Self Sighting From 2000

[jh417]

I just remembered about a time in middle school when I and a bunch of us were SCs.

In my town, there is a small family owned restaurant that basically serves pretty good food (no real type...it was a pancake house).

We were expecting 8 girls, but only 7 of us were there at the moment. The hostess/waitress was pretty much a grouchy old bag who practically ignored us and shot us dirty glares.

When we finally sat down (she refused to sit us down until that one person showed up...which was understandable), it took about twenty minutes for her to give us our menus and when we tried to order, once again ignored us. She wasn't friendly at all, ignored us, was basically emotionless.

The food was good and when we finished and received the bill, the hostess all of the sudden came up and pointed to the center of the table, "You can leave the tip right over there."

Nonetheless, all of us were pissed. This woman had been nothing but rude and suddenly she was demanding a tip? So, as immature as we were, we did indeed leave a tip...of 60 cents. And we hid it in a basket of bread.

The only reason why I believe we were SC's was leaving such a small tip and you know hiding it in the bread. I know that you're supposed to leave a certain percentage tip regardless of service, but something in me still disagrees. When the service is great or even average I tip well, but I still don't think its right for a waitress to behave like that and still get a tip.

(Oh and if she was having a bad day, she must be having it every single year I go back.)

[MadMike]

I can see where hiding the tip in the bread might be sucky, but don't feel bad for tipping low (or not at all) for horrible service. I know where you're coming from, because I had a truly horrible waitress once. I not only withheld a tip, I also went and complained to the manager. I was pretty certain I was justified, but I still felt somewhat guilty.

What happened was, I went out to dinner with my wife and my son. At first, everything was fine -- the waitress took our order, brought out our drinks, and then our food. Then when she brought out a refill for my wife, she accidently spilled it all over her and the table. That's not what we were upset about. It was an accident, and accidents do happen. But what happened next was unacceptable -- the waitress vanished. She didn't come back to see if we needed anything else, to bring us our check, or even to clean up the mess. We finished our meal with soda and ice cubes all over the table. Ever so often, we'd see her briefly venture into the dining area again, only to vanish an instant later.

We finally got tired of waiting, so we went up front and asked for our check, and also had a word with the manager. We made it clear to him that we weren't upset by the accident, just by the waitress's vanishing act. He seemed quite annoyed, and I'm sure I wouldn't have wanted to be in the waitress's shoes after we left. He was also nice enough to give us a free container of ice cream to take home with us, since we never got any dessert.

Like I said, I was pretty certain I was justified, but I still felt bad about it. I posted the story on here, back when I was still new here, before I even became a moderator, and no one faulted me for what I did. Not even people who waited on tables.

[Broomjockey]

I know that you're supposed to leave a certain percentage tip regardless of service, but something in me still disagrees. When the service is great or even average, I still don't think its right for a waitress to behave like that and still get a tip.

(Oh and if she was having a bad day, she must be having it every single year I go back.)

No you're not. Jester's always quick to point out horrible service should equal horrible tip. It's an insult to the ones who actually do their job to give an equal tip to ones like this.

Now, hiding it in the bread basket was a bit much, especially as that means she may have missed it, and figured you stiffed her, rather than leaving the low tip.

[jh417]

Now, hiding it in the bread basket was a bit much, especially as that means she may have missed it, and figured you stiffed her, rather than leaving the low tip.

No, I totally agree about that. At first, the middle school me was ecstatic about that (I was pretty damn stupid back then), but as I got into the work world and as I hear stories about some of the struggles at waitressing from my sis, I feel extremely bad about doing that.

[Peppergirl]

I have to concur with the rest. You weren't a SC for tipping low. The bread basket, yeah - but with age comes wisdom. Sometimes.

When I was a bratty teenager, a bunch of us used to go to a 24hr diner whilst intoxicated. Those poor, poor waitresses.

At the time, there was a little section of the menu that said:

"Add an egg, 35 cents"

Of course, this means adding an additional egg to your breakfast for 35 cents. (I'm really dating myself by referring to the price, btw)

Thinking we're funny, we decided to each order an 'add an egg' as our meal:

"I'd like one add-an-egg please, and some hash browns"

The waitresses were always (understandably) less than amused.

Karma got me back, though. I found out just what it was like in later years to wait on bratty teenagers like me.

[Calud]

That is what is making the difference... example?

In our company, we have a few consoles in our restroom for people to enjoy on breaks. (really helpful if you don't smoke )

So, we bring the games ourselves, since the company can't keep up with all the releases.

Now, a CW tried replugging a console and moved an XBOX but in doing so, he broke the game inside.

Now, he could have
a)
said nothing and walk away or
b)
write a mail, apologize and replace the game.

If you guessed a, then you're wrong.

Shit happens all the time, thing is how you handle them.

[Shpepper]

I too once had an incident like this. I was out with my mother and my daughter. We went to a local family pancake house for a late lunch. It took awhile to be seated even though the restaurant was not bust. We ordered drinks and asked for a few minutes to decide what we wanted to eat. 35 minutes later, after seating 3 other tables promply and serving them, I had enough. As the waitress went to take the order of a table that had been seated well after we had, I said to her as she passed by, We were here first and would like to order. She had the nerve to tell me to shut up and that the other table had been there long before we had. Even the other table said we had been there first. i told my mom and daughter that we were leaving. The waitress gave mom the bill for out drinks. She paid it and then I asked for the manager. After I told the manager what had happened, she refunded mom the cost of the drinks, offered us free meals and she did apologize. i had a problem with her apologizing and I told her that while I appreciated it, the waitress was the one with the probllem and the one who should apologize. She was unable to do so because the manager had sent her home because of the incident. That was the last time that we ever went there to eat.

[derangedperson]

The food was good and when we finished and received the bill, the hostess all of the sudden came up and pointed to the center of the table, "You can leave the tip right over there."

What I would've done is left a piece of paper there with the following note on it:

"Here's your tip: Stop being a bitch."

[Becks]

That was the last time that we ever went there to eat.

Why?

The manager did her part to make up for it.

[Shpepper]

Why?

The manager did her part to make up for it.

Yes, the manager was great. We just never went back. I think the whole experience left a bad taste for all of us. It was also at the end of a lot of other problems with the restaurant that were not really relevant to this particular story.

I'm sorry I wasn't more clear about that.

[bunnyboy]

Just wow...

Seeing some of the sucky waitress stories, well I'm reminded why I have a semi-scoring system.

it basically goes like this, you start at zero, and can either go up or down, up is done by either a) doing what you should, or b) (very often most places I go) doing above what is needed. a decrease is very rare for me... ie horrible service.

The only time I ever had a negative score go well past a positive was at a local Greek place.

and here's how the scoring went...

walk through doors (0)
wait for five minutes in an empty restaurant for you to finish your phone call (-2, -1 for wait, -1 for not ending the call.)
wait five minutes for a drink order while you make another call or maybe it was the same one... (-2 for the same reasons above)
wait 20 minutes for food (0 pretty reasonable for good fresh prepared food)
food is hot and very excellent (+ 2)
wait 15 minutes after it's clear we are finished and have asked for a check to get one while you once agian are calling someone (-2 same as above)

oh and the cincher that did nothing for her...

Come out and say we forgot to leave a tip... after you obviously finished your call (even though it's after the fact, -5)

and before people get on me about her possibly ordering, you generally don't talk about marriage, boyfriends, and such with business partners...

so grand total -9... usually go below -10 managers are getting called, close and I'm probably not going back... so she barely avoided getting yelled at in all likelyhood.

and yes it was literally those times (actually took count on my watch.)

yes first time I ever felt like stiffing...

probably karmically balanced by the $50 tip to one of the local diner waitresses though... who scored a glowing +11 for having to put up with a hyper guy, and his roomies one of which was slightly tired (me) and one who was just feeding off his energy.

[Becks]

I'm sorry I wasn't more clear about that.

It's ok.

I get it now.