Customers who lie to save face

[inkysplotchy]

Crazycatlady:
I like your response to the issue. I’ll have to keep it in mind for future reference. As for having things stuffed in my apron, I think it’s a health code violation for you to have silverware in there, and since I happen to be one of those people without hips, ketchup bottles tend to make my apron fall off while I’m walking.

Yeah, what I did was passive aggressive to a point, but my intention was to save time and hope that the lady would just slide her extra set over instead of making me work.

Interesting feedback from all though, and all things to keep in mind.

[Tim_T-Bonham.net]

@look!ninjas

Here’s the thing, though - First, as Intent already pointed out, you can’t always plan when you’re going to be busy. You also can’t plan for half the staff catching strep throat or deciding that it was too fine a night to have to work, or the kitchen being slammed with to-go orders, or the dishwasher getting fired. No matter how well you plan, shit happens.

Yes, but again, that’s not my problem!

@look!ninjas

If you have to wait, we will do our best to make it as short and pleasant a wait as possible.

But making me wait by standing around in your lobby vs. seated comfortably at a table is not making my wait “as pleasant as possible”! And not explaining to me why I am waiting (even though there appear to be empty tables) is not good customer service, and is likely going to make me unhappy & unpleasant.

[theotherotherone]

I feel it necessary to add my comments to this thread due to the fact that I play a major role the food service industry, and frequently dine out. I am a manager, bartender, and server at a fine dining establishment.

The customer may not always be right, but in this case a simple request shouldn’t be looked upon as an act of rudeness. The request may seem rediculous, but I agree that you should probably develop a thicker skin, as such occurances are very common.

For example- A gentleman was seated in my section, and requested a bottle of ketchup, which I provided in a timely manner. Upon opening the ketchup, it “exploded” all over his pants. I have seen this happen several times, and have never really been that surprised. He somehow determined that it was my own fault that the ketchup exploded, even though all I did was hand him the bottle. Should I test the ketchup before serving it? Not according to me…

The manager on duty gave him a certificate for a free meal on his next visit, as well as comping the meal he had just been served.

The next time he visited our restaurant, I was managing. He presented the certificate to me and I gladly accepted it and apologized for his bad experience, while he angrily complained that the service on his previous visit was terrible.

He even offered to show me the stained pants from his last visit to prove that his free meal was legit. Clowns like this think that they can do no wrong, and they deserve something. You are there to serve them, they know it, and sometimes they take it too far. If you can’t handle a few assholes, get a job in the kitchen.

[look_ninjas]

@t-bonham@scc.net

But making me wait by standing around in your lobby vs. seated comfortably at a table is not making my wait “as pleasant as possible”! And not explaining to me why I am waiting (even though there appear to be empty tables) is not good customer service, and is likely going to make me unhappy & unpleasant.

Never said I wouldn’t explain the situation to you. Hell, I’ll explain it in English, German, Spanish, and French if it makes you happy. I’ll explain it three or four times if that’s what it comes down to (and yes, sometimes it does come down to that.)

And as far as the standing situation goes - it seems to me that most restaurants (at least around these parts) have a seating area in the lobby, or a bar that you can wait at. But if I put you out on the floor, that means the servers are running to the hostess station trying to figure out whose section you’re in and why, which slows them down. The bussers are pouring you water and getting you coffee, which means that when I move you, the water glasses and coffee cups (and anything else that got moved or used) will have to be cleared and reset, which slows them down. Other patrons will want to know why they can’t sit at a table too, which slows everyone down still further. If you are waiting in the lobby or in the bar, you will wait for a much shorter period than if you are sitting at an empty table.

One more thing:

@the otherotherone

If you can’t handle a few assholes, get a job in the kitchen.

What makes you think there aren’t assholes in the kitchen?

Sorry. I’ll stop hijacking the thread now.

[lezlers]

@t-bonham@scc.net

Yes, but again, that’s not my problem! But making me wait by standing around in your lobby vs. seated comfortably at a table is not making my wait “as pleasant as possible”! And not explaining to me why I am waiting (even though there appear to be empty tables) is not good customer service, and is likely going to make me unhappy & unpleasant.

Oh, for cryin’ out loud, get over yourself. Yes, you are the customer. You are not the king of the universe though, no matter how much you would like to think you are. Have you ever asked the hostess why you can’t sit at one of the empty tables? Or do you think that the hostess should be required to tell each and every customer on the waitlist why they’re not being sat at an empty table before they even ask? There is a good reason, you know. Someone may have called in sick. The restaurant may have gotten prematurely slammed and don’t have servers for every section in the place, the server in that section may have just gotten triple sat and needs 2 or 3 minutes to catch up before they’re sat again, or a plethora of other reasons. Yeah, it’s not “your problem” but what do you expect them to do? Fuck up the whole run of the resturant for the evening to sit you five minutes sooner so they can then listen to you bitch that the service is slow? My point is that customers like yourself, those who saunter in with an air of “I am the most important person in the universe and you must all do whatever I wish in order to make my dining experience perfect no matter how detrimental it is to the staff or to the other customers” are going to find something to bitch about, no matter what you do to appease them. So you might as well give them something to bitch about that’s not going to fuck up the whole night for everyone involved. Wait five fucking minutes to be sat. It’s not going to kill you. If it’s that much of a hardship, go somewhere else.

[Optihut]

@lezlers

If it’s that much of a hardship, go somewhere else.

That’s kinda the point: If treating the customers rude is the hip thing to do, then the customers will find another place to go to. Unless you’re the Soupnazi from Seinfeld of course - with soup like that you can afford to be rude to your customers. Otherwise, I’d expect good service, if you want me to return to your restaurant.

[lezlers]

@Optihut

That’s kinda the point: If treating the customers rude is the hip thing to do, then the customers will find another place to go to. Unless you’re the Soupnazi from Seinfeld of course - with soup like that you can afford to be rude to your customers. Otherwise, I’d expect good service, if you want me to return to your restaurant.

I’d say that’s a good point, if it was at all relevant to my post, which had nothing to do with a server or hostess being rude. Try reading it again. Having a customer wait for 5 minutes so that they can have good service when they are seated is not rude. If you disagree, I’d love for you to explain why.

[Tripler]

The OP reminds me of an unfortunately stereotypical story when I worked for Sherwin-Williams.

It was in a fairly well-to-do town in North Jersey, and every now and then some fake-fur clad, uppity, snotnosed bitch who reeked of too much damn perfume, with a beaufont that would make Tammy Faye Baker cry would come in the store.

“Um, will you make me a gallon of that color on the house across the street?” (as she points out the window to an old colonial that happened to be across the way).

“Well ma’am, to be honest, I can’t. I can get the color close, but that paint’s old, oxidized, and we’ll most likely be here for a while. . . If you can find something you like in our fandeck . . .”

(She gets all huffy). “WELL! I’m an interior designer, and need that color. Why can’t you match it?” [sub]And I’m just a guy, who could slap you upside the head for being so rude.[/sub]

“Ma’am, that paint is alligatoring, peeling, and the color has obviously bleached out of it. I can make it close, but I won’t guarantee you’ll like it. . .”

“Well, get me a gallon as close as you can get.” :: clap clap ::

So after twenty minutes of having a 90210-type in my store, and getting it admittedly damned close . . .

“Well, see? It’s too dark. I want it a little lighter. . .” :eek: :mad:

She wasn’t a bitch. She was the Über-bitch.

Tripler
Tammy Faye Baker may be a bad example. Who was that chick from the B-52s?

[Elret]

I still want to know at what point the customer lied?

[Tripler]

@Elret

I still want to know at what point the customer lied?

On mine?

Maybe I wasn’t wholly clear in the story - you had to have been there anyway.

I guess it was how she carried herself and huffily declared that she was an interior designer ! [sub] underlines and bolding just for emphasis that she was an interior designer![/sub]. :rolleyes:

I got the paint as close as Picasso himself could have mixed it, but then she “changed her mind” and wanted the color a little lighter*****.

But she wouldn’t say she changed her mind. Because she was an interior designer. Just discussing with her the nature of the color and how she responded to my questions, I have no doubt in my mind that she was an interior designer, just as I am a heart surgeon/pastry chef/world-renouned Iditarod musher. But it’s not like I could call her out on it. . .

• NOTE: To all home do-it-yourselfers out there, you can’t lighten a darker color very easily, without breaking open a new gallon (in other words, “consider it impossible”). Even if you do, your mix will be so haphazard, it’ll be even more impossible to duplicate it with any measure of certainty. Always go from lighter to darker.

Tripler
DISCLAIMER: I have nothing personal against bona fide interior designers. Nor Iditarod mushers.

[CanvasShoes]

@mnemosyne

I HATED the idiots who would grab something from another table, because 9 times out of 10 we didn’t see them do it. Then we’d seat someone at that table later, and the new customer would be annoyed that the setting is missing cutlery, and often it is all crooked and messed up from people not looking when they grab their extra knife or whatever. That made us look bad to a new customer, even though we knew it wasn’t because of a failure on our part.

If you need something in a restaurant, ASK FOR IT! don’t take it from someone else, just because there isn’t someone sitting at that place at the time.

I’ve also been a waitress, and I have to somewhat disagree here. I’m not going to sit there and let my tea/food get cold while I try to catch the waitress’ eye to bring me some sweet and low, or silverware.

I will usually try and ask, but if my food or drink is sitting there getting cold because there was no silverware, and the waitress neglected to come back and check to see if everything was okay, I’ll grab silverware from an unoccupied table. I will however, let him/her know that I did so, so that it can be corrected before they seat someone else there.

[CanvasShoes]

@inkysplotchy

My theory behind this is simple. It’s during a busy lunch. It’s going to take a minute round trip to get this person their silverware. I’m slammed at the moment, and other people arre waiting for things. Yes, the man got his silverware and the lady managed to save face, and keep an extra set of silverware for whatever reason. However, everyone else in my section got slower service.

??? And you couldn’t have brought the silverware WITH their order (therefore saving yourself extra steps) because?

I would have smiled and said “I’ll get you an extra set”. And then slapped a set on the tray when I brought their meals. Was there a reason they needed it as soon as they’d been sat?

[inkysplotchy]

@CanvasShoes

??? And you couldn’t have brought the silverware WITH their order (therefore saving yourself extra steps) because?

I would have smiled and said “I’ll get you an extra set”. And then slapped a set on the tray when I brought their meals. Was there a reason they needed it as soon as they’d been sat?

They didn’t mention the extra set until they had gotten their food. If it would have been beforehand, it wouldn’t have a bother because I would have done what you said on my next trip out. BUt once the food is there, I’m guessing they’d like to eat asap. The ladies at the table had already unrolled all four sets of silverware on the table by that point.

On a more general note, I’m agreeing that I should have either a) gotten the darned silverware with no comment, or b) picked up a set from next to her, put it next to the man and asked if they would like one extra. Or something like that. My error was letting the lady get to me. Bad waiter, no biscuit.

One note on the going somewhere else after bad service. People say they are going to all the time, but I tend to think a lot tend to keep coming back. I’ve had a ton of customers come in, complain about how bad it is every time they come in, do a good job(hard to believe) and have them come back in two weeks with the same story. I’ve even had people swear to my face that they would never, ever, come back again, then show up two days later.

So yeah. I handled it badly, got the complaint, the big tip, and a chuckle out of my manager. But I still admit I handled it badly, and will remember it next time a similar situation comes up.