Food service...you know where this is going

[Spavined_Gelding]

Let me tell you that waiting tables, tending bar, doing some low grade service job that involves dealing with a demanding public, like going through basic training, is something everybody needs to do before going out and becoming part of that demanding public. That more people don’t get their meals with a fine saliva sauce is beyond my comprehension.

My youthful experience was as a waiter and bartender in “the fraternity and sorority” bar and grill in a university town. I worked there for two years and needed the job so badly that I worked the night I graduated. The goofy thing about it was that a fair number of the customers who were so unreasonably demanding at night with a half dozen beers and a pizza in their belly were the people I was in class with during the day. How some jerk could get all huffed out of shape because their secret wish for Jack Daniel’s instead of the cheap bar Bourbon was not anticipated on Saturday night could ask for the loan of a ball point on Monday is still a mystery.

There was occasional excitement. One night I had to throw out a little guy who got all tanked up and decided to get in a screaming fight with his girl friend. Afterwards the rest of the staff told me that he was an All-American 160 pound wrestler. They sicced me on him because I was the biggest waiter on duty. Another night a celebrated alumni, a NFL tight end, demolished the place because his steak had been cooked for more than 30 seconds each side. I went outside for a smoke until the cops came.

The real downer, however, was the never ending Barbra Streisand’s People Who Need People on the juke box. God, I hate that song.

[Kamino_Neko]

@Guinastasia

[Customer is always right type]
Oh no, if you close at MIDNIGHT, you close at MIDNIGHT! NOT 11:59, and you’re the worst worker that ever lived!
[/Customer is always right type]

Oh, that’s nothing. When I was still working in food service (I’m not working at all at the moment - I had to get out of that job lest I suffer a nervous breakdown or my boss suffer an ‘accident’ with my fist), we’d regularly have customers come in 5, 10 even 20 or 30 minutes after closing and expect to get served.

It didn’t help that my boss was a touch (actually a lot) inconsistant about it - sometimes someone could come in after we’d turned off the lights and were heading out the door (45 minutes after closing if we were lucky and the customers weren’t too heavy for the last 2 hours so we could get some cleanup done), and he’d serve them…sometimes they’d come in5 or 6 minutes before closing and he’d send them away.

[Eutychus]

Ahh, the memories …

I used to be an assistant manager at Toys R Us. Way back when. The policy was that you couldn’t go up to people and actually ask them to leave the store, although you could make 5 minute closing and closing announcements. And of course no one out of a 30 person nighttime staff could leave until everyone was out.

One night we had a couple in shopping when we wanted to close. And it got past 10:00 and they were still shopping. No one (especially the management) minded too much because they seemed to be buying a lot; they already had two shopping carts full. But it got to 10:20 and everyone was starting to get antsy. Finally around 1:30 they bring everything up to the counter.

And they ask, “Do you take traveller’s check?”

No … at that time they didn’t.

So without saying another word they leave their two carts full of toys at the service desk and walk out the door.

I’m not usually a violent man, but …

[htns]

@Uncommon Sense

Sometimes you just know.

Or, maybe she recognizes ‘family’ when she see them.

You mean the gaydar thing, right? If it’s a family thing, it’s cool, but it still looks insulting.

Is that the gay version of “nigga, please” in the Black community? Just trying to understand, here.

[kung_fu_lola]

The “Princessy” part was meant to be insulting. “Fag” was merely used as an adjective.

[lezlers]

Considering that using such descriptors is a surefire way to tailspin any thread into hijacked territory, you think you could abstain from using them when they’re obviously not relevent?

Otherwise, it appears as if you’re just starting shit for the sake of starting shit, which I know wasn’t your intention.

[The_Asbestos_Mango]

I have long been of the opinion that people who think service workers (cashiers, restaurant wait staff, etc.) are lowlife scum should simply not patronize establishments that employ them.

It would make life so much nicer for all parties concerned.

[Delly]

Eutychus, did they really stay 3.5 hours after closing or is that a typo, and if not :eek:
My rant regards customers: This happened today, I was just coming back from my lunch and one of the girls was on the phone to get an authorisation code from the bank for a laser card (usually its done automatically through the registers, but the bank spot checks cards, it can happen to anyone). So basically Im beside the phone, as is the manager, as is the operator.

We could see the customer, we knew she was fuming at the thought of her card being spot checked, but guess what lady? It has sweet fuck all to do with us. Anyway so I go down to the till to punch in the code because Im supervising and the customer starts off with whats the problem? I explain, rather nicely, about how the banks randomly check laser and credit cards and it is no reflection on your credit rating or on us. She seems fine.

Evidently not because I walked away back up to the manager and as we were standing there she comes over and tells how we have some nerve leaving a customer standing there like that because she was mortified because it made her look bad and it never happened to her before. Apparently were supposed to explain to every customer that comes through the door that if theyre paying with a laser/credit card there is the random possibility of the bank checking it.

Yeah thats going to happen…

Later then the girl who served her came up to me and asked what she said, I told her, and she told me how the woman had accused us of messing with her card and doing god knows what with it because we were all messing and joking up on the phone Apparently now she was going to have to go through her statements to make sure we didnt charge anything to the card!

People are just stupid.

Along the lines of the Christmas stories, we were open one day last year from 8am until 10pm. Anyway its the day before christmas eve and its about 10.10pm and we’re just finished the with the last couple people so were clsoing off, and then someone noticed a customer down near the back of the store with a cart load of shopping. The manager told one of the girls to go down and tell him we are closed and could he please come tot he checkouts.

This guy didnt like this at all. He basically gave out to the girl so much she came back with tears in her eyes, she told me what had happened so I mentioned it to the manager. He then went and told the guy we were closed, he didnt get any hassle, the guy came up to the checkouts, manager went way again and the guy starts on us, about how we should appreciate his shopping the fact tha he was shopping as he was paying our wages… Idiot.

Somehow I dont think the €100 or so he spent would have made much of a difference to the store totals for the day.

[aruvqan]

@Eats_Crayons

<HIJACK>

Aside from that “sweet mustard” (traditional Bavarian type) tends to include a hint of brown icing sugar or caramel sugar syrup.

</HIJACK>

ROFLMAO, I brought some home from Germany in fFb when I was there for our roommate who is a mustard fiend. I swear she has 15 different types of mustard=)

There is way too much sugar in it for me to eat, but she seems to like it=)

[Uncommon_Sense]

@htns

You mean the gaydar thing, right? If it’s a family thing, it’s cool, but it still looks insulting.

Is that the gay version of “nigga, please” in the Black community? Just trying to understand, here.

Around here, gays may refer to each other as ‘family’.
As in;
I notice my (gay) friend at the park with another girl. Later on I ask her if theyre dating. She says, "No, but she is family". Letting me know that the friend is also gay but they arent a couple.

[auntie_em]

@Lissa

As he was walking away my husband said, “Excuse me sir, I just wanted to tell you that THIS is how you do business, I hope you have learned from our encounter”

The other staff were laughing their butts off and the man stormed away. He never got the disocunted rate because the manager backed up my husband.

Score one for the little guy.

Lissa, will your husband marry me?

[Lissa]

@auntie em

Lissa, will your husband marry me?

Hell no! I’m keeping him all for myself!

[Thingol]

Yeah, I’m a food-service veteran, a few years serving and more years behind the bar, as tender and manager. And, believe it or not, even more in customer service and public service. Natch, I don’t treat “guests” and clients with the same attitude I use among friends, family, clergy, or message boards. Everything’s relative.

So I have no problem saying, you’re mostly a bunch of whiners, w/ exceptions of course.

What pisses me off is the shitty level of service that’s acceptable nowadays.

Don’t get me wrong. Acceptable service gets a 20% tip from me and a smile. Good service gets more.

But what the hell do you expect from the public? They’re the public, for Christ sake! The great un-fucking-washed! You don’t want to deal with them, you’re in the wrong business.

And if a customer is really being a prick, piss them off. What the hell, do you want their business anyway? I don’t. If there are other customers around, they’ll applaud you for it.

My friends get abashed when I ask a server where a drink is, when she’s brought out everyone else’s but one, and not bothered to say “your beer is on the way” or anything of the sort. They’d rather sit and wonder if she heard the order right. Pussies.

If my server hasn’t at least said hello in 5 minutes after I’m sat, I’m out the door.

If I ask, politely, if I could have all broccoli instead of the veggie mix as a side, the only answer is, “Sure” or “Be happy to” or “No problem”. Not, “Well, it all comes together in a bag, so they’d have to pick it out.” Mmmm, how appetizing.

All jobs have downsides. Assholes (like me) are yours. Adjust. Evolve. Do your job.

[Guinastasia]

If I ask, politely, if I could have all broccoli instead of the veggie mix as a side, the only answer is, “Sure” or “Be happy to” or “No problem”. Not, “Well, it all comes together in a bag, so they’d have to pick it out.” Mmmm, how appetizing.

And what was she supposed to say?

Yeah, that sucks, but since she’s unable to do it, what do you want?

[7_up_yours]

@Guinastasia

And what was she supposed to say?

Yeah, that sucks, but since she’s unable to do it, what do you want?

Most likely, the “correct” response would be “Sorry, but we can’t do that.”

And the customer would be sure to answer with a “Well, why not?”

:rolleyes:

[Mister_Rik]

Longtime cook here. The people who drive me the battiest are usually senior citizens. There are so many of them who think it’s just fine to continue sitting there well past closing time, doing nothing but sipping coffee and reading a book. They finished their meal two hours ago, but still they linger.

Listen you old bastard/biddy, you may be retired, but I’m not and I still have a freakin’ schedule to keep! If I don’t get out of here on time I’ll miss my bus and the next one doesn’t come along for an hour! My coworker here needs to get to his second job! My waitress is going to have to pay extra if she doesn’t pick her kids up from daycare on time! And another perfectly valid reason for you to get the hell out: We’ve all been on our feet for eight hours and we want to go home and sit the hell down!

I worked in a restaurant that opened a 5:00 AM which meant I had to be there at 4:30. I have come to work and found senior citizens sitting in their cars waiting for us to open. Obviously, they want to get an early start on sitting around all day.

I quit a job once because of the manager letting people order well after closing time. I had already completely cleaned my area, including the grill. The grill had been turned off at closing time, which was 20 minutes ago. Unfortunately, our store was in a sales competition with our sister store across town, and so when the carload of four senior citizens pulled up to the drive-up window, Miss Manager took their order and made me cook it. I cooked it, but that was the last day that place ever saw me. I was only working one day a week there - I had another full-time job and had only come back to work in this place as a favor to the owner (not the manager). I had already been at work at my full-time job since 4:30 AM before coming to the second job, and I had to be back the main job again at 4:30 the next day. I didn’t want to stay any later past the second place’s 8:00 PM closing time than I had to. So when Miss Manager pulled this stunt on me, I never went back. I didn’t even bother to come collect my final paycheck (it was only about $25 anyway). The owner finally dropped it off at my main job when I wasn’t there, but I never cashed it.

I also get sick and tired of people who want to order things that are not on the menu! Good grief, people! Do you go to Pizza Hut and order a cheeseburger? Do you go to Skipper’s Seafood and order a Taco Grande? No? Then why do you come to a breakfast counter and order mashed potatoes?

I had a customer who would never order the soup-of-the-day. Instead, he would always order the leftover soup from the day before. Yes, instead of ordering the hot soup in the pot, he would make me go to the refrigerator, locate yesterday’s soup and microwave it for him.

I despise customers who think they know my job better than I do, and who think I’m lying when I tell them I can’t make this or that because I either don’t have the proper ingredients or I honestly don’t know how to make it. Or that I’m lying about the ingredients. There was a senior citizen once who expected me to ruin my egg pans by frying his eggs with no oil “because I can’t have any butter”. When I told him not to worry, that I don’t fry eggs in butter, but rather I use a butter-flavored fat-free cholesterol-free vegetable oil, he was sure I was being dishonest. News flash, old man: times have changed and cooking technology has changed since you were my age! Most restaurants stopped frying food in butter more than twenty years ago!

Sometimes, when I think about these experiences, I’m glad that I’m unemployed.

[Silver_Serpentine]

My horror stories all come from Starbucks. Surprise.

I always hated the people who would stand in line for 10 minutes, then not know what they wanted.

Example: Friday nights were hell on myself and the one other person working. Storytelling night. We’d have parents lined up to magazines (this was a SB in a B&N), and we’re trying to get through them as quickly as possible. I always made drinks, and Andrew would ring folks up (we did it like this because those were our strengths).

Well, we’d get the middle-aged “soccer moms” who would stand in this line for 10 minutes every frikkin Friday, and apparently stared at the floor until they reached the counter. Even with my bad vision, I could read the signs from about half-way to magazines. But someone who comes to the same cafe every Friday should know what they want, right? Apparently not. They’d get to the counter and stand there, staring at the menu and drooling, for 2 or 3 minutes before deciding. And lord help you if you tried to help the person behind her!

Hmm. I guess as the drink person, that wasn’t ALL bad. It gave me time to catch up on drinks. But it’d piss off the cashiers and customers to no end.

Specific customer from Hell:

I worked at a Starbucks in a grocery store Jan-Feb 2003. We had a lot of regulars who came in every day and were very nice. We were one of, oh, 3 Starbucks in the area that opened at 6am instead of 9am (like at B&N). This isn’t a SB-saturated area, so the customers got to know us pretty well.

Anyway, one morning there’s the usual morning rush. I’m (as usual) making drinks while another girl does register. I have 3 drinks lined up, making two at a time. Other Girl (OG from now on) is ringing up a credit card payement (which takes about a million hours). Almost everyone is patient, because they know how the system works.

Then comes The Bitch From Hell (BFH). BFH cuts in front of two people, while OG is still doing the credit card thing on the current customer, and is about 3/4 done. BFH DEMANDS that she get a cup of coffee NOW. OG explains that there are people ahead of her, and that she’s currently doing a CC transaction, and can’t ring her up. BFH doesn’t care because she’s in a hurry. So’s to prevent BFH screaming, OG goes ahead and gets the woman’s coffee and takes her money, to ring it up in a minute (and keep the change for tip, by god).

Is that the last we hear from her? Of course not!

I’m steaming up a big thing of milk for two drinks, and BFH comes up to me and tells me to pour out some of her coffee (not asks, TELLS). I explain that I’m kind of in the middle of something, and ignore her whining and bitching while I finish steaming the milk, then make the drinks (if she’d been nice, I would’ve helped her as soon as I was done steaming). Finally, I pour out her coffee, and she leaves in a huff.

All I could think was, “If you want fast coffee, go to McDonald’s. This is STARBUCKS. We’re not know for our speed.”
Let me share a bit of wisdom. I’ve worked at a few different Starbucks around the country, and one thing has been the same: If you’re nice, and we know you, you can usually get free stuff. Like, we won’t charge for a shot of flavor. Or you might get a free cookie at the end of the night (depending on the store). Or we’ll make things extra perfect. Or we’ll try a new recipe out on you, and that means a free drink. Piss us off, and things’ll often be a little wrong, or slow. Such it is. We have all the power! haha! Well . . . maybe not, but we can be mean.

[Seamonkey]

You know what chaps my hide? When a gaggle of bank tellers or low level office minions come in where I work and proceed to run my ass off because they can. I really think they get a thrill out of it. I just keep smiling and think how pathetically sad they are, because while they are thinking they are so much better than me and in a different class, I am positive I make waaaay more money than they do and I only work 5 hours a day. I like that alot, so the hide gets unchapped fairly quickly.

[Left_Hand_of_Dorkness]

@Phase42

When I told him not to worry, that I don’t fry eggs in butter, but rather I use a butter-flavored fat-free cholesterol-free vegetable oil, he was sure I was being dishonest.

Honestly, if you told him you were frying eggs in fat-free oil, I can’t blame him for being suspicious :).

Daniel

[lezlers]

@Seamonkey

You know what chaps my hide? When a gaggle of bank tellers or low level office minions come in where I work and proceed to run my ass off because they can. I really think they get a thrill out of it. I just keep smiling and think how pathetically sad they are, because while they are thinking they are so much better than me and in a different class, I am positive I make waaaay more money than they do and I only work 5 hours a day. I like that alot, so the hide gets unchapped fairly quickly.

Oh yeah, I know those types. My fellow servers and I used to laugh at them everytime they’d attempt to crack the whip extra hard. I don’t think a lot of low-level admin types realize how much a decent server can make in a decent restaurant. They’d walk in there acting like they owned the place and got obvious joy out of running the server ragged, obviously on some misplaced power trip.

The knowledge that they’d go back to the office to be their boss’s bitch for the rest of the day for minimal pay while we all went home in a couple hours with more cash in our pockets from one day then the office bitch made in a week was enough to make us giggle at their smug behavior.