What ever happened to “the customer is always right”? Hell, I have no problems admitting I’m wrong, but some people tend to think I should just sit down and shut up.
An example: My friends and I were at Burger King the other night. I ordered a Whopper with cheese, bacon, and extra mayonnaise (yes, it’s disgusting, but I love it). I get my sandwich, and it appears to be really thin. So I take off the bun and find they put no vegetables on it. Only mayonnaise, bacon, and cheese. I tell my friends, “Excuse me, I’m going to have them fix this.” They all shot back, “Dude, just eat it and be happy with it.” Determined, I return to the counter and politely tell them that they forgot to put vegetables on the burger, and would they mind putting them on there. The restaurant clearly had no problem obliging, and even gave the veggie-less burger to my friend for free. When I returned to the table, my friends said much to the extent of, “Man, you’re the biggest whiner.”
This situation has occured before. The point is, when I’m at a restaurant, bar, anything, and something doesn’t come as I ordered it, why do people feel that I don’t have a right to ask that it be fixed? I’m always polite, reasonable, and respectful when I ask. I don’t mind waiting a reasonable amount of time for them to fix it when they get a chance. But if I request onion rings and I get fries, what’s wrong with asking for what I ordered?
So am I an asshole for asking? Am I the kind of patron that bartenders and waitstaff hate? Or are we expecting less out of our establishments now? Sure, the waitstaff is busy and overworked, but it’s their job to bring what I ordered, right? Would you eat a fish sandwich if you ordered a steak? Of course not. What’s everyone’s opinion?
Well, they do say you can have it your way. What sort of losers are hanging out with? Maybe have them pay for your meal when they feel you got what you should have, regardless of what you actually ordered.
Sounds to me like you got exactly what you ordered. You ordered a sandwich with mayo, bacon, and cheese. You got a sandwich with mayo, bacon, and cheese. Yes, you’re an asshole.
Eh? Would he have needed to specify the beef as well?
I’d have done the same thing. If you’re polite to the counter staff, I see no reason not to ask for what you deserve if they screw up the order. Bonus points.
How the hell can you expect gormet cooking and adherence to an order at someplace like Burger King? Did you order the burger medium rare? And when it came well done, did you return it?
Mate, it’s a fast-food restaurant with the emphasis on fast, not accurate. If it was meant to be accurate, it would be an accurate food restaurant.
What an arsehole!
And what ‘vegetables’ would come on a burger? Carrots? Parsnips? Peas? String beans? Beets?
Burger King’s policy is “have it your way.” Some places will automatically slap tomato, onions, and lettuce on your burger unless you ask them not to, but Burger King will only put what you asked for on your sandwich. Just so you know.
Unless you have some history of major whining, no, you’re not an asshole. As long as you were polite, everything’s cool.
Upon reflection, I really was too quick to jump down Agent Foxtrot’s throat. Sorry. But it’s pretty clear that he’s not asking for opinions, here. What he’s really after is external validation, in which case only “not an assshole” opinions will be welcome!
For an example of assholeish behavior, how’s this? I was once at a McDonald’s with an acquaintance. He ordered a chicken sandwich, and when we got to the table and he opened his sandwich, he immediately stood up, yelled “Fuck this! I want to see a manager here now!” and proceeded to make quite the scene. One of the counter workers came over to see if she could help, and he started yelling at the poor girl, insisting that she send a manager to see him NOW. The manager did come, took my acquaintance into the back, and when they both emerged, my acquaintance had 5 vouchers for a free sandwich and another sandwich with two pieces of chicken. The reason he felt justified in making such a scene? One piece of chicken didn’t completely cover the bun.
You, on the other hand, had a perfectly legitimate right have the staff rectify their error. As long as you were polite and didn’t cause a scene, then you did absolutely nothing wrong.
I agree that what you ordered is what you got, but you didn’t understand the way they take orders at that particular Burger King. I see no problem with going up to the counter to correct the misunderstanding, as long as you were polite about it. IMHO, in order to be considered an asshole, you’d have to be obnoxious about it.
Thanks for replying, everybody! It seems that the general consensus is that as long as I’m polite about fixing the order, then I’m not an asshole.
But can anyone explain why my friends call me a “whiner” in these situations? It hasn’t been limited to one group of friends…people who I were friends with at work have told me the same thing at lunch. No one’s ever stood up and said, “Back off, guys. Adam asked for medium well, and he should get medium well.”
Eh, they probably place less value on the veggies than you do. I guess to them, it would be like “hey, you left out 5 sesame seeds on my bun”. I guess the rationale is, if it’s not worth that much/irrelevant, just suck it up.
“Hey, you left out 5 sesame seeds!” - Whiner
“Hey, you left out the clams in my Spaghetti Vongole!” - Not whiner
No, Foxtrot, you’re not an asshole, nor is it your job to understand how the restaurant wants the order taken. The management of the restaurant should have a system in place to repeat back orders or to clarify when the customer asks for specific condiments. “Pardon me, but our Whopper usually comes with mayonnaise, ketchup, lettuce, onion, shrimp, motor oil, sweet pickles, dill pickles, Tommy Pickles, kosher pickles, cheese, tomatoes, carrots, and two hard-boiled eggs. Would you like extra mayonnaise in addition to that?” or “Did you want it plain, with extra mayonnaise?”
When I worked in fast food, the largest number of errors came when someone said single condiments but sometimes meant to add those condiments to the regular stuff, and sometimes meant condiment only. We learned to made sure to clarify, and so should that BK.
If enough mistakes occur such as that, either they will learn to clarify their order or you will. Your friend, evidently, plans to learn nothing from the experience.
It’s not like he made a scene or anything. He wanted lettuce and tomato on his burger, and he asked them nicely for it. It doesn’t matter if he thought the burger should have come with thinly-sliced weasel chips on it, if that’s what he wanted on it why is he an asshole for asking? Putz.
Hey, at least you got what you ordered (it a little too literally).
I once ordered a .25lmb w/ Cheese and no pickles.
I received: A bun, a piece of meat, a piece of cheese, a layer of pickles.
I laughed and ate it. It tasted basically the same, anyway.
As a very frequent Burger King customer (sigh, not exactly my proudest achievement), unless you specifically said no lettuce, tomato or onions, I would expect them to appear on the sandwich. You are not an asshole if you go back and politely ask for the mistake to be rectified. I occasionally have to do this.
Why do several groups of friends call you a whiner? Maybe you always have to “special” order your food and you appear incredibly picky. It is my belief you have the right to be a picky eater even as a grown up, but it is not the norm and you are going to be razzed about it. Maybe your friends would give you a hard time about something else if it wasn’t the food thing.
Hey, I said I was wrong in my initial assessment, and said I was sorry. You’re expecting groveling in an IHMO thread?
I still say, however, that by starting this thread, what he’s really looking for is external validation. He’s not actually trying to decide whether he’s an asshole. He just wants folks on the SDMB to reassure him that he’s not.
