The Scene: Lunch yesterday
The Players: Myself and A Woman ordering salad
Woman: I’ll have the Mediterranean salad, but I don’t want any orzo pasta. Just throw in extra grilled vegetables.
Me: (reeling through the 20 or so items in the Mediterranean salad) Grilled vegetables?
Woman: Aren’t there grilled vegetables in that salad?
Me: (finally sure that there aren’t) No.
Woman: (looking down at her menu and raising her voice) ROASTED. RED. PEPPERS. Aren’t those grilled?!
Me: (looking astonished, I’m sure) Well, they’re roasted. But you can have extra peppers if you want them.
She actually rolled her eyes at me through the rest of the meal. "Care to look over the dessert menu?" *eye roll*
She went on to tip more than anyone else at the table which confirms my belief that people often tip a standard amount rather than based on their perception of service. Or maybe she knew she was out of line.
Doubtful.
I told the story to my manager who scanned the dining room only once before accurately picking her out.
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Before I laugh too much at the lady above, I must recall being exactly like her on at least one occasion. Except that I was aware of my stupidity immediately.
Once, I had to go into the downtown Hilton for just a minute to drop something off at the front desk. The valet parker told me that he would need the keys to my car in case he had to move it. He mentioned that it was complimentary, but I also heard myself ask him afterward if it was free. With a great and confident smirk, he told me that free was indeed synonymous with complimentary. Points to him. I tended to my business and then tipped him just because.
what happened to “the customer is always right”?
The customer is always right. At O’Charley’s and Applebee’s and TGI Friday’s. We don’t play that where I work.
the customer is is always right, sure. but half the time the customer is also an idiot.
If the customer is truly ever to be “always right”, then we are doomed to live like cavemen thenceforth. People are always trying to screw the front end folks over where I used to work. Some, I feel, do it for kicks, and others do it just to try to bend the rules in their favor. I’m not sure which motive annoys me more.
My mother is very into being as nice a person as possible to others, even when not necessarily warranted. I deem her very strong for it. But I also got the impression early on in life that it is my own generation (I am 29) that is the “rude” generation. However, being in the workforce has alarmed me to the fact that many people my mothers age are at least as juvenile as any 29 year old. Disturbing, still, but true.
Actually, the guest is usually wrong. However, it’s the servers job to make them feel like they are right. Most of the time. There are those lovely occasions when you get to pounce…
Possibly the best thing about working at [the office where I work] is that the customer is not always right. Sometimes the customer is wrong. Sure, we will do everything in our power to make the customer happy, but if the customer is making unreasonable/impossible demands, or if the customer is being a dick about it, we typically draw the line.
The customer is always right, except when they are wrong.
I often get confused about ingredients, ask dumb questions, etc. but I have this thing called a sense of humor and I use it. The waitress laughs, and all is well.
I tip 20% average. You have to really screw something up for me to tip less, for example: the time the waiter was mia for most of the meal, we asked for butter 3 times and never got it and then took my cc to pay the bill and went missing for 15 minutes. There was at least 2 tables around us who noticed the problem, causing the table next to us to pay with cash rather than plastic. He got tipped 10% and I think that was generous.
I’ve also been known to tip up to 50%. I used to visit an Italian place in Chicago. I mostly came alone, sat at the bar and ate dinner. The bartender would always pour my glass of champagne without having to ask, and even filled it up again without charging me. She always had good recommendations off the menu. I frequently left her a nice tip (considering I didn’t pay for half the drinks).
Actually the customer is always right except when acting like an obnoxious idiot.Which maybe more than half the time. There still is a thing called having the common sense not to make a fool out of one’s self in a restaurant. “Act like ya been there”.
Please tell me this does not happen often. We are returning to TN from the Northeast to get away from that. Here, being rude is a badge of honor.
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