Is it possible to get a list of these restaurants, so I can avoid them? ‘2 bite check back’?! I won’t even have tasted everything in front of me at that point! And the five-foot rule sounds like something out of Douglas Adams…‘glad to be of serrrvice’. Spend less time on silly rules, and more on training your waiters to actually spot when somebody needs something, or wants attention, and we will feel neither ignored nor hassled.
The wine tasting is actually important if you wind up with a skunked bottle. As I understand it, you’re not tasting it to see if you like it, just to see if it is fit to drink. It’s one of the few products that can easily be bad straight from the package, with nobody knowing until it’s served. Just take a slug, make sure it’s not vinegar, and let the guy start pouring.
I’m with you on the big pepper grinder, they haul that thing out before you even get a fork into your meal. So, you have to select the exact amount of pepper you want, pre tasting, without the ability to adjust the seasoning, since the Pole O’ Pepper is headed straight to someone else’s table once you’re done. How 'bout this, Einstein, have your chef properly spice the meal before sending it out to me.
What is it with those grinders? I’ve never seen one in Europe, only in Britain and America.
The money thing doesn’t bother me. I just pull the receipt out with my left hand, fold the bills over the coins and stick the whole thing in my front pocket. I never carry money in my wallet. It’s more convenient to have it in my front pocket anyway.
There’s only been twice when excessive customer service has bothered me. Once, we were at a fancy restaurant for lunch, we had 8 people there. Since we were the only ones there, that meant the entire staff waited on us. Every time we took a sip of water, they refilled it, every time someone flicked an ash in an ashtray, it was replaced.
Then there was one time where there was a sign on the table that said, “If the manager doesn’t ask you how your meal was, it’s free!” This led to the manager coming out every half hour or so and running from table to table asking people how their meal was.
I always thought they did the pepper grinder thing to prevent theft of (normal-sized) pepper grinders if they left them on the tables. Also, filling two or three monster pepper grinders at the end of the night takes a lot less time than filling one on each table.
When I am asked to enter a credit card number or any other number using my touch tone key pad, I refuse to repeat it when the representative comes on the line. I have never been refused assistance.
See, no way. Ask me once if I need anything else. Then, keep an eye on my water and stuff. I am well-trained, I will automatically put my water near the edge of the table when I need more. Then just come and fill it up, you don’t even need to talk to me. I can always flag you down if I need more.
The best wait staff I’ve ever seen just regularly is ready for eye contact. I can signal you with just eye contact, should I need everything. I don’t like having my conversation interrupted every five minutes, since I want to chat with my friend!
I can’t think of any other pet peeves other than the ones that have been listed. If I do, I’ll come back.
What happened to putting the receipt in the bag? That used to be Standard Operating Procedure at grocery stores. Maybe the people who paid by credit or debit card want the receipt so they can keep track of their account, but I paid cash. Just toss it in the sack.
(There must be some grocery-store-customer-service-research company somewhere that has shaped and refined this transaction over the years. Maybe I just don’t fit their mold for the typical customer.)
That’s complete and total bullshit. IME, you were never, ever to put drinks in bags. Under any circumstances. Even if the customer asked, I’d hand them their drink, and then go get a bag and hand the bag to them.
I agree with the posters who don’t like to be hovered over in restaurants, but my pet restaurant peeve is those places that insist on putting a slice of lemon in my water. If I had wanted weak lemonade I would have asked for it. Even if I take the lemon slice out as soon as they bring it, it still leaves an aftertaste in the water.
They should ask. I prefer lemons in my water, and hate when they bring it to me without. Still, can’t you just ask for a fresh glass, *sans * lemon?
ABSOLUTELY. A decent waiter can spot a request for the bill from the far end of the room.
The complete onslaught of extras I’ve been offered at BBY is enough to drive one insane.
All I want is to buy a DVD player and 2 dvds.
When buying the DVD player:
“You really need the 3 year service plan on that.”
“Nope.”
“You really need the Monster Cable for the best picture.”
“Nope.”
“You should buy some extra batteries for the remote.”
“Nope.”
“You should sign up for our customer rewards card.”
“Nope.”
When getting the dvds:
“Oh, you like movies. You should sign up for Netflix.”
“Nope.”
“You should get a rack for your dvds.”
“Nope.”
“You did get the 3 year service plan on that, right?”
“Nope.”
When at the register:
“You can get the 3 year…”
“Nope.”
“If you get a BBY card you can get 6 months no interes…”
“Nope.”
“Want to sign up for 8 free issues of Entertainment Wee…”
“Nope.”
The sad thing about it is that these kids aren’t really trying to be annoying, it’s unfortunately forced to be part of their jobs and it’s explained to them as-
“It’s just great customer service to offer these things to our customers. If we didn’t inform the customer of all these offers it would be a DIS-SERVICE!”
snerk Anything.
I just have to say that this reminds me of the old George Miller joke about how he was at a fancy restaurant, and they had a different waiter for everything. “The water waiter would come to the table and give us water. Then the butter waiter would come over and give us butter. Then the head waiter came over…” 
I think it was the ashtrays that really got me. They had an entire procedure for replacing them. They would put the new tray over the old one and then slide the old one out from under. Didn’t understand why they were doing that way, but they did it every single time.
As far as I’m concerned, good customer service boils down to three things.
-
Be polite
-
Listen to your customer
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Do whatever you can to help them.
One thing that drives me completely crazy, but thanks Og, God and other assorted hullabaloos I’ve only run into it in the US:
call bank, 401K, Diner’s or similar. It’s got to be during business hours, so of course it’s got to be from my office, which of course means there’s between 12 and 200 other people in the same room. No, I can’t reach them by email.
get the machine, type my SSN into the machine when it asks for it, type a whole sequence of numbers, # signs and *, type SSN at least once more, get live human being.
Human being asks me to give her/him my SSN. I ask, “can I type it into the phone instead of saying it?” Sometimes the answer is yes, but for some reason they never tell me, I have to actually ask. Sometimes the answer is directly no, I have to say it out loud.
So I do whatever I have to do, ask whatever I have to ask, and at the end I tell them, “could you please modify your procedures so that I don’t have to say my SSN out loud? I only can reach you by phone, you only work business hours, and I share my office with # other people. It seems a bit silly that I’ve had to type it in 3 times before I could reach you, yet you didn’t have it right in front of you when you took the call.” There’s been one instance where it actually worked, good for them.
Another: companies, some of which pride themselves on being international, which provide
- an 1-800 number that only works from the US of A. If you call from another country, you don’t even have the option of paying from the call: “number not reachable from international calls”. Oh wonderful. My last US job meant 70% time travel, most of it to Latin America, and the 1-800 number Diners gave could not be used from abroad!.
- as the other contact option, a webpage form where you must input a US phone number. It’s not an option, the page simply won’t work unless you feed it a number. I normally use 1-111-1111 and include my real number in the text message. Most of the companies that do this do not have a place to input your email, either - and they insist in “calling you back”.
- change of address forms (for publications that send to the whole word) where you can’t move between countries.
I realize these three are just due to short-sightedness, but is it really so hard to think “ok, let’s say I’m one of our international customers - would I want someone to be calling me at 1am Shanghai time, in English?”
Agreed. I’m always impressed by service like that and tip accordingly. I’m another who dislikes being bugged every few minutes; obviously, the restaurants have gotten it into their heads that super-attentive service is the ideal, but I wonder if they actually asked the customers if that’s what they want. I’m sure some people like it, but have a hard time imagining the majority do.
Same here. I like the lemon, since the tap water frequently tastes like ass, but they should ask.
As to the cashier handing you bills-receipt-change, I’ve never understood that either. When I worked at a job where I operated a register, I’d hand them the bills, then count out the coins, which gave them a chance to do something with the bills if they were so inclined, then hand them the receipt last. A bit slower, but it seemed like a much better system to me.
Well, the bags are in the cart by this point, which means I would have to hand the receipt to the bagger and have him/her put it in one of the bags. Given that most people don’t tell us to put it in the bag, it’s just easier the hand it to the customer and let him/her do the deciding on where it goes. Also, I know my customers well enough to know that if I passed it off to the bagger for that, then there would be an immediate suspicion that I was trying to hide something. The ones at my store are very suspicious people anyway, and I don’t need to provoke them.
My goodness, some of my fellow dopers are a might touchy, yes? I can somewhat relate to some of the things mentioned, but most of the things people are claiming to be annoyed by are simply workaday shleps trying to make a living. I know oversolicitous employees can grate on one’s nerves, but try not to take it personally. Not to be condescending or anything; just sayin’.
Oh, and Broomstick, I’ve always made it a habit to touch people when exchanging money or handing them something. I didn’t know that some people find that objectionable. From now on, I shall keep my hands to myself. 
Eew. Please don’t touch me on purpose. I value my personal space, and I don’t know where your hands have been or what you’ve been doing with them. I It’s not that I am so germ-phobic, but touching me deliberately verges on creepy.