Translation?
Ah. Well, they won this round. Somehow I doubt they will be generous enough to comp the waiter for thier fifteen minutes of glory.
The girls became fat for all, not just the elect.
That’s very big of them.
This is exactly correct. Once the waiter made the mistake, the fat girls were in a great position…free food. Simple as that. The fact that the manager and the server didn’t know that is the part that makes them true idiots. Yes, the girls are fat, and if you had printed that without making the mistake of giving them that copy of the receipt, then everything would be fine, like it always is if you call someone fat, or short or blond or whatever.
Once you made the mistake though, your response should be to apologize profusely and comp the entire meal. If you don’t do that then the girls will make a fuss and someone is going to end up fired. Surely that isn’t the ideal outcome for the server who simply made a little boneheaded mistake.
American customer service is unique. Many other countries are baffled by it. But it works for us for a very good reason…we kind of like the capitalistic culture that we have all learned to work with. If they had comped the meal, with a ‘sincere’ apology, the fat girls wouldn’t have had such good cards to play. Now they win because they know the schmuck got fired, and they still ate free.
And so what? Shortness and fatness are broadly considered undesirable traits in our society. You have particularly thick skin, perhaps. That doesn’t change the fact that it
I don’t understand what this means. When is a service provider so compelled to point out your physical characteristics – unless it’s somehow relevant to the service?
No, I won’t, because it doesn’t matter. Calling someone a “dirty Mexican wetback” might be worse that calling someone “fat,” but so what? There’s no prize for being “less offensive than the maximum level of offensive.”
Exactly this.
And yeah, dumb waiter/server/Jeff.
True, but I don’t think there’s anything they realistically could have done that would have.
What, sincere apologies are always futile?
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I have never paid attention to the “name” portion of checks. Eyes go straight to the number, I tip and sign and close the folder. I wonder how many times I’ve been insulted without even knowing it.
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I think this is hilarious. If I were ever to be in this position, I would laugh so hard. Of course, it would have to come with consequences because it’s supremely unprofessional, but I would appreciate the humor behind it.
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I was expecting a much bigger dude on that ducati.
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Line of the thread goes to Bob Ducca in post 27.
Really? Because customer service is pretty much based on the philosophy that there ARE things you can do to pacify an upset customer. Free crap is the answer. If the manager had popped his eyes open in shock, sputtered apologies, promised disciplinary action (which of course, he doesn’t have to actually bother with) and ripped up the bill, I don’t think anyone would have gotten fired or put on the news. I may be wrong, but I doubt it.
First, I don’t believe that shortness carries anywhere near the same stigma as fatness. A completely false equivalence.
No one has ever, ever said:
“What did that person do to get so short?”
“I used to be short, but kind of let myself go.”
“You need to get a little taller, or it will take a toll on your health.”
Once the mistake was made, someone should have been fired, period. Apologies and free food won’t stop a fuss being made–even if it did this time (which I’d doubt), it won’t next time.
It’s rude to call attention to a person’s appearance if it’s not nice or flattering. And it doesn’t matter if the person who is commenting is a stranger or not. The only time a negative comment should be made is when a manager/supervisor is telling a worker that his/her appearance is not up to the standards, or when an honest opinion is solicited. For instance, one time when my daughter was sorting through her wardrobe, she asked me to help her. I told her which garments looked good, which didn’t do anything, and when I said “That top makes you look about five months pregnant” she thanked me for telling her and put it in the give away pile.
Positive comments are almost always welcome.
I think that the women couldn’t have been all that humiliated if they went to the press. They might have felt insulted, yes, but not humiliated.
I’ve had restaurant tickets which label me as “The Sorceress” (I use a fancy walking staff with a small leather pouch and a couple of leather braids dangling from it, and read fantasy books) and also “Cowgirl hat” (I wear a cowboy hat). I don’t mind this, because I don’t find either of those labels offensive, and I think that most people wouldn’t find it offensive. However, in the US, calling someone fat is usually meant as an insult. Now, sometimes it’s just used as a description, but generally it has at least some element of derision in it.
I think that all of the restaurant staff that interacted with the women in question exhibited poor judgement, including the one who presented the bill without noticing the description.
Oh jeez… don’t get all butthurt. If a waiter had 8 tables, and described me as “fat white guy”, I don’t think I’d be offended, especially if the other 7 tables don’t have anyone fitting that description.
I’d rather have them put that on my receipt than give me someone else’s order or my order to someone else, especially if I had some sort of food sensitivities or allergies. It may be kind of a low-rent way to do it, but the intentions were good.
I don’t understand how on one hand, fat people want to be accepted for their weight, criticize skinny people as unhealthy and make fun of them and often accuse them of being anorexic so that they will feel better about their own deadly and unhealthy size, but then on the other hand the whole “big is beautiful” movement… which is it?
I think the former… it’s insecurity. These women obviously DO NOT think that their weight is a good thing and they do know that it is indeed a problem, otherwise they would not have gotten offended and taken “fat” as an insult.
In a call center, it isn’t uncommon to have an agent say something about a customer that they think is on ‘mute’. If a customer hears someone say, “Urgh, this country bumpkin is killing me” then it is damage control time. The customer hangs up, gets another agent. That agent sputters apologies and gets the manager. The manager takes the call, offers the tech support for free, and ‘sincerely’ apologizes to the customer. After the customer is comped, the manager will address the agent about being more careful with mute (some stricter managers will write him up, ours didn’t, but our program was a bit more ghetto than the others in the call center) and then we would all sit around and laugh about it. But the main thing is, we were all smart enough to execute the proper customer service. The customer felt like someone got fired.
Do you think those comments are positive or welcome? I assure you, they are not.
What is it? Maybe three different fat people all with different takes on the matter. This may come as a surprise to you but not all fat people have the same opinion on matters of size.
~hajario - BMI 21.5
But then it makes you wonder, if they see a problem with their weight, then why not fix it, assuming they do not have a debilitating condition that prevents them from doing so?