what is the worst thing a server can do to make you mad? - Page 7

This seems to be common but it bugs me a lot...servers who take you drink order less then two minutes after you sit down. Personally, I like to take time to look at the drink menu so I can see if I want a soft drink (and if so what they have) or a nice alcoholic drink.

Also dislike when the server puts the tickets in so fast that the main course comes either while I'm eating my starter or right after I took my last bite.  When this happens its ironic that they take a long time to send the bill to my table.

I'm usually pretty easy going.  I can stand the occasional irritation if a waiter/waitress slips up.  But a few things come to mind of times when I wasn't so forgiving:

My sister and I both ordered our eggs over medium.  When the waitress  brought them the whites were far to runny for our taste and we called her attention to it.  As she took the plates she told us that she 'didn't like snot all over her plate either.'   Well, there went the appetite and we paid for our coffee and left.

Dining at a highly recommended steak house.  One of our group didn't get any sour cream or butter for her potato and the waiter actually went over to another table that had not been cleared yet and got the items from another diners plate.  None of us could believe our eyes, and when he brought them to our table another of our group asked if he would go back and see if they had finished their roll.  We dined free that night.

Quote:

Originally Posted by AuntieEmma 

Dining at a highly recommended steak house.  One of our group didn't get any sour cream or butter for her potato and the waiter actually went over to another table that had not been cleared yet and got the items from another diners plate. 

 

Toto, I don't think we're in the civilized world any more...

Ugh! This reminds me of the commercial where the server uses the edge of the table to scrape the unwanted mayo off a sandwich. But this is not surprising.

I've probably posted in this thread before, and probably posted the same thing...but writing a suggested tip out on the ticket, by hand.

15%=xxx

20%=xxx

what I'll do in that situation is count out the 15% minus exactly 1 penny.

Quote:

Originally Posted by RPMcMurphy 

I've probably posted in this thread before, and probably posted the same thing...but writing a suggested tip out on the ticket, by hand.

 

15%=xxx

20%=xxx

 

what I'll do in that situation is count out the 15% minus exactly 1 penny.

I like your style.

What would be even worse than listing the suggestions would be cheating at the calculations. That is, what they listed as 15% would actually be, say, 17%.
 

I absolutely hate it when a server:

1. smells like cigarettes or worse, cigarettes covered up with perfume

2. touches my food

3. keeps harassing me about how my food is or if I need anything else

4. chews gum

5. badmouths the cooks (happens way too often!)

6. Doesn't know about the food he/she is serving and has to keep going back to the kitchen to ask questions.

Body odor.

Condescending attitude.

Poor math skills.

Argumentative.

I hate when they say ""NO PROBLEM''  Nothing pertaining to the meal or service should be a problem, otherwise the tip may be a problem.

Not knowing the menu........ This is the worst, it really sets the tone for the rest of the dinner expirence. 

Same on our end...

Not knowing the menu........ This is the worst, it really sets the tone for the rest of the dinner...service!

I suppose... say practically anything in the heat of battle that isn't minimalist code with a pre-determined solution for whatever the heck it is they want...

Last night my husband and I stopped for a late dinner at a very popular diner that is part of a NH chain of restaurants ranging from high end dining to a couple of casual theme diners (that aren't cheap, by any stretch of the imagination).  We put the card on the bill to wait for the server and she came by and set the dirty dishes she was carrying on the end of our table while she ran out card. 

This wasn't the end of the world, it was late and the restaurant was closing, and while the service had been fine up until this point, it certainly decreased her tip.  It made me laugh as someone had mentioned above about the server taking the sour cream from a dirty table. 

As an unbelievably surly waitress once snapped at me after some particularly bad service, "It's a restaurant.  Stuff happens."

Quote:

Originally Posted by lentil 
"It's a restaurant.  Stuff happens."

Isn't that the understatement of a life time...though no need for her to be that rude.

I went to a nice restaurant in town. As a vegetarian, I usually ask for a description of the soups, salads, and specials... A waiter told me they had a delicious tomato soup on the menu that day. I did not tell him I was a vegetarian but he told me it was made with some cream and tomato, very simple ingredients. When the dish came out it was a pale yellow color. I asked the waiter and he said that if I try it I will like it. It was definitely POTATO soup and had large chunks of bacon embedded into it. I was horrified... I understand it was a mistake, but he was so set on selling a soup he did not even know the menu.

Can't handle surly/condescending staff.  Went to a nice wine bar on Newbury St. in Boston that claims to have very knowledgeable staff, for a celebratory drink before going to dinner.  We ordered a bottle of wine and when it was opened and tasted, we found it to be corked.  Without even looking at, smelling, or tasting the wine, the bartender/wine expert told us "Pinot is supposed to taste like that".  Totally blew us away.  One of our party was a wine afficionado, another had worked through college as a fine dining waiter (and this night was his graduation dinner we were taking him out for...).  Not a group of people new to wine or the occasional corked bottle.  All we wanted was a different bottle of the same wine or something comparable.  We were refused.  As we got up to walk out, we overheard the bartender telling the manager we were unreasonable (she used more words that aren't family friendly...).  Couldn't believe it.  Never been back.  Never will.  And I'm not shy about telling friends to avoid the place.

What ever happened to the old business axiom, "The customer is always right"?

Quote:

Originally Posted by BHToad 

...What ever happened to the old business axiom, "The customer is always right"?

The customer may not always be "right", but the customer is NEVER "wrong"!

Now, see, she could have gotten some plastic wrap and stuffed it in the bottle and had it all fixed in a jiffy. How much does plastic wrap cost?

It's odd that I want someone asking me for my drink order before my butt hits the chair.  I'm thirsty!  Of course, I am eating at joints that are $10-15 per person, not upscale stuff.  Also, getting the food out quickly is fine with me.  They can drop the "check" off as soon as I place my order for all I care.  I don't order alcohol and I don't eat desserts.  :)
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zane 

This seems to be common but it bugs me a lot...servers who take you drink order less then two minutes after you sit down. Personally, I like to take time to look at the drink menu so I can see if I want a soft drink (and if so what they have) or a nice alcoholic drink.

 

Also dislike when the server puts the tickets in so fast that the main course comes either while I'm eating my starter or right after I took my last bite.  When this happens its ironic that they take a long time to send the bill to my table.

Being rush to pay the bill! For my 21st birthday (quite a while ago), my mom and my sister took me to a very nice restaurant. It was a well known fine dining place. We're all dressed up. The meal was fine until toward the end. Shortly after we received our desserts, the bill arrived. We just started on our desserts so we set it aside for when we're done. During the time we're having our desserts, our server came over TWICE to see if we're paid yet. That really, really pissed me off. If we're at a hole-in-the-wall and there were people waiting for tables, maybe I understand. But at a fine dining place and it was half full and it was only about 9pm, definitely not. When we finally did pay, he received a very small tip. As we walked out the restaurant, the server came up to us to ask if the tip was correct! I told him yes and just walked away.

Perhaps, this will sound weird, but I can't stand super chipper waiters or waitresses like the kind at Red Lobster or Italiannis...I'm not their best friend, I just want to eat.  I actually would give them less of a tip for being such busybodies!

I could never do that work!  Yes I agree on the pepper and the parmesan cheese...

Quote:

Originally Posted by RPMcMurphy 

I've probably posted in this thread before, and probably posted the same thing...but writing a suggested tip out on the ticket, by hand.

 

15%=xxx

20%=xxx

 

what I'll do in that situation is count out the 15% minus exactly 1 penny.

Lol, I love it when they skip 15% and put:

18%=

20%=

25%=

Quote:

Originally Posted by HookEmAndCookEm 

I like your style.

 

What would be even worse than listing the suggestions would be cheating at the calculations. That is, what they listed as 15% would actually be, say, 17%.
 

They probably calculate their percentage including tax.

1. Serving the dishes at different times, like minutes apart
2. Not refilling drinks
3. having to ask them for something more than once
4. them not writing down the order, and then screwing it up
5. not listening to complaints

I was at an Italian chain restaurant in Burlington, ON once, and the waitress got really offended when I stated the pasta was overcooked, and she said "their chef boiled that pasta himself in the morning!!" and it would not be possible to cook any more, because they only do large batches in the morning. 

The manager came over and confirmed that is their policy to precook already dried pasta in the morning (this is not fresh pasta), and then "blanch it" when the customer orders it., he said he checked all the different kinds of pasta they precooked, and that it was all overcooked (probably something he should have checked in the morning instead of 7pm at night), he recommended I ordered the fettecini which he said was the best of the worst.

I'm not sure what culinary school he want to where the used the word blanch with pasta. 

They still charged full price for the pasta, and didn't even give a complimentary desert or anything.

I felt a looney (Canadian dollar coin)  was an appropriate tip in this case.

Abe,

No. 1 on your list is almost certainly the kitchen's fault, and not the server's.  It usually means something was forgotten or wrecked and needed re-firing.  The server's choice is to bring what's ready to your table while one diner waits, or allow everything to linger under the heat lamps while the order is filled.  If you were in her shoes, which would you choose? 

Also, I understand how mad you were at that Italian restaurant.  It comes down to the same thing. 

Stiffing the waitress for something completely out of her control is not the right thing to do.  At least not in my opinion.  

BDL

No. 1 on your list is almost certainly the kitchen's fault, and not the server's.  It usually means something was forgotten or wrecked and needed re-firing.  The server's choice is to bring what's ready to your table while one diner waits, or allow everything to linger under the heat lamps while the order is filled.  If you were in her shoes, which would you choose? 

>>This was at a hotel and there attitude kinda seemed like, look we know were are going to get guest from the hotel to eat here, no matter what we server or how we serve it, so we are just going to do it the way we want to. 

Stiffing the waitress for something completely out of her control is not the right thing to do.  At least not in my opinion.

>>She got a low tip due to her attitude, and not adjusting the bill accordingly for the poor food.  I feel its the wait person's job to address such issues with their management, and if they don't they will be tipped accordingly.  If you whole teams is saying, hey I'm getting half the tips I'm suppose to, because some bozo boils the hell out of the paste in the morning, and then it gets cooked again on top of that, you'd think the management would at least make sure the bozo slightly under cooks the pasta, or make it to order like they should be doing.

Probably the thing that irks me the most is when a waiter doesn't know the menu or understand the food. As a customer, I expect a waiter to know the menu inside and out, understand the preparation of each dish, and be able to answer any questions I have. With that said, if I have a difficult question and they just don't know, then by all means go ask someone in the kitchen. But never lie to me or make something up. That happened to me last summer at a fairly reputable restaurant. I ordered a steak that came with a crawfish cream sauce (on the menu it essentially said steak and etouffee) so I asked if it came on the side or if the steak was topped with it. The waiter informed me that it was served separately. Since I prefer my steak on the plain said, I said that was good because that's the way I wanted it. When it came out, the steak was doused in sauce. When I asked the waiter, he said "Oh I guess it doesn't come on the side, sorry", and turned and walked off. I was furious that he 1) obviously didn't know the menu, 2) didn't clarify on the order that I wanted the sauce on the side, and 3) didn't seem to care that my order wasn't the way I wanted it. His tip took a bit of a hit from that one. I think I may have given him 10%, which is about as low as I will tip unless something catastrophic happens (taking food off of a dirty table). 

Quote:

Originally Posted by tylerm713 

His tip took a bit of a hit from that one. I think I may have given him 10%, which is about as low as I will tip unless something catastrophic happens (taking food off of a dirty table). 

You'd be surprised how fast they learn from that.  10% is very generous in that case, I would have left like 5% or less if they didn't bring me a new one.

ohhh i hate that so much

My favorite server "mistake" was after my food arrived, and I was eating it, the server came back and asked verbatim "is that any good".  I was so humored I couldn't get upset. 

No. 1 on your list is almost certainly the kitchen's fault, and not the server's. 

Not necessarily, Boar. We've all seen situations where part of an order remains sitting in the pass after the rest has been delivered. That's certainly not the kitchen's fault.

That aside, I'm a little hardnosed about things like that. If part of the order is going to be late, because the kitchen screwed up, I expect the server to at least tell me; "Sorry, sir, the prime rib will be just a little longer."

Funny thing is I didn't read Abe's post the way you did. You took it to mean three of us get served while the fourth waits. I read it as bringing me part of my meal, and then waiting for the rest. That's happened to me more than once, through the years, and usually entails waiting on the protein. No doubt the kitchen screwed something up, in that regard. But it's ridiculous to be served a plate of sides while waiting on the main dish.

On the other hand, I hate it when the kitchen knowingly sends out a bad product, leaving the server to take the heat. Example: We were in a casual dining place for lunch the other day. Friend Wife had a Philly Cheesesteak, and the bun was burned on one side. It was obvious the kitchen had plated it specifically angled so that the burned spot was hidden.

Our server immediately apologized, told us he'd get it replaced, and did so. Along with telling us, as he served the new one, that her lunch was on them.

But that takes us into the area of good service, which is the topic of another thread.