Tales of a 1001 Annoyances ( long vent/rant)

[daisychain]

I'm newish here so just a quick note that I worked in retail for a few years but for the last 2 months I've been working as a waitress. Also this is LONG and ranty because I need a vent.

I've noticed a few things that people do to make serving them very difficult, and singularly they're not that annoying but pile them all together... Last night we had a group of about 90 people book into a function room and they proceeded to commit every bad guest crime on the list.

Here goes!

Unaware of time
The function started at 7:00 and food orders were scheduled to be taken at 7:30. Over half of them didn't turn up til 7:30 and REFUSED to sit down so we could serve them and instead stood around talking.

At the end of the night it also took 40 minutes to convince them that in fact the function WAS over and they had to leave so we could leave and go home... 40 MINUTES of us telling them politely to leave.

Oblivious
While I was trying to offer them drinks most of them completely ignored me, I had to actually YELL in a few peoples ears before they'd even look in my direction. Then of course they looked at me like I was rude for interrupting them.

Once I had the audacity to lean over someone who was sitting on an angle away from the table to fill up their water glass and when I accidentally bumped their leg they said "EXCUSE ME" in that snotty way. Well maybe if they're bothered to move their ass out of the way when I was trying to hydrate them I wouldn't have to perform contortions trying to reach things on the table.

When we finally got most of them to sit down so we could take orders (they need to be sitting so we know where to put the food) they immediately got up and stood in little groups again. Which is fine, they're friends they need to socialise... But they still wouldn't sit down or get out of our way when we were putting the food out. Which wouldn't be so bad but these guests had a tendency to suddenly fling themselves backwards without looking. I nearly got slammed against a wall once.

They also stood in front of the kitchen doors and got surprised and shocked EVERY TIME we banged into the back of them...

When we were putting food down the ones that were sitting of course had piled a bunch of stuff where the food had to go like drinks, napkins, phones, glasses, cutlery etc... I asked them to move it... They would stare at me... I say can you please move your things so I can put this food down... They look down and go OH! You need to put the food down on the TABLE in FRONT of me...

Helpful
They also got all proud when they were helpful and stacked the plates themselves. And people who clear food stack them in a certain way so that they're easy to carry... Guests heap them in a messy pile with other random things thrown in like side plates and rubbish.

They also pushed their plates into the centre of the big round tables so I had to weave and reach and lift and they would just smile at me like "haha that looks l like a lot of word". Whey the centre? Because god forbid that the dirty plates go near them.


And I'm done... Phew!

[VenomX]

At the end of the night it also took 40 minutes to convince them that in fact the function WAS over and they had to leave so we could leave and go home... 40 MINUTES of us telling them politely to leave.

I would have waited 10 minutes and asked again. If they were still not moving to leave I would start turning off the lights.

As for the food and drinks. If they refused to move or answer me I would take their food back and wait for them to ask where it was. I would tell them that it was brought out already but they didnt act like they wanted it so its now in the back. They must now wait for everyone else to be served then they will get theirs.

[Department stores *sigh*]

My tactic for people not leaving once we close? I start my nightly preprations of moving stuff off the dock and I intentionally block product and then I sit in my forklift with the lights on and the warning beeper going.

Somehow I doubt this strategy would help you out much though.

[daisychain]

We actually did pack up around them, we had cleared the tables of everything, we had started stacking chairs that they weren't sitting on...

I wish I could have not served them tho, they didn't really deserve it.

[Forensic Waitress]

I feel your pain, I am currently a waitress in a hotel. One of the worse things is that conference groups will book in and then when they sit down they mention that more will come and that they would like to wait for them and then even more come once you have put out mains and they want their mains and some want to wait to have dessert others don't because they want to go to bed and then they all get pissy when things don't go their way. I also get to the point where if their function time has finished I will simply just disappear and wait for them to leave. A lot of them get the message when the service stops.

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

It's one of the reasons I wish they would come up with holodeck technology. I'd love to be able to politely inform the guests at our functions that the event is going to be over in 30 minutes then 30 minutes later turn off the projectors so all the tables and chairs vanish leaving them to fall flat on their arses.

That would be so worth it.

M

[tropicsgoddess]

Somehow it doesn't surprise me that it took 40 minutes for that group to get the hint to GTFO. I dunno what is it about people camping out like mad in restaurants, big groups or not (then again with parties my family is guilty of that since we're party till ya drop kinda people ). During my time at the restaurant , I was a hostess and man would I hear some of the stories the wait staff and bussers would tell me. My SO's mom was a server there and there were some private parties she worked on would stay until 1am and the place closed at 12! Thankfully for her they gave her a generous tip. There was one conference group that tipped me $20. I've had one group of 16-20 people who wanted a private party in the lounge area (in the dining room was were all the private parties were held since there was a privacy sliding door and more room to accommodate them) and I had to re-arrange the tables because it wasn't to their liking and the girls that were working on that party told me the customers were nothing but cheapskates who wanted separate checks for everybody (and didn't get it...). To top that, every little thing the customers at that group had something to bitch and moan about. Thankfully after that, they didn't come back.

[depechemodefan]

At the library we have a conference room. We close at 9pm but you should see the sad sacks who just stand around talking to their friends after we close. And since our security company was the lowest bidder to get the contract, you can imagine the security we have. They really don't do anything.

Anyway, really annoying is the group ends their meeting at, say 8pm. They're standing around. At 9 the librarians are leaving. Now patrons have to pay for parking, even if they were in a meeting. There is a machine to pay the parking at. So 9pm, librarians are tyring to leave and a lot of people from the meeting decide to leave and they hold up the line paying to park. Ok, not really SC behavoir but when we try to leave and 20 people who attended a meeting try to leave at the same time, the line is long. And even though the librarians don't pay we still have to use the machine to validate our ticket to get out of the garage.

[AdminAssistant]

It drives me crazy when people stack plates to 'help out the waiter'...well, the waiter probably has their own way of doing things, and I'm going to do the best to stay out of the way. If you want to really 'help out the waiter', give a good tip.

[elysia]

Getting big groups to leave is tricky. First, I would clear the table of EVERYTHING.... dishes, condiments, every crumb or scrap of anything. I've found that, like children, SCs are more inclined to leave when they have less to play with.

When that doesn't work, bust out the vaccuum. Idiots who can't hear each other talking soon get bored or irritated enought and decide to gtfo. Be sure to only do this after the resteraunt has officially been closed for 10 or so mins so they have no right to complain about it.

As a last resort, I find that crop dusting is quite effective. If its just you in the front of the house, its great to recruit a cook to help out. The dirtier and grosser he is after a night of work, the better. This is a foolproof method of clearing a large group within 10 mins. Use only in an emergency.

[rerant]

Everyone here should borrow my store's LP guy.
Our Bistro area is right by the cash lanes so after people have purchased their items thy go over there for 50cent hotdogs, $1 frozen yogurt, etc. and camp out.
As soon as the last customer approaches the lanes LP guy walks over to the Bistro and very loudly says, "Folks, the time is now (usually) 9:30 and we have been closed for half an hour. I'm going to have to ask you to exit through these doors here, as I am now locking the store down!"

Everyone picks up their shit and gets out.
I'm sure it helps that he's a rather large man.

[VenomX]

Ok what is crop dusting?

[daisychain]

As a last resort, I find that crop dusting is quite effective. If its just you in the front of the house, its great to recruit a cook to help out. The dirtier and grosser he is after a night of work, the better. This is a foolproof method of clearing a large group within 10 mins. Use only in an emergency.

Hehe that's a brilliant idea! I can see them busting out through the doors with a frying pan chasing after all the guests.

[JustADude]

Ok what is crop dusting?

Clear 'nuff?

[Madhatter_67_85]

Ok have to admit I have been a lurker for awhile and thoroughly enjoyed a lot of the stories and decided what the hell I have quite a few myself that I can comment and contribute to. I used to work at a used book store and also bartender/waiter all part-time. So I had cushion that if I did get fired for some of my antics, doesn't matter because I have a full-time job to land back on. Just working part-time to pay my beer tab ya know.
I am friendly and polite to customers until they turn into SC upon which I switch personalities and give them lip and attitude right back. Someone giving my fellow coworker grief, hey let me step in and say and do all those things we are all thinking. Funny thing is that when a SC did complain to the manager too bad, because most of the mangers either a: loved the fact that I would be the backbone of the place or b: they were too intimidated of me to do anything about it.

Sorry to get off post.

But yes crop dusting I found was always effective. Especially if there were old people around because then everyone assumed it was them

Also effective is putting them in timeout. If no one would sit down or pay attention then I would stop serving them and just stand in the corner watching everyone. If anyone complained I would inform them that their group is in timeout and until they sit down properly for their food to be delivered and not be in my or the other servers way then service would continue. Amazing how quickly word passed through the group and they would sit down like good little children. HEy they want to act like kids then treat them like such.

My personal favorite for people who would not leave after the event was over then I would loudly make the announcement the event is over and they are now on MY TIME. MY TIME IS NOT CHEAP and if they wanted to remain on MY TIME then they needed to provided cash to my hand right now, otherwise please leave so we can clean up and go home to our friends and family. Believe it or not I would actually have people pony up money and according to how much I got would depend on how long they got to stay. Made a lot of extra scratch that way.