she's paying the price by earning less. Seems fair to me, since she gave even less than the bare minimum, she doesn't even deserve a nominal tip. *shrug* It may sound harsh, but I'm the type with such a work ethic that even when I'm practically in tears or furious over something, I take a few seconds to breathe, and find a way to provide the best possible service, especially to well-behaved, polite customers.

[Difdi]

I don't think not tipping is the least bit sucky.

A tip is always optional. It's a reward for good service. If you give me poor or nonexistent service, you should expect a poor or nonexistent tip.

There's a local buffet I go to a lot, for example. No menus, pay at the door, bus your own dishes. The hostesses don't ever leave the front desk. And I never leave any tip at all. Why? Because there is no service whatsoever. I pay my bill, since that's for the food and clean dishes. But since there is never any service of any kind, no tip is owed.

I am aware that in many restaurants, tips are part of the waiter/waitress pay. But at the same time, service is expected. If the wait staff is slow to provide menus, if I need to try multiple times to flag one down to request water or other drink refill, if the food is extremely slow (or people who ordered more complex dishes after me get served before me) then I probably won't tip. The same goes for rude wait staff. A modicum of civility is a required part of the job, and if you can't at least be civil to paying customers, you shouldn't be working there.

If the wait staff is civil and reasonable in service times (I acknowledge business can slow down service, but if I'm the only customer, there is no excuse for going ten minutes without seeing anyone, and little excuse for going five minutes), then I'll tip 5%. If the service is actually friendly, very quick, or very thorough (pick one), I'll go to 10%. If it's more than one of those, I'll tip 15%. But a tip is a reward for good service, it's not a right but a privilege.

My personal rule for pizza delivery is similar. I'll tip a delivery driver nothing at all if the delivery takes more than 5 minutes longer than the guy on the phone estimates. I'll tip 5% for within 5 minutes of the estimate. I'll go as high as 10% for more than 5 minutes early.

[Andara Bledin]

My personal rule for pizza delivery is similar. I'll tip a delivery driver nothing at all if the delivery takes more than 5 minutes longer than the guy on the phone estimates. I'll tip 5% for within 5 minutes of the estimate. I'll go as high as 10% for more than 5 minutes early.

I'm totally with you on everything, right until we get here.

It's really not cool to penalize a driver for things that are most likely completely out of their control. How do you know that the delivery right before yours didn't take ten minutes to scrape together enough change to pay for their pizza? We've had plenty of tales of just that sort of suckitude here to know that it's a fairly common occurance.

An attitude like this is what causes delivery drivers to be unsafe on the roads and possibly kill people.

^-.-^

[PepperElf]

it was somewhat edible

That phrase shouldn't be used for food you go out of your way to pay for.
It should only be used for my work cafe where it's like 3 bucks tops for all that you want.

Maybe it can be their new slogan? "Somewhat Edible"

[Luna Baby]

It wasn't that the food was terrible, just not what we were expecting or prepared as before. Son's dish just wasn't really to his liking. Restaurants fault? No. He ordered something he'd never had before. Could have been that the rice mixture was off, could have been that he just didn't like the way it was prepared (assuming that it was how it was supposed to be). My dish was 'ok', just that it was lacking some items (fresh tomatoes, mushrooms and garlic) and they had added marinara sauce under the chicken breast between the chicken and the noodles/white sauce. I really don't feel like I should complain about the food to the owner since we did come in at the end of the day, on Mother's Day, no less. So I should have known that not everything would be 'the best they had to offer'. My concern was with the staff and their lack of concern, especially after I was nice in my request for her to correct the errors. Quite frankly, at 7:30, I should have just asked for a bill to cover the 2 drinks and the small salad that she did manage to get to me (lettuce and big, huge chunks of red onion with a tad of dressing) and left. We could have gotten better service at the local McDonalds and they are notorious for always having the wrong items in the bag.

Sidenote*** I'm not the only one who complains about the McD's here. It's just a known fact here in little ol Glasgow, Ky. McD's is for another rant/another thread.

[Becks]

I don't blame you.

The waitress barely did the absolute minimum of what is in her job description.

Therefore, she gets the minimum pay. No tip.

[Pagan]

My personal rule for pizza delivery is similar. I'll tip a delivery driver nothing at all if the delivery takes more than 5 minutes longer than the guy on the phone estimates. I'll tip 5% for within 5 minutes of the estimate. I'll go as high as 10% for more than 5 minutes early.

I agree with Andara on this. Adding that the estimate you get from the person on the phone is just that....an estimate. They're not guaranteeing a certain time, they can't. And really, is 5 or 10 minutes one way or the other, especially on pizza, gonna kill ya? (Ah, memories. The dorm rats breakfast-of-champions - leftover, cold Domino's pizza! )

[calulu]

Tipping is a sticky wicket. Lately I have noticed a trend of servers in chain restaurants doing the bare minimum. If I get basic service I'm giving out a basic tip, like today, I ate at Red Hot & Blue and the waitress just went through the motions up until my food arrived. Never checked back to see if we needed ketchup (we did and there was none sitting out) or drink refills (we did) or if we were going to order dessert (we would have.) So I tipped 10%, minimum service = tiny tip and I filled out a customer comment card before dropping it into the suggestion box.

Earlier in the week the exact same scenario played out at a local breakfast place, waitress was going through the motions up until the food arrived and again we were not checked on, not offered ketchup and our coffee pot was out very quickly. Again, small tip followed by a comment card.

Same restaurant Sunday morning, the waitress actually offered me several different seating options including a booth big enough to read the paper at and eat, checked on me, took my order immediately when I said I was actually under a time constraint and knew exactly what I wanted plus made sure I had plenty of everything, immediately rectified the situation when only half my order arrived. I tipped her 100% because it was Mothers Day and I knew she was facing a long day of cheap tipping assclownage and she actually went above and beyond the duties of table waiting.

I don't get the not taking care of your customers when waiting tables because excellent friendly outgoing caring service translates into big tips. At least it used to back when I was in college.

Has anyone here ever worked for a marketing company doing mystery shops? I did it for seven years and it's pretty eye opening what corporate considers acceptable/unacceptable.

[kibbles]

You did nothing wrong. You even mentioned how you would forgive sucky food for good service; but, you didn't even get that much.

[Difdi]

I agree with Andara on this. Adding that the estimate you get from the person on the phone is just that....an estimate. They're not guaranteeing a certain time, they can't.

The only place I order pizza from is literally across the street from me. I could walk there in 2-3 minutes. I don't walk there, because I'm paying a delivery fee to them for the privilege of not having to. While I do realize that I may be just one delivery among many and the driver does others first, the fact remains that it's still just a 2 minute walk.

[MiloMorai]

Taking that long for items that should be up with in 15 to 20 minutes was the first mistake I would have just left.

If I'd stayed and been told it would be right up and still took that long I would have called her on it.

Bring out crap like that, I would have told the delivery person to take it back.

PAY for that service and plates of garbage, HELL NO.

[Andara Bledin]

The only place I order pizza from is literally across the street from me. I could walk there in 2-3 minutes. I don't walk there, because I'm paying a delivery fee to them for the privilege of not having to. While I do realize that I may be just one delivery among many and the driver does others first, the fact remains that it's still just a 2 minute walk.

You're paying a fee to be lazy. How far away the pizza place is from your location is completely and utterly irrelevant. It has no real bearing on the situation and should not be used during any part of the equation to decide how much to tip a delivery driver.

Of course, if you continue to be a tipping deadbeat for such trivial matters, you should probably expect that your pizza will often be late because nobody will want anything to do with your delivery.

^-.-^

[Pagan]

You're paying a fee to be lazy. How far away the pizza place is from your location is completely and utterly irrelevant. It has no real bearing on the situation and should not be used during any part of the equation to decide how much to tip a delivery driver.

Of course, if you continue to be a tipping deadbeat for such trivial matters, you should probably expect that your pizza will often be late because nobody will want anything to do with your delivery.

^-.-^

Exactly. And it seems logical to me that when delivery guys are sent out, they go out to the furthest first and work back in. Which would put Difdi's delivery last, as she's across the street. It's not the delivery guy's fault that you live that close.

Maybe it's just me, but I love being close enough to places like that so that I can walk.